I have had some old video 8 camera tapes transfered to DVD. The first 3 were fine, but the final and most precious to him has gone dark and taken on colour casts.
Is anyone clued up on how this could happen? I suspect that it was a storgage problem i.e. how close the tape was stored near to magnetic fields, etc. The first 3 tapes were kept in the camera and case in a garage, but I don't know about the 4th one.
Had they been photos, I would have just fired up PhotoShop and corrected it, but I have no experience of doing this to video.
he posts them to New Zealand. It will be there that they get editted. I was originally trying to find out what had caused the degredation in quality, to let him know how to store magnetic media.
"8mm tapes should be stored vertically, out of direct sunlight, in a dry, cool, dust-free environment. As with any media, they will eventually deteriorate and lose their recorded contents over time, resulting in a buildup of image noise and dropouts. Tapes more than 15 years old[citation needed] may start to show signs of degradation. Amongst other problems, they can become sticky, jamming playback units, or become brittle and snap. Such problems will normally require professional attention."
Just wondering how this would manifest. I presume that the brightness and colour balance are encoded in such a way that they can't be affected without also affecting the other content as well?
I also noted "It should be noted that some Hi8 VCRs (including the Sony EV-S3000 and EV-S7000) had the option of adding digital noise reduction (DNR) by applying a digital comb filter. These VCRs also included a Time Base Corrector (TBC), which created a more stable image than playing through a camcorder. The resultant video image produced by using DNR and/or a TBC is different from playing through a Hi8 camcorder lacking these features. The effect of the playback device on the image quality may be a consideration for those transferring Hi8 footage to digital (i.e., a computer or MiniDV) for archival purposes."
So presumably this is the kind of technology the OP is paying the transfer service for. Assuming also that this can be applied to the analogue Video 8 on playback.
"8mm tapes should be stored vertically, out of direct sunlight, in a
Old tapes usually suffer from some form of oxide shedding first which results in clogged heads on the playback machine. Usually starting to show as dropouts. If some form of component recording - ie luminance and colour signal(s) recorded separately, it could show in other ways.
You'd normally just clean the heads and go back a bit on the tape, then edit out the faults on the subsequent recording. Perhaps many many times with a poor tape. Which would be pretty expensive to have done.
The person that transferred the other 3 video tapes made a good job of a badly made video to DVD. Are you sure that it was a bad transfer before I ask him to try again?
I didn't think you could. Son did a lot of video editing, but that was from good footage using Adobe Premier.
My stance was think about how easy it could be to corrupt that data with poor storage. The other 3 tapes that successfully transferred were kept in a garage since the mid eighties. The storage location of the last tape is unknown.
Are you certain the original tape was recorded without faults?
I do quite a bit of 1/4" tape transfers, and it's common to to be told the original was perfect - when in fact it's been recorded at too low a level and is covered in hum and hiss. I've also been asked why my transfer is in mono - when the original was too. ;-) The memory is a fickle thing.
Unfortunately, the memory does not come into this equation. The tapes have been in storage since the early eighties and never viewed since, until I got them transferred to DVD. The camera work is crap, but 3 of the films have produced editable history of his g children. It's just the fourth that was such a let down by poor brightness and the bad colour casts.
The owner is going to scour his collection cupboards and see if he can come up with the vital camera interface, to see if I can get a better copy of the video.
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