Trouble with old 8mm tapes

[James77]

I am trying to capture old video from my fathers Kodavision 2000 camera. I am using Elgato video capture to do so.

The oldest tape plays fine on both the camera, and through the dock to my PC. Any tapes past that(6 so far) are nothing but static. Are these tapes screwed? Or am I missing something here?

Can these Hi8's be played through a VCR with an adapter? It just seems odd to me that the oldest one plays very well....yet the others would be ruined.

Any help is much appreciated


Thanks!!

[johns0]

You can't play 8mm through a vcr with an adapter,as to the tapes with static as long as they are not dirty with tape particles then they have nothing on them.

[James77]

Could these tapes degrade to a point where anything on them became only static? They are 25-30 years old...but there seems to be nothing on these last half dozen, though the 1st 2 were very decent quality.

Are there different types of hi8/8mm tapes that would cause this between generations of video recorders?

Thanks.

[mammo1789]

Only VHS C can be played trough adapter on a "regular" VCR. 8 and hi8 cant be played only on hi8 cameras or vcrs

[johns0]

The tapes won't degrade that badly as long as they are in good condition and weren't erased or damaged,i recorded dozens of my dads 8mm onto dvds with no problems and these tapes were 20 years old.

[James77]

OK. I am going to take stab at this tomorrow when I am fresh...maybe I am mixing tapes up or missing something obvious.

Something is out of whack when I can get such good quality on 2 tapes, then nothing. I will say the last part of tape 2 become very poor, maybe this is an issue with the camera. I have another 8mm camera I can play through(I think). I'll report back tomorrow. Thank you both