| |
Archive for the ‘Video Tapes’ Category
Wednesday, July 28th, 2010
Nothing’s worse than discovering you accidentally taped over important video footage! Luckily, all video tape formats have a way to avoid this calamity: the “record protect” switch or tab. You only need to record over a prize moment once to use this feature obsessively!
 On 8mm and Mini DV tapes, this protection comes in the form of a small “rec/save” switch on the opposite side of the cassette from the tape. (See photo at right.) This switch can be moved back and forth at will, so as soon as you finish filming, make sure you move it into place.
On VHS and VHS-C tapes, there is no switch, but a small plastic tab that’s attached to the cassette shell. Usually, a screwdriver works well to break the tab off. Keep in mind, though, that unlike the mini-tapes’ switch, VHS tab removal is once and done. As soon as the tab is snapped off, the tape can no longer be used for recording, only playback. (However, a small piece of tape can be used to cover the hole if you need to re-use the tape.)
And just so you know, Timeless DVD NEVER tapes over any of your footage when we transfer from your tape to DVD!
Wednesday, July 21st, 2010
Even in this age of memory cards and digital media, many of our customers still use tape-based camcorders for home video – even older formats such as VHS-C and Hi8. And while new VCRs are harder and harder to find as well, VHS tape is still the easiest way to record a TV program and share it with family and friends.
We are often asked, “Which brand of video tape is the best?” Unfortunately, there is no simple answer. But the good news is that the range of quality between the best and worst tapes made by major manufacturers is minimal. Most major-brand video tapes produce similar video quality and provide a better picture than a consumer VCR can record or play back. (This is why Timeless DVD uses professional broadcast decks to convert video.)
 With that said, the best advice we can give is to buy the highest “grade” possible. Most tape manufacturers produce tape lines that include grades ranging from standard/consumer to professional/broadcast. The pro or broadcast tapes will usually feature excellent particle density, a durable magnetic coating, a strong binder, and good head lubricant. These are the ones you want, since they will perform the best in your VCR or camcorder and last the longest.
Whatever you do, avoid discount or generic tapes. Video tapes that are cheaper or created by unknown media companies are less robust and more likely to break.
Monday, July 5th, 2010
 All it takes is a hurricane, unexpected flooding, or month of solid rain, and your house can easily experience significant water issues. What do you do if your video tapes are a casualty of water damage? It actually doesn’t have to mean the video is lost forever–even if the tapes were completely submerged. But if your tapes are exposed to water, here are some pointers to keep in mind.
First, whatever you do, don’t play the tapes in your VCR! Playing wet or water-damaged tapes can further damage the tape, and more importantly, permanently ruin your VCR.
When you see that your tapes have water damage, move quickly. The longer the tapes sit in a damaged state, the worse the deterioration can become. Get the tapes transferred to DVD as soon as you can. We advise finding a video restoration service that specializes in handling environmentally-damaged tapes, since these folks will have the experience to repair and transfer your tape correctly. One such service is Video Interchange.
If you prefer to handle the transfer yourself (again: not recommended!), here’s what to do. First, if the tapes are still wet, submerge them into distilled water. This will wash any contaminants, such as chlorine, salt, or sewage, off the tapes. If the tapes have dried, skip this step–it’s best to not make dry tapes wet again.
To dry out a tape–either after the actual damage or the distilled water bath–extract the reels of tape from the cassette and place them in a cool, dark location. Ensure that the place also has good air flow; an oscillating fan can help with this. Don’t use any drying method involving heat (such as a hair dryer), since excess heat will cause tape to warp. When the tape is fully dried, replace the reels in the shell and try it out in the VCR. (Carefully!)
And one final note: analog tapes, such as VHS, usually survive water damage better than digital tapes, such as Mini DV.
Water damage to tapes is definitely a scary thing! But the good news is that a video transfer can usually be made from the tapes, preserving their essential video content.
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010
A few weeks ago, we discussed the pros and cons of throwing away tapes after a video conversion. But if you do decide to toss your videotapes, should you just throw them into the trash can?
 No, you shouldn’t. Plus, if you live in a state that bans e-waste, you legally can’t. Waste from electronics is the fastest-growing source of garbage in the U.S. And while it only accounts for 2% of the trash in landfills, it causes 90% of landfill pollution, which can contain lead, mercury, cadmium, and other harmful chemicals. These chemicals can cause cancer and nervous system damage if they leak out of the landfill. That is why many states have begun banning e-waste from landfills, and requiring the original manufacturers to pay for recycling. A bill on this subject has been introduced in Pennsylvania, and is expected to pass later this year.
So if you can’t throw your tapes or other electronics into the trash, what do you do with them? Luckily, there are a few services out there that are dedicated to relieving you of your old video tapes:
ACT (Alternative Community Training) is a nonprofit organization that has been cleaning, degaussing, and re-packing video tapes since 1991. They then resell their tapes to the public, so this is a great solution if you have a lot of movies on VHS that you want to donate. ACT also provides jobs for disabled people, and so while you have to pay shipping costs, using ACT enables you to recycle your tapes while helping others find employment.
GreenDisk is a well-known service that recycles a variety of e-waste, including computers, print cartridges, and tapes. Visit their website, pay the small fee for a shipping label, and then ship as many video tapes as you can box up to them. They’ll take care of the rest!
E-cycling Central is a website that lists electronic waste recycling services for every state in the U.S. If you want to find a local solution, this is the place to look.
Remember, we recommend that you keep your videotapes unless you are absolutely 100% positive that you want to get rid of them. But if you do make that decision, be part of the solution–and not the growing problem!
Sunday, June 27th, 2010
 Long after the dust settled between VHS and Betamax (well, maybe about five years later), another format war geared up–this time in the personal camcorder arena.
In the mid-to-late 1980s, the consumer video camera market was exploding. The problem was, no one was thrilled about carrying around a camcorder the size of Texas–which most VHS cameras were. So manufacturers began developing smaller videotape formats. Unfortunately–and naturally–two competing formats came to the market.
JVC, the creator of VHS, created the VHS-C format in 1982. VHS-C is just VHS videotape in a 3 5/8″ by 2 1/4″ shell. Most tapes held 30 minutes of SP video, or 90 minutes of EP video. And best of all: these little tapes could be slipped inside an adapter shell, and could be loaded inside a VCR just like a regular VHS.
Sony countered with the Video 8 format, and released the first model of its popular Handycam line in 1985. An 8mm tape was roughly the same dimensions as a VHS-C tape, but thinner. And more importantly, the plastic tape inside was much thinner: only 8 mm (hence its frequent nickname). The advantage of  Video 8 was that it could hold 2 hours of footage in SP on a single tape, and arguably offered better quality than VHS (not surprising for the maker of Betamax).
The two formats battled it out through the 1990s, with JVC releasing its S-VHS upgrade and Sony creating the Hi8 and Digital 8 variants. The war didn’t really end until Mini DV became the standard for consumer camcorders around the turn of the millennium, driving both analog formats out of business.
Unlike the infamous VHS v. Betamax war, this is a situation in which both formats were successful. VHS-C fans would argue that playback ease, via the VHS adapter shell, is why their format is better. Video 8 fans would counter that their format has much longer recording time and better video quality. And both sides have valid points, but today, it doesn’t matter. We see VHS-C and Video 8 or Hi8 tapes about equally here at Timeless DVD. Both formats are simply video tapes that have become part of many families’ home movie collections.
Wednesday, June 16th, 2010
Here’s a recent question from a Timeless DVD customer:
Timeless DVD just completed a transfer for my home videos, and the DVDs are great. Since I have a second copy of each DVD, can I throw away my original tapes? Tapes take up a lot of space and that’s one thing we don’t have in our house.
Basically, there are two ways of looking at this.
The pros: By tossing your tapes, you’ll save a lot of space.
The cons: If a better transfer method comes along in the future–or if you are not 200% happy with your DVDs–there is no way to redo the transfer. In addition, you may want your video to be in a different format someday. For example, you might transfer your tapes to DVD now, but what if you want to edit high-quality DV AVI files of your tapes later on? You’ll be much better off creating your AVIs from the original tapes than converting the video from a compressed DVD.
 Most professionals would tell you to NOT throw out your tapes, although the reasons to transfer them to DVD or to video files still applies. The materials that comprise a VHS tape are subject to degradation, especially when the tape is used repeatedly or not kept safe from dust and harsh environmental conditions. And tapes are magnetically-based, which means that the signal recorded on the tape can be affected by electromagnetic energy. But a tape can last anywhere from 10-40 years, depending on the conditions it experiences and the quality of the manufactured tape.
So is it reasonable to assume that with correct care, a tape can last through multiple transfers–the main reason to keep them? Absolutely. Store them in an out-of-the-way but safe place. (If you want to be really safe, store them at a separate location from your DVDs for ultimate protection in the event of a fire or other disaster.) Ensure that they don’t experience any extreme temperatures (either hot or cold), direct sunlight, or humidity. Keep them rewound all the way to the beginning and stand them upright. For added protection, seal them in an airtight container along with a large bag of silica gel to absorb any moisture. (See our How to Correctly Store Video Tapes page more discussion on this topic.)
The other part of the argument is that short-run DVDs are not infallible. The Taiyo Yuden discs we use at Timeless DVD are very highly rated, both in terms of authoring reliability as well as longevity testing. It’s estimated that a well-made disc like TY will last 20-30 years at a minimum, and most will probably average 40-50 years before they begin having issues. But no one single tape or disc brand is 100% perfect, and even DVDs are not immune to fingerprints, dust, scratches, and human error.
Additionally, if a DVD has a bad sector, then the entire disc will be unreadable by a DVD player–and the disc may be unrecoverable if the problem occurs at important points on the DVD. This is not true of video tapes. A tape will usually be playable (or at least fixable) even if it has flaws, splices, or other bad sections.
So we recommend keeping your home video and camcorder tapes, no matter what. These tapes are one-of-a-kind masters that can never be replaced or reshot. On the other hand, most commercial movies or television shows will always be available in one way or another, so it is not critical to safely store every VHS movie you’ve ever owned. (The only exception: rare or out of print TV shows or movies.)
We all want a clutter-free home. But don’t assume that just because you’ve had your tapes transferred to DVD, they are safe to throw away.
Thursday, May 27th, 2010
On occasion, we are asked about transferring U-matic tapes. Timeless DVD does not handle this type of videotape. But if you think you have a U-matic tape, here’s a brief description and history of the format.
 U-matic is notable because it was the first videotape that was enclosed inside a cassette shell. In the early 1970s, when U-matic was released, most videotapes were “open-reel” style.
The actual plastic videotape in a U-matic shell is 3/4″ in width, making it slightly thicker than the 1/2″-wide tape used in VHS. U-matic also writes twice as fast as VHS, which means it actually produces far higher quality recordings. Because of this, U-matic tapes were most frequently used in video production to archive footage.
Unfortunately, U-matic only lasted for about ten years. By the early 1980s, Betacam began to replace U-matic as the tape of choice in professional studios, although some facilities still use it today–more than four decades after its introduction. U-matic benefits from its inherent longevity. In fact, the U.S. Congress has a huge library of U-matic tapes!
Friday, April 23rd, 2010
Today, we’re kicking off a running series on the blog: Essential Video Tips. We know there’s a lot to learn where video is concerned – but the last thing you want is inexperience ruining your precious family video memories!
Our Essential Video Tips are some of the most useful pieces of advice we have discovered over time. The tips will cover buying the correct equipment and how to care for it, how to get good shots with your camcorder, and miscellaneous tricks that turn amateur video into magic. We’re sharing these bits of advice so you don’t have to learn them the hard way!
 On deck today: Head cleaners. Head cleaning tapes are available for virtually every video tape format out there (though they can be hard to find these days). Since Mini DV tapes are the primary type of camcorder tape still in use in 2010, let’s discuss that type specifically. Later posts will address other formats of cleaners.
In a standard Mini DV cam, the videotape will deposit a layer of ferric oxide when it is run through the camera. This oxide sticks to the tape heads, a process that not only diminishes your video quality, but also causes lines and interference across the picture. Eventually, your camera will completely stop recording.
Running a Mini DV head cleaner through the camcorder can help to rid the head of obstructions. If you are having trouble with your camcorder’s playback, try playing a cleaning tape – it may just do the trick. In our studio, it is our quick secret weapon when we have a Mini DV to DVD transfer to do, and our regular DV deck gets temperamental!
However, remember to get your camcorder professionally serviced at least once a year too. A video repair technician will be able to clean the heads with alcohol and a swab, which is the best way to truly remove gunk from a camcorder. (If you’re feeling adventurous, you can try this yourself too; just do your research first and be careful!)
Tuesday, April 20th, 2010
In the 1970s, family movies were quite limited. If your family was fortunate enough to own a Super8 camera, your home movies were likely silent and could only be viewed when projected onto a screen. (Or wall!) However, by the 1980s, consumer video had changed rapidly. In just a few short years, families moved from cumbersome projectors and their flickering images to compact, easy videotapes featuring far better quality.
Now, thirty years on, the way we record and view home video is undergoing yet another sea change. Is videotape suffering the same fate as film? Are we now progressing from tape to DVD and other technologies?
Humble beginnings
Videotape has actually been around a lot longer than you might imagine. Way back in 1951, various manufacturers, including Ampex and RCA, began developing tape recorder systems. A team at Ampex eventually developed the first working video recorder, which converted images recorded by TV cameras into electrical pictures that were stored on magnetic tape. These machines were HUGE, and at $50,000, understandably cost-prohibitive for anyone outside of a professional studio.
Videotape technology took a leap forward in 1965, when Sony introduced the first consumer video tape recorder. This reel-to-reel machine used 12-inch-wide tape and could only record up to one hour. Other companies rushed to release similar products, but a lack of interchangeability between manufacturers’ proprietary formats hurt the developing technology. Eventually, a consortium was created that established VTR electrical and mechanical standards.
Around 1970, Sony released the U-matic format. A U-matic tape looks like a larger, bulkier VHS cassette, and can contain up to one hour of video. U-matic became very popular with government, education, and business organizations, but like earlier formats, it was cost-prohibitive for the average person. (A U-matic deck cost approximately $7,000 in 1970 dollars.)
Consumer videotape hits its peak
Finally, consumer video recording became a reality when Sony introduced Betamax in 1975 and JVC released VHS in 1976. Cue the infamous “format war!” Although Betamax suffered from poorer public relations, its main drawback in comparison to VHS was that initially, a single tape could only record up to one hour of video. Nevertheless, many enthusiasts still consider it to be the superior format, with slightly better video quality than VHS. But VHS (or “Video Home System”) did indeed triumph, and remained the standard in consumer home video for nearly two decades.
However, the camcorder market since the release of Betamax and VHS was not so cut-and-dry. Prior to 1983, there were video cameras available – they just came in two pieces. First, there was the “camera,” which resembled a large camcorder. Then there was the actual recorder, which was essentially a VCR attached to the camera by a cord. If you were lucky, you had a harness or belt to carry the recorder around with you!
This two-piece setup is why the introduction of Sony’s Betamovie camcorder was big news. It was the first video camera to be all-in-one, both camera and VCR. The Betamovie used regular Betamax tapes. (Betamax to DVD conversions from Betamovie sources are great, since these tapes are often in excellent condition!)
Undeterred, JVC set out to develop a camcorder for its own VHS format. But rather than using a full-size VHS cassette in their camera (as Sony had done with Betamax), JVC created a smaller version that still used VHS-size tape: the VHS-C (a.k.a. VHS-compact). The VHS-C could snap into an adapter cassette that converted the small shell into a regular-size VHS tape. VHS-C was a huge hit, only hindered by the short running time (30 minutes at SP quality).
Sony realized that Betamax was quickly falling out of favor, and saw the success JVC was having with its “mini” tapes. In 1985, it released the 8mm video tape format. Not to be confused with 8mm film, an 8mm tape is about the size of an audiotape and not as thick as a VHS-C. 8mm tapes could record up to 2 hours of video at very good quality, but they lacked an adapter shell similar to VHS-C.
Throughout the late 1980s and 1990s, VHS and 8mm battled it out in the consumer camcorder market. JVC further developed S-VHS and S-VHS-C; Sony countered with Hi8 and later, Digital 8. Finally, both VHS and 8mm were done in by Mini DV, a super-small digital tape featuring excellent recording quality. Mini DV is the only tape-based camcorder widely available today.
Where do we go from here?
Go into any big box electronics store, and you’ll instantly know where video technology is headed: tapeless video equipment and camcorders. Many of us already experience this via DVRs in our homes and video on our computers. Tapeless camcorders offer many benefits to the consumer, including lighter video cameras (lacking the weight of a tape), lower power drains, and a minimized risk of data loss.
Ask anyone who has owned a tape-based camcorder, and they’ll tell you that dropouts on tapes or the occasional defective blank tape is a reality –which usually occurs just when you’re preparing to shoot something important! Camcorders that do not rely on tapes or moving parts do not have these drawbacks. Flash memory cards and hard drives offer consistent recordings and hold up against environmental changes and sudden shocks.
Moreover, transferring video from a Flash or hard drive camcorder is simple: just plug in your camcorder and the video editing program on your computer will quickly transfer the files over. Compare that to the “real time” it takes to digitize a tape!
However, drawbacks do exist with these newer digital camcorders. Most of them record in the MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 video file formats, which are heavily compressed and much harder to edit. (Video encoded from a tape camcorder is usually DV.) Also, renaming footage files that have been blessed with seemingly random strings of numbers can be quite time-intensive. But these camcorders are definitely here to stay.
Has tape really reached its endpoint? As a current recording medium, it probably has. That doesn’t mean that all your VHS and camcorder tapes are completely obsolete. But it does mean that you should consider ordering a DVD transfer to preserve them, because as technology marches on, they will eventually be as antiquated as that old Super8 film.
|
|
|
