Mike wrote:

My trust old Sony CCD-TR61 became unreliable lately, and I've since
found out that it is the 'loose tape guide' problem. I accept that it's
time has come (It is 12 years old) and have already bought a new unit.

The question is, I've got about 30 minutes of footage that I know is on
the tape, but it is unplayable. I can see it if I pause or fast forward
through it, but in normal playback neither the old unit nor the new unit
(a Sony Digital 8) can figure out what the tape speed is.

I'm never going to be able to adjust the tape guides myself to make the
tape playable .. that's too much trial and error. I'm also not too
concerned about repairing the old unit. I just want to try to salvage
the data from the tape. Is there a technique using a computer or a
professional service that does this kind of work?


Regards,
Mike



Why has it's time come? Loose tape guides are an easy problem to repair
and probably not too expensive if you can't do it yourself. All that's
involved is tightening the lock-screws until they're almost tight,
adjust the guides using an alignment tape and an oscilloscope, then
tighten the lock screws completely.

As for the tape, that's a difficult problem. If it is something very
valuable and irreplaceable, you may have to pay someone to sit with an
open home 8mm deck, playing back the tape while adjusting the tape
guides. You may recover only video in some parts, only audio in other
parts, or nothing at all. One reason it's so difficult is because not
only were the guides out of alignment, but they may have been moving
during recording of the tape, making different parts of the tape out of
alignment to a different degree, and requiring constant changes during
playback.
Good Luck.