I had an 8mm sony camcorder. I had to replace it and did so with a digital video camera (sony also). but now my older tapes wont play. how can i see my tapes again?
Are you trying to play your 8mm tapes in the new digital camcorder? If so, they won't play unless you purchased a Sony Digital8 camcorder which is backward compatible with 8mm. If you purchased a digital camcorder that plays miniDV tapes, your 8mm won't play and you will need to use your original camcorder along with your digital camcorder to convert your tapes to digital format. I wrote an article about that conversion here.
If this isn't your problem, let us know and we can see if we can help.
I did a little investigation and it appears that normally 8mm analog tapes play directly in Digital8 camcorders, but sometimes you need to adjust a setting in order for it to be recognized that it is an analog tape. Go to your user's manual and see if you can find a menu item for the tape source being used. If you find it, set it to analog and that should solve your problem. Let us know if that works.
I havent been able to find a menu to let me change the playback to analog, but i did find a chart in the back that lists the differences between 3 different models this owner's manual is used for. According to this manual, the playback is Digital8. The other two are Hi8/8. So im guessing that mine just wont playback the older tapes. Thanks so much for answering back so quickly. I have to say, Im dissappointed that my camcorder wont play the old tapes. I wish the sales people had known what they were talking about, because i specifically asked if my older 8mm tapes would play. Thanks again!
I would think that in the Hi8/8 modes, the 8 stands for 8mm. I would be very surprised if your camcorder wasn't able to play it back. That's the whole reason that they introduced Digital8 format - for backward compatability. If I were you and it didn't work, I would consider taking it back and purchasing a miniDV camcorder and use your analog camcorder along with the digital camcorder to convert your tapes. That conversion is not difficult, just plugging one camcorder into the other and you can convert it to digital format.
Are you trying to play your 8mm tapes in the new digital camcorder? If so, they won't play unless you purchased a Sony Digital8 camcorder which is backward compatible with 8mm. If you purchased a digital camcorder that plays miniDV tapes, your 8mm won't play and you will need to use your original camcorder along with your digital camcorder to convert your tapes to digital format. I wrote an article about that conversion here.
If this isn't your problem, let us know and we can see if we can help.
The new camcorder is a digital 8. The tapes I'm trying to play are 10yrs or less.
I did a little investigation and it appears that normally 8mm analog tapes play directly in Digital8 camcorders, but sometimes you need to adjust a setting in order for it to be recognized that it is an analog tape. Go to your user's manual and see if you can find a menu item for the tape source being used. If you find it, set it to analog and that should solve your problem. Let us know if that works.
I havent been able to find a menu to let me change the playback to analog, but i did find a chart in the back that lists the differences between 3 different models this owner's manual is used for. According to this manual, the playback is Digital8. The other two are Hi8/8. So im guessing that mine just wont playback the older tapes. Thanks so much for answering back so quickly. I have to say, Im dissappointed that my camcorder wont play the old tapes. I wish the sales people had known what they were talking about, because i specifically asked if my older 8mm tapes would play. Thanks again!
I would think that in the Hi8/8 modes, the 8 stands for 8mm. I would be very surprised if your camcorder wasn't able to play it back. That's the whole reason that they introduced Digital8 format - for backward compatability. If I were you and it didn't work, I would consider taking it back and purchasing a miniDV camcorder and use your analog camcorder along with the digital camcorder to convert your tapes. That conversion is not difficult, just plugging one camcorder into the other and you can convert it to digital format.
Sorry things haven't worked out for you.