My ancient videotape with the MST3K version of Manos: Hands of Fate has been devoured by my VCR. A bit of tape is all crumpled and folded over. Loosing this tape would be a tragedy of biblical proportions.
Now, my question is, how can I get to it, so I can either smooth it out, or cut the bad part out? Part of the bad part is doubled back into the cassete box, and I can’t get to it. How can I coax the tape out?
An audio tape allows you to pull the tape out of it, with few mind games and rituals. What do I have to do to get a videotape to grant me access to it’s private, most intimate treasures? I’ve tried pressing all the buttons, carfully folding back the cover and applying a little preasure, and gently prodding the sensitive areas, but to no avail.
Will I never again hear the haunting “Torgo” theme? Will I never see a dozen women wrestle in their underwear for no adequtly explained reason? Never to hear the wonders of having every character dubbed by the same two people? To never see Dr. F’s ironic apology for inflicting this movie on his subjects? It’s enough to make one weep. In the name of all that’s good and holy, please help me!
DON’T PANIC! Flip the tape over and note the five screws on the bottom. You can undo these and take the cassette apart (be very careful to pay attention to how the tape threads around all the doo-dads) and you should be able to work the mangled tape out. I’m not sure how you’d get it un-wrinkled, but once you do you should be able to then wind up the slack like you would a music tape (it’ll actually “ratchet,” meaning you can only wind it one way…you’ll see.) If worst comes to worst you can snip out the mangled part and patch the ends together with Scotch Magic tape (yes, really, I’ve done this several times.) If you do get the mangled part flat enough to play again you probably won’t recognize it on your screen, so you might just snip it anyway. If the innards are so mangled that you can’t quite tell how they’re supposed to thread through, you can take apart a less important video (like the kind the local radio stations send in the mail or something stupid) and see how it’s SUPPOSED to look.
turn the tape upside down (with the white spooly things facing you, and the top of the tape facing up). Towards the bottom in the center is a hole. Let’s call this pokey.
now hold the tape normally, so you can see the windows of tape, and so the top is facing up. on the left hand side is a little rectangular button, right underneath the hinge for the long thin cover that covers the top. let’s call this button pressy.
Insert a pencil or something thin into pokey, as far as you can. don’t shove it; simply slide it in. now depress pressy. you should be able to open the long thin cover up. careful, it will swing itself shut, so you have to hold it open. as long as a pencil is in pokey, you can pull as much tape out as you need. edit the bad parts out, tape 'em together, and all should be well with the world.
if the tape is beyond repair, gimme an email and I’ll make a copy of manos for you.
Upon closer examination, this tape dosn’t have any screws on the bottom. Unlike all the other tapes I have, this one has what appears to be solid plastic bits holding it togeter, so it’s basically one piece. I’m not sure it’s possible to pry it open without breaking it. This does not seem, to me, to be a very good engineering decision.
Is there any way to simulate the fast forward motion of the VCR?
I realize the tape is a bit trashy and proably bad for me, but I love it, and want to keep it around. There must be some way to get to its heart without hurting it too much.
And besides which, it’s an insult to my pride as the conqeror of all consumer electronics.
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“I am Torgo. I look after the place while the Master is away.”
D’oh! Well if you can’t get the “pressy/pushy” thing to work, like in the earlier post, you can sacrifice one of your unwanted videos (or pick one up at the thrift store), break the cassette of “Manos” open, unscrew the cassette of the other video and put the repaired “Manos” tape in it. Or like Alphagene said, you could just buy a new tape, but I’m guessing you have other stuff (possibly other MST3K’s) on it as well?
I can’t seem to loace the “pokey.” I can “tighten” either of the two reels, but I can’t loosen them, which is, I assume, what the pokey is supposed to do. I presume there’s a mechanical realase hidden somewhere on the thing, but I can’t seem to find it.
I suppose I could buy another copy, but I’d rather avoid it. I have "The Gunslinger on the same tape, and I’d have to buy that one, too.
Would be worth doing a tape transplant, but I’d perfer to find the tape relase option, if I could. Though the transplant would have better bragging rights.
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“There’s a dark yellow stain on my back-brace . . .”
Do NOT do this!!! The read-heads on your VCR can become seriously damaged if you run anything thicker than VHS tape past them. There is a method for splicing videotape properly, but you generally need to bring it to a professional post house to have it done.
Ahem, if his machine is in the habit of mangling tapes so precious as “Manos” then it’s probably junk and not worth worrying about. Seriously, I’ve done this with tapes many times and never had a problem. I don’t know what kind of VCR you have but mine have always had springy heads so tape thickness was never an issue. You’d obviously want to be careful what sort of tape you use, and that it wouldn’t melt and get gooey from the heat of the machine; that’s why I recommended the Magic tape, which is what I’ve always used.
It pretty much says to make two separate tapes out of each half, then COPY each half onto a single video (which is actually a really good idea, but granted, time consuming.)
Aha! I have found it’s secret trigger, and the tape has yeilded its most precious, hidden analog encoded heart. Allowing me claim its content as my own. I can now dub it onto a different tape once I can borrow another VCR. Gently, of course.
Thanks SFB. I was poking around in the wrong area. As usual. Thank’s for the visual aid.
As for you, VCR, for the crime of devouring my precious tapes, I demand, as attonement, death! Though this sentece will be delayed until such a time as I can afford a replacement, whereupon you will be torn apart and used to satisfy my urge to poke around with electronics.
Therefore, you will be administered several John Agar and Joe Don Briggs movies in a row, to show you the error of your ways, and act as a deterant for other VRS who may be tempted to act as you have.
So let it be written, so let it be done.
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“The triple A battery hasn’t been born that can count the numbers of ninja’s that I’ve left headless.”
I’ve had to ‘fix’ several tapes before. You can benefit from having taken one apart and put it together again. It’s very dificult, though, and I don’t recommend it.
Ugh, I was afraid of that. Thats how I lost my tape which had the MSTification of The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies.
Ah, that made me smile. My sister has a Torgo screen-saver (not sure where she got it from) that has our beloved man-goat hobbling around the screen to the aforementioned theme.
Congratulations on your first tapectomy. Be careful when disassembling your VCR, though. I got zapped by a capacitor once when taking apart a disposable camera, much to the delight of my siblings… Strangely enough, when I subsequently dropped the camera (saying “ow!”), the film popped out, and the mission was accomplished.
Well, it appears that I am too late to be of any use, as usual. That’s not going to stop be from tacking this on.
I used to repair video tapes all the time back in my video store days. All the inner workings of the tapes become fairly evident once you take them apart. One word of caution: When the time comes to actually separate the top half from the bottom half, after you have removed the screws, do yourself a huge favor and make sure the cassette is not still upside-down! All of the little springs and spokes and rachets will fall out and you will never get them back together quite right.
Also, using regular old scotch tape is just fine, with no risk to the VCR heads, provided you tape the correct side. If you haven’t ever looked inside your VCR, you should know that the tape doesn’t actually run through anything, but is more or less guided to rub up against the head. Tape on the back side (non-shiny) side.
If you have to splice a tape back together after trimming out a few unsalvagable bits, try to trim the tape on an angle and tape it back together that way. If you cut straight across, you will likely get a nice loud popping sound on the soundtrack at that point.
If you can find a video rewinder at the thrift shop [don’t have to buy it, just pretend to test it], you can put it in,
FF & then REW or the other way around.
This happens with me sometimes. I usually put in a vcr that accepts it [first use your finger in that hole [third base] & turn it if you can to a fresh spot] & then FF or REW it a couple times & it straightens out.
“patch the ends together with Scotch
Magic tape (yes, really, I’ve done this several times.”