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Important notice about discontinued super-8 TVT models |
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Rights Notice: Material on film, tape, disc or otherwise may be subject to stated or implied Copyright or Performance Right, or the right to privacy, etc. depending on the laws of your country. Unauthorized duplication may be a violation that is civil or criminal in nature. Equipment or services offered by TCS Inc. should not be construed as inviting criminal activity. The user should ascertain if duplication might violate any rights, and obtain a written release from each affected party. Consult your attorney about any specific instance. |
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Note on the previous discontinued TVT sprocketed (and M Type early sprocketless) super-8 silent models: We have recently discovered that a pattern has appeared that the previous super-8 only models with Bell & Howell sprocketed mechanisms are not holding up as we expected from previous favorable experience with their Dual-8 and Regular-8 equipment. The narrow and soft pulldown claw is wearing out in a short time, sometimes a couple of hundred hours of transferring. A worn and notched claw will result in an unsteady picture, loss of film loops, and odd banging noises that are not helped by lubricating the film. Repair for these B&H based sprocketed machines is becoming uneconomic and we have discontinued putting them in our newly built machines.
We recommend that when the B&H super-8 sprocketed mechanism wears out, the machine be converted to sprocketless design instead. This uses a super-8 (or regular-8) locked dual-8 mechanism, which has a harder and more durable pulldown claw that appears likely to last for thousands of hours of running. Factory conversion is needed, as to support this change we need to select a mechanism with an appropriate shuttle throw, reduce the take-up torque, replace fixed posts with roller posts, replace the reverse/rewind reel motor with a low-cogging AC brushless type, add a relay and additional wiring, plus of course reset the image alignment and focus.
We can convert the machine to your choice of silent super-8 or regular-8, whichever is more appropriate for your facility. Call us for a price quote for this conversion.
This note does not apply to sprocketed regular-8 or any dual-8 models.
Note on the previous discontinued TVT-S8S and TVT-S8STS Sound models: We have recently discovered that a pattern has appeared of the previous super-8 sound models with Bell & Howell picture and sound heads are not holding up as we expected from previous favorable experience with their Dual-8 and Regular-8 equipment. The soft components are wearing out in just a couple of hundred hours of transferring. A worn and notched claw will result in an unsteady picture, loss of film loops, and odd banging noises that are not helped by lubricating the film. A worn magnetic head or pressure pad will result in loss of film loops, and garbled “underwater” sound quality.
Repair for these B&H based machines is becoming uneconomic, as we lately are unable to obtain replacement sound head and picture head modules that still have a suitable remaining life, and no new parts can be had. In practice, a substantial repair cost may only restore proper operation for about 50 or so running hours, with no warranty. Consequently we have developed the new version TVT-S8S which should give greatly improved life, based on industry experience with the Elmo TRV models using the same picture and sound parts.
We recommend that when the B&H modules next wear out, existing S8 sound machines be converted to Super-8 (or Regular-8) Locked Dual-8 silent sprocketless mechanisms, or Regular-8 sprocketed mechanisms, which will give you a backup spare machine that should last for a thousand running hours of silent transfers. Call us for a price quote for this conversion.
For doing sound film, we recommend our new TVT-S8S True Speed Lite model which we expect will likewise hold up for a long time of running silent or sound film. |