Sony CCD-TRV328 camcorder cut my Hi8 tape on rewind?
i just got Sony CCD-TRV328 camcorder off ebay to digitize some Hi8 tapes.
i put a tape in the camcorder and it played just fine. i hit rewind. it rewound about 50 mins of play time then the tape reached the beginning with no issues. i pressed play to adjust levels with the histogram in virtualdub before capturing. virtualdub kept freezing any time i pulled up the histogram so i decided to just capture with default settings. a few minutes had passed. i hit rewind again. the tape goes to the beginning then the camcorder starts beeping and there's a message asking me to eject the tape. i take the tape out, open the top and see that the physical tape has been cut. the camcorder came with the printed manual and it doesn't say there's different rewind speeds in stop mode. but it mentions some possible ones in play mode. https://www.sony.com/electronics/sup...trv328/manuals
i looked through some videos on youtube about repairing hi8 tapes and they all involve taking the tape out of the casing in some way. i'm afraid i'll accidentally damage the tape during this process so i'm going to send this off to a tape repair shop to get it fixed. TL;DR tape rewind was so fast it cut the tape. is this normal? how do i prevent this? |
Most likely the clear leader adhesive gave up due to age, just fix it, you don't have any other choice.
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thanks for the reply.
can you elaborate? when you say the clear leader adhesive gave up do you mean on the camcorder or the tape? sorry i'm not that familiar with the parts of the hardware. i'm trying to determine if the camcorder is faulty and i should return it or if it's an issue with the tape. |
On the tape off course, Fixing tapes requires skills, not for everyone, If you don't feel comfortable send it to some to fix it for you.
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i took the tape to a local repair shop. they said they can fix it. so far i don't think the camcorder is the culprit. i'll try archiving some other tapes this weekend and hopefully that goes smoothly.
the shop said part of the tape sheared off. it was kind of hard for me to see when i examined it. their best guess is because the tape got stuck to itself. which i've never heard of before. i told them it played just fine so they don't think it will be an issue going forward but they'll tell me more after they've fixed it. looks like a simple repair job thankfully but they're going to have to do some splicing. i hope the part they splice is empty or at least i only lose a few seconds of video. now that i've encountered this i would like to learn how to do tape repair. i'm thinking of getting some hi8 tapes to practice with. i just didn't want to risk losing the footage on this one. |
That repair shop sounds incompetent.
For starters, never splice a tape. You'll screw up the video heads. Any snapped tape = 2 new tapes, period, no exception. A tape can stick to itself, but that means the tape has issue. Don't be dumb and stick it back into the same player. So for them to say "not an issue" is somewhat ridiculous. The eBay camera is a likely bad, return it. |
do you repair tapes lordsmurf? i don't think they've started fixing the tape yet. i can get it back from them and send it your way.
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I no longer physically repair/re-shell Hi8/Video8/D8 tapes. Too small. I no longer have the dexterity for it (MS). I'll do VHS/S-VHS and VHS-C/S-VHS-C, but that's it.
I don't care if they've done it 100 times (and ruined 100 cameras/VCRs in the process). Anything foreign dragging across heads is bad. And any breaks in the tape runs risk of snags. When a tape is split, it's split. Take half out, put it in "new" (donor) shell. |
the cut happened right near the start of the tape. i don't think there's enough there to put in a new shell. i'll just ask them to skip the splicing, do a clean cut and refit the remaining tape in the shell. sucks that i have to lose that footage at the start of the tape tho.
sorry about your MS. and thanks for the reply. |
The repair shop gave a clue, If the tape is sticking to itself that means it has dry mould, You are lucky that only few seconds from the beginning of tape are affected and they have most likely unstuck it. When you get the tape back don't fast forward it, just let play through while capturing it because it may have some mould at the other end of the tape (the supply reel).
A good splicing job will not damage the heads, If they've done it before they most likely have an idea on how it works. |
So did the tape break off at the leader, or further along? If it just broke at the leader that's a pretty easy fix by yourself. While some may howl at this method, I've simply applied Scotch tape between the video tape and the leader, especially if it's something that only needs played once for digitizing.
While I'm not saying the camcorder caused the break, 8mm/Hi8 rewinders do exist (or use a spare camera if on-hand for rewinding). If you have many tapes it would be a good idea to use a rewinder or spare camera to save wear and tear on your capture camcorder. |
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1. Scotch is a brand, not a tape. 2. The Scotch branded "Magic tape" is thick and comparatively weak. 3. If that tape slides across the video heads, there is a strong chance of the heads being damaged. Quote:
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The usual sign of a break caused by the tape sticking to itself is a long, diagonal tear which is almost impossible to repair and play successfully. The tape ends would need to be recut in a splicing block before being spliced onto leader tapes, making sure the spliced sections never touch the rotating drum. Inevitably some program is lost.
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The "two new tape" fix mentioned can involve losing a couple inches of tape either side of the break. Back in the days of tape, especially audio tape, there was a specific type of splicing tape made for splicing audio tape. It was as about strong as the audio tape, used a stable adhesive, and splices were not as spatially critical. While not a good solution for video tape, especially 8mm tape, it may be OK for the leader portion that never reaches the video heads. WHY? Audio tape moved relatively slowly (typically 7.5 inches per second for quality reel-to-reel tape) and a splice passed over the head once per playback. The head was wide, smooth, and covered the full width of the tape. The splicing technique amounted to a cross fade between the two sides of the tape splice. In contrast an 8mm video head is tiny and mounted in a small opening in the spinning drum. It covers a very small area of the tape and is moving over the tape very fast, over 12 feet per second, and will pass over the splice on the order of 150 times per playback of that portion of the tape. Any slight imperfection in the tape surface, such as at a splice, could snag the head or opening edge. Because the track is so small the splice point may appear as a drop out or glitch in the video scans. The reason for clear leader at the ends of a tape is VCR's typically "see" the clear leader and know they are at the end of the tape and stop. Without clear leader the tape may run to the hub and jerk to a stop, potentially snapping. |
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i've also read some posts on different sites saying dedicated rewinders can cut tapes. you've probably had a good experience with them but going forward i'm just going to do all my fast forwarding and rewinding in play mode not in stop mode to stay safe. i only have about 20 hi8 tapes to capture so not a huge deal. Quote:
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i've returned the camcorder and ordered a new one. finding a camcorder in used/like new condition is a challenge. i've got a refurbished one. |
got the tape back from the tape shop. it played fine. a few seconds at the beginning are lost.
at the start of the tape where they fixed it a lot of tracking/warping is displayed on the screen. it goes back to normal a few seconds later. i'm curious if a tbc can fix that. it's only a few seconds though so i don't think i'm shelling out $2k for a tbc just for that. haven't captured the tape yet. i got a sony ccd-trv338 to replace the trv328. i forgot to check if the 338 has s-video. turns out it doesn't. i returned the 338 and ordered another 238. hopefully this one works great and i don't have to return another camcorder. |
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- That's not what TBC is for. |
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TBCs fix signal issues (both visible and not), not physical/mangled tape issues.
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