|
Wanting to make a small thread about this in order to clear up this concern I've been having recently over the physical condition of a VHS tape, and how it's expected to look.
I understand how mold can be bad for tapes, and especially VCRs. I've seen horror photos of extremely moldy tapes so I know what to look for whenever I come across VHS tapes. I do inspect them by at the very least looking at the tape from the plastic section of the shell, and by opening up the flap and looking at the tape under some bright light. I really don't want to ruin this expensive high quality gear all because I accidentally put in a seemingly moldy and/or dusty tape.
Using the light method, I've seen some tapes that look to have small white particles on the tape itself, they don't look like mold growth as it's usually like small white dots sprinkled around the tape. My gut feeling is that even they aren't safe to put inside a VCR, even if there is only one or two specks.
I do try and see if a tape is fully black and clean, with no noticeable white dots and other dust marks before putting them inside, as well as no noticeable wrinkled edges. If so then I feel comfortable with letting it play, if not then I refuse to play that tape.
Am I just getting too paranoid about this, or are my fears valid here?
I'll try to see if I can post some screenshots showing off the problem spots, it's just quite a challenging due to light reflecting onto the tape itself. Leaving the white specks hard to spot in a screenshot.
|
