8mm help! Strange problem with playback

[klinsman2]

I've started the process of saving some of my old 8mm tapes from high school, to convert to DVD's.

All of the tapes were shot on a Sony FX410. I am still using the FX410, as well as Dazzle to make the transfers.

I came across one of my all-time favorites, and to my dismay, when played in the camcorder - there was no image on the camera's viewfinder. Likewise, no image was transfered to my computer.

However, when played in fast forward (or reverse), the image shows up on the camera's viewfiender, and I can capture this sped up image on the computer.

It appears that this is isolated as other tapes play and transfer fine. In addition, I can record new tapes on the FX410 and play and transfer them with no problem.

Is there any way this tape can be saved/data extracted?

Thanks. And I apologize in advance if this is off-topic.

[ozymango]

Could it be that this tape was recorded in LP (or SP) and the other tapes were recorded in SP (or LP) mode? If so, there could be some alignment issue that's causing no playback in normal speed, but when scanning (ff or rew), things line up enough that you can see the picture. Sort of.

That's all I can come up with on short notice, anyway. Not that I have a solution to the problem ... 'cept maybe it's worth running a head cleaning tape through your camcorder and see what happens.

If it's just the one tape, and it's an important tape, I'd call around to whomever in your area does tape to DVD conversions and swing by and let them have a look at it. It may be that there's something wrong with the tape that just refuses to play back in any machine, but it could be that somebody with more $$$ equipment might be able to recover this. At the very least, they could play it back and show if it is the tape itself; if it works, then it'd probably be worth it to have them convert just the one tape for you.

Good luck!

[jlietz]

Could be an alignment issue, caused when the tape was intially loaded into the camcorder for recording. If so, a similarly out of alignment deck will be needed to recover the video. Local transfer services are unlikely to do this, nor are most online transfer houses. Try calling AVRS (www.avrs.net). They may give a free estimate if you ship them your tape. Recovery may run $50-$100.