Re: What is the safest way to clean D8 camcorder tape heads?

"Tony" wrote ...
My Sony TRV120 D8 camera is suddenly playing back tapes that look
terrible. There is a lot od
digital blocking and digital artifacts in the picture that werent recorded
that way.

Your symptoms could be caused by dirty heads, or they could be
caused by mis-alignment (from being dropped, etc.). Do tapes
recorded NOW still play badly? Or just tapes made some time
ago? If tapes made now play badly, then it seems more likely to
be a cleaning issue, but not guaranteed.

I want to clean the heads but I am afraid to use an abrasive head cleaner.

Dunno why you would be afraid if used properly (for only a few
seconds, etc.)

I also heard that alcohol could clog the small tiny porous heads.

Only until it evaporates in a few seconds. If you use a low-grade
alcohol with a lot of water in it, the water may cause other problems.

If we could have our Freon solvent back, that would be the best
to use. Never mind that farm animals produce 100000% more green-
house gases than solvent Freon, Algore was never big on the real
facts, only the ones that support his theories.

I know someone who had a vcr repair shop (one of the biggest in the area)
and they only used newspaper to clean vhs heads.

Please tell us who it is so that we can avoid him. Newsprint is a
loose packing of paper fibres which (since they are SOLID)
WILL clog heads. Dunno what they could be thinking?

But, I am not sure about 8mm heads.

Small-format transports like 8mm, DV, DAT, etc. are more
fragile and won't take the ham-handed kind of manual cleaning
that 3/4U and VHS decks would tolerate. Unless you are a
practicing professional repair person, recommend NOT
trying any kind of manual cleaning. You could break a head
pole-piece without even knowing it (until you shred your
tapes.)

What are you guys using?

The camcorder manufacturer's branded and recommended
(abrasive) cleaning cassette. If you have to do this more
than once or twice a year, you're doing something wrong.

Have you switched tape brands recently?


.

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