Forums: Video Camera: Sony

Back to Camera Hacker

Add Comment | Related Links | TrackBack
Related Content

DCR-TRV120 Choppy Playback

I've had the TRV120 for almost 6 years, and it has worked flawlessly. I recently recorded my daughters band, and playing back via the VTR function of the camera. At somepoint the playback became choppy, with the dropouts at a pretty regular rate, about 2 per second. I've tried several tapes so it's not the tape. I also ran a cleaning tape. I don't have a sony authorized facility anywhere nearby and sony wants a flat fee of $220 to repair it. Given the camera's age and newer recording formats, that seems not to be worth it. Any hints on what to try to fix it?

Ray Michels
Sat, 18 Nov 2006 17:04:58 -0800

I had the exact same experience, and am trying to resolve it as well. I was recording my daughter's recital and had this happen. Then I let it sit and battery discharge completely, and it played fine for about an hour, then went back to the same thing. I don't think it's the battery, because I removed it and it still had the problem. If you find out what the problem is, please let me know (jrhymer1@hotmail.com), and I'll do the same. Thanks

John Rhymer

John Rhymer
Sat, 02 Dec 2006 11:26:12 -0800

Had the same problem doing my brothers wedding in October. I would appreciate you letting me know if you find a solution.

larry
Tue, 19 Dec 2006 19:36:44 -0800

Same issue here. Was fine the whole summer and now playback is bad. But it seems to record OK cause tapes play fine on an older memorex 8mm cam. I've since upgraded to a Hitachi DVD cam but I still want the TRV120 so I can firewire the tapes to PC and burn to DVD. :/

frankNJ
Mon, 01 Jan 2007 16:49:40 -0800

Same here, a friend recorded my band playing at a party and I've been trying to firewire the tapes to my computer, but the camera gives me a horribly choppy playback every time. The tape worked on another camera, so, like Ray said, it's not the tape.

Elliot
Mon, 01 Jan 2007 23:19:58 -0800

Same problem, would love to hear from anyone who has had this happen as well. In my case you can see/hear some of the video on play back, for a bit, then it goes out. It seems to record fine.

Mike C
Wed, 20 Jun 2007 17:58:58 -0700

same here just started playing choppy

blah
Sun, 05 Aug 2007 06:00:10 +0000

I had the same problem. After recording while using a tripod the playback was jerky and the audio with it.
It cost me about $200.00 at the local repair shop. They told me there are solder joints on the inside bottom of the camera that go bad and using a tripod can make them fail. I believe there are also ribbon cable failures quite common in many Sony models.... a massive problem according to complaints.

Gary Griggs
Sat, 22 Dec 2007 19:07:38 +0000

I have the same problem. I don't know the reason but have a reasonable work-around.
I find that if I record for a couple of seconds and then play back a tape the choppy audio/video goes away. It is quite annoying but it works.

Joe Valencia
Sat, 12 Jan 2008 16:29:31 +0000

I have the DCR-TRV230 doing this also. Since it records okay, is there an external tape player for watching through TV or ripping to PC? I'd rather not spend the $200 plus to fix it.

Ken
Fri, 01 Feb 2008 03:16:43 +0000

I just tilted my camera to the right on the tripod and it stopped stuttering! Undoubtedly is the solder joint mentioned above.

DS
Tue, 22 Sep 2009 16:27:04 +0000

Add Comment | Related Links | TrackBack
Related Content

Add Comment

Spam Control | * indicates required field

TrackBack

Send Ping | TrackBack URL | Spam Control

No TrackBacks yet. TrackBack can be used to link this thread to your weblog, or link your weblog to this thread. In addition, TrackBack can be used as a form of remote commenting. Rather than posting the comment directly on this thread, you can posts it on your own weblog. Then have your weblog sends a TrackBack ping to the TrackBack URL, so that your post would show up here.

Messages, files, and images copyright by respective owners.

Copyright © 1998 - 2009 by Chieh Cheng. All Rights Reserved.