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-   -   Choppy audio on 8mm tapes? (https://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/video-capture/11438-choppy-audio-8mm.html)

ragu0012 01-24-2021 12:33 PM

Choppy audio on 8mm tapes?
 
1 Attachment(s)
A friend of mine gave me five Video8 tapes to capture for him. ("video8" or 8mm, not Hi8)

They are all from the same time period in the mid-1990s. Some are Sony tapes, some are Maxell.

Two of them worked flawlessly. Three of them have choppy audio. (example clip attached.) I cleaned the heads, no change. This is how it sounds coming out of the camcorder, so it is not an issue with the capture.

Put the two good tapes back in, and they still play fine. The three others have the crummy audio.

Does anyone recognize this issue and if so any advice to try to fix it?

I am using a Sony Digital 8 DCR-TRV460. Not a well-known model but includes TBC, DNR, Stereo Audio and SVideo output and can play back high-8, video8 and digital8.) Has worked flawlessly until now except for occasionally needing to clean the heads.

Thank you!

latreche34 01-24-2021 02:47 PM

More information needed, capture hardware, software, OS, Drivers installed....?

ragu0012 01-24-2021 02:57 PM

Since my Win10 computer upgraded itself to the latest service pack, my ATI 600 no longer works. So my current hardware is:

Sony DCR-TRV460>TBC-300>Diamond VC-500 captured with Virtualdub using HuffyUV.

But like I said, the choppy audio is present while playing it through the camcorder with volume up, so it doesn't seem to have anything to do with the capture.

Would it be a damaged tape or something that needs to be cleaned/repaired within my camcorder?

lordsmurf 01-24-2021 03:22 PM

From everything written here, it's either
- bad tape
- recorded on one of those funky Sony decks with atypical audio; I don't know much about this, but see it mentioned in various threads and posts, with members like NJRoadfan having more expertise on this

timtape 01-24-2021 03:41 PM

You could try playing on another good camera or deck to see if the sound improves. There may be a slight misalignment between the recording camera and yours. Sometimes the only way for an expert to play such a tape successfully is to temporarily misalign the playback deck to match the original misalignment.

latreche34 01-24-2021 03:41 PM

Sorry, for some reason I had in mind that you said played fine from the viewfinder, In that case it's definitely a tape issue, I've seen this before where the microphone capsule comes loose inside the camcorder and cause interruptions, I guess all what I can say now is sorry for your loss, As a last ditch try another camcorder or send it to one of the members here to see if he can recover it for you, Could be audio miss tracking since it's FM not linear.

ragu0012 01-24-2021 04:04 PM

thank you all.

dpalomaki 01-24-2021 06:00 PM

Are the audio drop-outs always at the same point in the tape?
Does the audio overall stay in (lip) sync with the video over the length of the tape?

It reminds me of tape read errors that impact the audio. If you can try another tape player.

ragu0012 01-24-2021 09:31 PM

The audio does stay in sync. But it is choppy/staccato pretty much throughout.

I know this isn't the case, but it reminds me of as if every time it gets overmodulated it cuts out instead of just sounding distorted.

But the tape's owner told me back in the 90s they dubbed it onto VHS so that means the audio was once fine on the tape.

I don't have another 8mm camera to test with at the moment but I will try that when I have a chance.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dpalomaki (Post 74676)
Are the audio drop-outs always at the same point in the tape?
Does the audio overall stay in (lip) sync with the video over the length of the tape?

It reminds me of tape read errors that impact the audio. If you can try another tape player.


timtape 01-24-2021 10:53 PM

Yes the audio wont go out of sync out of the camera. Both are basically locked together on the tape.

Is the picture good with no sections noisy such as at the upper or lower parts of the 4:3 frame?

Unlike a linear audio track on say VHS or Beta , this audio dropout is "all or nothing". The audio alternates between perfect and silent. So to eliminate audio dropouts may require only a tiny improvement in playback data extraction.

You might be interested in this YT video which shows a tech adjusting (or misadjusting) a Digital 8 camcorder's tape guides to correctly play picture and sound of an 8mm tape which wont play on a correctly aligned camera. Unfortunately he only gives us the picture.

https://youtu.be/Li0PPZmVK1I

I dont remember where but I recently came across someone saying there can be a problem when playing back an 8mm tape with standard mono sound on an 8mm camcorder with stereo capable sound. I dont recall any more than that.

ragu0012 01-25-2021 09:34 AM

Thank you for this.. that link sent me into a deep dive on Youtube. That same tech had another video where he mentioned keeping a mono camera on hand in case he has audio issue like you mentioned.

As far as adjusting the tape guides, Lordsmurf advised me on that a couple years ago with my VCR, which is easier since the entire top cover is made to easily come off. I'm weighing whether to give it an attempt on the digital 8 camera or drill access holes like the tech on the video did with his.

EDIT: surprisingly, on all but one tape the picture is completely fine, so the adjustment needed must be very minor. One of them there is pretty extreme top and bottom noise.

Quote:

Originally Posted by timtape (Post 74684)
Yes the audio wont go out of sync out of the camera. Both are basically locked together on the tape.

Is the picture good with no sections noisy such as at the upper or lower parts of the 4:3 frame?

Unlike a linear audio track on say VHS or Beta , this audio dropout is "all or nothing". The audio alternates between perfect and silent. So to eliminate audio dropouts may require only a tiny improvement in playback data extraction.

You might be interested in this YT video which shows a tech adjusting (or misadjusting) a Digital 8 camcorder's tape guides to correctly play picture and sound of an 8mm tape which wont play on a correctly aligned camera. Unfortunately he only gives us the picture.

https://youtu.be/Li0PPZmVK1I

I dont remember where but I recently came across someone saying there can be a problem when playing back an 8mm tape with standard mono sound on an 8mm camcorder with stereo capable sound. I dont recall any more than that.



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