I hope someone can help me.

I had our recent wedding video'd on a Canon MV200 Mini-DV camcorder. The tapes were somehow slightly contaminated with wine!

I left the tapes to dry for at least a week. When I tried to play them back on the camcorder I just got a blue screen... and a flashing condensation icon. I think my cam is now broken. My friend suggested I try playing them on his Sony Handycam (DCR-HC30E) which I did (after futher drying time).

The good news is that there is definitely a picture and some sound, however the Sony seems to play the tape at almost double speed, and the sound chops in and out rapidly. I can't get 'normal' playback at all. I tried SP/LP to no avail.

Questions: Is there a difference in the encoding on these two cams...? Is there anything I can do to play the tape back? Do I need to buy a new canon camcorder?

Any help is GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks for reading! :-)

[redsox_mark]

There should be no difference in the format... DV is DV.
You can get issues with playing tapes recorded in LP on another camcorder, due to the small tolerance for error. But playing double speed is odd.

[glesgaguyav]

I would suggest you find another Canon camcorder as Redsox said, if the tape was recorded in LP then it will probably not playback in another make of camcorder, many years ago I was given a DV tape to record from and had exactly the same problems, I couldn't understand why it was playing at a fast speed, the answer was, it had been recorded in LP mode and not compatable with my camcorder.
The lesson is, Never ever use LP mode

I hope you can retrieve your footage, it sounds like the wedding was a WOW!

[DJ Dave]

Sound advice indeed - never ever ever use LP. I didn't even use it in the days of VHS Video as you lost so much picture quality.

Everything has a price for compression.

At least she turned up anyways.

Thanks guys. I really apreciate your advice. Consider this a lesson learned - I poromise never to use LP again!

Does anyone have a Canon Camcorder they can recommend?