Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[Rick]

Hmmmmm just tried out a motoring tape from 1987, and its started to deteriorate so I've left it on downstairs, transferring onto DVD. If you've not checked your old vids for a while, I recommend checking 'em out! last time I played this one it was fine. I made a start on t/ferring older tapes onto DVD a while back, must pick up where I left off!!

R
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Rick - Admin
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[peter scott]

Hi Rick,

Can you tell what has happened to your tape?
Is the magnetic coating flaking off the tape or
is there no obvious explanation?

What is the effect of the deterioration?

Peter

[Rick]

I've noticed a few tapes, when played, getting wobbly/flickery along the bottom edge of the screen, same effect as if the tracking was miles off. On the old VHS players you could twiddle tracking knobs (!) but now it all seems to be automatic with the modern players

R
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Rick - Admin
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[ukdave2002]

Ahh good old VHS

My first job was as a electronics technician at a Sharp VHS production factory, sorting out problems with machines in the plant.

VHS was actually inferior to Betamax especially the audio side although it was improved later.

Anyway you have a syncing problem which can be caused by old tapes depositing dirt on the heads (there will be 2 or 4 heads, if its a new machine it will be 4), the heads spin diagonally across the tape and have to sync the start of the scan with the end of the previous heads scan, when you have a bit of dirt they can’t sync as quickly so you loose the first few lines, which is what you are describing.

Actually playing the tapes can clean them but you will also need to clean the heads as well, if you don’t have a head cleaning tape it done by whipping the cover off the machine and with some alcohol on a bit of clean paper wipe the heads,(you need smooth printer type paper). You will find the heads on the drum which is about a 2 inch diameter metal cylinder, the heads are only about 3mm wide, if it’s a 2 head machine the heads will be 180 degrees apart , 4 head 90 degrees apart.

Incidentally our final inspection folk could tell the difference between a tape that had never been played, and a tape played just 5 times by visible playback quality! so there will be some tape deteriation.

Dave

[peter scott]

Hi Rick,

From what you say I suspect you don't need to worry about deterioration of your tapes. I have loads of old tapes and I don't have any that show noticeable deterioration.

The tracking of different machines does give rise to some incompatibity but whilst new machines don't highlight their tracking controls they do normally have a manual tracking function. If you no longer have the user instructions then you can usually find them in the customer support section of your manufacturer's web site. Failing that then try pressing some of the front panel keys whilst playing. It will normally be a pair of key like the up and down channel selection keys or that sort of thing.

Personally I think we have much more to worry about with the longevity of DVDs and their compatibility machine to machine.

Peter

[clan chieftain]

Changed from aol to talktalk and couldnt remember the website.Thanks Rick for the email.
On the question of video tapes can videos be downloaded on to a PC ?
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The Clan Chieftain

[peter scott]

Yes, but you need to digitise the content.

What I have done with the analoque tapes is to play them into the video input of my DV camcorder and then capture the camcorder recording on the PC through the Firewire port or you can use USB if you don't have Firewire.

Here's a recent example of an old VHS recording transfered via DV camcorder. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=GDbc5cCM0XA

Peter

[clan chieftain]

Interesting Peter...How did you link your video to your camcorder
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The Clan Chieftain

[peter scott]

You need a Digital Video (DV) camcorder with an analoque video input. Mine has an S-Video socket.
Do you have a DV camcorder? If so what make/model is it?

Another way to digitise analoque video is by transferring to DVD and then using a program such NCH Prism to extract the content as a .wmv file.
If you want to edit the content then you'll need something like Windows Movie Maker to achieve it. Whilst these programs are freeware the process is very tedious and slow. The camcorder method is very much easier and more flexible.

Peter