On Monday 22 August 2005 11:19 am, Tim wrote: > 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. > It's glue, plastic, and iron oxide - widely differing formulations of each ingredient - the quality/stability of the individual ingredients is one issue; how they do together over time is a separate issue. My experience has been the same regarding video tapes - even some of the most expensive reels with the biggest name-brands - oxide flaking is such a major problem with us, that we keep a couple of old decks around tor one-pass plays of older tapes - when we need to use an older tape, we play it once and dub it off to a newer digital format at the same time. If the old decks get hosed, they're considered expendable. I have had tapes that left such a gooey mess in the tape path that it was impossible to clean it all up. -- Claude Jones Bluemont, VA, USA
