helical scan video tape v-30p question
 

any one know where or how to play this on a VCR or another machine to see what is on it if anything
reason is it may have been a NASA TAPE 1960'S
I HAVE 4 TAPES and would love to know whats on them

side note the moon landing tapes are missing too .

You would need a refurbished period deck of the same format to play any vintage video tape.

You could try asking the fellow who runs this site if he could play the tapes or transfer them to a newer format. He should be able to help. http://labguysworld.com/

What width is the tape? For example, 1" and 1/2" reel-to-reel tape could be a variety of formats. This guy specializes in vintage video tape formats, including damaged media.

http://www.videointerchange.com/

Any tape you have from the 1960s likely needs to be baked. Do not attempt to play the tape! Have a professional deal with it. The services at the link above are not cheap (neither will any other service), but well worth it.

First of all...the tapes that contained the original SSTV transmissions contain SSTV and telemetry data. You would not only need something to read the information, but convert it from SSTV. So, basically, your TV and some VCR hacking isn't going to be able to do it. The format was 10fps @ 320 lines of resolution. It was also branched two ways...one went on to one-inch 14-track reel tape running at 120 ips. The other was sent to a montior, which had a TV camera pointed at it.

So the rumor was the tapes had been lost. Nasa didn't have them, and they were assumed to be somewhere in Australia.

However, a couple years ago Nasa admitted that they likely had obtained the tapes and recorded over them.

Another factor to consider is the condition of the tapes. If they are old media, traces of binder may be oozing out at the edges. This can ruin a VTR, and with machines that play the old formats getting scarce, it may be difficult to find someone willing to take a chance on them. I have heard of people cleaning the tapes to solve the problem, but I suspect we're getting pretty expensive at this point.