- 8mm tape playing in time and a half with tracking issues
- Posted by dillydallydesigns@gmail.com on March 8th, 2008
I have an 8 year old 8mm tape that hasn't been played in 6+ years. I
played the tape in Hi8 camera and it played back sped up at approx.
1.5-2x normal speed with a lot of tracking issues. Any one have a
good idea what may be causing it and possible fixes?
- Posted by Richard Crowley on March 8th, 2008
<dillydallydesigns@gmail.com> wrote in...
First guess would be that the tape was recorded at the
"long-playing" speed (1/2 the "normal" speed). The LP
mode is notoriously unreliable on vitually all formats
(not just 8mm) even under good conditions. Playing
it back years later on a different machine is practically
a guarantee of your reported symptoms.
If the content is valuable enough, you can spend the $$$
to take the machine and the tape to a repair shop where
they can "align" the machine so that it will track the
tape. Of course it will be of questionable value for any
other use until it is aligned back to "normal".
If the original machine is still available, I would certainly
try playing it back there before spending any $$$.
- Posted by Richard Ragon on March 23rd, 2008
dillydallydesigns@gmail.com wrote:
Had this same trouble with and older camcorder years ago.
i didn't know it was filming at a slightly slower speed than what I
bought to play it back at a few years later.
My suggestion is to get it OFF the old 8mm tape, and take it someplace
they can convert it too either digital8, mini8, or on a dvd.
-Richard
