20 Most Recent Sony Handycam DCR-HC42 Mini DV Digital Camcorder Questions & Answers

Video downloaded from your camcorder is in .AVI format. One cassette size in AVI format is around 14 gb. Video cannot be downloaded in smaller size. After tranferring video to your computer, you can save or convert to any other format of smaller size eg mp4 or DivX or Xvid.

Trust me on this one....with tape still in unit and battery removed, smack both sides of unit firmly 3-4 times with the heel of your hand. It works 9 out of 10 times on all Sony cameras. I was quoted $170 to just look at the camera and then a probable $290 to replace the cassette loader mechanism. I told them it wasn't worth it. I checked other Sony blogs addressing the same issue and with out fail smacking the ...cking thing is the only way around it. Apparently it frees up a stuck part. Give it hell.

Tape is by itself also abrasive so you might just try running a long length tape from the beginning to the end to see if that does the trick. If that does not do it then you either have a badly clogged video head or a bad unit. You might also want to consider using Carbon tet or equivalent chemical on head assembly.

Google tha make and model, followed by the word manual

Do you really mean Hi8 tapes? This camcorder (Sony DCR-HC42) accepts only miniDV tapes.

Could be the recording head is dirty. Run a cleaning tape through it and see if that makes a difference. Do NOT stick anything in the works to try and clean the heads by hand.

i am very sure the flexible cable connecting the view finder is faulty