8mm tape no picture except when fast forwarding

[boxcars20]

Hi. First time poster. I spent some time searching and found a number of threads that had a similar issue, but not many concrete solutions.

I'm trying to digitize some 8mm tapes for my parents. So far nearly all of them have gone fine, but I have a handful of problematic TDK-brand tapes that do not playback properly in certain spots. Specifically there's a 2 minute passage where the video repeatedly struggles to maintain a signal. However the picture shows up when I fast forward or rewind while in Play mode. In other spots on the same tape, playback is fine but there is a horizontal band across.

I've attached examples of both. My playback device is a Sony DCR-TRV330 Digital8 camcorder. The tapes are TDK MP120 8mm (the rest have all been a mix of either Sony or Maxell and have had no problems).

I've seen multiple suggestions about cleaning heads of the playback device, but not sure how helpful that would be as it can otherwise read every other tape perfectly fine and only has trouble with TDK tapes. This isn't my area of expertise though, so I'd appreciate any guidance I can get.

[JVRaines]

That's a classic video head clog. Your tapes are damaged and shedding in these places. When you run in fast scan, the clogs are rubbed out. You can try winding the tapes from end-to-end a few times to shake out the loose junk. Then use duster spray on the camcorder to blow out the debris.

[boxcars20]

That's a classic video head clog. Your tapes are damaged and shedding in these places. When you run in fast scan, the clogs are rubbed out. You can try winding the tapes from end-to-end a few times to shake out the loose junk. Then use duster spray on the camcorder to blow out the debris.

Thanks for the quick reply. I'll try that next time I can.

Do you think a video head cleaning cassette like this one would achieve a similar result? https://www.amazon.com/Sony-V8-25CLD-Digital8-Camcorder-Cleaning/dp/B00005TQKQ

Also, do you have any ideas as to why it seems to only occur with TDK-brand tapes?

[JVRaines]

Head cleaning won't stop your tapes from shedding. Are your Maxell and Sonys MP tapes as well, or are they ME? Manufacturers use different formulas in their tapes and some age more successfully than others.

[boxcars20]

Are your Maxell and Sonys MP tapes as well, or are they ME? Manufacturers use different formulas in their tapes and some age more successfully than others.

Almost all are MP, a couple say GR and XR here and there.

[JVRaines]

GR and XR are trademarks. 8 mm videotape is either MP (metal particulate) or ME (metal evaporate). Both can shed, but ME is more prone to degrading over time.

[boxcars20]

Oops, my bad. I'm not used to handling these tapes. It's probably safe to say they're all MP, I don't see ME on any of them.

[lordsmurf]

Misalignment is also likely.
Either current camera, or past camera that made tapes.

[boxcars20]

Misalignment is also likely.
Either current camera, or past camera that made tapes.

My parents did say that they saw this happening with their tapes when they recorded them. They threw the camera out because it was "going bad".

I'm going to see if cleaning the heads works, but not sure how I could fix something like a misalignment. Wouldn't know any shops around here to help me either.

[JVRaines]

The sample you posted illustrates a damaged tape that causes a head clog. There may be alignment issues as well, but you still have a problem with the condition of the tape. Cleaning the heads may only work for a few seconds.

[boxcars20]

If cleaning doesn't work, I found a media transfer shop that I will probably end up taking them to. In any case I have an older DVD transfer of them that managed to read the damaged portions.

Appreciate all the help with this. I'll update this when I make some progress.

[Sguy]

Hi everyone, I logged on here to get an answer to my question about my 8mm tape only playing when I’m fast forwarding. I am trying to go through all of my old 8 mm tapes and catalog what is on them before I send them away to get transferred to DVD‘s.

Does anybody have an 8 mm camcorder that they would like to sell me? I am borrowing a friend’s, as mine broke, but I can only use it for a short while and need to go through a lot of tapes.

Thank you so much for your time.

[johns0]

The tape might not be damaged,if the camera had loose tape guides then the picture would get recorded with different heights causing that issue,only way to fix that is to capture the video while adjusting the tape guides manually to match,i have done this myself and it isn't perfect but you will get all your video with

bit of trial and error matching.

[Sguy]

Thank you so much for responding. The videos were recorded on a different camcorder. That camcorder broke. I am using now a different camcorder to replay them to catalog what is on each one. I have found now that it is something wrong with the camcorder. As I tried to play back four different tapes this happened. So I took a tape that I already knew worked fine and put it in and this same thing happened on that. So I know it is a problem is the camcorder itself. Is there a way I can fix this?

[johns0]

Check the tape guides to see if they are loose,this happens on a lot of older 8mm camera.

[Sguy]

OK thank you so much. I do have the manual for this camcorder so I will have my husband look at it in the morning and see if he can figure out where the tape guides are and how to tighten them. I so appreciate you getting back to me. Have a great night!

[johns0]

If the guides are loose tightening might not help if they are not properly adjusted first,it could be some other failure causing the issue but i always look at the tape guides first.