DCR-TRV 103 Help needed.

Hi, I ran across your site with quite lot of information of D8 camcorders, and I thought you might be able to help me with my issue.
I have a Sony DCR-TRV103 and I love it. It has been taking great video quality, however, I have't used it for a little while, and now I noticed that when I play back any of my tapes, there is some kind of skipping going on, similar to old cassettes when they got magnetized. The problem is for all the tapes I have, so I wonder if it is something digitally , electrical or mecanical wrong, and whether or not I could fix it myself. Or if possible, I could use some kind of computer editing software to fix the problem if I want to burn dvds.

Thank you so much, all help and advice is greatly appreciated.

... I have't used it for a little while, and now I noticed that when I play back any of my tapes, there is some kind of skipping going on, similar to old cassettes when they got magnetized. The problem is for all the tapes I have, so I wonder if it is something digitally , electrical or mecanical wrong, and whether or not I could fix it myself. Or if possible, I could use some kind of computer editing software to fix the problem if I want to burn dvds.
I think the problem you’re describing with video skipping may be due to general deterioration of the tape. Here’s more descriptive information on “sticky shed syndrome”, where tapes stick one layer over another and cause stuttering:

Virtually all of the magnetic tape ever recorded older than as little as 10 years may be in serious jeopardy. The threat comes from several sources, but the largest threat is chemical in nature, coming from the breakdown of the binder, or glue, that holds the magnetic particles to the polyester base of tape. As this hydrolysis process (sometimes known as "Sticky Shed Syndrome" ) occurs, the tape often gets coated with a tenacious adhesive that makes it extremely difficult to play. In some cases the problem can be so severe that the magnetic material literally falls off or sheds from the base leaving a pile of dust and clear backing…http://www.polderbits.com/cassette-to-cd-main.htm

Tape demise maybe extreme; it may all depend on the original quality of the tapes and how one took care of the tape in the mean time.

I usually run forwards and backwards many times to clear out any obvious stickiness. There are various cures that maybe useful but stretched polyesters, jagged edges, frayed tapes can be troublesome. I’ve never used this method , but warm oven solution has been suggested. TBC ( time based corrector) for out of synch tapes sometimes help.

My suggestion is to backup any data, by using hard drives, optical disks etc. No medium is 100% guaranteed from deterioration.

http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/byform/mailing-lists/cdl/1993/0617.html

TS