Tape Deterioration Help Required

[KevMulrennan]

I have a set of commercial VHS tapes that I bought in the late 80's.

I haven't played them for a while and some of them play fine and others don't. They have all been stored in the same place.

The ones that don't wobble at the top. It is as if the picture is peeling away. There is an annoying shadow. The nearest comparison I can make is imagine a newpaper and the headline at the top flaps as if it is in the wind. The bottom of the picture is fine.

Any ideas why and is there anything I can do?

Hope this isn't going too off topic. Apologies if it is, but I am desperate and it just makes you think how well kept certain archives are.

Thanks

Kevin Mulrennan
[e-mail]

[Andy Henderson]

If the control track is damaged, you've little chance of getting anything back to normal. You should try transferring the spools into a quality VHS casing. You can do this by hand (assuming the problem is being caused by slippage in a cheap tape casing).

[William Martin]

this is caused by the start of frame signal being weak it could be the video you have or signal deterioration
it could also be the tv, have you tried an alternative tv?
things to try
test it with another video machine (your old one if possible)
test it with another television
leave the tapes in a airing cupboard overnight and try again

you could also give each tape a light tap to free up the spools

if that doesn't work then you'll have to try a freind with a really good video machine

above solution about cassettes casing is very good

[KevMulrennan]

You should try transferring the spools into a quality VHS casing. You can do this by hand (assuming the problem is being caused by slippage in a cheap tape casing).

I've never done this before. How do you do this?

Thanks!

[Andy Hurwitz]

I don't think there is anything wrong with the tapes. This was a common problem in the early days of copy protection on commercial tapes and only affected certain tvs. I'm sure you will find the tapes play alright either by making sure you are using the correct playback channel on the tv or, as already suggested, try on a different tv/video set up. We actually had to modify certain tvs to overcome the problem although, if I remember correctly, a simple solution was to connect tv and video by scart lead, bypassing the tuning circuit. Control track damage would cause the picture to run completely out of sync and I don't think that is what is being described.

[John R]

Just to second what Andy Hurwitz said: I used to have this problem with certain tapes from the BBC and nearly everything from the Disney-family of companies. Eventually I found out it was the copy-protected ones causing the problems, and this was when I had the vcr linked to the tv via the RF-type cables - some set-ups were too sensitive to the way Macrovision etc worked.

[John Miller]

Possible solutions - What other correspondants say about the casing transfer is a good idea, but this is tricky, especially as if the tension guides are left out during reassembly or replaced incorrectly the tape won't play. I tey to take up by putting a biro or similar in one wheel socket, and a finger in the other and winding, the tension. This prevents the tape lagging and maaligning agaist the tape heads. if not wound through for a while, best might be to fast forward (not on vision) then rewind as when not played for a time the tape can get stuck even by static electricity or otherwise. Manual tracking right round the available spectrum can sometimes help. The recent VHS machines such as Sharp models mid range price have very good drop out compensators which help fill out missing information, so this may be a good bet as bargains are about with the growing competition of DVD. You may also want to look into a DVD recorder. If you can copy the material across it will be there in a solid state format until digital technology is marketed in home applications, then you may be able to restore the recordings using a computer.

[helpful hartley]

rewind and FWD the tapes completely a couple of times, if there is any shrinkage due to being tight wound on the spool for years,this sometimes sorts it out ,as well as giving the tape some fresh air.

[dubs again]

This sounds like "flagging", there being nowt wrong with the tape but your outputting through your RF out onto a channel on the telly that hasn't got a stabilisation circuit for VCR signals, if your telly is pretty old they used to specifically set up either channel 0 or 8 for VCR use.

[pete seaton]

another solution is www.lektropacks.co.uk

they sell "Time Base Correctors" which put all this right when re-mastering to DVD

[William Martin]

yes, unless its rolling or sliding, then the start of frame is still present, the above posting as the best solution