The camera wont play back, it is starting to eat film, and the tapes get stuck. It seems that what was recorded with this camera wont playback on a different one either. Is it dead? Does it need a new battery? Any input will be appreciated.

It is likely the playback on the camera is the problem.

please state the age of your devices. It can help a great lot in solving your problems. The lines that you get aren't continuous, are they? They appear to be going up and down, are different sizes and shift as the tape plays, yes? well, this is simple. You need to clean your recording head.

the roller inside your camcorder might have dust dirt. try to use camcorder's tape cleaner to clean it.

If your Sony tells you it is recording yet on playback there is nothing there other than a blank screen, I had this problem and this is how I solved it.
1. Clean the heads two or three times with head cleaning kit
2. Leave the tape door open, with tape out or in, and warm the camera up for about 2 hours minimum.
3. Put in a previously recorded tape and see if it will display that film. If not, repeat 1 and 2. Persevere.
4. Once Stage 3 works (you might have a few "dirty" lines on it for a few seconds, and it is playing normally, try recording.
This worked for me. The heads were dirty and the camera cold but I persevered and thankfully it is OK (but for how long?)
Hope this helps. It seems to be rooted around dirty heads and coldness.

I DON'T THINK YOU HAVE A PROBLEM EXCEPT TRYING TO USE A GENERIC TAPE TO RECORD IN HD AND THEN EXPECTING IT TO PLAYBACK IN HD. IT WASN'T MADE FOR THAT AND WON'T WORK FOR HD. IF YOU ARE GOING TO USE A HD CAMERA, YOU NEED TO USE THE CORRECT HD TAPES TO EXPECT THEM TO WORK AND PLAYBACK CORRECTLY. WHY WOULD YOU BUY ONE OF THE MOST EXPENSIVE CAMERAS ON THE MARKET AND THEN USE A $2.00 TAPE AND TRY TO PLAY IT ON A $2000.00 CAMERA AND WONDER WHY IT DOESN'T WORK? BUY GOOD QUALITY TAPES.

There you go. Thats a good way to get the problem solved.

Tracking is very sensitive on hi-8 tapes in LP mode. This recorder will record and playback in LP mode. It is however recommended that if you record in LP mode that you use the same camera to play it back, that it was recorded with, or you might have problems.
Also from what I can find online, the TR427 is just an video8 camera not a Hi-8 so if you are trying to play Hi-8 tapes on it, it won't play right.

If it plays back pre recorded tapes then there is nothing wrong with that section of the unit. Does it playback audio and not picture or does it not playback anything.
Also, when trying to playback a recording what is seen of the screen? Snow(black and white dots or wiggly picture?

The unit uses two separate circuits to record and playback tapes. Is any thing else connected to the unit while you are recording? If you are using anything plugged into other ports on the recorder it may not see the camera input causing it to not record anything..

It sounds as if the takeup spool isn't doing it's job. It could be caused by a slipping belt or slipping clutch assembly. Unless you know your way around the unit (internally) I'd advise a repair shop have a look at it. BMW

I'm not sure if this will work for you but, sometimes I try to play back some of my tapes and a blue or grey screen comes up instead, although this sounds odd, if I record something(for even one second) it will let me see my film. I know this can cause problems because you may end up taping over film but if it's the only way to see your film it's worth a try!