Handycam DCR-PC55E Vertical Bars & Horizontal Bars On Screen?

[NarwhalDancer]

Hi, I recently bought a Sony DCR-PC55E off eBay, it was sold by a charity shop and was advertised as being faulty.

All the buttons and touchscreen controls work fine but the live view on the screen has lots of vertical multicoloured lines and you can't make out what you are looking at really and on playback of a tape (it came with 4 used mini DV tapes), 5 grey horizontal bars appear across the screen. Please take a look at the attached photos.

Live ViewPlayback

The first image is the live view and the second is the playback view of a tape. I have read that horizontal grey bars on playback may be due to the head needing cleaning so presumably I can just buy a mini DV tape head cleaner or would I need something more specialist for a Sony camcorder?

Is there anything I can do about the vertical lines shown during the live view, could this be an issue with the sensor inside the camera or perhaps a dodgy LCD flex cable, I have seen replacements available such as this: https://gbr.grandado.com/products/good-lcd-hinge-rotate-shaft-flex-cable-for-sony-dcr-pc55e-pc55-vid... but I am not sure if that would work or how difficult it would be to replace it.

I contacted Sony about repairing it and they sent a PDF with charges on and it would cost a minimum of £36 just to look at it, even if they don't find a fault or it's not repairable, £54 hourly rate for labour, £54 if I refuse the estimate and then the cost of any parts should I wish to go ahead. Seeing as the camera only cost me £30, I don't think it's worth sending it to Sony.

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated, if all else fails I will keep a look out on eBay for a fully working used model but they are stupidly priced for what they are and many of them are broken and sold for parts anyway. It seems this particular model was known for having faults.

Thanks for any help.