I recently acquired this deck of the 'Bay as I have a good collection of 8mm and Hi-8 tapes and wanted to know if anyone knows about these units.

In testing this deck it works great, only minor thing is that the unit plays Video 8 tapes just fine but with Hi-8 tapes I have video noise and snow, but can still see a picture. Not sure if its a head issue or not.

I don't mind getting the deck serviced if that's what it needs but I need to try to find a service location in the Houston area as it can be costly to have it shipped and risking damage.

Thanks for any help!

I've got an EVO-9800 deck. Got it at a surplus store for 12$. It is missing it's top, but was amazingly complete in comparison to the other tape decks there. I was able to record and play back a HI8 tape, the source I recorded from was an old betamax tape so I can't say if the mild-moderate video noise was the HI8 or the betamax, but it did seem to work quite nicely compared to good quality SVHS if one ignores the noise.

Have you tried recording Hi-8 on the deck? When playing back does the Hi-8 indicator turn on?
I don't remover if there was a switch that forced the unit to 8mm playback/record, I would check and make sure it is in Hi-8 mode.