Wrinkled / Tangled 8MM videotape / Sony TRV608

Hi! After many years of use, our old 8MM camera broke. To be able

to view our old tapes, we went ahead & purchased another 8MM

camcorder, a Sony, which I love! However, last night, while playing

a tape from 1998 (& taped on our old 8MM), it wrinkled & was very

difficult to remove from the camera. I used the SONY website, it was

very helpful...had tons of info on error codes, etc...... After

looking at the SONY info, and numerous attempts to remove the tape,

FINALLY, it came out, with some of the tape out of the cassette. My

question is: Can I salvage the tape? HOW??? It has important

family footage which I would like to view and eventually transfer to

DVD. I realize that the wrinkled portion that is out of the cassette

will be lost, but what about the rest of the tape? Thanks very much

for your help! :)

You will have to cut/splice out the crinkled tape, cut it at a 45 degree angle then splice it back with AUDIO or Video splicing tape, do NOT use any type of scotch tape,,just audio or video splicing tape.Just use a razorblade or good scissors to make a clean cut,youre not doing a edit, just trying to salvage a tape,, then I would dupe that tape onto something else so it dont screw up your video heads.I checked ebay,, there is plenty of splicing tape there,I even saw one guy who had the splicing block & tape for $10,with the splicing block you can cut a good 45 degree even after a 6 pack,, do a ebay search for splicing tape

 

http://www.pacificvideorepair.com/

 

http://www.tapecenter.com/tapecare.html

I would try to wind the tape back into the case and play it again to try to re-tape the wrinkled portion before attempting splicing. The picture may not look great at that point but I'd rather take a chance on it than lose that section of tape. BTW, I'm trying the same thing with a Sony and old 8mm tapes. It looks like I'll be able to add titles with the Sony.

Don't risk damaging the heads on your new camera with an improper splice. The only way to safely splice video tape is to cut out the bad portion, remove the rest of the tape from the supply reel (or takeup reel - whichever has less footage on it), and SPLICE THE TAPE TO THE CLEAR LEADER.

 

YOU DO NOT WANT THE HEADS TO RUN ACROSS A HOMEMADE SPLICE. They won't, if the splice is onto the clear leader at the beginning of the tape.

 

If you attempt to do this, use clean, dust and lint free gloves, and be extremely careful about wrinkling any of the rest of the tape. Treat it with laboratory cleanliness. You don't want to risk damaging the new camera.