I'm capturing tapes for a friend and I ran across one that has some pretty bad issues. I'm pretty familliar with tape problems. The small thin lines that run down the screen of course are tape kinks or folds (which I can visibly see on the metal tape itself) but the thicker bands of snow that move both up and down I'm unfamiliar with. From the past I remember that similar patterns mean the tape is starting the deoxidization process. If thats the case, I'm going to tell him i can't capture the tape and give it back to hiim.... if not, does someone have any idea what it is? A 20 second sample of the capture (about 3 minutes long before I stopped the tape) is available at the link below. Thanks for any help in advance.

Aaron

http://vistasp05.dvrdns.org:3316/mnaso2h4t6/03_HurricaneMichelle_IDEX1_sample.mpg

I once saw thick bands like that on my Betamax, and had to replace the head. Maybe the source recorder was on its way out.

after being brave and watching the whole tape... it was determined that was the issue. The issues are intermittent but clearly have break points at cuts in the recording. As you likely know, Betamax and Video8/Hi8 use the same method to record