Sony TRV 245E Playback problem

A fault has occured with playback on my TRV245E.It displays two horizontal grey bars across the screen,& the sound is distorted.
Any idea what the problem might be?
Thanks

Horizontal grey bars usually means you have a head on the rotating head drum that isn't working. Usually that is caused by some loose oxide that has gotten lodged in the air gap of the head. The first thing to try is a cleaning tape. If you are lucky the sticky oxide on the cleaning tape will grab onto that loose oxide and pull it out of the head. If the head is clogged really bad, it may need cleaning manually by a professional. If you are really unlucky the head is broken and no amount of cleaning will fix it. In that case the camcorder is junk. Lets hope a cleaning tape will restore it to normal.

A major contributer to head clogs is leaving the camcorder "paused" too long (tape not moving while the head drum is spinning). This is what happens when you turn on the camcorder but not recording video to tape. I wouldn't leave a camcorder in that condition for more than 30 seconds at a time. Camcorders usually power themselves down when left in that condition for 3 to 5 minutes but that is way too long in many cases. Power it down if you can't resume recording video in 30 seconds after stopping recording video.

Dave

Horizontal grey bars usually means you have a head on the rotating head drum that isn't working. Usually that is caused by some loose oxide that has gotten lodged in the air gap of the head. The first thing to try is a cleaning tape. If you are lucky the sticky oxide on the cleaning tape will grab onto that loose oxide and pull it out of the head. If the head is clogged really bad, it may need cleaning manually by a professional. If you are really unlucky the head is broken and no amount of cleaning will fix it. In that case the camcorder is junk. Lets hope a cleaning tape will restore it to normal.

A major contributer to head clogs is leaving the camcorder "paused" too long (tape not moving while the head drum is spinning). This is what happens when you turn on the camcorder but not recording video to tape. I wouldn't leave a camcorder in that condition for more than 30 seconds at a time. Camcorders usually power themselves down when left in that condition for 3 to 5 minutes but that is way too long in many cases. Power it down if you can't resume recording video in 30 seconds after stopping recording video.

Dave

Thanks Dave, I will get hold of a cleaning tape & see if that fixes the problem.
badabing