This (see pic) is sadly becoming a very common issue, many tapes from this format have now reached the end of their useful lifespan, some tapes are more prone to snapping than others, Sony tapes seem to be fine but we are finding many Maxell, Fuji and TDK tapes having this issue.
Snapped 8mm Videotape – So what is actually happening here?
Many people initially blame their camcorder or tape player but this usually not the case!
In many instances the binder that adheres the tapes recording media to the plastic base is breaking down and leaching causing the tape to glue itself together, this is happening on the tape edge so as it rolls off the hub it sticks at this point then splits or tears the tape as its is unable to wind off. We first started to see this with reel to reel audio tapes. More here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sticky-shed_syndrome
For some tapes this is pretty much the end of the road, others can be spliced then hand wound until the tape runs freely again. How much of any tape can be saved will depend on how bad the tape actually is. We have managed to recover most footage on some and about 2/3rds on others.
We don’t recommend you try this yourself as bad splices can damage the heads on your machine, we will repair the tape by splicing and running this through our machine to recover the recordings. Some seconds of the recording may be lost as clean tape needs to be spliced. Any badly damaged or split tape will have to be removed.
So now really is the time to get those old tapes transferred.
We have built a system to transfer and save to high quality MP4 format for best quality future proofing of your recordings. They can then be easily copied and backed up like any computer file.
MP4 gives the best quality at reasoanble file sizes and fully compatible with PC/MAC, smart TV and online use.
