Sudden appearance of noise with Sony CCD-TR6 (Video8)

[mOOm]

Hello,


As I’ve spent quite some time lurking, I’d like to start by thanking the members for getting as far as I am now.


What I am currently trying to do is convert Video8 tapes to AVI using a Sony CCD-TR6 plugged into a Sony DCR-TRV30, which has analog to digital pass-through, and capture using WinDV.

The problem is with the CCD-TR6. I tested a tape which came with the camera and playback was fine and clear. I watched it a couple of times on the camera and then began to capture using the above set-up. After about 12 minutes the quality quickly degraded and the footage came to an end.

After rewinding to the parts which were fine, there is now a thick, white, flickering layer of noise at the bottom of the view, and it now occurs throughout the tape. It looks kind of like this, except taking up the bottom 2/3rds of the frame.

I put in a new tape and recorded a short segment and on playback I get the same thing. I noticed though when pausing, the thick white flame goes away and the frame looks normal except for a light snow which seems typical of a paused tape.

So my question is – why the sudden change from perfect clarity to this noise? Is this from the heads getting dirty or perhaps a misalignment? I haven’t been able to find visual examples of this problem and have no experience with this media. What can I do?

Thanks.

[mOOm]

Bump.

If this is in the wrong area of the forums could a mod please move it to the most appropriate section.

[turk690]

This usually means the heads are dirty (pause displays a clearer picture). Get a commercial tape cleaner and use it following instructions. Old tapes not stored in ideal conditions get dirty fast, and the magnetic material/binder can flake, clogging up the deck's heads. The first thing to do when playing a tape that hasn't been touched for eons is to rewind and fast-forward it first at least 10x, hopefully re-tensioning it and shaking off dirt. This may not be easy without a stand-alone rewinder, but this procedure and the cleaner will work wonders. Playing up different brand tapes in succession can also clog up the heads, so cleaning may have to be done in between. Do not attempt to clean the deck's heads with Qtip & alcohol even if they're accessible; they're incredibly fragile. Additionally, you can open up the camcorder decks, power them off, then blower them gently (hair blower in cold setting).

[jmac698]

Something I've noticed in the past about the noise - sometimes it's just in one field. If you can deinterlace that it will actually look perfect, and in fact you have to throw away one field anyhow before saving it to DVD, it will be 30frames/s.

If cleaning it doesn't fix it and you're stuck, and have an important tape, you can try the multiple capture technique (which many people have reinvented over the years).

[NJRoadfan]

It sounds like dirty heads. Clean them before trying anything else. Also the CCD-TR6 is a circa 1990 model, many of these earlier Sony Video-8 camcorders are known to have problems with leaking/bad capacitors.

[mOOm]

Much appreciated, guys. Do you have any recommendations for cleaning cassettes or will any one do?