Recently a friend who lost her daughter let me borrow her Mini DV camcorder and tapes to digitize them. Sadly, the camcorder would just go thump thump thump while trying to play a tape. I had never really even seen anything Mini DV. A little over a week later, I found another Mini DV camcorder at Goodwill. I was shocked that I found it and shocked that it played her tapes perfectly.

For the sake of your player, you should install the tape cleaning elements

peace be upon you sir

Don't use a Dremel to open  it melts a plastic seals behind it behind it done the same thing on cassette tapes

I suppose tapes should be stored in a cool DRY place. Dry, as in low humidity. That would work, wouldn't it?
PS. When I repaired 8 track tape, I used i record player turntable to wind it for me.(Didn't have a reel to reel deck) But those little spools wouldn't fit on a turntable spindle.

I've encountered VHS tapes that definitely have no screws. So, carefully drilled out the screws..and transplanted the reels once cleaned.  

Same problem with audio mini- and micro-cassettes...no screws, so drilled them out. Thankfully I don't encounter them often.

I've never seen mini-DV tapes like the one you encountered here.

And  some people still swear by tapes 🤷‍♂️

I got sound 📢 can you hear me now!?!

Wow, tape case  - why not a different way to open case - my guess customer broke tape lack of care balmed the company

You think that's bad I'd repeat Sony DVD player had to take 67 screws out before I can get to the laser

I've never seen actual splice tape adhesive cut to size other from than specific sellers but... if once digitized you'd also want to keep your cassette and feel the need to play by the vintage, I have on tip for you: get specific splice tape or get yourself a roll of generic matte low bite tape. It should have the stickiness of yellow note or slightly more, it doesn't have to be super sticky as it will be exclusively pulled sideways.

With that tape on it will probably last the magnetic tape's lifetime and never ooze onto the surrounding magnetic tape. If you find a tape with that kind of splice... NEVER PLAY it. It will jam your machine a break your tape media, multiple times.

I was wondering why you didn't wind that tape with a motorised screwdriver or something but I can see why you do it manually now. That's some patience to do that.
Out of interest, how does that DV player detect how much is on the spools to show on the display? Is it just using some code on the tape or does it have some kind of sensors?

@12voltvids Hi, I have a peculiar situation. I bought a used HDV/Mini DV camera to finally digitize my old tapes and almost all tapes play back well. One tape however plays back without distortion for 30-60 seconds and starts getting random horizontal distortion (always at random parts of the video, so if I start the playback from a new spot the video is actually safe). If I restart the camcorder or take the mini dv tape out and back in the distortion persists. However, if I insert another tape and play back briefly and then switch back to the mystery tape in question the distortion goes away... and comes back again after 30-60 secs. Once the distortion appears it sort of stays glued/frozen on parts of the frame and if I let it playback eventually the image gets completely mangled altogether and the Timecode stops showing. Only playing back some different tape resets things. Thoughts on what could be the problem?

after finding inspiration in your efforts, i have taken your advice  and I bought a hi8/dv 8 sony handycam as my player for my cassettes. i have digitized via dvd recorder (your advice, again works awesome) and I am now done to my last 3 cassettes. after 25 or so, is there a way to know it has data on it or not before splicing repeatedly to get it to work?. Must you always respool the complete cassette. ?  would this save me slicing new breakages? one tape I spliced I got 15 mins and then the tape counter never moves, i assume it means it is empty..just hard to beleive i never filled the tape.

Great video but how exactly did you remove the mold?

How do you like the DHR 1000? I have a Panasonic AG-DV1000 that I found on ebay some years ago that claimed it did not work. It works great and only has 140 hours of use on it.

strange... somebody stolen screws...

DVC PRO tapes, used those when I worked at a TV station in San Antonio about 25 years ago. Hey Dave you probably know the answer to this. Is DVC Pro similar to MiniDV? I ask this because there was an adapter you could get where you could place a MiniDV tape inside a DVC PRO adapter and it would play.

I got films from 2005, how can i pay you to have it digital?

what is best way to clean the head?