VHS tape rescue?

[egarcia]

Hi forum! I’ve been diligently digitizing my VHS collection and learning so much as I go. It’s been an experience! I’ve run into an issue with a tape. Multiple VHS players ultimately wind up rejecting it. By rejecting I mean it will stop playing, and it won’t rewind or fast forward. The machine will literally shut off. I tried switching the reels into a different shell thinking that would fix the issue, but it didn’t. I can manually fast forward a little bit, and it will be good again for about another two to four minutes then it happens again. I’ve pushed my luck too much with trying to get what I could that the VHS player ultimately started eating the tape.

It’s not the end of the world if I can’t ultimately convert it, but I was wondering if there was anyone here on the forum who specializes in problem tapes! I’m on tape 198, and this is the first time I’ve run into this so not too bad. Ha! Thanks in advance!

P.S. Lordsmurf, my apologies if this is on the wrong section of the forum.

[vwestlife]

Is the tape moldy?

If not, try a standalone VHS tape rewinder that also has a fast-forward function. Fast-forward then rewind it all the way and see if that helps.

[timtape]

If the tape is moldy it will have now transferred some of that mold into four machines. Lets hope it isnt moldy!

[egarcia]

I didn’t see any mold anywhere. It looked fine initially, which is what also puzzled me a bit. A closer look it didn’t seem like the tape was even in the spool, but I also couldn’t seem to get it to rewind or fast forward neatly. I put a subsequent tape in and was now having issues with the player. When I opened my VHS player it did seem to have little specks of black in it. I have to go get a dust blower to clean it out. I was bummed about that, and I’m hoping this tape did not cause any long term damage as I still have about 60 more tapes to convert.

[BarryTheCrab]

Tape may need baking.

[timtape]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BarryTheCrab

Tape may need baking.

With VHS unlikely.

[BarryTheCrab]

Unusual to need to bake VHS, but not unheard of. Also may want to transplant to a new shell and see if that helps at all.

[timtape]

egarcia, Can you tell us what brand/model tape of yours caused the problems? Perhaps upload photos of it.

[BarryTheCrab]

In the past I have had squealing tapes, sticky, not shedding.
I run them through my cleaner with 97+ alcohol. Sometimes they barely can run.
After that I’ll put the tape at the base of my refrigerator overnight so the warm dry air blows over it. By the way, the refrigerator trick also is excellent for shoes, work boots, gloves, anything needing a dry out.
Anyway, I will rerun the tape through my cleaner for a dry cleaning and assess it.
I’ll never put a tape like that in one of my good machines.

[vwestlife]

If you have an older VCR that doesn't keep the tape threaded around the head drum during fast forward/rewind, try using that. I've had VCRs which auto-load the tape refuse to go past a damaged section of the tape, because it sticks to the drum and then causes the machine to immediately go into failsafe mode (eject the tape and shut off).

[egarcia]

Hi! Thank you everyone for the responses. I will try to get you some pictures this weekend. I have changed the shell already hoping that would solve my problem and it didn’t. The original tape is a PDMagnetics.

[timtape]

Quote:

Originally Posted by egarcia

The original tape is a PDMagnetics.

Thanks for that. It appears to have been a Chrome VHS tape, made in Europe with possibly a BASF connection. I didnt find anything saying it goes sticky.

From here it's difficult to know what went on to cause the problem. Tapes can cause problems and VCR's can cause problems. One can create problems for the other. The fact you played around 200 tapes just means you played around 200 tapes. It doesnt mean you could expect to play another 100 without problems, or that you couldnt. Sorry cant be more specific.

[BarryTheCrab]

Not every shell is created equal. If you have not yet solved your issue, try ANOTHER shell. Cheap shells might not have raised ribs under the spools, those ribs lessen contact between the spool and shell, reducing friction.

[timtape]

Its designed for NO contact between spool and shell, except for two spring loaded fingers lightly pressing each spool onto the VCR's spool tables underneath and with minimal friction. But other issues can develop due to tape or VCR problems. eg: a VCR's reel brakes can weaken over time, causing slack tape which gets into places it shouldnt, like picking up grease. This can stall the video drum etc. Really, VCRs should be checked and serviced before playing, winding, digitizing tapes.

[BarryTheCrab]

We are talking about a squeaky tape.

[timtape]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BarryTheCrab

We are talking about a squeaky tape.

In post #9 you mentioned squealing tapes but I dont believe egarcia or anybody else did.

[BarryTheCrab]

Sorry I meant sticky that time. I have had sticky tapes (you can see them releasing from itself with hesitation in a rewinder or similar mechanism), and sometimes the reels make a squeaky sound. I am doing 6 tapes now moldy, stickiness, and only 1 squeaked as it picked up speed in my cleaner, but it is an indication of friction/warped shell.

[timtape]

Sure but I'd just call them moldy tapes. Moldy tapes often stick to themselves, and tear the tape, because the dry mold acts like glue. I see self described experts on YT calling moldy tapes "Stick Shed Syndrome" which is a completely different problem requiring different treatment, even though both can be humidity related. We do bake an SSS tape because proper baking usually does fix it, temporarily. We dont normally bake a moldy tape because baking doesnt help. We have to find a way to "unstick" the points of adhesion.

The OP's tape appears to be TDK which AFAIK had no SSS issues, and the OP cant see any mold on the tape. So what's going on is not clear. We're still hoping for some photos.

[egarcia]

Hi Everyone, First off, thank you so much for jumping in to assist. Life happened and I’m just now getting a chance to circle back to this post. I wanted to add a few pictures that had been requested. Please note that this has been the only tape that has given me trouble so far with an issue like this. All of the tapes before and about the 25 I’ve done since have been fine. Attached is a picture of the tape (I have transferred shells once). Also attached is a picture of what I cleared out of the machine after trying to run this tape.

Thank you again everyone for your input!

[keaton]

I have encountered a few instances where tape tension seemed to be the problem, yet there was no sign of Sticky Shed Syndrome (which I've encountered, but only with 3/4" U-matic tapes). Once I had a VHS tape that seized up a machine due to tape tension. Fortunately, it happened only after I had already played it back and captured it once, so I decided to make due with what I had. Shell swapping didn't work in that case. Other times shell swapping was the culprit, just a warped shell, not bad tape.

Recently, I encountered this again with some Betamax tapes, with no significant shedding and shell swapping didn't seem to change things. So it seemed the issue is with the tape itself. This led me into researching tape tension online. There's more on this topic in the audio world than the video world. In the audio world people have noted certain tape stocks that are known to dry up, so to speak, and need to be re-lubricated to get them to play without the audio warble/flutter that comes with tape tension. Unfortunately, this approach wouldn't work with video because the video heads would be harmed by the tape lubricant that's used with audio tape.

I've heard the term Soft Binder Syndrome, which attempts to be a more inclusive term that classifies not just Sticky Shed type of tape tension, but also tapes that just have issue with their chemistry changing and don't playback properly. I've seen it said that tapes with tension problems that are not sticky should not be baked, because it could make it worse. I did try to bake one tape that I thought had tension issues, but it did not resolve the issue (and I've successfully baked several 3/4 U-matic sticky shed tapes before).

Of course, there is also the idea of getting a 2 way tape winder and trying to FF and Rewind the tape to see if somehow it can be repacked on the spool so there's less tension. As with the other ideas below, there doesn't seem to be a single one that works for everybody all the time. It's just trying to find something that might help enough to get you at least 1 good playback.

Other things I've tried are

1.) lubricate the tape shell's moving parts with a bike chain lubricant. This idea is similar to the shell swap, trying to resolve any possible tape friction with possibly dried out or excessive friction in the plastic components of the tape shell (but not the tape itself, since we cannot lubricate that). Saw the idea here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltZst0_F-I4 This didn't resolve my particular issue. As noted in the video, be careful with this, because you don't want any lubricant to get on the tape itself.

2.) Winding the tape to a place somewhere in the middle where maybe there's a break in the recording that I wouldn't miss, and cut the tape, then find a new set of empty tape reels to attach the remaining half reels to. The idea here was perhaps if I had less tape on the spool, the tension in the tape may be reduced because there is less of it wound on the same reel. This also did not resolve my problem. Not necessarily something that couldn't work, it just wasn't successful in my case.


I'm surprised at how little info there is out there on this topic. With the amount of tape out there still, and all the hours of transferring people have done, it's curious to me why there's not more talk about this or not more of a consensus of what is the best solution. Perhaps it's because it is a complex condition with many variations from case to case, and so it's just a matter of trying as many different things as you can to get the tape to playback acceptably and not harm your precious electronics.

Sorry, I don't have an answer. I still struggle with these tapes when I find them. As you can see, I've tried a lot of things. So the best I can give you is the list of what I've tried. Perhaps they will bring you luck. Best of luck to you.