Maxell Hs-8/Cl 8MM Cleaning Cartridge (1-Pack, 20-Cleanings)

I purchased this 8mm head cleaner because my old 8mm camera stopped recording and playing back video. The problem was, the tape moved while in the camera but didn't show up on the screen. Once this item arrived I put it in the HI8 camera and hit play. I let it play for 10 seconds and hit stop/eject. Now the camera can read tapes again! This product worked great and is a lot cheaper than the other $30 8mm head cleaner product on amazon.

I've used this cleaning tape in my video business for occasional light cleaning. It is advertised to clean heads in 8mm data backup machines but it also works well for Video8, Hi8 and Digital8 camcorders. Of course, what looks like dirty heads when playing your tapes can be a lot of different things in an old camcorder - most commonly dry pinch rollers, or brittle belts causing tracking or transport issues. So don't count on it bringing any old machine back to life. I've found that it does a good job cleaning, but the amount of cleaning tape installed is very small -- only about 1/4 of what you get in a typical 8mm video head cleaning tape. So if you plan to use it a lot, it might not be the best choice. It advertises 20 cleanings and that seems about right. For most home uses, that should be enough. It would get five stars, though, if there were more tape inside.

I finally got around to transferring my 8MM home movies to digital and was crushed when the tapes wouldn't play. I had the camera cleaned once and it played the tapes for a while, but then quit again. Bought this cleaning tape, which isn't easy to find any longer and it worked beautifully! I was able to transfer the remaining tapes without any difficulty.

Granted, my 8mm video camera hadn’t been used in about 10-15 years, so it needed cleaning. Unfortunately it only cleaned the video heads, not much improvement to audio playback.

Cleaning cartridge did not work . Inserted cartridge per instructions but nothing happened. Removed cartridge and tape was hanging out. Appears tape will not turn in cartridge. Inserted a regular tape and appears to work fine except for no picture. Cleaning cartridge definitely defective. Appears to be stuck. Doesn't deserve one star but can't submit without selecting a star. Zero star. After contact.with seller I realize this product is for a data storage drive. The digital video camera recorder did not recognize the tape. It's 8 mms and same size as video tapes but will not work on Sony DCR-TRV 340.

Did not use this product it wasn’t what I wanted!

Put it into my Sony DCR-TRV460 camcorder. The camera recognized the tape and had no problem "playing" it.

Just not sure if I should use it on old tape player to wear the heads down.