Sony Hi8 tape turns green during playback?
 

I'm converting a Hi8 tape and it seems that it turns green midway. I've tried playing it in 3 different camcorders (all Sony) and using two different capture devices (Elgato and ATI USB 650). It seems they all play it green. Sample attached.

Is there any way to restore this? I tried using RGB filters in VirtualDub, but was unable to get anything better. Any recommendations?

First, your capture has illegal video levels.
The green portion's U and V channels are totally crippled.
MediaInfo reports that the original frame rate was 25FPS. Is this PAL video that you're trying to capture as NTSC? That won't work. PAL and NTSC use different color carrier frequencies.
How is your camera shooting Hi8? It's usually interlaced, but not always. 1280x720p is progressive, not valid for BluRay/AVCHD regardless of PAL or NTSC. What model Hi8 camera did you use to get 720p?
What software are you using to capture?
Is it green if hooked up directly to TV or other display device, or played in the camera's viewer?

This video was captured on Sony CCD-TRV308 NTSC -> Elgato Video Capture composite cable -> MacBook Pro with elgato software. I think the video was recorded on the same camcorder its being played on. But totally unsure.
How can I check if it's shooting interlaced or not?
It is green on the devices screen as week as a TV.

It's weird because I have 20 tapes and this is the only one that randomly becomes green.

Also tried playing it on DCR-TRV350 and DCR-TRV840 and still get the green.

Try setting the input to some PAL format in your capture setup. I wouldn't know how to tell you to do that, as I wouldn't use an Elgato device for lossy Hi8 capture to begin with, and I wouldn't deinterlace it and blow it up to 720p. If set to PAL and played as PAL, the NTSC sections won't play correctly. If NTSC is the only thing your cameras will play, there's not much you can do except try to find a camera that can output PAL with the correct frame rate and color system.

Its likely not a PAL vs. NTSC tape problem. NTSC Handycams will not play PAL tapes at all. Does the tape turn green when viewed on the camcorder's LCD screen? That would eliminate the capture portion from the equation.

OK viewed the sample..... someone turned on Nightshot (IR mode for shooting in the dark), simple as that. That is no way to filter it out however.

Yes it is green when viewed in the camcorders LCD. I do not have a PAL device to view it on. It could definitely be a night shot issue because, there is another tape that's all white for a few minutes with audio (someone says oops nightshot is on). Then video becomes color after they announce that in the audio.

Oh, I see. The submitted sample isn't 2 different segments joined together, it's a single segment with the green transition occurring all at once. And you're correct. Well, that's what I get for staying up too late and not paying attention.

Maybe I'm not paying attention again, but didn't those Canon cameras mentioned play interlaced 29.97fps (or 59.94 fields per second) at 4:3? The sample is 29.97fps progressive, so half of the the frames have been discarded by the Elgato, haven't they? That throws away 50% of the temporal and spatial resolution.

I've seen errors like this before. The recording camera probably had an issue where it was only recording luma (G), not chroma (RB). Luma is mostly green. This appears to be a luma signal only.

This assumes it's not accidental nightshot mode -- which, by the way, it also only luma recording. The chroma noise is so bad at the high ISO levels that you have more noise than signal.

I highly doubt it's a PAL/NTSC issue, for several reasons.