I played old tape in my camcorder. Now it won't play tapes or record tapes without lines going across the whole video.

I have the same problem. I just bought a sony handyman and tried to play my old tapes and nothing, not even sound. But I just recorded something using an old tape and it records and I can play that back. I'm thinking maybe over time, somehow all the data on there got erased. Which is really a bummer.

This smacks of the same problem that the old VCR's used to have. One of you are out of sync. The tape records on a portion of the tape in a sort of straight line track. Think of it as your track is down 1/16" from the top. The other camera tracks it's video down 1/8" instead. That's why in playback it can't read it. The only cure is a realignment. Nimsgame

Hopefull your not going through the tv and then to your dvd recorder
transfer should go straight from your camera to the dvd recorder.
you may also want to but a head cleaner for a mini dv camcorder,run it twice and try recoding again.If that doesnt work,you may have a problem with the heads inside of the camera.If thats the case,it would need to go to canon or an authorized service center.

yes change the tape and also use a head cleaning cassette to clean the cam. chaminda from Sri Lanka

Are they PAL or NTSC tapes ? They may not be compatible with your new equipment.

A Q-tip should never be used to clean a video head.  Unfortunately they can pull the tiny head out of alignment.  I believe this is your problem and the repaid may be more costly than a new purchase.

There you go. Thats a good way to get the problem solved.

This is not a problem with the tape but the camera. The only way to fix it seems to be to find an empty spot on the tape or a spot you don’t care if you record over. Then record for a second then go to video mode and you can play the tape without the blue lines. Or buy something else to play the tapes which should be fine either way. Darn camera !

clean the heads - the '5 stripes' are the symptom of dirty heads.

I had same problem. Don't buy a cleaner. Look inside camcorder and make sure both reel turners are equal in height...they can slide down. Turn both of them...one of mine was down and also did not turn to make contact with tape. We got it to turn and the message C31:23 and the dinging quit. Camera instantly worked like it used to. Good luck.