Hi8 to digital transfer - started well, now multi issues - tape or camera?

[NickSimonPT]

Thanks in advance for guidance on early 'road block' in my plans to home transfer 96 tapes from 1996-2005.

1. Stock - 8mm & Hi8 tapes recorded using Canon UC900 and Sony DCR-TRV110E respectively.

2. Transfer method - Sony DCR-TRV110E playback via DIGITNOW capture card (link below) to Macbook Pro (2015) MacOS Big Sur 11.7.8 using OBS software (29.1.3)

3. Background - my family footage from mid 20s/ early 30s and I am otherwise a complete novice regards video camera (and now digitizing process) tech. The tapes have been stored well - i think - in same dry, metal clasp sealed filing box, 2/3s fully rewound and a mixture of horizontal and vertical (fully wound spool at the bottom - I learned this was best storage position this week, and had maintained this rather by luck than judgement or planning)

4. Progress - Following online advice, I chamois swabbed the drum with denatured alcohol and it immediately 'cleaned' the 2 trial tapes I was testing which, individually, had 3 grey horizontal lines, and/ or blue screen/ white noise/ intermittent sound (two old tape cleaning cassettes - 20+yrs old had nil effect). This allowed me to transfer the first 8 tapes seamlessly in one day.

5. Troubleshooting - On waking next day to continue, the variety of image distortion I thought I had resolved/ cleaned up had returned, so I went to repeat the chamois swab process.

6. New issues - Sadly, repeating the above cleaning process from step 4 made no difference. WORSE, it seems to have created two new problems, in addition to those I described i step 4 above - now the playback screen includes multiple, multicolour vertical lines across what is otherwise quite a clean image. Also, the camcorder now has trouble auto-selecting the tape format when you insert it [On start up blue screen, it seems physically stuck (from the mechanical sound) in a loop, trying to toggle between “D ---> Hi8/ 8” or “Hi8/8 ---> D” on blue screen after inserting cassette.

7. My question is: have I inadvertently damaged the tape drum/ head after the second clean? or do the symptoms point more towards a 'decaying tape' issue? And in either case (or if it's a combination of both), what might be the best next step - to salvage my project? Hopefully those here with way more technical experience will recognise some of the above described to help me 'course correct' on whether i can continue what I am doing with same equipment and some 'tweaks', or whether the best course of action is to buy a new camcorder or Hi8 player (open to both). Or would a professional service (I am in UK) be the most cost effective solution (88 tapes at £7-11/ tape)

SUMMARY: I have spent a week on this and other sites like it, finding out what the 30yr old me wished he'd known 20yrs ago! Re: tape and head care, the risks of long term storage, crumbling tapes and their potential impact on camcorder equipment. After a very positive 'text book' start, I now need to 'course correct' to try and salvage this project and the transfer of the remaining 88 tapes/ memories. Any help to understand whether the problems in Steps 4-6 are a tape or camera issue - and is an issue that can be resolved by this tech novice - would be hugely appreciated. Many thanks, Nick

[dellsam34]

Did you try to playback the first successful tapes again and you get the same problem? Is the problem shown only on the camcorder screen or in the capture window?

[NickSimonPT]

Thanks and good question - there IS now a problem with the first successful tapes too. blue screen ('white noise', when fast forwarding) with very distorted (on/off) sound, like the sound an old super8 cine projector used to make. This appears on BOTH the camcorder screen and the OBS software capture screen (sound as well). Have tried to upload a 10 sec vid that shows this. Thanks,

[Alwyn]

I reckon it's dirty heads. My TRV110 started to blue-screen on me. As it's a top-loader it's very hard to get to the heads, so I bought a genuine Sony head-cleaning tape (via a trip to the bank ) and that fixed it. Read the manual for use: don't overdo it.

[dellsam34]

It's hard to diagnose over a forum with no real access to the tapes and the camcorder, Very little information to go by here, At this point I suggest find a skilled person who can figure out what's wrong with it by testing with different tapes you have or buy another camcorder and move on.

[NickSimonPT]

Thanks Dellsam34 and Alwyn - my first port of call was as you suggested: to find a local skilled person. Contacted two, but both quickly responded saying they could not offer support for the TRV110E (i found it odd they were so model-specific. An age thing? known lack of reliability?). So it's persist with chamois swabs and alcohol (£40) and new cleaning cassette (£35-£90) or buy a replacement used (From £130, with no guarantee that heads aren't equally at risk).

'Rock and a hard place', eh when you're on a budget. From my experience, I am left assuming two things: its the equipment not the tapes since the first 8 'good' ones are now 'bad' and secondly, my cleaning attempts unfortunately did more harm than good.

On both those grounds, I guess it's the jeopardy of the eBay replacement camcorder market - unless anyone here can connect me with a Sussex-based (or UK South East) based enthusiast, who I can pay to take on the trouble-shooting and recovery challenge.

Bye and thanks again.

[NickSimonPT]

UPDATE: SOLUTION!

Hello again - and in case its of interest - I got lucky with a solution.

I was literally about to bin my TRV110E, but found a blank tape (sealed, but unused) and decided to see if the camera still recorded.

I recorded about 20 secs and on playback of that new footage .. the screen is now COMPLETELY CLEAR! I obviously then checked some of the other tapes and they are ALL CLEAR on playback too!

It appears that using the recording features has somehow wiped away whatever debris must have been on the heads, that the earlier playback alone could not? Does that even sound feasible from a techie point of view, because it's the only thing that makes sense to me. Either way interesting that none of the online threads I've found so far suggested this as an option, but I defer to any expert opinion still engaged with this issue.

All the best and happy transferring, hope this may help some who - like me had lost hope.

[Bwaak]

Quite possibly, some of your old tapes are deteriorating, clogging the heads. It is not recording, it is just the new tape that cleaned the heads. You risk clogging the heads again by playing the old tapes. You need to figure out the bad tape and not play it, or leave it for the end of your capture batch