OK- maybe this belongs in Great Debates, but:
Do you rewind rental tapes? I never do, because I have been told rewinding is the doom of all VCRs. Am I morally wrong but technically correct?
I figure the darn rental place has those special rewinders so why stress my VCR? (BTW, I have been through TWO rewinders, both of which ruined movies before being thrown away)
I ask because my husband, whose VCR is in MUCH worse shape than mine, constantly goes behind my back and rewinds rental tapes. I tell him that’s why his VCR sucks and mine is still almost as good as the day I bought it (about 8 years ago).
(and yes- we now have a DVD player)
I’ve had the same Teac VCR for 11 years. I’ve rewound all my tapes, and I haven’t had any problems.
Question: do you rewind your DVDs?
I’m not sure how rewinding can be so dramatically detrimental to a VCR’s health. After all, it’s the same motor that you expect to drive your tapes steadily forward that does the work of rewinding. Yes, this means you’re using the motor twice as much if you rewind, but I don’t see that as a major problem, since the motor is designed for use. Is your husband’s machine giving poor picture quality? Perhaps, since today’s VCRs keep the heads in light contact with the tape in order to keep track of the time, that double duty of playing and rewinding could cause additional wear on the heads, and require more frequent cleaning.
the head arguement is the thing. VHS has no way to disengage the head, even though it is not needed for rewinding. Each time you rewind (so goes the theory) you are putting twice as much wear on the head as is strictly necessary, eventually wearing it down to a nubbin. personally, I have an over 10year old vcr and have always rewound and never had any trouble. I always thought the whole rewinding paranoia must have gone back to the early days of VCRs. I cant see it being a problem unless the vcr was basically low-quality to begin with .
I sometimes rewind in the VCR and sometimes I use a rewinder. I have never had a cassette ruined by either operation.
Curiously the orignal VHS specification disengaged the tape from the head for rewinding. The clumsy delay while it did this was considered a disadvantage so most VHS deck makers copied the Beta machines that didn’t disengage. Some better VHS decks like Sony have a fast rewind that disengages along with standard rewind.
I am currently on my 4th and 5th VCRs (since 1984).
In the previous three, the head was the thing that always wore out, never the drive.
And, since everything I watch on TV is something that I’ve previously taped, I have rewound a hell of a lot of tapes.
On behalf of all video store employees everywhere:
You bastard!
Thank you for your attention.
… and on behalf of customers everywhere who get the un-rewound tape after you:
You bastard!
Same goes for those of you who do the same with books-on-tape from the library.
Thank you for your attention.
Ok, I had to wait until my SO the electronic genius woke up. He’s worked fixing electronic gizmo’s for the better part of 40 years. He says:
"Let’s see, you just played a 2 hour movie where the machine was working, and you’re worried about the additional 30 seconds it takes to rewind the tape? - they don’t work on gears, they work on belts, which have to be replaced at some point ANYHOW. " so, go ahead and rewind your tapes and make the video store employees happy…
:D:
The difference between a rewinder and your VCR is that the VCR has a sensor that “sees” the clear leader part of the tape and stops immediately while the rewinder uses the stress of the rewound tape to stop. I’ve had to repair a few tapes that got the leaders snapped off by a rather overzealous rewinder.
My local public library has an extensive collection of videos, all of which have stickers on them that say “Bee Kind–Rewind” with a picture of a bee, of course.
And if you don’t take the hint, they charge you a dollar.
As far as the local video store, I just always assumed that rewinding your own videos was a courtesy to the world in general. “Clean up after yourself”, etc.
As much as I ahte to answer with a link, check out:
Be kind… Well, Nevermind
There is the theory that you should store a tape in the played condition because rewinding stretches it.
Examine the tape in both conditions. Rewound sure looks better. Maybe I am contributing to an UL.
I work on vcrs, the old ones were the ones you didn’t want to rewind with, really, they were really really slow.
Never use a rewinder. These plastic pieces of crap can eat videos. They are cheaply made & not very accurate. So don’t use them. There are several tech’s that agree with me on this.
It doesn’t necessarily stretch it, but a tape stored in the played condition will have a more even pack to it. A rewound tape is looser and can have more edge showing which can lead to deterioration of the tape itself.
Thank you all for the responses.
So- is the basic consensus that rewinding only affects older VCR’s? I knew it had something to do w/ head damage…
Like I said, I know it seems “immoral” not to rewind. I apologize to all of you out there… but it seems to me (sorry ResovoirDog)that making sure the tape is rewound is the job of the video store clerk.
I KNEW those rewinders were pieces of crap! I ruined several tapes before getting a clue.
I think I will still stick by my guns and not rewind (but I am very kind in every other aspect of my life, I swear!!!). I guess it’ll be my one-and-only vice (since I can’t even enjoy a sip of beer because of the Pregnancy Police).
I rewind one time per rental-- either before watching it if nobody rewound it when done, or after watching it. What difference does it make?
I prefer to get movies that are not rewound. Check the box to see how long the movie is, and rewind that amount of time. That way, you don’t have to fast forward through 15 minutes of commercials and FBI warnings. If returning videos unrewound was the standard, people would have no choice but to rewind at least once.
I have a JVC VCR which I’ve had since 1990. I also have a dedicated rewinder which I’ve had for about the same time. I’ve never rewound an entire tape in that VCR, but instead, used the rewinder.
The rewinder still works to this day, and I have no idea what brand it is, but I know I paid about 10 bucks for it. I use it for two reasons – it rewinds faster than the VCR and I’m gullable when it comes to that myth about rewinding tapes in your VCR.
Wow, still renting tapes? How retro.