Video8 Hi8 tape with no sound?
 

Hi,

I have a few video8/hi8 tapes where sometimes I have no sound.
For example, I have a first scene with no sound, then an other complete different scene with sound.

I'm sure that originally there was sound because my father transfered all the video8/hi8 tapes to vhs (but quality is not good at all) and the same scenes, on vhs, have sound (real life sound not sound put after, btw my father could not have been able to do that).

How is it possible ?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Chrisbati

Do you mean the sound is fine on other Hi 8 tapes, but on some tapes the sound drops in and out?

not exactly.
Originally, the tapes were recorder on a canon ucxxx cam.
Now I play them on a sony trv66e.

On some tapes (not all of them), the sound is on for the first sequence, then the second sequence (totally other thing, not recorded at the same time) has no sound (the audio meter level doesn't move).

So it's not like the sound is going in and out, when i have sound all is ok, but on some sequence there is absolutely no sound anymore.

Is the picture good in both instances?

yes no picture issues

Is it possible for some reason that the sony cam is not able to read some sound track recorded on a canon cam ?

I believe Hi8 could have mono or stereo audio. Even some later Video 8 cameras could be stereo. I'm not sure if a stereo recording could be played on a mono player but probably a mono tape could be played on the later stereo player.

I think later there was also digital audio on some 8mm camcorders. Obviously only readable on a player capable of digital audio playback.

Does your Sony have stereo capability?

yes, it's a Sony CCD-TRV66E Hi-Fi Stéréo HI8 - VIDEO 8

Maybe it was recorded in digital audio. Do you know the original camera's model number?

It was a canon, but nothing professional, low cost or middle cost, kind of a uc8.

Miss-tracking could lead to audio loss, Make sure the heads are clean, The only way to know for sure if the camcorder miss tracking is to try another camcorder. Are the scenes with no audio consistent? this rules out bad audio electronics intermittent problem.

yes they are, always the same scenes.
So not sure about the cleaning of the heads, if it was the root cause, I would have miss-tracking any time, here, it's always the same tapes at the same moment.
I'll try to find someone with an other camcorder.

Thx for your help

Miss-tracking can happen on some scenes only because the way they are recorded on different times and different spots on the tape, Though this is very rare and can also happen in mixed SP and LP recorded scenes.

Sometimes a faulty stereo connection causes the left and right "channels" of a mono recorded track to cancel each other out in playback. But on a stereo recorded scene where the two tracks are not identical, this will not lead to full cancellation

Some audio samples might help here. Could you upload audio examples of a scene which does have sound and another which doesnt?

here's an example, you've a first outside scene with no sound then an inside scene with sound:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JJx...ew?usp=sharing

Thanks for the examples. All through are the telltale signs of FM audio as you'd expect. Occasional mild head switching chatter. In the silences there's still a hiss, suggesting you are hearing what was recorded, or wasn't. In those silences I suspect the recording mic was switched off. Maybe deliberately. Maybe accidentally .

Thanks.
That's strange because I in the example it was me filming, and I didn't know there was a button to cut off the micro. I checked on the sony and it doesn't exist and I checked on manuals of video8/hi8 canon cam and it doesn't appear to exist.

Then it must have been some other reason for the mic to not come through while the baseline hiss probably of the camera's mic preamp is still audible.

Both of my early Video8 camcorders (Sony V110 and M8U) had "external" mics whose connection to the body were vulnerable. The 110's mic was part of the movable viewfinder assembly. Later in its life, the viewfinder itself became "intermittent", likely due to the (brush style?) connections to the body. The mic could just as easily failed, but did not. The 110 also had an external mic connection that disabled the built in mic when used. If the ext. mic circuit failed, it could have caused trouble with the main mic.

I wonder if your Canon had similar vulnerabilities? Are the tapes with intermittent audio the most recent ones (camcorder getting older)?

Just a thought...

BW

The OP confirmed that the same tapes played sound before, now it's clearly no sound in the tapes, This is why I hate helping others when they don't represente their case accuratly with enough evidence such as audio and video samples and never assume something their not sure of.

@latreche34: Point taken. The OP did say that there was sound on the previously made VHS dubs. I'd gotten to looking at the trees and forgot the forest:rolleyes:

I think the fact that it is scene by scene (as his linked sample shows) supports your thoughts in post #12. It has something to do with how it was recorded, SP vs LP, etc. Could different scenes even have been recorded on different camcorders? But then the OP also says he recorded some of those scenes himself and remembers it being the same camcorder.

Trying a different device/camcorder for playback seems the best next step in any case.

BW