Super8 No Audio

[LostEncoder]

I am trying to capture some old home movies to hard disk for preservation. I have converted 5 out of the 6 fine, but the oldest video has no audio. The video looks surprisingly clear for being recorded in 1993, but I have no audio. All other cassettes had audio. I checked the audio hookup and it is correct. Is it possible that the audio degraded faster than the video? I no longer have the original Sony Handicam used to record the video. It died and I am using a different camera, but the different camera worked fine for the other tapes. Is it possible that the camera had a mute mode? Any ideas to try? I'll try another capture card or hooking the player directly to the TV, but I am pretty sure that the issue is with the camera or tape.

[Budman1]

If I remember correctly from my Super 8 days, there is a small area on one side of the film where the audio is read by a photocell. You might try a magnifying glass and look closely. The little window (tiny actually) should have various light and dark signals showing. If the area is empty or badly faded that might be where the problem is.

[Brad]

Of course OP is talking about either Video8 or Hi8, not Super 8 film.

[Budman1]

My bad... Missed the 'Cassettes' part there. Need more coffee... lol

[LostEncoder]

Sorry...it's Sony Hi8. Super 8 is a motel...and apparently another film format. Mods, please edit the thread subject if possible. Sorry for the confusion.

[smrpix]

Some Hi8 cameras recorded their audio tracks embedded into the picture, much like VHS HiFi. It's possible one of your tapes was recorded that way, or it's possible someone just set a switch wrong when recording.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8_mm_video_format#PCM_Multi_Audio

(Also @budman1, interesting note about the 8mm optical tracks, seems that was more common in Europe. Until now I only knew about, and used, mag striped audio on Super 8mm. Thanks.)

[handyguy]

I have one of those Sony Handicams with Nightshot . You might try Ebay for one.

[turk690]

Some Hi8 cameras recorded their audio tracks embedded into the picture....

All 8/Hi8 camcorders use AFM, two subcarriers holding audio between chroma and luma, so in a sense, all of them record "audio tracks embedded into the picture". Unlike VHS, there are no linear tracks.
OP may indeed have a tape with PCM audio (which is multiplexed and recorded along with analogue audio and video). Only way to find out is to seek a 8/Hi8 camcorder or deck to check it out, but these are rare beasts nowadays.

...or it's possible someone just set a switch wrong when recording.

Possible. I recall certain sophisticated Sony machines that allow recording two stereo tracks simultaneously: one analogue, the other PCM; or only dubbing the PCM part while playing back the tape. If it was the former, and audio input was only intended for PCM, the analogue could be blank.

[LostEncoder]

Sorry everyone...false alarm. After some fiddling, I was able to get audio tonight. I must have had something not setup correctly.