Distorted VIdeo

For some reason, when I take a good mini dv tape out of one camera, and put it into the other, (which is a different brand of mini dv camera) the video looks distorted.

The video looks just fine in the camera that I am taping in, just not the other ones I put the tape into.

The distorted look, in detail, is sort of like large pixels on the left hand side of the screen.

Any ideas?

does it happen in reverse? is it there when you transfer the video to the computer? if it were analogue i would say your heads needed cleaning. or the tape was out of alignment. if it was the whole video I would say the two cameras use different codecs. canon cameras for instance used to use a different audio bitrate that meant your audio might go out of synch on another brand of camera. I am afraid without seeing the end result i can't be of any more help. maybe a trip to your local camera repairer is in order?

Yes, when the tape from the my main camcorder (Sony) is in my secondary camcorder (Samsung) the video is distorted no matter what. Even when I am capturing on my computer.

My main camera is a Sony Handycam Dcr-Trv20, and my other camera is a Samsung SC-D353. The reason that I want to capture with the Samsung is because the Sony has trouble capturing on my computer. If I can get the Sony to capture, I will not have to try to get the Samsung to play or capture the Sony tapes, but I do not know how to do that.

And, yes, it is the whole video that has the distortion.

when i said the whole video i was referring to the entire frame (you said only the left hand side is distorted) normally I would expect that the entire frame would be distorted, this is why i am thinking the tracking may be different between the two cameras.

Is there a way that I can fix the tracking?

not without taking it to a technician.