Topic: My First Tape : Eaten by D8

[chuckcage]

 

Best way to avoid stuck tapes: use an NJB3!

 

[RastaFish]

I am curious if you "unpacked" the tape before you recorded with it?  The only time I have had a tape snap on me was one of the few times I had not taken the time at home to FF and RW the tape in advance, and usually I record 60-90 seconds of A-time on the tapes in advance as well.

[Tim]

I am curious if you "unpacked" the tape before you recorded with it?  The only time I have had a tape snap on me was one of the few times I had not taken the time at home to FF and RW the tape in advance, and usually I record 60-90 seconds of A-time on the tapes in advance as well.

I never unpack my tapes. It's pointless head wear on your portable, ffwding and rwding will kill those sony portables very quickly. I might fwd a minute or so and rewind, but that's it.

[nickgregory]

I unpack my tapes on my home deck

[nic]

never had a problem(or missload) with the D8 and M1 with Sony DDs tapes, but damn if all 2 times I used a DA-P1 with a Sony DDS it missloaded and/or ate the tape.

go figure...ymmv

[greenone]

How do you use a tape that has the back end of it turn up?  What is the process to open to casing and reset it to pull to data from it?

Brian

Brian - look on the bottom of the tape; you should see two grooves that start at the shutter end of the tape and run to the top of the two circular cog holes. If you look closely at the grooves you'll notice that there are tiny little teeth that protrude up - these are what hold the shutter in place. If you slide your fingernails down the grooves and push the teeth down, the shutter should slide back toward the front of the tape (where the copy-protect door is). Once it's all the way open you'll hear a click and the shutter will stick. Then the cog teeth will be exposed, letting you turn them to wind the slack back onto the cogs. Use your fingernails to push the teeth down again and the shutter will snap back into place, and you're grooving again!

[Brian]

i need a home deck badly......my sony m1 doesn't like all the packing even though it has never failed me once(knock on wood).  I wanna get a panasonic sv3800 or a tascam da30mkII. all this gear to get........and so little cash

[Scuba Jeremy]

Knock on wood, never had a tape jam ever in my PCM-M1, bought it new. Used over 100 DDS tapes and 3 DATs. I'd almost use DATs, but I can't justify the cost over DDS when I look at good run I've had with the tapes so far.

[drewloo]

One thing I've found to help in preventing jammed tapes is to press all action buttons well after pressing the previous one.  I found all my portable DAT decks (D7/D8/D100) have wanted to jam if I

[a] try to unload/eject too quickly after stopping play/record/ff/rw
try to play/record too quickly after rewinding/fastforwarding
[c] try to play/record too quickly after loading
[d] try to rw/ff too quickly after play/record

You get the idea.  Take a long pause between pressing action keys and it may help.  I know it helped me.

While I totally agree w/ Brian about using lots of patience and care when loading/recording, I was suprised to see Doug O. say that the Sony has logic controls and will only do the operation *you* desire when *it* is ready to do it.  I think that's what he basically said, anyway.  Maybe Sony needs (or needed) to make the 'logic' controller not quite so quick so it gives a bit more time between commands?  That said, I think the few times my D8 ate a tape was due to operator error and cheap shells.

Drew

[Brian Skalinder]

While I totally agree w/ Brian about using lots of patience and care when loading/recording, I was suprised to see Doug O. say that the Sony has logic controls and will only do the operation *you* desire when *it* is ready to do it.  I think that's what he basically said, anyway.  Maybe Sony needs (or needed) to make the 'logic' controller not quite so quick so it gives a bit more time between commands?  That said, I think the few times my D8 ate a tape was due to operator error and cheap shells.

Yeah, I remember reading the same thing.  But the ONLY times I've had misloads, chewed tape, or snapped tape, it's been in one of the scenarios I listed.  As you say, maybe the Sony portables logic controller is a bit to quick.