What causes the blurry horizontal lines to go down my hi-8 tape?

[videoconverter11]

Hi everyone,

I am in the process of transferring some pretty old tapes that are around 25 years old. Most of the tapes still have surprisingly good playback. However, I noticed that some tapes have this constant thin blurry horizontal line that comes down the screen at a constant rate. Does anyone know what causes this? I am using a Digital 8 camcorder, it seems that other videos play well so I believe it has something to do with the tape. Is it possible to perhaps even fix it with a professional? Would this be taken care of via a TimeBase Converter? much thanks in advance!

[Baldrick]

Post a short sample. You can attach files when you post(Upload files/Manage attachments).

[Cornucopia]

Sounds like a wrinkle/crease in the tape. If true, that's bad - both for the tape & its current data (cannot really fix, though can digitally noise-reduce) as well as for future tapes/data (wrinkles/creases are bad for the playback head).

Scott