Any 8mm/Hi8 experts out there?

[moxiecat]

I have used these formats for years and think they're very good, and have lately been transferring tapes to DVD for various family members. Today, one of these tapes has a problem, and I'm wondering if it's fixable or not.

This tape contains about 10 minutes of footage. When you look at the actual physical plastic tape for this recorded section, the tape has creases on it. Most particularly, much of the 10-minute section has a slight crease along the one edge most of the way through. But there are also occasional creases through the middle of the tape. I was able to transfer the whole 10 minutes (luckily the thing fed through the machine without getting snagged!), but there is a LOT of snow/interference/dropouts as you might expect, garbled audio, etc.

I'm 99% sure that this situation is unfixable and un-improveable, but I wanted to check here before telling my relative for sure. I'm guessing that the tape either got caught in another machine in the past, was subject to extreme temps, or maybe was defective to begin with. Does anyone know if this kind of physical damage on the plastic tape can be fixed in any way to make the video more presentable? (Maybe this is a dumb question.

Thanks very much for the help.

[jlietz]

To the best of my knowledge, there is no way to "uncrease" or "uncrinkle" magnetic tape. I think you're stuck in that regard. Having said that, different decks or camcorders can respond to physical tape defects in different ways. You may find that playing the tape on Camcorder A may give better results than Camcorder or Deck B.

[MOVIEGEEK]

My best advice would be to try it in another machine but it will probably be the same.
EDIT:jlietz beat me to it.

[moxiecat]

Thanks. That's what I kind of thought but I wanted to make sure.

Actually, I have tried it in 2 camcorders. The first camcorder was a Digital8 machine, and it REALLY didn't like it! Played a bit then stopped. My "cheap" Hi8 camcorder was the one to play it all the way through. I haven't had the nerve yet to try it in my "good" Hi8 cam--don't want to push my luck and have it ruin a camcorder too! But I have an old regular 8mm machine somewhere that might be worth a shot before giving up.

Thanks for the help! Most appreciated. I didn't know if it was possible to pull the tape tighter when it feeds, in order to smooth the wrinkles, if this was something a real pro could do (or if this is just a theoretical process I'm making up in my head!)

[edDV]

Thanks. That's what I kind of thought but I wanted to make sure.

Actually, I have tried it in 2 camcorders. The first camcorder was a Digital8 machine, and it REALLY didn't like it! Played a bit then stopped. My "cheap" Hi8 camcorder was the one to play it all the way through. I haven't had the nerve yet to try it in my "good" Hi8 cam--don't want to push my luck and have it ruin a camcorder too! But I have an old regular 8mm machine somewhere that might be worth a shot before giving up.

Thanks for the help! Most appreciated. I didn't know if it was possible to pull the tape tighter when it feeds, in order to smooth the wrinkles, if this was something a real pro could do (or if this is just a theoretical process I'm making up in my head!)

VHS tape is large enough where you can disassemble a cart and try to fix these problems. 8mm tape is much more difficult but the idea is to uncrease it and respool it as flat as you can. If you fix the fold, a few rewinds may help flatten it out.

There are tape recovery experts that can fix your tape. They have special tools and techniques to flatten and play the tape. They can even recover most flood and fire damage.

[jlietz]

There are tape recovery experts that can fix your tape. They have special tools and techniques to flatten and play the tape. They can even recover most flood and fire damage.

You sure about that edDV?

From VideoInterchange (http://www.videointerchange.com/faq.htm)
*********************************************
My Camcorder "Ate" the tape. Can it be recovered ?

If the tape itself sustained physical damage in the form of crinkles or creases, the damage is sadly permanent. If playable at all, the video can be transferred to DVD to possibly salvage what remains. Depending on the nature of the tape crease, the video will exhibit anything from simple mis-tracking, dropouts, horizontal bands of noise, vertical rolling or might be totally un-viewable where the tape damage occurred.

Luckily, the physical damage is usually localized in the area where the jam or mis-load occurred.
*********************************************

[edDV]

There are several places like this.
http://www.avrs.net/recovery.html

Google will find them.

[jlietz]

Google will find them.

I've found that most places skirt around the issue of crinkled tapes. I suspect that in most cases they simply cut out the crinkled area and splice. I don't see where avrs claims to be able to fix crinkled tape.

[MOVIEGEEK]

Google will find them.

I've found that most places skirt around the issue of crinkled tapes. I suspect that in most cases they simply cut out the crinkled area and splice.

I had a couple of local businesses tell me the same....cut and splice.
Although edDV's idea about rewinding it and fast forwarding the tape a few times might help.

[harley2ride]

I cold ironed a vhs tape with a wrinkle once and got it good enough that I was able to copy it to dvd. There was some distortion in the wrinkled area, but at least I didn't lose it.

[edDV]

Google will find them.

I've found that most places skirt around the issue of crinkled tapes. I suspect that in most cases they simply cut out the crinkled area and splice. I don't see where avrs claims to be able to fix crinkled tape.

Most places yes. You need to find a recovery expert like the link I gave.

[moxiecat]

Thanks for all the information!

The idea about rewinding/FF might be worth a shot. Otherwise, I think I'll pass along the information about the pros you mentioned and leave it up to the tape's owner to take care of or not.

I think the idea of an iron is out though--that 8mm tape is just too small!