capture Hi8 Digital8

joejon wrote on 12/2/2011, 3:59 PM

I'm trying to capture all my Hi8 and Digital8 tapes using my TRV-340 camera via firewire. The camera is old and I did just replace it with a Sony CX-700v. Anyway when capturing Hi8 tapes everything seems to run fine but I'm getting areas of the captured video that has lines, other artifacts or is blank. I don't know if the heads are bad or what. I don't think it's the tapes because when I recapture, the areas that were bad before look fine and then other areas are bad. I have Vegas Pro 11 and use that capture program. Any suggestions? If I can't resolve this with my current camera, does anyone know if there is another device to run the tapes and capture them to the computer?

Comments

mcvap wrote on 12/2/2011, 4:41 PM

8mm Head Cleaner Tape can help.
If there is no effect even when you clean 4 times in a raw.the problem may be something else or need a deeper solution by technician.

farss wrote on 12/2/2011, 4:52 PM

Second head cleaning.
Those old 8mm metal particle tapes can shed a lot of their oxide and clog heads. The real D8 tapes being evaporated metal are much less likely to suffer from the problem.

Bob.

joejon wrote on 12/2/2011, 5:37 PM

Is there a particular cleaner you would recommend? I have a Dynex brand head cleaner but I don't think it's very effective.

JJKizak wrote on 12/3/2011, 6:48 AM

Also look at the edges of the tape with a magnifying glass to see if they are curled over, sometimes only 1/16" inches. This would be caused by mis-alignment of the transport system.
JJK

joejon wrote on 12/3/2011, 11:30 PM

I contacted Sony technical support via email and they responded by listing other (non-Sony) editing software programs to try, which I thought was strange because I mentioned that I use Sony Vegas Pro. They didn't offer any suggestions about the camera which was also strange since that is what I asked them about. They also didn't comment on my question about other devices that would play the tapes in case I can't get my camera to work correctly. I will try a head cleaner as suggested to see if that works. Any other help is appreciated.

farss wrote on 12/4/2011, 4:02 AM

Based on your original comment of "when I recapture, the areas that were bad before look fine and then other areas are bad." I'm pretty confident in saying you are getting head clogs. These can to som extent clear themselves hence why you're get variable results.
I'd do multiple captures, record all of them and then edit it together.
One othe thing you could try is baking the tapes. This is very common practice with 1/4" audio tapes but since I started doing this we've found it to be almost mandatory with audio cassettes, 2" quad video tape and UMatic cassettes.
What you need to do is to heat the tapes to 51deg C for about 2 hours in dry air. I built a number of fan forced ovens specifically for this purpose and they've baked 1,000s of tapes. One trick of my own is to put a desicant in the oven, not much point getting the water out of the tape binder with nothing to absorb it.

All of which is going to sound rather complicated and expensive to do, especially if you've only got a few tapes to deal with. There's a simpler way I found that isn't as intimidating although it's slower. Put each tape in a zip locked bag with some desicant and keep it in a warm place for a week or two. For the desicant you can use silica gell but that can be problematic as it must be fresh or it doesn't do anything. The alternative is something sold down here under various names such as "Closet Camel" or "DampRid". It's a single use moisture absorber and it does work very well. You need to be a little careful with these as the water does accumulate in the bottom of the container.

Temrperature wise you will not damage the tape or the cassette if you keep the temperature under 54deg C. To get effective water removal you do need to get it warmer than around 35deg C.

We've found this process can work wonders even with tapes that don't have the classic "sticky shed syndrome" but do suffer from mould build up on the outside of the tape pack. Drying the mould right out helps it to fly off the tape as it's spooled.

Bob.