Yes, a prep/pre-capture workflow. Just methods, rarely tools. Mostly common sense, though most of not obvious until pointed out.
Break and remove ALL the safety tabs for VHS. For Video8/Hi8/DV, lock them all. That way, no mistakes. The "record" button is sadly still easy to hit.
Open every tape gate, inspect the black tape showing. If even a hint of imperfection, aside from the slight curl set it aside.
In most cases, "cleaning" tapes means irreparably harming the oxide, ruining the tape. Do not listen to morons on Youtube, they don't care if you ruin your tapes. "Oh well, sorry, worked for me!" Tape cleaning is only for certain reasons, and requires special methods and/or equipment. Not some shoddy amateur method with random chemical, and whatever "genuis" process the are showing (usually gutted VCRs, power drills, etc). Remember, we can cook meat, held with a fork in the left hand, and using a blow torch in the right hand. This isn't much different. Don't listen to ol' Zeek or Bubba if you value your tapes.
Age doesn't determine condition.
Do you have any 80s BASF tapes? Those are ones to watch for, save those for last.
Overly cold VCR heads are not good to make contact with tapes, can literally strip oxide. Run a retail to for 15 minutes, warm everything up during winter. (Overly hot also bad, allow cool down between tapes, at least 5-10 minutes ideal.)
Test all the gear and workflow before committing for the day's run. Computers suck, you never know when they want to act up. As a perfect irritating example, my main capture system started giving audio hum issues last night. Zero idea why. Had been fine last time used. Now not. So yippee, I get to figure that out. I'll be starting by swapping out of the the cards. Next will be to finally replace the HDD, 1 of 2 left in service, SSD waiting in the wings, now may be the time.
Some of your gear has been put through the paces,
, should be fine. Some of your cameras, deep inspect before usage.
