Hi there... My Sony Handycam DCR-HC19E will not record or playback properly. I get a problem error saying that the head needs cleaning.. I bought a head cleaner but this does not seem to have fixed the problem. During playback I have bard across the screen horizontally with only some of the pic showing.. This occurs also when I playback previously good tapes. I would appreciate any help. Many thanks. Richard

Hi,
If video head got clogged then camcorder wont read tape in playback so result comes as blue screen.
Please use video head cleaning tape and clean video head of camcorder. This will solve your problem.
Video-8 head cleaning tape is available with amazon.com
Thanks.

The v900 has some years on it. It will need the heads cleaned ,possible torque adjustment or replacement of the video drum unit. To clean it is only $40 at Larry's electronics [email protected]

try new tape, clean recording head

Sounds video head is dirty / clogged.
Use good quality video-8 head cleaning tape for head cleaning in DCR-TRV530 and then record and playback it.

http://drivers.softpedia.com/get/SCANNER-Digital-CAMERA-WEBCAM/OTHER-SCANNERS/Sony-DCR-HC19E-TWAIN-Patch.shtml

Go to this website to download the driver you need. Load it and then reboot computer and it should be able to see it.

You need "Picture Package" software supplied with Sony camera to transfer video files in to PC. If you have software CD, please install it and connect your camrea with USB port.
If you dont have CD, check following Sony official weblink to download USB Driver, though it will not give you proper control on file transfer procedure yet it do help you to connect camera with PC.

http://support.sony-europe.com/dime/camcorders/dv/dv.aspx?site=&m=DCR-HC19E&site=odw_en_GB&odw_model=DCR-HC19E

• download.. Sony USB driver for Microsoft Windows.

Have nice day.

Here's were you need to go and updated the picture package version that you have.
http://www.ppackage.com/e/index.html

Head alignment (re-aligning the tracks) is not something we as owners can undertake - it has to be done professionally.
You can however quite safely clean the heads by using one of the dry cleaning tapes sold for the purpose. I have used an 8mm/Hi-8 cleaning tape made by TDK for a number of years with good results. Remember that if your heads are dirty both recording and playback will be affected and once you have cleaned the heads you need to test the camera by recording new footage and then playing it back to see if matters have improved. Good Luck.

There is no problem on your camera, DCR-HC19E is PAL system(European system) DCR-HC20 is NTSC(American system). Are you in US or Europe? I think your TV is NTSC, cause the tape recorded on DCR-HC19E you played has no color. To confirm, connect your HC20 to TV in camera mode, not recording yet, just look at the TV as your monitor, If its in color, no problem, just erase the old video recorded on the HC19E, but if its important to you, you can convert it to NTSC using a PC. thanks

Just use good quality Video Head Cleaning Cassette. Video head is dirty/ clogged.