Sony CCD-TRV37E image wobbly, wavey?
 

Hi!

So I have bought two cameras with some issues, Sony HI8 CCD-TRV36E and Sony Video8 CCD-TRV37E, I will focus more here on my second purchase :)

When I bought the camera, it hardly showed any video when playing back from the tape, however after using official Sony cleaning tape I've got the results shown on the video.

Audio plays without any issues, however image is wobbly/wave-y. What do you think that I can do more to fix my camera? After watching many available tutorials on YouTube, I'm out of ideas.
Thanks in advance for answers :)

Heads could still be dirty, though it's also kind of interesting that the distortion kind of pulses along with the music. I'm assuming you've tried with other monitors and get the same thing? Video and audio heads on Hi8 are all on the drum, so could be that the two HiFi audio heads are clean, but one of the video heads are dirty.

I'd probably try cleaning the heads with regular computer printer paper and 91%+ isopropyl alcohol method. The cleaning tapes can be abrasive (technically so is the alcohol and paper method, though the alcohol gives a bit of lubrication being damp and all), so using cleaning tapes too much could theoretically cause more harm than good.

Supposedly cleaning tapes are required for "metal" tapes as their oxides apparently chemically fuse to the heads or something whereas regular betamax, Hi8, VHS etc use oxide formations that should all come off the heads with alcohol. That being said, I've never not been able to clean a video head with the alcohol/paper method, though could just be that none of my decks were used much with metal tapes in the past.

I'm not sure if the 8mm format uses HiFi heads, The audio is embedded in the RF and read by the same set of video heads, I could be wrong, it's been awhile since I've looked into this and keep forgetting over time.
As to the OP issue, the heads are probably dirty beyond the usual surface cleaning, so this needs to be cleaned by someone who knows how to take the cassette door out and get in there with different cleaning tools.

Hi,

So I have disassembled the whole camera, using isopropyl alcohol (99%) and piece of torn paper i have cleaned the heads + I have reconnected the head from the ribbon port, results are still the same. Image isn't worse or better :/

Just a thought… Do all/other tapes playback like the one in the clip you attached? I ask because your attached clip, the only one we’ve seen, looks like something you just recorded with one of the camcorders. If that tape was recorded with dirty heads, it will always play back poorly. Have you tried to play back a known good tape?

BW

To be honest, back in the days I had an D8 handycam, so I don't have any other tapes with 8/Hi8 Footage, I've acquired only two blanks tapes, one for V8 and second for Hi8. I will try to buy used tape with some footage.

Okay, so after many months of searching the auctions I acquired fully working Sony D8 DCR-TR7000E. I've tried to playback the tape that I recorded using TRV37E (attached in the first post) and It's working without any distortions. However, when I try to playback the same tape on the same camera that I've recorded it with, I have the same distorsions? Is it possible that the playback head is somehow damaged?