Soiled 1/2-inch reel videotape?
 

I have a problem with 1/2 inch videotapes on spools. standard for VCR, eg Philips LDL 1001. My tapes are from the 70's. Unfortunately, when you try to play them, they make the whole tape path dirty. Everything is stained with some kind of tar. Even the vision drum is dirty after a few minutes of belt travel. They just become a bit plastic from old age. I mean, you don't feel it under your fingers, but you can see it after a while of playback. everything dirty. The tape can even stop a rotating vision drum. A question to everyone what to do with such tapes so that it is possible to play them completely without having to stop the VCR every few minutes, remove the tape and clean the entire track together with the heads to reinsert the tape for a few minutes. In the current situation I cannot rip the tape ... PS. I heard from an audiophile friend that this effect is called the "contact" effect. So the tape does not crumble, as it is not a joke in the case of reel audio tapes, but it gets sticky. I am asking for help from people who had this problem and somehow solved it. best regards

You might find these interesting reads:

http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/medi...s-ongoing.html

which leads you to this:

https://www.morressier.com/article/t...e2b641284abb13

BW

Yep. Sticky shed syndrome rears its ugly head. Bake them according to the proper instructions. Don't play another one until you do.