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  #1  
Old 09-06-2010, 01:12 AM
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radiotvnut radiotvnut is offline
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Someone just gave me a load of VHS tapes

A friend of mine just gave me approx. 75 VHS tapes that he had copied to DVD and no longer had a use for the tapes. Most of them are game shows from the '50's, '60's, and '70's that he recorded off of Game Show Network. I did find a few tapes of "Sanford and Son", "Archie Bunker's Place", "All in the Family", "Leave it to Beaver", and "Three's Company". I think he recorded these off of TV Land, before they went down the drain. I'm really not that big on game shows; but, I'll probably keep a few of the older ones to play on my older TV's. What I don't want will likely be used to record older shows off of RTN that I enjoy as it seems like new production VHS tapes that are of decent quality are getting to be a thing of the past. As far as that goes, any kind of VHS tape is becoming a thing of the past. The last time I bought tapes at Wal-Mart, they only had 5 packs of Sony brand tapes and I think ratshack had Maxell brand tapes. RS and wal-mart are about the only two places in town that I was able to find new tapes. Back in the day, I could buy tapes at just about any store in town and they had many brands to pick from. I know some people will probably tell me to join the 21st century and get on the DVD train; but, I question how long DVD's will last. I have tapes that are 20-25 years old and they still play fine.
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Old 09-06-2010, 03:23 AM
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Just keep them in a climate controlled area.

My VHS tapes sat in my shed for about two years. Doesn't get too hot in there but the humidity is always there. Many suffered deterioration of the video and visible mold on the wound tape edges.

On the other hand, a friend of mine had tapes going back to 1978-79 that are still acceptable.
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  #3  
Old 09-06-2010, 03:45 PM
Barry777 Barry777 is offline
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You can still buy VHS and S-VHS tapes, but you have to go online to get any kind of selection. I agree that the DVD format will shortly be replaced by memory cards or a similar format - or more likely, downloads.

Since I prefer something that works "all the time", I stick with tapes whenever possible, and tapes are also less susceptible to damage. Many will argue that the quality of tapes suffers over time which is true of course. But unless you handle your DVD's with cotton gloves and keep your system in a cleanroom laboratory, DVD's will long be ruined from scratches before a VHS tape will wear out - not to mention that most DVD players crap out within 3 years, whereas I have 30 year old VHS machines that are still pumping along nicely with routine maintenance.

Myself, I'd rather sacrifice a bit of picture and sound quality and have something that I know will work when I hit the "play" button. I have never once gotten a "disc error" message on any of my VCR's.
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Old 09-06-2010, 04:46 PM
site123a site123a is offline
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I was always interested in the DVD-RAMs since the media is protected in a cartridge, however the price of the discs kept putting me off.

I listen to Leo Laporte a lot, and he keeps telling people "after 10 years tapes de-grade to the point were there un-watchable anymore", and "tapes will stick and you'll won't be able to play them anymore".

I don't know why he keeps telling people this since the chance of this happening is not as big as he makes it seems, however I should add that he doesn't like using DVDs or hard drive for archiving nether...
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  #5  
Old 09-07-2010, 09:58 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by site123a View Post

I was always interested in the DVD-RAMs since the media is protected in a cartridge, however the price of the discs kept putting me off.

I listen to Leo Laporte a lot, and he keeps telling people "after 10 years tapes de-grade to the point were there un-watchable anymore", and "tapes will stick and you'll won't be able to play them anymore".

I don't know why he keeps telling people this since the chance of this happening is not as big as he makes it seems, however I should add that he doesn't like using DVDs or hard drive for archiving nether...
Leo Laporte! Used to watch him on "The Screen Savers" on the old ZDTV channel. He's wrong on the lifespan of video tape. I have plenty of old VHS and Beta tapes from the late '70s-early '80S that play perfectly fine.

You should hang on to those old tapes, especially the ones your friend copied to DVD-R. When the DVDs will no longer play, the tapes probably will and you can sell them back to him, if the tapes were kept in an air-conditioned place, not in a barn, attic or garage.

Last edited by Ed in Tx; 09-07-2010 at 10:02 AM.
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Old 09-07-2010, 09:23 PM
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I have a hard time remembering a tape which had become unusable due to age. I did end up with some that got moldy. I have some beta from the early 80s that could fool you into thinking it was live; I have some paper-backed audio tape that must date from around 1950 or so and it still sounds fine.

Ah, but times they are a changin'...earlier this year I brought home my first-gasp!-CD!
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  #7  
Old 09-09-2010, 09:46 PM
site123a site123a is offline
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When using a VCR to record TV shows (not for archival purposes but to re-watch for later), how many times can the tape be re-used before it should be thrown away?

I usually use standard grade VHS tapes for just re-watching show's for later. I would use the tape from start to finish at SLP speed and I always start off the cassette where I last left off (to insure the whole tape was used). Once the tape reaches the end I would rewind the tape back and record over what I've already watched. I've always thrown the tape out after the 8th rewind, I thought if I go beyond that number I risked damaging the VCR with a worned out tape...
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Old 09-09-2010, 10:06 PM
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Originally Posted by site123a View Post
When using a VCR to record TV shows (not for archival purposes but to re-watch for later), how many times can the tape be re-used before it should be thrown away?...
I always figured about 100 passes through the VCR; 50 records and plays for example for someone who time-shifts TV shows, or replace the time shift tape every two months. That's what I used to tell my customers (I was in the VCR repair biz). Some people would admit running a time shifting tape for a YEAR before tossing it so they can go for quite a while. Usually it's the tape mechanism that eventually wears out the tape, not the other way around. The tape has to go through a couple of angled guides and around the spinning cylinder and that puts some stresses on the tape, depending on how well aligned everything is too.

Last edited by Ed in Tx; 09-09-2010 at 10:38 PM.
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  #9  
Old 09-11-2010, 09:41 PM
site123a site123a is offline
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So pretty much 400 hours of recording off of a 8hr tape, correct?
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  #10  
Old 09-11-2010, 10:48 PM
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Originally Posted by site123a View Post
So pretty much 400 hours of recording off of a 8hr tape, correct?
With an 8 hr tape maybe, depending how gentle the particular tape transport is with the tape. Your 8 hr T-160 (also T-180 and even some T-200 10 hour(!) tapes were made) are thinner base and oxide coating, and the stresses of going through the angle guides etc are harder on the thinner tape which is less durable than standard T-120 tape.


Regarding the thinner oxide coating, I measured quite a few brands and thicknesses of tapes, and the 8 hr tapes consistently had up to 3 to 4 dB lower RF at the output of the video head amplifier than a T-120. This is an FM signal that gets recorded and played back, and demodulated to video, and the weaker the playback RF signal is, the noisier the playback video will be. So there's a trade off of picture quality for hours. Also the thinner tapes are more prone to visible dropouts that also sometimes can be heard in the hi-fi audio. BTW some of the highest playback RF T-120 tapes with the quietest lowest dropout PB video were Fuji HG, TDK, and JVC tapes. The highest PB-RF I measured was a Fuji H471 ST-120 S-VHS tape recorded and played in a standard VHS machine. Had about 4 dB higher PB RF than any standard tape I had tested which made that machine look damned good!

Last edited by Ed in Tx; 09-11-2010 at 10:53 PM.
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  #11  
Old 09-12-2010, 01:00 PM
site123a site123a is offline
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Now that is something I wish I knew before, because I use to backup computer data to VHS tapes, and I would always have problems with frames droping out on standard grade TDK T-160's.

Since T-160 tapes are thinner, I'll stick with a number of 200 hours for time-shift recording to be on the safe side.

BTW, do you believe using an external VHS rewinder really does extend the mechanical life of the VCR? Or is that just a myth.
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  #12  
Old 09-12-2010, 01:27 PM
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BTW, do you believe using an external VHS rewinder really does extend the mechanical life of the VCR? Or is that just a myth.
Sure anything to save running time on the mechanism is good, especially if you do a lot of full rewinds. Also depends on the rewinder. Some were pretty poor quality. A good one will have optical end sensors just like a VCR. A lot of the later model VHS machines kept the tape loaded around the heads in FF-REW modes so that going from FF-REW to Play would be faster. Some decks are OK with this, others have enough tension on the tape to be a concern about accelerated head and cylinder wear. Using a rewinder would eliminate that potential for wear.
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  #13  
Old 09-13-2010, 04:45 PM
site123a site123a is offline
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Any particular brand I should try to get?
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  #14  
Old 09-13-2010, 05:13 PM
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Any particular brand I should try to get?
No not really, the one I have "Quantum International VHP 1010" that I bought from Petra Industries wholesaler many years ago is long since discontinued. It handles tapes gently, does both FF and Rewind, has optical sensors. Be on the lookout for those features.
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