On Thu, 2005-08-18 at 22:13 -0400, Claude Jones wrote: > Even if it's stored properly, vertically, not horizontal on the spool, > in temperature and climate controlled conditions, there is a wide > disparity in tape longevity. I'd go further. Some tapes are just chemically unstable. Firstly, there's the obvious: Those tapes that smell strong are releasing their contents into the air. But what I was thinking about was the old open-reel video tapes I've got. Many of them, while spending ages sitting wrapped up in their boxes, inside a plastic bag, have gone bad all by themselves. If you try to play one, they stick in the tape path, and squeal as they're forced to move across heads and tape guides. -- Don't send private replies to my address, the mailbox is ignored. I read messages from the public lists.
