ive had a weird issue with recording shows starting back in august and then its happened pretty regularly since then.
what is happening is that during the recording it looks like it is acting normal, the levels are steady and regular and the time clock counts evenly as well. but upon playback there are is a bit of digital distortion followed by a quick dropoff and then a half second of recorded music and then the process starts again. so every half second there is a dropout. all three shows i recorded this last weekend had that as an issue, as well as a few previous shows, but strangely about after 30 seconds of this constant dropout stuff it started to correct itself, and the dropouts were less frequent, and by 30 seconds later the tape was playing normally and it continued throught the recorded portion so i was able to make the transfer onto my harddrive. but i wasnt in the room when the automatic stop occurred when the recorded portion ended, so upon opening up the deck the tape had been pulled from its shell and was stuck inside, about 12 inches of tape were pulled from the shell. i was able to remove the tape without it cutting but it does look pretty crinkled for a few of the inches. but i was able to transfer the second set and get it out of the deck without the tape being pulled from the shell (though it did exhibit the dropouts)...
oh, btw, the first time it happened i was running a 90 m and i thought all my years of using them may have caught up to me so ive ran only 60 m ever since, but it happened with them as well. and another issue i have is with the unpacking of the tapes too...for some reason when i try and ff/rw the unrecorded tapes if you have the backlight illuminated the deck just dies after about 10 seconds of ff/rw-ing. but if the backlight is off it unpacks normally. i figure this might be related...
interestingly though i did play back the first two shows i recorded this weekend on my old D8 that i used to patch with the first few years i got into taping ('99-'01) before i got a complete rig. both decks were bought at the same time, refurbished by sony and from the sony outlet store, the second one just sat on a shelf as a relative wanted to use it but never got into it. anyway, the other two shows recorded on the deck with dropouts actually played back normally on the patching deck, but not the third one that i did end up transferring with the deck it was recorded on (as the dropouts did stop, as stated above)...
so what kind of problem do i have here? its been suggested by others that the playback mechaism/head is bad in the deck or its a head allignment problem...your feedback?
and is it even worth fixing? should i just buy another D8 and swing it until i can afford a good harddrive based alternative? or should i give up on dat and go the JB3 route, which i was considering doing until i learned that a lot of what i have invested in wouldnt be useful with it (ive got 3 of those ecocharge ec-90's that have the 6v/12v combo in it and its not possible to run the JB3 or the coax/optical converter on the 6v supply (as i need the 12v for the minime)...but if thats the way i have to go and i have to get new equipment i will down the line...
any help would be greatly appreciated!
Topic: D8 issues...is it crapping out on me? (Read 2769 times)