A simple mod for Sony 8mm cameras to make cleaning the heads a breeze

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12voltvids

2 жыл бұрын

A simple solution to a growing problem.

Пікірлер: 49

@DragonsTaco Жыл бұрын

The bottom load sucked back when I would record on a tripod. Now for archiving the tapes you found a good reason why the tape is inverted! I've got a case of the Hi8 MP tapes, and boy, are you right. Thanks for the help!🙂

@SPINNINGMYWHEELS777 2 жыл бұрын

Nice series regarding all the ins and outs of transferring from tape. Thanks.

@SergZak2023 2 жыл бұрын

Excellent idea. Do what works and what gets the task at hand done.👍

@JosepsGSX 2 жыл бұрын

Ingenuity at its best (I don´t have the best English so it might sound wrong). Very interesting subject I wasn´t aware of. I guess I´ve been lucky as my own tapes were all regular video8, and had no issues with the Sony Metal tapes of that generation. I digitized a bunch of those in a 740pal and only had to clean the heads once. Thanks for sharing!

@KylesDigitalLab 2 жыл бұрын

I'm so glad my parents didn't get a Hi8 camera until like 1999-2000. It was the CCD-TRV87.

@shemphoward666 Жыл бұрын

Thanks for your vids, i wish you made one about general camcorder cleaning/how to keep it clean. It would be very useful. again, thanks for all the content, man, you've helped a lot of people.

@12voltvids Жыл бұрын

Sony cleaning tape is safest. These bottom load cameras this mid works for but not the others. They have to be totally disassembled.

@moshezaharia4666 2 жыл бұрын

Well... it is a brilliant solution! In fact, I have the TRV238E (Hi8 PAL), and it's like that from factory: you just remove 3 screws on this very cover and the cover comes off Just like your mod. I think you can spare your fingernail and use a folded piece of paper. Except for that all my tapes plays fine but again, i don't have any of these problematic tapes you have and I can't recall seeing them here in Israel (at least where I used to buy my tapes).

@emmarandom9609 2 жыл бұрын

Nice, sometimes the simple solutions are the best. Then again, I'd overcomplicate things and try and mount a fingernail clipping on a spring loaded cantilever such that I could just press a button mounted to the cover and clean the heads that way without even having to open it at all! Dan

@12voltvids 2 жыл бұрын

That might be the next option. A level to pull the head cleaner wheel against the head.

@emmarandom9609 2 жыл бұрын

@@12voltvids That works, much simpler and less gross than my idea too.

@mercurysillus6298 6 ай бұрын

Ive seen a couple of your videos and they have been helpful. However, I haven’t been able to reach the spinning head with my fingernail. I was able to contact the tiny sponge roller that is built into the camera while the tape was playing and it instantly cleared the head.

@12voltvids 6 ай бұрын

The sponge works till it turns to goo then it puts more crap on the heads than ur cleans.

@horstnele 2 жыл бұрын

This Idea would have helped me a lot when Digitizing my Sailing Videos. Had a lot of hassle with the Tapes. I have the TR740E wich does Hi8 and Digital8 and I think I could do the same to it, making the cover removable. What does the Sponge cleaner on your Model do? Is it any use? Good Video, Thanks

@Raptor50aus 2 жыл бұрын

Great idea thanks for sharing and can this be done to the TRV110 Digital 8 handycam?

@12voltvids 2 жыл бұрын

Trv110 has the head drum on the bottom so you have to pull the right side cover and shield off to access the drum. Any of the models that load the tape from the bottom will the same as this.

@BrazilDude1000 2 жыл бұрын

What do you think about baking the 8mm video tapes before you play them back? I've heard at least with audio tapes that doing that makes a big difference. Have you had any luck with that?

@dunebasher1971 2 жыл бұрын

Baking is only necessary for tapes that are exhibiting hydrolysis.

@zx8401ztv 2 жыл бұрын

Very sneaky, i like it :-D I first thought you were going to tie a string to the built in foam roller cleaner. I was wrong. I imagine that tape cleaning mechanisms would cost the earth, so pre cleaning would be a no no. What a bout modding the tape rewinder to run the tape against a felt roller? Just silly thoughts dave, normal for me.

@12voltvids 2 жыл бұрын

The tape has bad binder. It comes off from contact with the spinning head and clogs the heads. On my EVS7000 I just pull the head cleaner disk up against the heads, but I am trying not to use the 7000, as it is the only one that can play PCM dubbed tapes. I have had to replace the head on the 7000 once and only have 1 more spare. On the other hand I have 5 digital 8 cameras that all play analog, and a Gvd800 DIGITAL 8 videowalkman but I don't use that one because a bad tape results in a 30 minute cleaning job! See the video I did recently on the GVD200 to see how hard the drum is to access in that. Also the advantage of using the camera as opposed to the EVS7000 is they have a built in time base corrector / DV A/D converter so analog tapes play, and it sends DV formatted video to the computer for direct capture. Plus they are small, thus don't take up half my desk. I have 2 DCR TRV240, 2 DCRTRV720 and a DCRtrv110. All can play analog and spit out a DV signal on the firewire.

@jrmertes10948 10 ай бұрын

what do you use for archiveing I can't get to play out using the cable that came with it and using dazzle or roxio

@andy_rulz2000 2 жыл бұрын

Great idea, like you said Sony should have done this from the factory.

@12voltvids 2 жыл бұрын

Cleaning heads is not something that Sony would recommend. Cleaning tape only.

@RustyTheGeek 5 ай бұрын

Thank you! I am slowly building up my workflow plan for doing all of my soon to begin tape capture/transfers. I have 8, Dig8 and MiniDV. The most important stuff is on Dig8 and MiniDV. Hope that's a better experience than what you're facing here. But I also have some old stuff from around '90 that I'm worried will be like this. (Also shot in Vegas!) So I'm definitely going to do this on that for sure. Is there anything I should be worried about with head damage doing this long term with a fingernail (very gently)?

@12voltvids 5 ай бұрын

The heads are pretty hard.

@RustyTheGeek 4 ай бұрын

@@12voltvids Just did this mod after experiencing the exact issue you had here 30 min into a regular 8 tape from 1996. So far, seems to work just like it worked for you. Thanks again for sharing this little lifesaver. Hopefully, I got all the chicken wing grease off my fingers! 🤪

@12voltvids 4 ай бұрын

Never have damaged a head this was. Back side of the nail not the edge. Head is harder than nail. I learned this when i worked in broadcast doing internship in college. Learned this from cheif engineer.

@NJRoadfan 2 жыл бұрын

Those $#%#$% tapes. The batch that gave me all those problems were from that exact "clear top" series, both metal particle and evaporated metal versions. I also happen to have a DCR-TRV330 here that I can modify like this. My only concern is head damage from running a fingernail across it. I'm afraid of somehow snagging the fragile heads.

@12voltvids 2 жыл бұрын

Well that would be difficult to snag your nail on it because your nail is flat. Not the edge of the nail. The back of it. I learned this from a broadcast engineer when i was working in tv. Fingernail is hard enough to clear clog but soft enough to not damage head and no pressure is put on it. Barely make contact.

@mryamaha100 2 жыл бұрын

yes dave us your Pansonic DM RE 20 Ram to copy on too

@taptapkingvideo5883 2 жыл бұрын

is cleaning the heads rapidly gonna wear those heads out faster than normal?

@12voltvids 2 жыл бұрын

Using cleaning tape all the time will. Fingernail is hard enough to clean the head and soft enough to as not damage it.

@taptapkingvideo5883 2 жыл бұрын

@@12voltvids I think I must have been a lucky person as all 8mm tapes I received (whether it's standard Video8, Hi8 or Digital8) all play flawlessly even when reused by myself. Do you think putting a Hi8 drum into a Digital8 machine works? I have a spare trash Hi8 TRV36 camcorder with a mechanism that's identical to the one in my good Digital8 TRV210 camcorder, right now it's working fine but I'm not sure if it's gonna keep working fine for many years to come.

@12voltvids 2 жыл бұрын

@@taptapkingvideo5883 digital 8 drums are totally different. The run at 4500 rpm vs 1800 for ntsc or 1500 for pal. As such they are finely balanced top and bottom. The head gap is also different. Closer to hi8. Small gap heads can play the lower frequency analog the larger gap heads on hi8 and 8mm will certainly have trouble playing digital signals even if it was able to spin up to speed and not fly apart.

@VulcanOnWheels 2 жыл бұрын

You gotta go with what works. 🙂

@crashbandicoot4everr 2 жыл бұрын

Can you use a piece of dry paper instead of a fingernail?

@12voltvids 2 жыл бұрын

I wouldn't. This was shown me by the engineer at the tv station i interned at while in college taking tv production course.

@TigerBoyRS Жыл бұрын

Great small trick for a shamefull engeneering problem. I also worked with Hi8 HMEX tape, the worst of them all! Which is a twisted shame, as they were particularly expensive, I kept buying it for important jobs... I can tell that from the same 10 units box, I get very different results. Some play almost fine with only two or three head cloughs, but others are close to trash tapes. The major difference being, the ones that are worst are the edit masters, the camera originals beeing mostly OK. Worked with U-Matic SP, VHS, S-VHS, Video 8, Hi8, Betacam SP, DVCPRO. Mini-dv, DVCAM and Digital Betacam and HDV. I can surely confirm that those garbage Hi8 tapes are a rarity in the industry. Too bad, that the Video8/Hi8 format was shoved to the side. It could very well perform the way Mini-DV did. But they didn't want crazy TV directors like me, who where mixing VX1 Hi8 3CCD with UVW-100P BetaSP and VX1000 Mini-DV all day, during 1995-1999 period. Cheers 🇵🇹

@12voltvids Жыл бұрын

Sony wanted tv directors to use the professional cameras. I had an evw300 and the picture on that camera was so bloody close to betacam. If you shot footage on betacam and the ev300 and dubbed the hi8 to betacam to edit the cut footage was very close in quality. To the untrained eye most could not tell the difference. Sure if you looked on scopes you could tell as hi8 chroma wasn't as clean but looking at 2nd gen edit they don't looked great. I also used a vx3 and it was also good looking but not as good at the evw300. Its all the front end that made the difference. The evw300 had a different head in it too. One designed specifically to record. Playback on evw300 was crap, the tape needed to go to something like evo9800 which was a machine primarily built as a playback machibe.

@TigerBoyRS Жыл бұрын

@@12voltvids Yes, the crapy playback was the same in the Betacam SP camcorders. Loved the time I was able to transit from pro-sumer Hi8 to BetacamSP in 1996. Been on the weddings and corporate from 89 till 96. Then developed a broadcast project with friends and ended up with our independent show on national TV, a youth magazine. But I still have a little crush for Video 8/Hi8, I'm 50 years old now. And I think Sony can only be spared from the axe in this one, because of Digital 8 cams, with iLink, for format heritage. That was cool, even if the CCDs used on those, where purposefull bad, so they wouldn't hurt the MiniDV and DVCAM line. So cool, your knowledge and sharing all those stories. Please keep on rocking retro video! 🤘 Cheers

@ho-bt4no Жыл бұрын

I wonder what the ***** I've ran hours of old Sony Hi8 and DIGITAL 8 tape and haven't had a problem, it works perfect.

@12voltvids Жыл бұрын

Depends on the batch. I have lots of bad ones.

@ho-bt4no Жыл бұрын

@@12voltvids Okay my tapes have always been kept in a closed plastic box.. maybe that helped keep them good.. Thanks

@OFXCPRODUCTIONS 2 жыл бұрын

I´m Professional video Digitalizing Provider in Germany, i know the Problems with that Tapes, mostly the first charges of Sony Metal-Evaporated (ME) PAL Tapes; thats because the Tapes are losing Particles wich oversticks the Video Head drum^^... i heard this is because sony let the coating mixture hardening-out when the tapes are packaged... and if the temperatures are not in range (like in cold storages) it will cause the error in future Solved the problem by opening up the "special Tapes Hi8 Recorder" - use that recorder for misalligned taped so it stays uncovered for adjustation and Press the AutoHeadCleaner on the drum before the picture gone bad! Your Tape is a MP (MetalParticle) Tape... never seen this issue on that tapes...

@12voltvids 2 жыл бұрын

It all the MP tapes that have the problem. Early ME tapes are more like to surfer from stiction on certain decks that use the U loading system like EVO9800. The professional HMPX tapes were even worse. On my EVS7000 the cover is not fastened so I can access the head cleaner wheel to clean them off before they completely clog. Been doing dvd archiving and digitizing now for about 30 years now, and have seen hundreds of bad tapes and moldy tapes.

@OFXCPRODUCTIONS 2 жыл бұрын

@@12voltvids Never Got the problems with MP Tapes.. only but PAL format^^ maybe that is the point I´m Digitalizing since about 10 years; but on Hi8 i only used F-Drives (EV-S9000e; EV-C400) and a O drive in a camcorder for "testing" moldy tapes, Tapes with water-demage or other crappy historied Tapes ....and senn the same hundered Tapes ;D

@12voltvids 2 жыл бұрын

@@OFXCPRODUCTIONS I have done thousands and had many head clogging Sony garbage mp tapes. It was always the high grade tapes. The normal ones were fine. Don't see that many more moldy tapes here. Once every few months.