Audio on JVC mini tapes

[josel]

Hi all,
Please bear with me on this one, I know it is quite long winded-

I have 4 mini dv JVC tapes approx 4yrs old. which have been stored in a dry place along with the tape seal being broken. All 1 hour playing time. Each have audio distortion throughtout the length of each tape. The audio has no sound, only for about 2 or 3 frames then kicks back in, the audio then sounds garbled again only for 2 or 3 frames, then plays perfectly. this is intermitent throughout each tape.
Thinking it was my camcorder Sony DCR PC 109E, I ran a cleaning head through the camcorder, but still the same. I then played it through the T.V. and the P.C and the audio had the same problems as before.
I then played my Sony tapes, again approx 4yrs old through my Sony DCR PC109E camcorder and all 15 tapes work perfect.
So the only thing I can think of is to buy a JVC camcorder of somekind and play the JVC tapes through the new JVC camcorder. So my question is this -

1) Will this work or am I going to waste my money on a new JVC camcorder?
2) Why do the JVC tapes not play properly on a Sony Camcorder?
3) Are the JVC tapes inferior quality to Sony tapes?
4) Can the tapes be professional repaired?

This is very important to me as my tapes are of my son being a day old onwards, just hate to think that the audio qaulity will never be watchable.

Thankyou for your time and patience, josel

[racer-x]

The data stored on the tapes is digital, so I seriously doubt another camcorder will read them better that yours. I wouldn't buy a new one for that purpose, perhaps borrow someone's? If I were you, I'd capture what you have to to PC, just in case of further degradation.

I'm not a fan of JVC tapes, I've had a lot of drop-out issues in the past. I stick to Sony DVC Premium. They're cheap and good quality.

[josel]

Hey Thanks,
Is their any way to fix the sound?

josel

[SingSing]

Have you tried playing these tapes in another miniDV camcorder ?
You can borrow from a friend or goto a store like target and play it on the floor model.

My take is audio and video are both stored digitally on the tape. If readback is the problem, then you should both video and audio problems.

So, this sound like your sony camcorder has a broken audio circuit (Sony products now have the most quality problems).