minidv tapes breaking up

[hdfills]

i have been trying to capture some minidv tapes but i keep getting image breakups in diffrent parts of the tape - could this be dirty heads or the fact im capturing through svhs and not the dv port ..... any help is appreciated

[aedipuss]

could be dirty heads, the easiest way to check is to play a cleaner tape on them. you'd get better results over firewire though in any case.

[JVRaines]

The heads are probably dirty because the tape is shedding. In fact, disintegrating. A lot of these metal formula cassettes are reaching end-of-readable-life now.