Video8 tapes worked / now bluescreen
 

Hi helpful people - I'm attempting a transfer project, around 18 tapes recorded on a Sony CCD-M8u.

I've got the Sony EV-C8U deck, and a CCD-TRV98 (and a chain of capture cards, etc). Tapes and deck were watched and working around 12 years back.

I popped in the first tape and got some working video after a bit of bluescreen, and figured the blue was just 'blank space' on the tape. I watched a couple seconds then hit stop/rewind to queue up the tape for capture (they're all not rewound, etc) - and now I find it's all just bluescreen. Nothing when fast-fowarding from the C8U. And it's the same for all tapes.

Ok. damn.

I get the TRV98 out and pop a tape in, great picture, seems to be working, watch a few seconds.. ok then! I stop/rewind the tape.... and now the same thing, blue. On this camcorder I'm able to see static while fast-fowarding for a bit, and then just black.


Question: Can dirty tape heads manifest like this?

or an alignment issue? (but... why did I see some footage?)

The TRV98 can play v8 right?

Or...?

I'm about to order some very expensive swabs or an even more expensive 'dry' cleaner tape... and use one deck to rewind, and the other to play.

These are Sony branded tapes, stored immaculately. We were a video/electronics store family, so I'm kind of shocked we don't have a cleaning tape or two kicking around..

Any help appreciated!

My Sony TRV110 suddenly started the bluescreen act. I bought a Sony head-cleaning tape (yes, expensive, but Sony recommended procedure), gave it a run for the recommended 10 seconds and I got the video back.

Getting into the top-loading camcorders to clean the heads is real fiddle.

Yes a quality head cleaning tape is the first option but ideally a proper manual clean by a competent tech. This is basic stuff.