It is heartbreaking than discover that priceless videos that have been saved for years (or decades) are damaged or deteriorated beyond help when you finally get the chance to watch them again or convert them to digital.

Tapes deteriorate by just getting older. The rate and type of deterioration depends upon factors like temperature, humidity, proximity to magnetic fields, and the position of the tape within the cassette where it was stopped after its last play.

Magnetic tape is a good method to store video long term, but it is not permanent.  A few of the primary enemies of videotape are mold, deformation from sunlight and heat, demagnetizing from magnets or other nearby electrical currents, or years spent in storage with the tape played halfway through.

Actual physical damage includes every possible disaster that can happen to ‘stuff’. Tapes can be left in the car at 150 degrees, submerged in a basement flood, chewed up by the dog, or drenched in soda.

Regardless of the cause, there are several strategies to attack the problem. The same risks apply to VHS to digital, Hi8 to Digital, miniDV to digital and more.

Well-Functioning Videotape Players Required To Digitize Videotape

Assuming a decently preserved and playable videotape, the most important factor for a great digital conversion is the quality of the player being used. Every type of videotape has its own class of player. Some of these players have not been produced for over a decade meaning that finding a good player is not simple or easy. There are fewer and fewer videotape players each year, so the time for quality video conversion is shortening every day.

Poor Videotape Conversion Quality? “Pack” the Tape?

This does not mean to place tapes in a box with packing material! Packing a videotape simply means to fast forward to the end of the tape and then rewind to the beginning. This resets the proper tension in the tape so that it is held correctly over the player heads when playing. If the tape tension is not correct, the video can flutter, become increasingly ‘snowy’, or randomly lose the video and/or audio altogether. Some tapes won’t play at all.

VHS-C and Hi 8/Video 8/Digital 8 tapes seem to be the most susceptible to tension loss, but can happen for all types of videotape. Occasionally, a single tape will need to be packed multiple times. One example for a real-life VHS-C tape process:

  1. After 1 packing                      Would not play, appeared blank.
  2. After 2 packings                    Spotty video, confirming that it was not blank.
  3. After 3 packings                    Decent black and white video.
  4. After 4 packings                    Good, sharp color video.

Packing videotapes resolves 75% or more of all playback errors.

Baking Tapes

While used very infrequently for consumer tapes, occasionally, sticky shed syndrome requires baking the tapes. This syndrome occurs in high humidity conditions where the tape actually begins to stick together and eventually can resemble a solid hockey puck rather than a reel of tape. See Sticky Situation (NPR, May 30 2012),

Damaged VHS Tape? Replace the Cassette!

When the unthinkable happens and the actual cassette is damaged, the tape must be removed and replaced in a new cassette. Yes, some dogs actually chew on the plastic the plastic cassettes.

The actual internal mechanisms to VHS, Hi8, miniDV, and DVCam tapes can break or freeze for any number of reasons. There are springs, spindles, locks, and more that can break or become dislodged over time. When these parts are broken, the cassette can simply cease to advance, freeze from jammed parts in the gears, or be unable to maintain proper tension.

Foreign material such as sand, food, and worst of all, soda, can get into the tape, making the reels as well as the cassette itself too sticky to allow rotating.

The solution for these issues is to replace the case as follows:

  1. Disassemble the tape cassette. (for some audio cassettes, this means actually breaking the case).
  2. Removing the reels.
  3. Open a ‘new’ (usually another cassette that is working properly), being careful to not disturb any of the internal mechanisms.
  4. Remove the reels from this cassette and replace with the desired reels, thoroughly cleaning the reels first.
  5. Reassemble the replacement cassette with the desired reels, the proceed as usual.

How Do I Preserve Old Family Videos in Digital Format?

The absolute best method for preserving old family videos is to digitize the videotape, making copies on at least 2 hard drives (internal or external), and one on the cloud. The best cloud service will include synchronization to the hard drives for constant replication on all copies.

The same process is used for preserving video on DVD videos into the future.

If you desire to preserve old videotape, simply:

  1. Keep tapes in cool storage with low relative humidity.
  2. Rewind tapes to the beginning so that part of the tape you wish to preserve is not bent around the cassette spindles.
  3. If possible, store in vacuum packaging.
  4. Store at least two players for each type of tape that you are storing so that you have a good chance of actually playing them in the future. (note – the players them selves will deteriorate over time as well just through the plastic, rubber, and lubricant drying out)

Old and Damaged Videotapes? Next Steps

  1. Call or text Jamey (About Jamey) at 720 204-5464.
  2. Set an appointment (every project receives my individual attention).
  3. Drop off your tapes (and records, cassettes, slides, or negatives, too). Check Pricing!

In a week or less, pick up your new digitized VHS.

James Nordby

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