Repair a VHS Video Tape

First of all video tape does deteriorate not just the recording but the. Tape itself.


As I found out to my horror. Stored in a cool dry place you would think it would be safe. Not So. It was only the thought of putting this film footage on Youtube that the problem came to light.


Having purchased the gadget for converting the video information to store on my computers hard drive. I set about doing the transfer. After about half an hour into the video, the machine stopped, it was a four hour tape and full of RNXS footage. Well the RNXS is no longer, and the footage was heading for the same fate.On ejection of the tape, and pressing in the tab at the right hand side to release the front cover there appeared just a thin strand of tape. The machine had detected "no tape present" and immediately shut down If you find the machine shuts down during play mode. eject the tape, if it looks intact, try turning the cassette upside down then using a small screwdriver or a Biro pen insert this into the center hole towards the rear of the cassette case, its spring loaded so as to release the spool break. wind the tape on a bit with your finger, and try again, that's assuming of course that there is not a fault with the machine itself. If it does work it means the oxide coating is coming off and exposing clear tape. In this case the machine detects no tape present and shuts down.


If the tape has snapped or is badly creased in one place.


In my case about fifty feet of video tape just fell out like spaghetti. It is possible sometimes to repair it without taking the cassette to bits.


Here is how you can do it.


First of all make sure you have a good and very clean work surface. Insert a Biro into the hole to release the spool brake then you can pull out the tape until all the damaged section is revealed or just enough to work on. Using a very sharp knife or better still a razor blade. cut the damaged parts of the tape out leaving a straight cut at both ends of the tape, here is the tricky bit. Using a small piece of sellotape stick this to the back of one half of the tape. NOT THE SHINNY SIDE. You need to make sure both ends butt together and are not over lapped carefully bring the other half in, line it up then press the sellotape splice down hard as you can. Trim the over hanging bits off making the join the same width as the tape itself. You can then insert the Biro to release the spool brakes and wind the tape back into the cassette with your finger.
The tape will play back with a noisy line slowly moving up the picture and you may hear it as the join passes over the video heads. This is a good fix if you need to retrieve that one off footage. I recommend you transfer to DVD asap and do not use the tape in your machine after transfer. Once you have done the transfer you can easily edit out the bad parts in windows movie maker.