Old VHS Tapes
- Thread starter SkyRider
- Start date
Save those Old VHS Tapes!
They 'may' last longer than your new DVDs.
Just store them in the proper proscribed manner for long term storage as google recommends. Think of them as your 'masters'.
I have old homemade VHS tapes from 1980 that still look/play very well, from when I got my first VHS video camera setup. I have no idea how long these tapes will last but DVDs you burn, do not have a good track record for lasting long term. Some people report their homemade DVDs are failing to open after a few years!
They 'may' last longer than your new DVDs.
Just store them in the proper proscribed manner for long term storage as google recommends. Think of them as your 'masters'.
I have old homemade VHS tapes from 1980 that still look/play very well, from when I got my first VHS video camera setup. I have no idea how long these tapes will last but DVDs you burn, do not have a good track record for lasting long term. Some people report their homemade DVDs are failing to open after a few years!
You might want to get a throwaway or cleaner tape to 'exercise' the player with occasionally. You will have to maintain it along with the masters, or hope someone else did. Tape conservators tell me the binders holding the oxide to the tape dry eventually so the next playing scrapes the oxide (and the info encoded) into oblivion. Humidity is the stopgap, so they say.
The only reason we still have the Bible, and Homer, and The Aeneid, and Euclid and…, and…, is because people—for a few centuries mostly Arabs—kept making and using copies, not because people carefully stored originals away.
Nature always wins. Sharing's our only strategy.
The only reason we still have the Bible, and Homer, and The Aeneid, and Euclid and…, and…, is because people—for a few centuries mostly Arabs—kept making and using copies, not because people carefully stored originals away.
Nature always wins. Sharing's our only strategy.
Another option
Since I have little faith in CD and DVD media for long term storage.
You could get a large capacity Ext HDD or two, if what was on those VHS tapes were critical. Drives are cheap.
This way you could transfer all those DVD movies to HDDs. As VHS machines are being phased out and most around today are crappy quality machines compared to the 90s, you would not have to worry about finding a VHS machine in the future to play your old VHS tapes. Now all that data would be backed up on two Ext HDDs.
Since I have little faith in CD and DVD media for long term storage.
You could get a large capacity Ext HDD or two, if what was on those VHS tapes were critical. Drives are cheap.
This way you could transfer all those DVD movies to HDDs. As VHS machines are being phased out and most around today are crappy quality machines compared to the 90s, you would not have to worry about finding a VHS machine in the future to play your old VHS tapes. Now all that data would be backed up on two Ext HDDs.
That is amazing! Mine started degrading at age 10 and usually by age 15 they were too grainy for viewing. I did hear that store bought VHS movies which are pressed can last a long long time.
Amazingly, I have to agree with the parrot on this one. I can't speak of VHS, but burned DVD/CD may not be a good long term solution. I have discs I made in late 90's, early 2000's that I cannot read properly anymore. Consider backing up important data on another source such as a HDD or memory stick.
Fair enough, that's why I advocate using more than one source, including a burned disc for data that's really important.
I wanted a VCR after reading what they were capable of in the 70s but they were too farking expensive, going for 3K! So when prices 'kinda dropped' in 1980 I got a portable VCR and an RCA video camera. There were no camcorders then. Back then RCA was rated best and made in the USA. RCA was rated better than Sony then also! Still it cost a Grand for the camera and a Grand for the portable VCR that weighed around 25lbs. It was a beast to wear/lug around. Blank videotape cost $30 a blank and only did 2/4 hour speeds like the VCR. No remotes. It only came with a 20 foot wired remote for pause! That was it and it cost 2 Grand for both! That camera taped great. Home movies looked like 'live TV' even taping in 4 hour mode. These tapes still look/play great after 31 yrs.
The only time I experienced video degradation like you speak is when dubbing tape to tape for copies (porn of course). Every time you make a copy of another tape you lose ~20% off the original tape. These copies made, did become more grainy over time. Back then I did experiment making copies of copies to see what would happen. After about the fifth copy it was so grainy and washed out that you could barely make it out.
Commercially made VHS movies and commercial grade DVDs will last longer than home units because they are high grade industrial units.
Agreed!
They just fail or can easily get fried rendering them useless!
IMHO a pair of regular HDDs are the most reliable storage device at this point it time.
I would not even trust the new SSDs just yet for long term storage.
I recently had a couple year old 256MB SD SanDisk card fail that was only used lightly! Called up SanDisk to complain, to find out it was still under warranty and Sandisk sent me a new one for free. Luckily all the pix were transferred to another disk so nothing was lost but still that memory card should not have failed.
I got burned BIGTIME doing that!
Years ago I did a nice History of Rock & Roll and Pop Music project. Got ALL the Top 40 hits from 1955-2000. This included over several thousand tunes! Burned and stored them all as mp3 data discs on 33 CDs. They sounded great and was a better compilation than the 'Time Life Series' advertised on TV. Time Life is nice but misses a lot of tunes of that era. Around 2006 some of those CDs failed to open/play anymore! Tried a couple recovery apps to save them and got most of them back but lost some. Back then I believed what several salesmen said that CD media for storage, will last 100 years and almost lost my collection. From then on, I decided to store them on at least two Ext drives.
Only @ 1/24th of a second?!?!!?
I alway did that @ 1/36 of a second for better quality!....
Only @ 1/24th of a second?!?!!?
I alway did that @ 1/36 of a second for better quality!....
LOL....you would be there forever on only 1 tape.
" I have discs I made in late 90's, early 2000's that I cannot read properly anymore."
me 2
government standards dont trust cds/dvds for more than 10 years..
me 2
government standards dont trust cds/dvds for more than 10 years..
Which is fine untill either the ink fades or the paper yellows. Better to get them enamelled onto glass plates instead... be sure to store the plates horizontally as there have been problems with some of the older stained glass windows in european cathedrals slowly getting thicker at the bottom after about 300 years of vertical storage.
