HELP !!! Tape Playback problem *URGENT*

[defsaturn6501]

Hi,
I have a tape that will not play back at all...I have tried several diff camcorders and I get the same thing, I get about less than a second of footage at the beginning and then it goes to blue and acts like a tape that hasnt even been recorded on, even though there should be about an hour of footage on there. When I was recording I did not get any errors, so this is freaking me out. There is no timecode or anything...anybody ever heard of this? Is this even possible? This tape is #3 of 4 tapes and every other one is perfect ...so im stumped and a lil scared since this is a wedding.

p.s. this is a panasonic tape

 

[ben-s]

Was it one continuous shot, or did you start and stop the recording through the tape?

If it was a continuous shot, I would suspect the record button is either faulty or got knocked, and stopped the camera.

If multiple shots, the tape is probably faulty.
If the tape is faulty, you often get breakups in the footage, where it flickers and flashes short chunks of action, usually in 6 distinct horizontal bars.

Try and play it in a DVCPRO VTR, if you can get access to one - this can sometimes pull footage off a mangled tape.