[morsey]

My 8 year old Sony DCR-PC100E mini dv does not play back anymore and I am not sure if it records anymore.

I need to replace it, but the problem I have is that I have over 30 old tapes that I need to download to my PC. I have seen one or 2 web sites quoting something around the £5 per tape to transfer to dvd (meaning a bill of over £150).

I also thought about perhaps borrowing a neighbour’s camera to do the download, but then thought that the task could potentially take weeks and if that camera broke down I would be faced with another bill to replace.

I also want to buy a new camera but am not particularly keen on tape anymore!! So my dilemma is, do I buy a new mini dv player to be able to download (but not sure what camera I would need to replicate the quality of my old camera or go for a better quality) and then buy a new modern non tape player. Or perhaps there is a new camera that will do both?

I priced up getting my old camera fixed, but was quoted to £200 before they had really looked at it!!

Any advise much appreciated!!

[redsox_mark]

If you really don't want tape for your new camcorder, then the choices are as you have said. You will need to buy or borrow a DV camcorder, or pay someone to capture the tapes for you.

Any DV camcorder you can use as the player, it is a digital copy, so the quality will be the same. E.g. the Canon MD101, which you can get for £130.

[Ahmed]

I'm in virtually the same postition as you, except my problems are compounded in that I have 8mm tapes recorded in both LP and SP and Hi8 as well as digital8 so I need two different camcorders for playback!!
Anyway, I've hit on the idea of getting cheap used cameras off ebay, just can't settle on which of the Sony DCR-TRV models as there are so many.
but buying off ebay is not for the uninitiated, you need to be very careful and avoid dealing with people with low or questionable feedback and you should be OK.