Digital8 TRV480 vs GV-D800 audio sync issues
 

Hi all,

I have a Digital8 TRV480 camera that has served me well over the past 11 years. I've transferred hundreds, if not thousands of D8, Hi8 and 8mm tapes with it and never once had a problem with audio sync.

I recently started having issues with tape loading...getting the dreaded C 32:11 error. The fix is literally smacking the camera on the desk once or twice and it goes away. Regardless, because I am still transferring a lot of tapes, I wanted to invest in a more robust device. So I purchased a GV-D800 deck. It is in great condition...everything seems to work great on it. Except...

I put in an analog 8mm tape I wanted to transfer. The tape ran about 1h11m. I captured it using WinDV over firewire. When I went to watch it back, near the end of the file, the audio sync looked like it had drifted.

So I took that same tape, put it in my TRV480, and captured it. I placed them both on a timeline in Premiere, and sure enough, the file that was recorded from the GV-D800 deck had drifted by 5 frames after about an hour. It was in sync at the beginning though. The file from the TRV480 was perfectly in sync the whole way though.

The settings on both the camera and the deck were the same. TBC and DNR set to ON. I used the same program, WinDV to capture both tapes.

Anyone know if this is a common issue and if there is any fix? I'm starting to regret my purchase as this deck wasn't cheap. Wishing I had just purchased another D8 camera instead...