A while back, I accidentally damaged a video cassette. I mean one of the ones that you buy blank and then record off the TV. What happened was, I put the cassette back into the sleeve, where that paper with the stickers on it already was. One of the little tiny stickers somehow came unpeeled…and attached itself to the tape.
So the next time I tried to play the cassette, it wouldn’t. I identified the problem right away and removed the sticker. IIRC, it sort of played after that, but the picture “jumped” all over the place.
I didn’t dare try playing it after that, counting myself fortunate that it hadn’t wrecked the VCR into the bargain. But recently, I’ve been going through my old cassettes and burning stuff to DVD. Checking my index, I discovered that this cassette has on it four episodes of a show that I’m fairly certain will never be released in a box set, so if it’s at all possible to salvage the cassette, I’d like to. Is there any way to…I dunno, “clean” a tape?
There are professional video services that “rescue” tape. For example they have industrial strength machines that can play stuff that would jam up a normal VCR. Unfortunately it can be pricey, and you might have to post it off somewhere. But if the episodes are really valuable to you, it could be worth it.
Alternatively, you could perhaps search eBay or advertise to find someone with the same Eps who will sell them.
Good luck either way. But don’t risk your VCR if it is expensive - I nearly totally wrecked my video camera with a dodgy tape once.
Here is one way to try to salvage a damaged tape. But note that it is quite tricky and you can still end up damaging your VCR. It is only for really valuable tapes.
Whatever you do, don’t try to splice the tape (other than at the ends, as in the link).
I don’t know why not. I’ve done this successfully several times, with no problems. Sure, there’s a risk of the splice separating and the tape getting wrapped around the head, but VCRs are cheap enough these days. If you’re careful, even this risk is minimal.