Cleaning HI8 Video8 Digital8 video head the correct way
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- Опубликовано: 26 сен 2017
- How to clean video head on your HI8, Video8, or Digital8 tape camcorder the correct way.
Swabs: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...
Fluid: www.amazon.com/dp/B0778YHHSC 
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8mm tape is metal. It will not dissolve with any cleaner. It needs to be cleaned off by mechanical means. Either a dry cleaning or the back side of your fingernail as I have shown many times.
Your fingernail is just the right hardness to dislodge the debris without damaging the head and can be done while the machine in in operation. I learned this trick during my 20 year employment working for a large Sony warranty center. Alcohol may remove other contaminants such as tar and nicotine that adheres to all the parts if the recorder is stored or used in smoky environments but will no nothing to clear a clogged head. The dry type cleaning tape made by the manufactures is the best and safest method. The same applies for DAT and DV tape decks as they all use metal tape and alcohol will not dissolve metal particles, only oxide type tape.
Fantastic video, Nicholas! I can't believe how my camcorder came back to life! It took me about 5 minutes to disassemble the cover and a couple minutes to clean the head - and I am 0% mechanically inclined. Thank you!
OMG after I watched this video all three of my sony 8s are fixed I was scared to do it, but it works . You do know what you are talking about. Thank you sososo much.
I own a Sony trv740.one of the greatest cameras that came out in the 8mm era.I saw your video to clean the vcr head and it worked.You made it very simple and it stopped me from
Put it on a shelve.
Thanks for your instructional video..
What is better about the 740?
This procedure fixed the big horizontal bars that suddenly appeared in my Digital8 Handycam. I was really worried. Thank you very much, Nicholas
Thanks for the tutorial! It fixed the intermittent drop out of audio on one channel that I was getting.
Thank you so very much. Your directions were very clear and helpful.
Hi Nicolas, I'd like to say thank you for your video, as I had the same problem with a blue screen, now it fixed in your way, I appreciate it 👍👍😊😊
Thank you so much! I just cleaned my dads old camcorder and it came back to life. Now to transfer 15 or so tapes
Brilliant! I thought my camcorder was toast. No sound and the video was terrible. After doing this, it's as good as new. You're the man!!! thanks!
Did it glitch for you?
i know im asking randomly but does anyone know of a trick to get back into an Instagram account..?
I stupidly lost the password. I love any assistance you can offer me!
@Grayson Vincenzo instablaster =)
@Henry Caspian I really appreciate your reply. I found the site thru google and Im in the hacking process atm.
I see it takes quite some time so I will reply here later when my account password hopefully is recovered.
@Henry Caspian It did the trick and I finally got access to my account again. Im so happy!
Thank you so much you really help me out !
Thank you so much, I finally got mine to play after doing this!! ❤
Great informative video, short and to the point on cleaning the heads correctly. Thanks!
I totally had seen this before I knew you through digitalFAQ and bought these chamios swabs because of this video. Nice one.
But it's a very helpful video, Nicholas--thanks for taking the time to make and post it!
Helpful, I didnt follow the instructions from alpha to omega but I got my problem fixed
I had seen other videos even cleaning the head with their finger nail but in my case the head is far inside the cam (canon uc800).
I used 2 swabs, one to rotate the head and one to clean it. I didnt have the cleanest alcohol so after a first pash with the alcohol I used a new clean swab to take anything remaining.
The camcoder works now and I can record my parents' wedding in digital format :D
Finally someone who got it right. Just be careful not to touch the heads when placing the swab against the drum at the beginning. I prefer using a piece of paper soaked in 99% isopropyl alcohol. It's a much more effective and safer method when cleaning the heads. Isopropyl alcohol evaporates almost instantly so you can start using the camcorder right after the cleaning.
Like notebook paper? Would that work alright?
@@beszt95 Standard print paper works just fine. It's soft enough to not make any damage to the heads. You wanna use a high percentage IPO (99%+) too.
JMA All I've got's 91%. so that'd have to work... thing is, some tapes play just fine in the camcorders but others don't. I've got one playing right now, it's an MP tape, and it's playing just fine. I've been playing lots of tape through on these camcorders, digitizing all my family's tapes.
@@beszt95 What do you mean by "bad". Could be lots of things: dirty heads, bad alignment... Have all those tapes been recorded with the same camera?
JMA Should I make a video showing you what I'm talking about when I say some aren't playing right? I just found a tape where it does the blue screen and fuzz right in the middle of the tape for a few minutes, but I discovered that you can kinda see the video when holding FF or rewind while playing. I don't know how that could be, because if the heads were too dirty to read it, you'd think that it'd do this on every tape, and that you wouldn't be able to see the video at all when fast forwarding or rewinding.
Awesome video, keep it up!
Thanks buddy. Your video was really really useful. Actually, my camera works well
Worked great, thanks.
thank u dud, for the ones that are afraid on doing this , try it . i did it with normal alcohol and cut a piece of gamuza chamois that i have and done
I just saved myself $150 buuucks. Thanks for this!
Great explanation 👍🏼 I ordered a head cleaner but they’re lagging on shipping. So I might try this instead and return the cleaner 🤷🏽♂️
hi there, is it safe to use a micro fiber cleaning cloth instead?
Do you have a solution for the container for cassette not moving up or down ?
Thank you for this!!!!!!
Thank you so much it actually works 🧡🧡🧡🧡
I'm just wondering if there is a way to have the videos on my camputer ?
@Spaghetti thank you 💜
follow you from Saudi Arabia
Thanks for sharing!
any videos on adjusting the tape guides?
Hey man, do you know how to attach a mic/light on the HI8? thanks again for this video!
Hey! I have a Sony camcorder that’s not playing video back, think this’ll work to solve it? Any other tips?? Thanks!
A friend gifted me his old sony dcr-trv820e in spring. About a week ago it suddenly stopped capturing and I couldn't figure out what was wrong with it.
Thanks for sharing. I'll give it a try, after I ordered thos cleaning sticks and utensils 🙏🏾
Hey, same thing here, my aunt gave me her old hi-8 sony camcorder, got the new tape and everything, and when i tried recording , it just wouldn't do so, just wondering if it worked with you:)
Hi great video, I wonder if you can tell me whether these Digital 8 camera's allows you to record time/date stamps in the bottom corner like the older Hi8 camcorders can do? thanks in advance.
Not sure, but when recording with the digital8 system, the timecode is written to the tape as metadata. So on playback and transfer to computer, you can view the time of the recording.
is it possible if i use swab for mirrorless camera sensor for this?
Thank you, excellent video. I'm wondering if you or anyone else has tips for cleaning the rollers?
American Recorder S-721H fluid is safe for rollers
Hi. I am having trouble with my Sanyo camcorder 8mm. On playback I audio is perfect but there is no picture. Any help would be appreciated?
Is there another way I can get those cleaning sticks? I don't trust Amazon.
thanks for the video. What size screwdriver did you use on those tiny screws?
Just a small jewelers screwdriver
Any chance I can use a brand new chamois swab for woodwind instruments? It's the same material I guess so I could just strap it to the end of a popsicle stick or something. It would be a lot cheaper and I don't really care about keeping the cam clean since I'll only be using it to digitize a limited amount of tapes.
Sounds better than a qtip
Thank you 🙏
Thank you!!
Please help! I have a sony dcr-trv17 very similar to yours! I can record a video BUT when i go to play back it only plays 1 second of the video i recorded and it’s always the middle part of what i recorded i don’t know what to do!!
My camera was working perfectly. I played an old dirty tape and now the camera wont read or record anything. I tried cleaning with q tip and isopropyl alcohol. Still doesnt work. Any thoughts?
Careful with the qtips they can scratch the head. Besides a good cleaning not sure what else it could be.
Hi Nicholas! Informative video and I've got the swabs off amazon, however can't seem to find the fluid as the link sends me to a page no longer working. What do you recommend that I can still get?
Not sure if it’s too late, but he did say something about it being 99% isopropyl alcohol :)
Will 70% isopropyl alcohol work? Or should I use 90%?
Can you link to the things on Amazon? My Hi8 camcorder just has a blue screen when playing tapes. It's also switching from SP to LP though all the tapes I have are SP. It also goes B/W when I rewind (But no video). I didn't try to clean it and I just put an old tape inside it.
www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0047YB3JW/
My Sharp Viewcam have dirty head and no sound.
open/close tray and then camera spin videohead for test
I just use Cutton swap to clean videohead 2-3 time between test
Its got alot of dirt and play or even record good again.
thank you so much
Thanks for posting this video. I have a 27 year old Canon UC4500E which uses the older 8mm tapes (often called video 8 tapes I think). They are larger than the MiniDV 8 mm tapes. I'm currently digitising old VHS taps and old MiniDV tapes successfully but the Canon UC4500E plays the video images fine but I'm getting no audio at all. It's not crackly or distorted audio but actually no audio at all. Is it possible that cleaning the heads the way shown in this post could help with non-existent audio? The camera manual says to clean the heads using a Canon CC-8 Video Head Cleaning Cassette and to not use a wet-type cleaning cassette as this can cause damage. Is this because my 8mm tapes are analogue and not digital so they are not metal tapes and using the isopropyl alcohol would do damage to the heads in my camera? There is no audio on playback on the video camera but also no audio when playing the videos on the computer using Elgato video capture software either. These are precious videos of my sons as toddlers and I'm desperate to get them digitised. Any thoughts/advise would be really appreciated. Thanks
This cleaning method in the video is fine for your 8mm cam. Dirty heads could be the issue. Give that a try. I've never seen a "cleaning tape" for 8mm. I don't know if they even make them.
says reinsert the cassette issue..... does cleaning the header fix this issue ?
I got the same exact camera and I’m clueless with the interface can you make a video of how to start the camera? With a detailed explanation???
Will be a great help manh
THANK YOUU🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽
Hey are you still having problems with the camera or have you already figured it out?
I think you can just remove the two screws on the panel on the door. But this works too.
Good video. 🙂
I’m pretty late on this video, seems like it works. Would it be possible if this can work on a Sony HI8 CCD-trv 815 ?
Should work
my TRV340 plays some 8mm well and others are grainy and no sound
Does anyone know if this will fix a C:31:23 error? I keep getting the error but don’t know what to do about it.
Are you pressing pretty firmly or quite lightly? The other day I used 91% Alc and pressed moderately firm. Maybe I used too much. Afterwords, there were serious lines and no audio. I cleaned it again with just a chamois (no alc) and it was still bad. I put in a tape and after 5 minutes returned to normal. So I wondered what I did that I should avoid next time. Also, if you're doing old tapes how often should you expect to have to clean the head. Thanks.
I press pretty firm. The head itself takes some force to spin while i'm initially pressing. Not anything crazy. But a little firm. Then I loosen up as I keep turning the head. I usually wait maybe 20 mins after and play a junk tape to make sure everything's okay. I tend to clean the heads after "batches" of tapes. Nothing set in stone. Maybe 40 tapes?
@@NicholasSerra That's helpful to know. Thanks!
I made the mistake of cleaning with swabs and 70% isopropyl alcohol. I went in both directions against the head (although I was rather gentle about it. Now I don't see any video except when I fast forward (I still see lines on the top and bottom that prevents me from seeing the entire picture. Did i just mess up my Hi8mm camera? I don't "think" that I misaligned or damaged the heads. Can it really be that sensitive? Suggestions?
Would surprise me. Maybe clean again with this method.
Exact same model I got, Exact same condition, since 2000. Where did u get the newer hand strap? Mine is rotting away after all these years.
I buy new old stock handycams from ebay.
@@NicholasSerra Oh! Hope I will get a strap or something. My Handycam is perfectly alright.
I cleaned this with qtips before I saw this video. Smh is it possible I messed up my camcorder for good? It buffers a lot while playing video
Are the lintless foam cleaning swabs okay to use? I have several leftover from another project and didn't want to use them if there was a known issue.
Ive seen some people recommend those. Can't be worse than qtips or paper towels.
@@NicholasSerra What are your thoughts on the fingernail cleaning method?
@@Troy.PeaceOfMindRoof Never done it, but all my gear is new old stock and well maintained, so will likely never build up enough gunk to need that much intervention
I thought since 8mm used Metal tape alcohol and rubbing did nothing for the heads since they can't dissolve the metal particles (12voltvids), and the idea of the cleaning tapes is they're abrasive so they scrape off the metal particles off of the heads and that's why it's not good to constantly use them since they wear the heads down.
If I get a really tiny hamster, and make him some really tiny shoes made from really tiny patches of chamois cloth, and put a few drops of 99% isopropyl on his tiny shoes, then let him run on the video head wheel for a while, would that be effective to clean the heads?
It would serve two purposes at once, getting the head clean, and getting the really tiny hamster some exercise.
Thoughts?
Tenog ina videocamara identica, todo funciona pero el reproducir los cassette no se ve nada, solo azul. Que hago?
Hi Nicholas, just wanted to know if this method is as good as running a video head cleaning cassette as the cassettes are not readily available where I live. Many thanks in advance!
This method is better than the cleaning tapes. Cleaning tapes are often abrasive and can cause more harm than good.
@@NicholasSerra Noted! Thank you so much! :)
@@NicholasSerra I've used cleaning tapes with no problem. Only use them when you need to. I found a brand new blank tape will clean the heads too, because it's somewhat rough because it's never been used. Once they're used, they smooth out, and don't work as good for cleaning. If you have a dirty tape, that keeps making the heads dirty, stop playing it.
My camera keeps giving a dirty video head error even though I have cleaned the head and reset the camera
It also has had some playback problems
Any suggestions would be great
Thanks!
Your cassettes are probably dirty.
are the heads aligned right? are they damaged?
@@ytgadfly I think it's most likely that my tapes are dirty like adem a said
I wouldn't rest the stick on the table. If it catches some dirt the head gets damaged. I would blow some air in and close it right away. Iso evaporates quickly
I have this camera and I just found it after 18 years and it plays the old videos I have for it sometimes it plays and sometimes it plays but it skips, Will this help the skipping ??
Can I use regular Alcohol to clean it??
sounds like your belts are getting loose.
@@tituslafrombois1164 where can i order the belt and how can i fix it ..thanks in advanced
@@rosemariedungo2336 You'll have to measure the belts diameter and just order a bulk set off the internet. Then you will have to disassemble the camcorder.
@@tituslafrombois1164 thanks to you .
You rock dude... I'm an pro betacam and digibetacam shooter from like 10 years ago and you did it perfectly! Great info about the alcohol. What do you think about grain alcohol in stead of isopropyl alcohol?
Thanks! I don't know too much about other cleaning techniques, no opinion on the grain alcohol, i've just always used the iso. I'll have to do some research :)
Grain alcohol like Evereclear? I heard it works well on the reader eye of CD/DVD players. Probably be fine, but only if 99% iso is not available to you. I buy my 99% iso from Amazon in bulk.
I used to work for an AV shop on consumer and pro Beta and VHS players. We always used denatured alcohol on the pinch rollers, capstans, guides, and heads. Particularly because it won’t dry out the rubber parts like Iso will, or so we were told.
I have been told not to, but I have been using denatured alcohol for years.
Thank you for the video, but I fear I might have messed up the camcorder. I ripped one home video, before thinking it needed some cleaning. So I followed the procedure, even buying the same wipes. Now I'm getting loud scratching noises and broken images with color lines throughout. Any idea what I might have done wrong?
Sony DCR-TRV510 is the model
Nope doesn't sound familiar. Not much you can really break while doing this.
Hello. Was wondering if you had any ideas on how to resolve an issue. When I press play on camcorder it shows a blue screen...then if I press pause or ff the video will play for a second and then return to blue. Any ideas?
Same thing for me, did you find the answer by chance??
@@Dan-id1rr my AV cables were to blame actually. Might check yours.
Thanks! Mine is actually doing that on the camera LCD screen, no cables so idk why
I have this on my digital8 camcorder for some of my cassettes. I played it on my old camcorder and captured the footage through the digital8 one.
Would this resolve (possibly) the white, horizontal lines that are going arcross my video when I play back?
Possible. If they're Digital8 tapes and it looks more like digital errors, i've found that the tapes are usually the culprit.
@@NicholasSerra They are the old ones that came out before digital. Sony CCD-V9 camera from mid-late '80s. Played a 'Video8' format - I believe it was analog, but not technical enough to be positive. In between the 'Video8' format and the 'Digital' was the 'Hi-8'. Mine is the original 'Video 8'. Thanks if you have any insights.
I played two tapes... and the patterns look quite similar, hence my 'hope' it is the camera that I just picked up off of eBay. ;-)
@@dieselboats7886 Those video8 tapes are surprisingly robust. Just did some transfers of tapes from 89 and they were okay. I would also guess the camera is the issue. It's a toss up with those ebay camcorders. I make sure to buy them from a seller who actually "owned it", not just someone who picked up a bunch of gear at auction. Or new old stock cameras. You pay more but it's worth it if you're doing a lot.
Hey my camcorder, out of nowhere has started showing bluescreen on playback. Has anyone used this cleaning method for the same problem?
Great video....But I'm seeing that the board mounted capacitors is the issue and death to the Sony series of camcorders. Kind of a ticking time bomb unless the units are serviced and those components replaced.
This is true, though those capacitors are easily replaced. They used more of them on later models which is a pain, but still something fixable without much issue if you have the time and patience to replace them.I get it's probably more effort than most people are willing to put into it though.
great video, but did you remove the lithium battery before you did this or was it still in there?
Battery out
@@NicholasSerra oh i was talking about the lithium coin battery, not the li-ion battery pack, sorry
@@geoseffr Oh. Hm. Nope. Never have. Didn't even know these had small batteries.
Hi. Have exactly same camera. And started to chowing a tape. Do you know a common reason for doing that?
Pinch rollers, guides, could be anything really
Will 91% iso alcohol work as well?
Higher the better but that would be fine too.
Hi, I want to buy a Sony 8mm camera, please help me and how to communicate between me and you
eBay
Kindly guide me where CHAMOIS SWABS TAMPON DE CHAMOIS & VP 200 HEAD CLEANING FLUID are available in India. What would be coast of them ?
If not then i need a head cleaner cassette.
J.P.Sharma,Jaipur(INDIA)
I got them from amazon
My tape hangs up, won't play. I pull it out and the tape is pulled out. Would cleaning solve this issue?
Sounds like the loading mechanism is broken. Cleaning isn't going to fix that.
Hi. I have SONY trv460e. It was working just fine, then I had to store it until today and some issues came up. Gray bars spaced evenly would appear whenever I play any cassette and now a complete blue screen! I tried recording for a few seconds and then playing the original tape. It worked only once.. can you help?
Did you clean the heads?
NicholasSerra i haven’t yet. I am trying to find the things you used in the video. Can you tell me the names of the things used in the video and where to find them?
NicholasSerra hi can I send you a video of how my camera functions! I really need an expert advice to help me have it fixed. Thanka
@@TheTuber4life I'm not a technician, I wouldn't know much else on how to repair it.
i thought you had to dry clean it as they were metal tapes
My Sony handycam keeps telling me to re-insert the tape. Will this help that problem?
Not likely
I'm getting a black screen with a static line during playback. I've tried to clean it, but may need to do more. Also it looks like the speed changes from LP to SP back and forth. Thoughts? Thanks in advance
First i'd try to figure out if it's the camera or the tape. Maybe try another tape and see if it shows the same issue. Aside from a good cleaning I don't know how to do much else as far as repairing these things. Good luck!
Tried several tapes. Gotta be the cam. I'll try a thorough cleaning and see if that works. Thx
Also try A/V output via RCA or Firewire, maybe the screen is only bad.
Try running a normal tape on it for a few hours. I had the same problem, and after I ran a normal tape on it for about 2 hours, it started working again.
Can a tissue or cloth be used to clean the video head?
I wouldn't. Tissue leaves tons of dust behind. I'd go with a q-tip before I'd try tissue or other cloth.
@@NicholasSerra Thanks will give it a try on my handycam
my digital 8 camcorder video head is broken .Any ideas to video heads from?
From another broken cam.
@@NicholasSerra not available and very costly on E-bay
can head be opened and head leads/chips replaces from other broken head ??
can i use a chamois towel ?
Probably fine.
My camera looks just like yours, but it says 700x zoom.
Heh I took a vcr repair course back in the 80s and one of the first things they taught us was NEVER use QTips to clean video heads. Unlike audio heads Qtips will snag on video heads and possibly do damage. Hard to believe 35 yrs later people still would use them
Why is it hard to believe? You said it yourself...it’s the first thing they thought you, because probably everyone does it due to ignorance. Does it ruin the head guaranteed? No, but the risk is way higher than with other techniques.
@@AttilaTheHun333333 because today it takes half a second to look up literally anything from anywhere
@@ytgadfly
Ah I see the logic. Unfortunately that doesn't work with anything else either in the world. People just don't educate themselves I guess.
Mine dies fast anyone pls help.
Do you know anyone who can repair a Canon Camcorder hi8 I need someone to fix mine. My dad passed away and he use to play in several Bluegrass Gospel groups he played the old upright bass. I need mine to be able to play so I can put them on dvds for family and friends. Thank you for any help you can give me!!!!!!!!!
Buy a working one to play the tape. Get the same model.
Didn’t really improve my situation...camera is 25 years old, and tapes roughly 20 years old but stored well
"Kinda"
I thought the same thing when I watched it over again :P
Excellent vid!! NEVER use Q-tips.....all you have to do to verify that statement is to get some jeweler goggles and see what is left behind from a Q-tip cleaning....seriously. And that goes for anything electronic that is cleaned with a Q-tip. Also, you have at least one rubber pinch roller and a tape path to clean. The rubber I would clean with the same pads as shown...if access is a problem, use those hospital foam tip swabs they use to prep wounds etc. I use those strictly on reel to reels and cassettes decks. Use, believe it or not, Windex on the rubber. You won't believe the crap that comes off. Isopropyl 99% for anything not rubber. There is a man, Terry Witt, that makes electronic deck pinch rollers for a living and the Windex recommendation was his tidbit.
Thanks! I'll keep an eye out for those rollers. Definitely hard to reach everything on these cameras.
@@NicholasSerra I don't know if those pinch rollers for camcorders are even available....so the Windex is a safe solution to use on rubber. I have a Sony CCD-TR81/Hi8 and I don't think there are still parts for it. Alcohol is known to dry out rubber parts, even though you'll hear people claim they've used it for yrs on pinch rollers. Teac used to make a rubber cleaner that was hands down the best, but it's long gone....probably something awful for the environ in it.
Hey Kevin, I was curious about your Windex comment and looked up Terry's website (www.terrysrubberrollers.com). Apparently he doesn't have a sure-fire solution for cleaning rubber, but his opinion is to use dish soap and water. Also, Windex does contain isopropyl alcohol.
He told me that confidentially over the phone. He wouldn't repeat that on his website, because he's afraid of the concoctions people might use and then blame him. I've been using Windex in very expensive decks since he told me...like eight yrs...never have seen any degradation. On the contrary, it keeps the rubber supple somehow. If you're familiar with the old Teac rubber cleaner, it had some serious chemicals in it and it was hailed as the best rubber cleaner ever made.
@@kevinfetner7983 Thanks!!
Why don't normal head cleaners clean the heads better?
Also with 99% Isopropyl you don't need to wait more than a couple of minutes.
I'm the only person who came from that tiktok
lol link me
Sniffles...
Bad video. Not supposed to use alcohol for these types of heads.
Hi Nicholas! Informative video and I've got the swabs off amazon, however can't seem to find the fluid as the link sends me to a page no longer working. What do you recommend that I can still get?
99% isopropyl
@@NicholasSerra Is there better choice between 99% alcohol and MG Chemicals Video Head Cleaner? (contains 50% propanol and 20% methyl-pentane)