In 8mm HELL

Calling all fim and vid gurus!!!
I have 4 Maxwell GX-MP 8MM tape that I am trying to put on to a DVD for a friend. But upon playback I get visual static and no audio. I've checked the film for visual damage and there is none. I am playing back on a Sony EV-C200 Hi8/ 8mm deck. Why the frack is this footage unreadable.

*note - I have a sneaky suspicion it has to do with recorded play mode. I think this may have been recorded in Extended Play or Long Play. But that shouldn't matter on a deck right?

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• 8mm
• mm
• issues
• converting
• to
• dvd
• hi8

[MetallicBill]

D8 I've found in my recent acquisition , My camera is model DCR TRV140, which will NOT record or play analog, there's no setting hinting at it being possible and I was told on eBay by the experts that some Sonys do, some don't. It is pretty odd, if you ask me. The result of trying to is much like your video seen here, so D8 could be the format used

[michichu81]

@MetallicBill I'm pretty sure you are correct in your assumption that it was filmed in D8. Which sucks. I have to find a D8 deck. Awesome. Once this mystery is solved I will post again. Thank you again for all your input, it has been so helpful!

[MetallicBill]

@MetallicBill I'm not keen on selling my TRV320 or TRV 340, but both those and a few others will play all tapes, some stream USB, others are just analog and Firewire output, They convert to a PC all without any external device, and for that I am ecstatic

[MetallicBill]

@michichu81 I can help, I now have three D8s I bought locally, wanna buy my TRV140? It's doesn't play analog and the two I did buy both are backward compatible. You'll get snow because to record digital on 8mm, the tape moves at twice the normal speed. A camcorder working both analog and D8 must switch between Hi8-8mm- and D8, so there's something of a mode delay as well

[MetallicBill]

@michichu81 I've seen the alternating SP and LP, find out if that original tape is LP, that can be a problem, tracking control tracks are along the edge with VHS, so I think they're the same basic tech layout incorporating helical scan. A different size head drum can effect recordings I believe, as well. Most compensate some how, but swapping decks is an issue you'll always struggle with, always use SP or the quality FAST speed when planning to trade tapes to an unknown machine

[MetallicBill]

@michichu81 Well, I'd say that 8mm is much, much better then VHS, and better then Beta, which is better then VHS naturally, and 8mm analog has very few tracking issues, if a tape is recorded on an LP speed supported recorder, and played back on say, Sharp Viewcam, it won't work because Viewcam I used only supported SP speed. SO, another factor of an issue people should keep in mind. I do endorse 8mm since the 1990s when I adopted it, so I'd still stand behind it

[michichu81]

@michichu81 But I still got that damn static. But this time the playing deck only read it in SP. I'm trying to force the deck on LP or EP. If I get no footage then, i think I am going to throw in the towel. The only issue is that I have no idea how to manually set the deck to long or extended play. Still I don't even know if that is the real issue. HELP

[michichu81]

@MetallicBill

These aren't my tapes. These tapes belong to a friend. I thought it was going to be a simple transfer. What I was told they were filmed on a 8mm camcorder not Hi-8. They are also 8mm tapes not D8. I played back on a Sony CCD-TRV98 camcorder and got the same static show above. Except that I noticed the tape speeds between SP and LP, as if the camcorder knew that it wasn't set to the correct speed. To eliminate the speed variable I switched to a Sony EV-C200 playing deck.

[MetallicBill]

@MetallicBill now if you presented us with proper stats of the problem, I wouldn't have to guess, What I can tell you is my own experiences, From the looks of things, the tape playing back you assume is Hi8 could be recorded on a Tascam DA-88, if it's for professional studio tape use (same tape, pro deck, and recording differs), or in a similar state of affairs, it's Digital format D8 that Sony introduced, it requires the playback be the same format D8 so it can interpret how it was recorded

[MetallicBill]

A few problems exist with tape, and I switched to HDD recording, very happy now! haha However, nothing beats analog for full on quality. Problems associate with tracking, which should be pitch perfect, using Time Base Corrector if needbe, and as well, Metal Evaporated cassettes are thinner then Metal Particle versions, which means more susceptible to damage then any other. MiniDV is pretty robust given my use of it, but it's also SMALL tape, wound on spools, The same problems can occur