My MiniDV tape broke, advice on how to fix it.

[digitalduck]

Ok, so I know its fixable, but Im trying to save the expense of taking it somewhere.

Just came back from my honeymoon and I was using an older tape that has never given me problems before, neither has my camera. Anyway, halfway through the tape it wouldnt eject the cassette or me and then it went back in by itself then started fast forwarding by itself then I would close it and open it again and same thing, it wouldn only rise halfway up so i couldnt get the tape out. When I finally did because it popped open finally, then tape was kinda krinkled, which i knew was going to happen, but it wouldnt let me FF or RW. So after looking at it myself and giving the tape a pull to get som slack and see if there is a twist in it somwhere, it finally snapped so now the right side of the tape is inside the cassette so i cant get it anymore to splice it.

So the question is this, there are four very small screws on the back of the cassette, if I remove the cover will the tape pop out due to some spring loaded design or would I be safe to find the twist and then splice the two and put the cover back on? I know the back is attached to the lever mechanism, any way around that?

Thanks

 

[gsellis]

Dang, have not seen that one. Splicing has always been a crude art, but I have not seen a splice kit for MiniDV tape. Do you have a local video cam store (not BB or Fry's, more like B&H Photo/Video, Adorama, Showcase?) Ask them if they can do a splice or make a recommendation. It will result in a funkified timecode, so you may have to deal with that in your editor if you get it working.

 

[digitalduck]

Honestly, the section that was bad is already broken, so there is now a section of about 6 inches dangling out of one side and nothing on the other because the good part fell inside the spool exit so its just dangling there. Splicing it correctly isnt the problem, ill just use a piece of tape, I already know im going to lose that 7 inches of video, and thats fine. I just need to know if I can safely remove the back cover myself to unravel that couple of inches to find two good parts to splice together.