I can't speak for baking them, but can offer this experience.
About ten years ago, I decided to digitize about fifty Hi8 tapes that were
the camera masters for four documentaries I shot in the early to mid 1990s
after a periodic check of the tapes showed that one was shedding.
Five of the tapes were shedding. I was transferring them using a Hi8
camera and, when I try to play one of those five tapes, the mechanism would
"squeal" and the picture would go haywire.
I had access to a Sony EVO-250, a portable Video8/Hi8 deck, and tried them
in that and they played just fine except for a "squeal" and picture fritz
out about every three or four minutes for anywhere from a second or two to
five seconds. I did a careful cleaning of the heads and mechanism after
each tape.
My tapes might have been in an earlier stage of shed - there was something
about the tape transport or heads in this deck that worked better. They
wouldn't play at all without squealing in the camera I was using.
I don't have the tapes anymore - I destroyed them after the transfers - and
made the digital copies the official "masters" of the documentaries,
backing them up every couple of years.
Randy
On Mon, Jul 14, 2014 at 7:21 PM, [log in to unmask] <
[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Esteemed Archivists,
>
> I believe this has been discussed before.
>
> Someone on another list has some metal evaporated Hi-8 tape that sheds
> so dreadfully as to be unplayable. He is expressing a desire to bake it
> or cool it to make transfers.
>
> In this case, is either baking or refrigerating a good solution?
>
> I am thinking that it is not, but would like to have some validation on
> this issue, or some suggestions as to what will help, if anything.
> --
> Joe Salerno
>
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