Can audio dropouts be repaired?

[thermie]

It's a silly question that I couldn't find an answer to in the FAQ. But I've an old VCR tape with some audio dropout problems. Is there any way to reduce or eliminate the dropout effect?

Thanks!

[MOVIEGEEK]

You could transfer it to your PC via analog or firewire then use an audio editor to amplify or "normalize" the audio.Then transfer back to VHS or make a DVD.
A good freeware audio editor is Audacity.

[wwaag]

I've done this using Adobe Premiere. First you need to unlink the audio and video tracks. You then "cut" the audio for each "dropout". Then find an acceptable audio portion, razor that portion, and copy to the clipboard. Then "paste" into the audio track for the corresponding dropout. This method works well if you have a fairly continuous sound and are only missing a frame or 2 of audio. Hope this helps.

wwaag