My Sony Handycam DCR-HC52 has black lines during playback. Used cleaner tape because would not record either. Now recording but still has lines during playback.

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.

Couple of questions,
Is it Sony DCR-TRV22 camcorder? please confirm model number.
Can you see fine and clear picture in playback of old recorded tapes in camcorder?
Let me know info to proceed.
Thanks.

If your Sony DCR-HC14E shows fine picture in playback of old tapes and does not give live view in camera mode to record then its CDD Imager problem that Sony will repair free of cost.
Click Sony CCD Imager Support for details.

If your Sony camera DCR-HC30 doesn't show live view to record and playback previous recordings good then its problem of bad CCD Imager and this part will be replaced.
Sony will repair your camera free of cost and you will pay shipping charges only. Click Sony CCD Support for details.
Thank you.

I thought so. Do you have a DV tape cleaner?

I think you face this digitizing problem in old recorded cassettes.
If yes, your camera needs little adjustments of tape guides. There will be one guide lose. In technical, we call it Tape path adjustment.

Someone here recommended on another post to put the lense cap on & videotape the blackness in a quiet room for 5-10 mins. I tried this as a last resort & it worked. When I played back the tape, no more skipping or gray lines. I had 4-5 SOLID gray lines with skipping video & audio in between on every tape I put in. The person who helped me solve this said: "the speed isn't linked with the last time you recorded on it. Frames have an A/B part to them. If A is hitting B instead of A, a line appears. I would try the head cleaner first, then blacken your used tape (keep lens cap on and record in a quiet room) and try that."
My camera is a Canon zr80 digital camcorder. (Called Canon, they had me reset it & then recommended sending it in).

tape path needs to be aligned.

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.