I've recently run into the issue where my camcorder is playing a tape back in an out of sync format.

I'm using a Canon ZR850 as my capturing source (still cannot pay $2000 for a deck) and I place the tape into the camcorder and hit play. The stereo label is flicking as the audio is popping and the picture is jumpy and in slow motion. I tried the same tape in my Canon XL2 and does the same thing.

I then happen to have a friend's HVX200 and I played the tape in that camera and it seems to work just fine.

The source from this tape is from FCP and it has many different formatted media types on there (4:3/16:9, most likely different frame rates). But, I have played another tape that was transferred from FCP to a tape and the footage from that was shot on my XL2. All too weird.

What the hell is going on?

I called Canon and the rep recommended DVInfo? Seriously.

Any thoughts would be great, thanks.

What kind of deck was the tape recorded to when it was output from FCP? Sounds like a couple potential things:

1) It's not a DV formatted tape. DVCPRO maybe? That would explain why it played in the HVX but not your camera.
2) It's not recorded in SP mode, maybe in some kind of LP mode? Unlikely.
3) It's got mixed audio formats on it?

Both of the tapes were the standard Sony Mini-DV format. I know two of the tapes did have different types of media on it that was recorded in different formats, both audio and video. I'm sure they were all in SP mode.

I've never seemed to have this problem before, but I know something that I've shot with the XL-2, I put the tape in and it works fine in both cameras.

Very strange.

Thanks for your assistance so far.