Deteriorating Tapes? Here are your options.
There’s a lot you can do with old video tapes.
Turn them into art sculptures (try Googling “VHS Tape Art” - Click here for a particularly impressive result)
Use the media cases to store other things
Glue them up and make a birdhouse (#technotrash)
The list goes on - Turn the tapes into Pom-Poms. Re-purpose the VHS housing into a wall-clock. Make them into a flower planter.
Honestly, most of those ideas a pretty extreme, and take a lot of effort. But you’ll note that I did not include this on the list: “let the tapes sit in your attic collecting dust”. Why? Because that shouldn’t even be an option! The last option is:
Digitize your video tapes for safekeeping
DIGITIZE: [verb] — “To convert (pictures and/or sound) into a digital form that can be processed by a computer.”
Digitizing your video tapes will mean you have an electronic copy that can be stored in multiple ways: on a laptop, tablet, or computer, on the cloud, on a USB or Hard Drive, or on a DVD disk.
You and your family members filmed something years ago and hoped to keep that film stored to be able to watch and revisit those memories at any time. But the honest truth is that those tapes don’t have a very long shelf life - they are deteriorating every day.
So, that begs a few questions:
1. Why do video tapes deteriorate?
One expert at MovingImageArchiveNew.org explained that this video tape deterioration is inevitable: “Deterioration of VHS and other magnetic tape occurs due to the way they are made. Sounds and images are registered onto the tape via magnetism, and those signals lose their magnetism, over time.” The tapes are typically comprised of iron oxide (or for 8mm, a non-oxidized metallic powder).
Along with the metals that are magnetized, the tapes contain adhesives to bind the metals to the tape. These adhesives can also age, warping the tape in size or shape, or making them brittle.
Another expert in the Tape Restoration industry, Richard Hess, noted the following related to what can affect how fast your tapes will deteriorate:
“The factors influencing tape degradation are:
Tape formulation / component selection (i.e. what materials are in the tape)
Component degradation / failure
Tape characteristics (i.e. base film thickness, etc.)
Manufacturing defects / tolerances
Storage conditions (including history, where available)
Handling (or mis-handling) history
We’d like to add a comment to that “Storage Conditions” bullet-point, as we have seen cases where mold had entered into the tape reel area, completely ruining the tape!
2. How long do video tapes last?
Video tape expert Richard Hess noted:
“The anticipated lifetime of tape has been open for debate from the time that the first tapes were manufactured. Perhaps the best anticipated lifetime to use is what was in the minds of some of the designers when they made the tapes. It was common knowledge in the 1970s and 1980s that the vast majority of popular music becomes unpopular in a few years, so a 10-20 year lifetime was considered adequate. As Bob Perry [former Director of Advanced Development in the Magnetic Tape Division of Ampex Corporation] said in a phone interview, ‘If I wanted to keep it, I’d copy it if the tape was more than 10-15-years-old.’
Most tapes are beyond their design life at this point. “
Some tapes that we have digitized have had very noticeable visual blips and distortions, sometimes with audio quality being affected as well. The longer you wait to digitize your video tapes, the worse those distortions will be. At some point you may not be able to recover the content. We strongly echo Richard Hess and feel that video tapes today are beyond their original intended lifespan.
3. How do I go about digitally converting my video tapes?
We at PhotoBerry have multiple pieces of equipment designed to play back your video tapes, and as these are being played, we transfer them directly into a digital video file. We can convert VHS tapes, VHS-C tapes, 8mm tapes, and Mini-DV tapes.
We take your tapes and carefully upload them into quality (but vintage) equipment and begin the digital transfer. While the transfer is happening, we pay attention to the conversion process to ensure we get the best output possible.
The output is the best we can get it - it all depends on the quality of the tape provided to us. That’s why it’s important to convert your video tape media earlier rather than later - if it’s bad quality when you bring it to us, there’s only so much we can do.
We typically provide the digital files to you on a 16GB USB, but we also allow customers to pay for the next step - converting the digital file into a playable DVD. We have been very pleased to see our customers experience their old film and memories as the content becomes digitally available to them! We hope you will consider PhotoBerry for your future (hopefully near future) Video Transfer and Video Digitizing needs.
Do you have questions about digitizing video tapes? Or do you have tapes you need digitized soon?
Please, reach out to us via EMAIL, FACEBOOK, or INSTAGRAM, or give us a call at (901) 310-5952.
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Sources:
Monaghan, P. (September 18, 2017) “The VHS Legacy Can Be Saved, But Will It? “ - Retrieved June 19 2020 from http://www.movingimagearchivenews.org/the-vhs-legacy-can-be-saved-but-will-it
Hess, R. (Published in the ARSC Journal 39:2, Fall 2008.) ”Tape Degradation Factors and Challenges in Predicting Tape Life” - Retrieved June 19 2020 from http://www.richardhess.com/tape/history/HESS_Tape_Degradation_ARSC_Journal_39-2.pdf Pages 265 and 266.
