Things to Know Tape
ANALOG and DIGITAL TAPE
1) Tape whether analog like VHS, Betamax or Hi8 or Digital Mini DV share the same structure. This is also shared by
its audio cousins cassette and reel to reel. According to Ampex the expected life span of good quality
tape if stored under ideal conditions is 10-30 years. Ideal in short is fast forward and rewound every
2 years. Stored in cool dry dark place on longitudinal end never on its side or flat. In about the 30+ years I
have been around tape by far the worse is the new Mini Dv. Yes the quality of the signal or final
image is the best (at DVD Spec) but the mechanical structure of the tape (square area) is tiny.
Humidity, magnetic fields, shock or tape chew are common. The Hi8 or 8mm tape is not far behind.
If any of your memories are on these formats get it off onto DVD as soon as possible.
2)The problem with copying tape from one medium to another
is that the copy will always be a replica or facsimile of the original. There is nothing that can be done about this.
A VHS signal and that of Beta or Betamax is resolution wise is quite poor. But if the tape to be copied is close too
the original and looks good and strong then on average one cannot tell the difference.
3) We are now in the DIGITAL era. The system looks at the original analog material and records the
information digitally. This means simply in binary maths as zeros and ones. Now this gives
us an ideal situation that a particular shade of red in a specific shape appearing is that position will
be recorded as,
011101000001011111010001010001010100001010101111111111110001001010101001001010
no matter how many timeS you copy this from one medium to another it will ALWAYS BE
THE SAME. At Just Moments in Time for the past 10-11 years we have embraced the
digital world. Yes a digital version of an analog original will still suffer from the same
generation
change degradation of quality. But with this in mind it is always best to make a copy
of any valuable family memories and the digital copy is the best.
How about the future? well I am often asked that. It matters not what new system is around the
corner it will most likely always be digital and as stated if you copy to Blue ray or the latest
format DSXL it will always be the same.
4) FITT. We charge by each hour or part of an hour. Using a VHS tape as an example and again as the resolution
is about 1/4 that of DVD I can fit 3 hours with excelent results onto a DVD.
Betamax is much the same as VHS.
Hi 8 tapes about 2 Hours. The optimum for Mini Dv is 1 hour per DVD to technically retain the quality. However I fit 2 Hours
of Mini DV onto a single DVD and the results are again very good.
A Tape Longevity and Care Guide can be found here
Convert 8mm Tape to DVD with Head Misalignment.
The one downside to the 8mm format is the issue of head alignment. As a Video 8 camcorder was used over time, the recording
and playback heads slipped slowly out of alignment. Tapes that were recorded during misalignment were not recorded correctly.
If the camcorder was then realigned, or if the tapes were played back in a perfect 8mm deck, they frequently showed jitter and audio errors.
This problem was made worse by the fact that unlike VHS and Betamax, 8mm
camcorders did not have tracking controls.
If we receive a tape that was recorded during misalignment, the video conversion process can be very difficult.
If you have tapes like this, you should provide your original camcorder to any video transfer service that does the conversion for you.
Using the original camcorder is frequently the only solution, but as camcorders get older, this can be impossible.
Damage to head alignment might also be caused by dropping or sudden shock
to the Camera. We record the whole tape in a basic straight copy as sometimes readable signal is recorded. We test tapes on up to 5 different players though all are adjusted to 8mm specification.