Jammed DV Tape

[Stephen]

Hi

A young chap presented me with his holiday DV tape today that had jammed in his camcorder, it is a new tape, with about 50 minutes of footage.

His camcorder jammed with the tape in it... he managed to get the tape out put another new tape in.
The camcorder subsequently chewed that tape up. Camcorder will now not turn on ... even plugging in the mains does not spark it into life. No LED ... dud....

I tried the tape in my camcorder... it jammed and was difficult to remove again... I put one of my tapes in which my camcorder subsequently chewed

I managed to get that out... put another new tape in which works and records perfectly ..phew !

Releasing the little catch on his holiday tape the spools will not turn... this suggests mechanical failure inside?

has anyone had experience of splitting a cassette and putting the spools into a donor housing (I now have a spare housing!

or is this a total loss situation?

TIA

[tom hardwick]

The first thing I'd say is never run a known crinkled tape through a tape-deck mechanism. Those tiny delicate heads spin at 9000 rpm within the circular loop of slowly moving tape, and any crinkles, crumples or foreign matter will seem like a brick wall to the minute pole pieces.

So yes, a tape is salvageable by transferring it to a different case and it's fairly easy to take them apart. You'll need good light, a large white pillowcase or something to work on because there are very many (28) tiny parts, springs, rollers and so on. The fact that the spools appear to be lock is perfectly normal - the little brakes are on.

Tapes are complex and cheaper than chips and I'm only surprised that so few duff ones (such as your friend's, Stephen) are reported. My guess is they're so cheap they're simply binned without a second thought, but when they contain precious footage it's worth rehousing the little spools to see if the info can be retrieved.

tom.

[Stephen]

That's appreciated Tom...
I have the pillowcase at the ready!

Memories of stripping old Amal
carbeurettors on the kitchen table should help!

The damaged part of the tape is at the end of the footgae so it should be ok if I snip that bit off the spool.

I'll give it a go this weekend...

[Pqtrick]

My first reaction is to accept the fact that regrettably the whole thing is a right off.

You mention about trying to transfer the tape into another cassette. Some years ago, I had a valued S-VHS tape. When it was played, the video picture disappeared at the same point. I was foolhardy enough to try to investigate and opened up the cassette! For some unknown reason, the tape was twisted over onto the opposite face at this point. How! I don’t know. [It may depend on how much of your tape is in the other bobbin. In my case it was about halfway, and therefore compounded the problem.]

I tried to unkink it. There was a lot of tape and I had a big table and lamp. I did succeed and although I did get the tape back onto the cassette, it would not play again properly and kept halting.

As I write, perhaps it is worth a try to reinstall it into another cassette. As you may consider it is lost anyway. The cassettes are fiddly and very precise and you need a good pair of eyes and a very small screwdriver.

This may be more of a commiseration than of any help, the sort of things which we have to bear. I suppose that 'solid state' is the solution. Then we argue around in circles and may conclude that negative film is the answer! Good luck and post an update on about your endeavours.

[billyfromConsett]

Yeah - lets march towards that solid state utopia! Seriously no moving bits has gotta be a big plus.

Re the camcorder. I would guess that the fuse has gone and will need a new fuse put it. If it's a decent camcorder then maybe, but miniDV camcorders can be picked up now for £100 with 12 months warranty. Does it have a warranty?.

[Stephen]

yup... 99% sure that its an onboard fuse thats dud.....

the camera is sony DCR HC19e

he is more interested in the tape...

I managed to swap the housings over ... but it has again jammed my camera so it looks as though its some form of spooling problem.

I cannot afford to sacrifice my camcorder though

ahhh yes I teased more info out of him ...

His holiday was in Turkey ... his camcorder was safely wrapped in a plastic bag inside another bag (so as not to get sand in it)

good thinking...
except that it was 42C and the camera lay in the sun all day..... there was liquid from a source not identified in the bag also ...maybe..... just maybe that had something to do with it

ahem....

so ... plan is to have a closer look at the physical condition of the tape...

at least I know how to deconstruct and assemble a DV tape now

thanks for all your help ... I'll post the final sentence after the weekend

[tom hardwick]

Just a quick one Stephen - did you get my PM reply?

[Stephen]

Thanks Tom

You've been pm'd / emailed

[Stephen]

after transferring to the donor cassette I thought it best to check the physical condition of the surface of the tape before putting it back together

there is a 'smearing' on the tape surface... every couple of inches. The bottom edge of the tape has tiny equidistant kinks in it also.

it has jammed 3 times in camcorders... once in the lads and twice in mine...

I'm calling it a day with this one...



NB With care, the stripping and rebuilding of the cassette was not a major problem