My Canon MXV250i camcorder has developed a recording and playback problem. The picture is breaking up all over the screen. Sometimes half of the picture shows and at other times pictures from early in the tape still remain. Have tried a cleaning tape with out success. Have tried recorded tape in another camera but it is faulty in it as well. Tapes recorded when the camera was working properly work OK in the other camera. The camera is 4 years old.

SOURCE: very grainy playback

This is typical symptom of a dirty video head. this ahappens especially if you play a tape with molds. Cleaning tapes may or may not work. the effectiveness is based on: 1. If the contamination is severe, sometimes the dirt really sticks to the head. You will not normally see this because the head is the tiny part on the head drum that spins. 2. If you use a non original head cleaner 3. If you re-use a tape cleaner. I had this problem on my Sony Hi8 camcorder, i had to mannually remove the dirt on the tape head. I will not recommend to do it as it may damage the head. What I would recommedn first is to buy a Sony head cleaner, and try to clean the head. You may try more than once, it will not damage the head right away. If this does not work, before you send it for repair, ask for estimate. Maybe it is cheaper to buy an analog Hi8 player on ebay rather that send it for repair. And BTW if you have a Hi8 camera, it can play both video8 and Hi8. If you have a video8 camera, it wont be able to play Hi8.

Tim Babcock

• 2794 Answers
• Posted on Jun 11, 2008

SOURCE: 8mm analogue camcorder tape playback at double speed

If you ran it through that many 8mm players, I'm going to say that the tape has something wrong with it.

You can see visually if there is anything wrong with the tape by releasing the cover by moving the tape and visually inspect the tape for anything that could be frayed. Usually you can see it on the bottom of the tape.

Sometimes the takeup can be messed up in the tape too. Once you release the tape cover, you can turn the white wheels to see if there is any slack in them.

Good luck on that.

SOURCE: Problems with playback of HI8 tapes...

What's happening is that the tape in the cassette is being chewed on one side by the camera's tape transporting mechanism during playback, hence the distorted image and sound. The mechanism might be damaged (misalignment) or just dirty. Try not to play other tapes on this unit because they will become permanently damaged. The best way is to find another camcorder (if cleaning does not help). Note that some old cassettes of long recording time will exhibit this behavior more often because of thinner tape used.

SOURCE: Playback

Recording and playing a new tape worked for me too. Thanks!

SOURCE: My Camcorder Breaks the tapes

Your camcorder needs to be cleaned and or serviced ASAP. Please do not use any more tapes, as you may have a stuck roller head or sticky contact surfaces that can "catch" the tapes intermittently.

You should be able to have it serviced very cheaply at a camera store, but I would not use it any further for danger of potentially ruining the camera.