How many times can a Hi8 tape be watched before degrading?

[Nikos]

I use Hi8 tapes to record onto my Digital8 camera. I was wondering how many times these tapes can be watched before easily noticing a DEGRADE in quality?

I was thinking of not watching these tapes much in fear that the quality would degrade.

I like to record NBA Basketball games, but I also like to watch them--but I want to archive them at the same time. Does anyone have any suggestions how I can preserve the quality, while not having to be afraid to watch them?

Any help would be great

-Nikos

[Mavrick]

Unless you are going to get a DVD burner, I would simply transfer them to VHS and watch those. You can make high quality XSVCD’s, but the bit rate required to have the same quality will only let you get 20-25min per CD. You can fit an entire game on one CD, but only with a sacrifice of quality.

[Mavrick]

P.S.

As far as how many times you can watch a tape before it degrades…

It depends… Quality of the tape itself, how clean your Hi-8 camera is, how the tape are stored, how much you watch them, etc…

The rule of thumb for magnetic tape is: After 10yrs images/sound on a magnetic tape tends to degrade naturally on its own.

That’s why I’m converting old home VHS and Hi-8 home movies to XSVCDs.

[Nikos]

I understand that 10 years they degrade on their own most likely--but how many times would you guess a Hi-8 tape lasts? I recently recorded a few games, and I like watching them at high quality a few times for the past month. I will watch them sproadically...but I was wondering if I should just not watch them much...since they will degrade very quickly. Is this being too worried or is it better to feel this way considering I want archive the games as well as watch them a few times?

[Mavrick]

If you want to archive them, I would look into a DVD+ writer. They are down to $299.00 range now. I think Sony even makes a DVD- and + writer, the DRU-500A for the same price range.

It's up to you on how you watch them, every now and then wont hurt. But Hi-8 is not a good archive media. I can't give you an honest answer on how long they will last. Normal use should not degrade them that fast...

Use your best judgement...

[SingSing]

[quote="Nikos"]I understand that 10 years they degrade on their own most likely--but how many times would you guess a Hi-8 tape lasts? quote]

fFor my kids, I record and watch movie on both Hi-8 analog and mini-DV tapes.

On analog hi-8 tape it take about 10 play to see color started to shift,
and detail to fade.

On mini Dv tape ( same deal as digital-8 ), The problem come very rarely. The defect is also different. It shows up as blockiness on couple of frame. I have one dv-tape have blank screen with sound for 1 second.


This kind of means the failure mode is different, and prercious family moment should be preserved on disc.

[Nikos]

The problem with archiving on DVD is you can't fit enough data. Using Digital8 tapes--lets say I record a basketball game that is almost 2 hours on two tapes. How Can I archive that on DVD without making 2 DVD's? It might even require 4 DVDs if I want to make the quality identical to the original source right?

[Mavrick]

Naaww... You can easley fit 2hrs on a DVD...

[mrtristan]

I must have played through our wedding video at least 20 times. That's not including the times when I would skip around the tape and test capture different scenes. I didn't notice any degredation in the picture or sound quality.

If you do count the skipping around that I did, I probably played the tape 30 times.

So, you know that you can play your tapes at least 30 times. I don't know what the threshold is, though.

[Nikos]

Just curious but is it a Digital8 format on a 8mm tape or hi8 tape? What kind of tape is it?