Pixelated Edge on Digital 8mm Playback. Please Help

[bradfordly]

Hi, I was hoping someone on this site could help me with a problem I am having, and I was told there might be someone on this site who has an idea.

I started converting 8mm camcorder tapes for my parents so they have a digital copy on the computer. The first tape went fine, but the second tape had a blurry edge that looked like this:
http://imgur.com/AujKT8T

I have since tried 4 or 5 tapes and they all have the same problem. The crazy thing is that the first tape does not have this problem which I don't understand.

To convert the videos I am connecting the Sony DCR-TRV350 up to the computer via fire wire. The videos are than played on the camcorder in real time and the computer captures it.

When these tapes are played just on the camcorder, the blurry edge still exists, so I thought the problem was that it needed to be cleaned. I ran a wet cleaning tape through twice, with no results. Does anybody have any idea how to fix this problem? Was it a recording error, or a reading error?

[Brad]

Was it a recording error, or a reading error?

Could be either one.

http://preservation.bavc.org/artifactatlas/index.php/DV_Dropout
http://preservation.bavc.org/artifactatlas/index.php/DV_Record_Head_Clog
http://preservation.bavc.org/artifactatlas/index.php/Head_Clog_Banding (doesn't look like this one)

[bradfordly]

Thanks for the response. This gives me a much better idea of what the problem is.

[smrpix]

Dirty heads. If cleaning the camera didn't help it was almost certainly "baked in" during recording.