Sony PCM-R300 DAT

I  have one of these I bought new many years ago. I used it to back up my AKAI DPS12 DAW data. I was not well off in those days so I used discarded data DAT tapes from work to record on. I would now like to recover this audio and back it up on CD or USB stick. However, my Sony DAT refuses to work. It loads tape then the display says CAUTION. The manual says this could be due to condensation or other problem. It recommends leaving the unit powered up for an hour or so and trying again. This does not work no matter how long I leave it. I checked the web but nobody seems to know what this other problem is. I tried it with regular audio DAT tapes and an official Sony cleaning tape with identical results.

So my options appear to be.

1. Fix it somehow
2. Get someone to transfer these tapes for me
3. By a new DAT machine.

Anyone help me with one of these?

Cheers

Ian

Hi Ian

Try phoning round some studios, you might get lucky.

I had to transfer a couple of DATs and my machine was also acting up. First studio I called gave me an old one for free......

Peter

peterc said:

Hi Ian

Try phoning round some studios, you might get lucky.e me an old one for free......

Peter

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Good idea. Annoying thing is a large studio closed down in Norwich a few months back nd I am pretty certain they had some. Pity I did not realise then that I needed one.

Cheers

ian

Every TV studios i work in have shelves of DAT still functioning. (One is even used as a DAC, always powered on since ten years) They are sometimes contacted to convert old format Masters, so they have almost every kind of tape recorders.

Thomas

I have a Sony hi 8 video deck pro model.  The surface mount caps are the problem and need replaced .  I would check the conditions of the caps for esr  and In circuit test capacity.  Also belt drives  stretch.  All this stuff is getting old.

fazer said:

I have a Sony hi 8 video deck pro model.  The surface mount caps are the problem and need replaced .  I would check the conditions of the caps for esr  and In circuit test capacity.  Also belt drives  stretch.  All this stuff is getting old.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the tips. I will try that.

Cheers

Ian