8 mm tape guide adjustment tips

[JVRaines]

Anyone have experience tweaking the drum entrance/exit guides on a Hi8 deck to capture mistracked tapes? I'm looking for specific tips on method, what kind of distortion warrants which adjustment, cautions. I am careful and have a good selection of tools although I will not be working with a scope or alignment tape. My goal is to get mistracked tapes to play back properly and I don't care if my deck is in or out of spec.

[lordsmurf]

Good luck.

Faulty Hi8/Video8 is recorded onto the tape.
I'm not sure the control tracks can be compensated for by tweaking hardware.

[JVRaines]

Thanks, but 8 mm video uses pilot tones, not control track. I actually found some advice in an antique VCR repair book. It appears that very slight adjustment to the guides can mimic the misalignment of the recording device and recover the image. The trick now is to find a PH000 offset screwdriver so I can unlock the set screws without taking the whole thing apart.

[johns0]

The thing you have to watch for is that you might need to adjust the guides all the way through if the tape was recorded with the guides moving as the recording took place.

[JVRaines]

In that case, I would give up! But I doubt it because all the bad tapes have the same appearance. It's more likely the camera got knocked out of alignment at some point in its tortured existence.

[johns0]

The issue isn't that it got knocked out of alignment,it's always that the guides get loose and rotate a bit,mostly on sony 8mm.If it locked into one position then it will an easy fix.I've done this type of recording fix for customers in the past.

[JVRaines]

Did you have to take the deck apart to make the adjustment? It's looking that way for my EV-S3000. No way to access the set screws without removing and partially disassembling the mechanical block. It may be more than I want to get into since I don't have a test jig.

[johns0]

i just had to take the cassette door off.