NEWS
Understanding Video Tape Degradation and How to Prevent It
You gather with your extended family, eager to share a story from your past. At first, your relatives are enthralled by the story that you’re telling with as much detail as you could remember. But then, one of them stops you saying “no way!” – they weren’t convinced, and you feel like your memories are foggy and incomplete, not doing any justice to the thrilling experience.
Suddenly, a lightbulb in your head goes off. You exclaim victoriously that you have it all recorded! Unfortunately, not only had the tape been lost in the basement over time. You spend a considerable time finding it to only keep having issues when trying to play it for your family. And then you realize it’s not only that tape, but practically most of your precious memories have turned into buried treasures.
If you want to preserve or save these stories and memories, keep reading to learn how you can keep your VHS recording alive and share them with future generations who will appreciate them and be enticed to keep the family legacy close to their hearts.
What is Video Tape Degradation?
Video tape degradation is when tapes start to lose quality because of age and use. Unfortunately, many of the tapes you were able to find in your basement have already started to degrade. But don’t worry! Keep reading to find out why this happens and how you can stop it from getting worse and see if you can save them.
Causes of Video Tape Degradation
Learn the main reasons why your tapes have started to degrade:
- Age: What’s most likely keeping your tape recording far from looking as crisp as you remember is its age. After ten years, tapes can start to lose quality. We know that VHS tapes haven’t been used much for more than a decade. That means your favorite family tapes have about or more than twenty years and have already been degraded.
- Improper storage: The place you choose to keep your VHS tape can affect its quality. Due to the anatomy of video tapes, they are often delicate and can easily be damaged by rough handling. Piling them on top of each other or putting them in a heavy box with other belongings can contribute to their quality damage.
- Heat and humidity: Storing them in a place with high humidity or heat can also cause video tapes to deteriorate and lose quality due to chemical reactions that happen without us noticing. Plus humidity attracts the development of mold, which will easily destroy your cassette.
- Magnetic interference: Your VHS already has magnetic components to store the information of your recording through its tape, so it’s not rocket science to understand that a powerful magnet can lead to demagnetization and severely damage it.
Transfer Video Tapes to Digital Format
- Proper Storage of Video Tapes: Find a good place to store them where they won’t get damaged as much as possible. Keep in mind avoiding extreme temperatures and bulky boxes, and make sure they’re protected and safely stored.
- Avoid Regular Playback and Rewinding of Video Tapes: Constant playback and rewinding can stretch the components of the VHS, causing a noticeable degradation. So if you have the resources, play these tapes wisely while they last!
- Transfer Video Tapes to Digital Format: If you have previously had your video tapes digitized by Costco, and are now looking to convert them into digital formats, you may be disappointed to learn that their service has been discontinued. However, modern and upgraded services such as Capture are available to provide similar services. With Capture, you can easily order online, mail in your tapes, and receive notifications when the conversion is complete. You can also conveniently access your converted files online. Convert your old video tapes into modern digital formats with Capture so you can effortlessly share them with your loved ones, both now and in the future!
Conclusion
Preserving memories and stories captured on old video tapes can be a challenge due to the natural degradation of these tapes over time. However, by understanding the causes of video tape degradation, we can take steps to prevent further damage. To ensure these precious memories are not lost, you can convert video tapes to digital format through services like Capture which makes it easy to order online, mail in your tapes, and access them online. By taking these steps, we can keep these memories alive and share them with future generations for years to come.
Harper Harrison is a reporter for The Hear UP. Harper got an internship at the NPR and worked as a reporter and producer. harper has also worked as a reporter for the Medium. Harper covers health and science for The Hear UP.