Blank HDV Tapes

I have some HD tapes that were shot that I need to capture, but when I place them in the deck they have time code, and no image. Final cut says it's unable to locate the media, but when I scrub through the tape I can see an image. They were shot with a Sony Z1 in a third world combat environment so the cameras could have sustained some damage, but not all of the tapes have this problem. Any suggestions??

Are you using a HDV deck to playback the tapes? Try using the Z1 camera.

--ken