That's why i did it. To help people do it themself and not pay that crook on new York 100 per tape. I charge half that but that includes digitizing.

I see many tapes. That's my business. The majority don't have any playback gear as their camera is shot.

@@12voltvids what gear do you use? Just a regular recent Sony camcorder by any chance?

@@prebenjaeger yes

@@prebenjaeger I have several 8mm decks I can use. Most of the time I use my modified DCR-TRV240. When I saw modified, I mean the cover that covers the head drum is removable, so I can access the heads to clean them without taking the camera apart. When you are in the video archive business like I am, you get used to cleaning the heads constantly due to bad tapes. I have 2 DCRTRV240 cameras. Was given both, and one was trashed with missing parts. I was also given a 250 which is digital 8 only with no analog playback, so I swapped the guts to the broken 240 as it has analog playback. I also have 2 DCRTRV 720, a DCRTRV110 and GVD800 that can do digital 8 and 8mm/hi8. Also an EVS7000 for the odd tape that has PCM sound. Plenty of 8mm recorders. DV / HDV I have 3 cameras for that format.

@@12voltvids Yeah, I saw that video :D The lid is quite easy to get off on my 420e so I don't think I'll modify it. I just tried cleaning it with those swabs and some alcohol but I still experience that after a while the playback begins to get fuzzy. On some tapes its just a brief moment of distoration here and there but with another it just suddenly got real bad. I gave it another clean and the swaps dont look dirty at all, but that might just be expected. I'm playing back a tape that was problematic earlier and I'll see how it goes. I'm not sure what else it could be, that would cause issues only after 30 mins + of playback.

VHS tapes is much thicker doesn't tear nearly as easily as 8mm and DV tape.

@@12voltvids So you said, yet this tape tore 3 times before I handled it like you do here. It was so sticky you could hear it peeling off itself like sellotape. I noticed that it was sticking along its bottom edge, which is where the tears came from.

@@dlarge6502 someone had spliced it before it got to me. Didn't tear here. The entire reel came off smoothly after a few stretch sessions and played perfectly. I didn't show this tape playing. The tape with the alignment issue was a different tape from a different client in case you didn't notice. It was also moldy

I make good money doing this. Not 400 a tape but i do charge for my service.

I don't charge 400 to demold a tape. The problem with "cleaner" machines is the thin tape will tear when unspooling in the cassette. It's so fragile. I charge 50 and that includes the transfer and i keep busy. I can do an 8mm tape in about 20 minutes.

And just how do you think it's done? anybody that's doing mold recovery is doing it the same way you can't just unspool the tape maybe you can when it's thicker tape such as VHS are open real tape or you can actually get the tape off the spool without it tearing but when you're dealing with 8 mm in mini DV the tape backing is so thin that even attempting to unwind it by hand will result in a tearing. Tape is very strong though as far as tinsel strength so if you pull it straight it won't necessarily break or tear but it will slip on the spool and that lateral slipping is what breaks the tension Bond so that it will unspool without tearing. Over the years I have done probably a hundred moldy 8 mm tapes and out of those there was only a few that were not recoverable. the ones that were not recoverable however had more than just mold damage they had water damage as well.

I have air conditioning. No mold on any of my tapes. Usually people that store their tapes in a safe thinking they are protecting them.

@@12voltvids I store mine on bookshelves in a small box room. I usually have 3 moisture absorbers in there and change them every few months or so. Air conditioning would be much better tho! Pretty rare here in Scotland. A few tapes I have tho don't play properly, they literally screech on the heads. Wish I could restore them, I've tried changing the slips and pressure pads but I believe it's the tape itself has degraded.

@@tharkthax3960 stiction

Been doing this for many years.

Yes most are done in about 30 minutes. I spent less than an hour on this one start to finish and I was stopping to make a recording. The second tape, the one that had the alignment problem took only about 30 min to do. For those with attention to detail there were 2 different tapes shown. One for the demold and the other for the alignment recovery. The first one there were no playback issues. The second the camera that made it was a happy wanderer. The alignment shifted with just about every shot and required me to sit there and correct the playback about 15 times through the 2 hour tape.

Yes but since dat is 4mm more patience is needed as to not break the tape.

It needs only to be played once. It was digitized, then went on that fancy rewinder/eraser and was wiped and then into the trash. Nobody should be using tape anymore and this is only 1 reason.

@@12voltvids totally agree with you - make it playable, transfer, and destroy/trash the tape. Just wanted to verify that mold was actually not killed or eliminated. I'd wager most people won't take the time to do it themselves, so I doubt you'll lose any customers. If anything, you may gain some if they realize that someone charging $400 for such a service is perhaps overcharging a bit!

@@mitchd949 UV C light will kill it mind you.

Glad I'm not the only one to notice the lack of mold removal despite the video title. Misleading. I would not want to run this tape through my equipment and transfer the mold spores into my machine.

I transferred to whatever format the client requests. Someone want their tapes transferred to DVD recordable which is done on a standalone DVD recorder others want their material transferred to a digital medium. Then there's the choice of the formats some clients want them in dv25 Avi which is the highest quality format for consumer digital that any computer can work with, others want material put into MP4. This particular tape that I was transferring was going to MP4 to a USB stick because the client wanted to be able to just upload the file to the cloud and leave it there they were going to put all of their home videos in the cloud for storage. Personally I would not use MP4 for any analog based video regardless of what format it's from because analog video is so noisy, that noise does not compress very well. This results in a lot of block noise or artifacts mosquito noise. Even dv25 Avi which is running at 25 MB as an format is tough for it to handle that noise. By noise I mean color signal to noise which is pretty bad on any of the consumer video formats. VHS being the worst. Video from DV and digital 8 looks much better in mp4 because the signal is clean with virtually no random noise in the signal. The random noise generates huge amounts of data when digitized which needs to be compressed and since mp4 is relatively low bandwidth looks like crap. Direct to DVD looks superrior due to DVD lower compression.

@@12voltvids Is it safe to use Hi8 tape on a Video8 camcorder will it damage the heads?

No, the tape isn't actually stretched. If it was the coating would come off. It is "stretched" to tighten the tape packing on the reel which in turn makes the tape slide between layers and break the stick of the mold.

@@12voltvids Ah Got it....Thx

Playback is perfect btw. For those wondering if the tape needing alignment shifting was caused by demolding, no. That had nothing to do with it.

00

@@12voltvids I have tried it but it seems it it too big to fit...

The way I demo.

@@12voltvids thank you! Is it safe to also use alcohol to remove the mold?

Don't put anything on the tape.

What about ilchester? Staggeringly popular in the manor, Squire!

I wish someone would pay me $400 to demold the tape. But there's a few shops in the states that quoted someone that because they told me what they were quoted and I priced mine accordingly

Just with regular scotch tape, on the back side of the tape. Camera was off frame when i did it and i wasn't watching the monitor as I stuck it together.

@@12voltvids Is it safe to assume you cut it to size as far as width is concerned? Also curious if the addition effects picture quality. Did you cut the torn portion, or are you a master at matching margins? Thanks again. I think you said you don't do facebook, correct?

@@Mockingbird650 the damaged section is removed. The splice is straight across like you would splice any tape.

@@12voltvids Welp, I've never actually done any splicing of tapes, but I think I know what you mean. Thanks. Have a great night, man.

It forms on the entire width of the tape. That's why the tape is stretched which tightens it evenly breaking the bond across the total width. I have done hundreds of tapes over the years.

Won't hurt anything. 8mm tape is metal tape. Takes allot to erase it.

No. It won't hurt anything. Put on an n95 mask to keep from breathing mold spores.

The only thing that kills the spores is hydrogen water 30%. But you need to be careful, because it will burn your skin, so wearing gloves is recommended.

@@shlioskf2567 a little mold never hurt anyone. What do you think penicillin is?

@@12voltvids Yeah, it's not like I follow my own safety advice. :D It's not a big deal, you get white burn marks that sting a little, but they go away in half an hour or so. Still, that thing is pretty effective against mold. I saved quite a few tapes with it.

@@shlioskf2567 I take it, that you're talking about hydrogen peroxide and water ?, and also cleaning the plastic case for the film, and informing the customer to keep it and the camera in a dry, safe place

Better get your hearing checked. I can hear it no problem.

as can I, and I'm a bit deaf. Make 'sure your playback device is set for stereo audio and. this might helf.

The guy in New York that charges 400 is one of them.

@@12voltvids Yep 😂

@@Thanson199415 johnboy senshithead is the other.

@@12voltvids There is a place here in NJ that claims to do it, but they can't be bothered to respond to a friend's phone or e-mails. Don't know if their service is *ahem* "up to spec" or not. He has a whole bunch of those early 90s Sony shedder Hi-8 tapes that I attempted to transfer once. Now that I have a sacrificial machine, I might attempt it again in the future.

How are you still able to see the dislikes? Didn't the thought police get rid of the # of dislikes so we can't see the ratio anymore?