More Sony Digital 8 camcorder repairs. One has an interesting electronic fault.

[@nicks2319]

Thank you for taking the time to repair these D8 cams. Glad someone else sees the value in them. I have a couple of them, including a new old stock 730 that I use for archiving master tapes only. Many people prefer them over the more expensive and complex Sony decks too. I use s-video out for lossless analog capture from these.

[@pierrejeanf.dupuis4150]

There is just no way to have a descent life without a Digital8 camcorder in stock as far as I'm concerned. It's like having V2000, VHS and BetaMax in one machine. My original Hi8 came back broken after the "government" "borrowed" it (yes, I know what you are thinking, I made a mistake 'lending' it). So I was always keeping my eyes out for one of these. My mum and dad are on my Hi8 tapes. They are no longer with us. While I have not yet digitized the recordings, being able to do so gives me peace of mind (it's not like anyone else would be interested). Having the ability to transfer 3 formats is kind of a big deal. I applaud anyone investing time in these. Now, someone please charge me 800 Euro for something that can play Laserdiscs (incl. Laservision/ Discovision) upto 4K BluRay. No cheaping out on SVCD, HD-DVD, SACD and so on. Seriously, my cutoff point would be around the 1200 Euro mark...

[@video99couk]

The problem with making new equipment for old formats is usually that required semiconductors are not available. That's what killed off Betamax in the end (not actually very long before VHS went the same way). So an LD player is not likely to ever be built again, even though there would be a market for it, because ICs and the required lasers are not available. A decent cassette deck won't be built either, because Dolby have pulled the plug on licenses (and no-one builds good heads any more). Imagine how many archive grade SVHS machines would be sold if someone could make one, but it won't happen. There will come a time, perhaps 50 years from now, when no obsolete media is recoverable any more.

[@pierrejeanf.dupuis4150]

@@video99couk I know and was doing John Cleese - Mell Brooks style "sarcasm" ;-) Still, if some I.A. tells Sony five years from now, hey, like 50.000 early adaptors will buy your "plays anything" disc-player, who knows right? Pipedreams and all that... But tape... Compact Cassette... Jeez, dunno. Someone could get hold of some pattents at a discount and launch some gofundme thing from a shed in Ireland? Keep in mind that you don't need dolby pattents to implement noise reduction. You can just call it Dolly B/C/S. I doubt they'd even sue at this point (not their market). Don't read this - and yes, I do own a DolbyS deck as a result of watching too much KZbin.

[@MrStucrew]

"some times they just blow for the heck of it" LOL You did help me in your other videos where you showed to bang the bottom to solve a tracking problem. Thank you for that. I suppose in the future i will be reseating the video cable.

[@martynquiney9121]

Great video Colin just been watching

[@sebastianeduardoaedoinzunz3425]

I have a Handycam DCR-TRV340 that as soon as I open the cassette compartment it starts spinning the take-up reel (the right one) like crazy, when it stops the mechanism starts to close (even with the lid open). When trying to load a tape, the error 31:20 or 32:20 appears. I removed the mechanism from the camera and the compartment opens without problems (I tested it with a battery holder); The problem is that the take-up reel goes crazy (I've noticed that the winch rotates the same, same belt). I don't know if it is the defective motor or some sensor.

[@thomasomeara6934]

Hey mate, ill be in the uk on the next few weeks. Do you have any suggestions on who to go to for repairs for an anolouge sony camera like the ones you are demonstrating here

[@ozthekeymaster]

Love the Techmoan mug! :-)

[@WolfmanDude]

Hey, I had one of those as a kid! It was aready "obsolete" back then. Used it extensively for years, I even got the firewire output working on my dads PC. If I remember correctly the remote had secret hidden buttons that let you use the camera as a VCR. Do you know the details on that?

[@Oldgamingfart]

Although not the issue here; loose PCB grounding screws can also give rise to intermittent problems. I've seen it happen a few times in flat-screen TV's, leading to erratic or no operation.

[@zx8401ztv]

That camera is a micky taker lol, i would test the tightness of the white socket on the pins. And 12voltvids hates all the leaking/dead caps in camcorders for many problems. You have had your share of crappy cap madness too :-D He uses an old product called rubber renew by m.g chemicals (i think) to sort out bad rubber drives. It must have some naughty chemicals in it. If you want something to fail, invite a frend round to look at your repair from earlier on, it will die in 5 mins or less lol. Computers have learnt that trick as well.

[@video99couk]

The rubber renew is similar in operation to the Platenclene but the trouble is that usually pinch rollers have gone slightly out of shape. The fault was certainly due to the choke because probing it with the meter probe is what make it come back to life. Once re-soldered, it kept on working. The white connector was tight, not a problem there (and I was able to measure a good PSU voltage there when the camcorder was still in fault mode). Capacitors give lots of trouble but not in these camcorders thankfully.

[@robin4k941]

Hi what does it mean when your camcorder won't play back your tapes properly? It plays back my footage black and white and covered in glitches and lines - but when I put the same tape in a different camcorder it plays fine. When filming with my faulty camera everything looks normal but as soon as I try to rewind the tape it covers it in glitches and lines and turns the footage B&W and won't go back to normal. Thank you!!

[@video99couk]

It's hard to be sure from that description, but it could be a tape path fault of a defective pinch roller. It needs expert attention.

[@mohamadmohamad9591]

Good

[@video99couk]

I may have more Digital 8 camcorders coming in to work on later in the year.

[@Capturing-Memories]

Get a VXA computer drive or any 8mm data drive, most of them are in good condition to salvage a pinch roller.

[@video99couk]

Certainly could be a useful source for pinch rollers.

[@pierrejeanf.dupuis4150]

I remember this video. I saw Kong vs Godzilla later. Excitement about 40-60?

[@User-wl4mt]

hi dear , i hsve about 8 hi8 recorder no one work. I buy it but no one is OK. Can yu give me a advice where i can buy a good one

[@video99couk]

Probably best to get a Digital 8 camcorder such as the TRV-120E which can play and digitise analogue tapes. Care because a few models cannot play analogue tapes.

[@expgretaillegacy]

I have three camcorders that I want fixed. The first is a Sony CCD-F34 Video8 Handycam with a scrambled picture on the viewfinder, weird sounds coming from the tape mechanism sometimes, tapes will thread but will not play, record, ff, or rew. Sound is very distorted coming out of the headphone jack The next is a Sony CCD-TR93 Video8 Handycam that is fully functional except there is no sound anywhere throughout the camcorder. The last is some RCA (can’t remember the exact model at the moment) VHS camcorder with a bad viewfinder, a ccd that won't focus at all, and will only thread a tape. The only problem is I live in the US and so all my camcorders are NTSC instead of PAL.

[@joaoteixeira8137]

Most likely the first 2 ones have capacitor problems, TR and F series are camcorders I usually avoid

[@epicchris1985]

Great video as always. I own the TRV330 and the TRV120 and both are fully working and fingers crossed they continue to for many more years. What I did want to ask is seeing you do capture on these as well for the older tapes have you found they tend to loose video and audio sync after a while? They capture Digital 8 videos no problems but I have found when I capture older Video 8 or Hi8 after a while the videos sometimes looses sync. I have a 2018 Imac with rather good spec and it's only SD video so I don't think it's a simple CPU is not good enough problem. It being a 2018 Imac FireWire is long gone but thankfully Apple (at a cost of course) sale the two adapters I need to go from USB-C to FireWire.

[@video99couk]

I think the USB to Firewire adapators are the problem. Audio/video sync loss is (almost) unknown with Video8 capture to a PC with a Firewire card installed. I've probably run about 5000 Video8 tapes via PC and only twice ever had audio/video sync loss on some defective tapes. Also consider software problems: WinDV and Pinnacle Studio both do a great job on PC, and they warn you if there are frame drop problems. On Mac, iMovie doesn't even detect frame drops. Finally, make sure you are capturing to a different physical internal drive than the boot disk, preferably SSD.

[@epicchris1985]

@@video99couk It’s so strange it doesn’t do it while capturing digital 8 tapes on the unit but when capturing video 8 and HI8 after a while. I reckon it’s a software issue as before the last Big Mac update I used this software called lifeflix and it ran many old customers tapes with zero issues,,, then some time later the problem happened. It’s not just tapes strangely too. My TRV330 has analogue input so I’ve done vhs into the camera and FireWire to my iMac and again after 5 or 6 minutes it starts to loose sync. Thanks for the information I’ll keep on testing new ways. Sadly in 2021 lack of software is available on the iMac side at least.

[@meowmere1800]

mine only turns on when i plug it in and it doesnt show the battery in the indicator. is there a way for me to fix that issue?

[@video99couk]

If it is otherwise working, it might just be that the battery has died. They are probably still available, though perhaps not genuine Sony ones.

[@cod4Rlp]

Hi mate, I also repair these camcorders but I'm not as knowledgable as yourself. I have a DCR-TRV255E camcorder with a strange issue of the tape bunching up on the pinch roller side upon a tape being loaded. Any idea what this could be?

[@video99couk]

It's not really possible to diagnose problems by remote control, but pinch roller failure is fairly common with these camcorders and it can scrunch the tape.

[@altonbailey9702]

So how would soldering wire in series fix the issue with that inductor? And if you were going to bypass it, how would you?

[@video99couk]

If the inductor had an internal poor connection, bypassing it would restore operation, albeit at a loss of some supply noise immunity. However resoldering the inductor provided a permanent cure, it's been working faultlessly for months now.

[@OvenTheProtogen]

Please help me, my sony camera has no power, if I charge it the camera still has no power. what's wrong with my camera

[@video99couk]

It's impossible to fault find a breakdown by remote control. I would start by powering the camcorder with a safe small power supply, the way I do in this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/d4S1nH6Pn6ele7c If it doesn't work that way, then it's going to require some expert attention.

[@ZXRulezzz]

2:10 a "handycam", if you will :)

[@davidprutton6740]

I know you don’t do repairs for customers but if I shared a video with you of a problem I have with a Sony Handycam could you share some advice

[@video99couk]

I'm not really the expert on these things, there are more experienced camcorder repair people out there than me. So I'm not sure I would be very helpful, but you could ask.

[@stuartdalgleish5508]

Have you ever done a repair on a panasonic MC20 VHSc camcorder?

[@video99couk]

No, I'm not likely to, sorry. VHSC camcorders were the lowest quality of the recording formats, and since there are better playback options, there is no need to keep them going for playback either. I generally bin any that with other things. Generally they are likely to suffer capacitor failure like most equipment of the time, and deck faults too. CCD failure also happened on a lot of cameras of that vintage.

[@stuartdalgleish5508]

Digital 8 handycams are what I'm interested but working ones don't come cheap on eBay. I'm really interested in the grainy texture given with tape. I like your videos, keep it up!

[@jamesharris5034]

Who repair hi8 Sony in Stockton area

[@eneaauriti]

Choke shorts when the mains is connetced

[@video99couk]

I don't think so, looking at the schematic.