> While I'm spending serious time cleaning and servicing my VCRs,
> I've become
> curious about the cassettes that I've accumulated over the last
> 20 years . .
> I've made no effort to date them so I have new ones and 1980 ones jumbled
> together . . . I'm amazed that nothing ever seems to happen to
> them but I
> wonder: do they eventually die?
It depends greatly on storage conditions, but they do eventually die. Heat
and humidity are the main enemies. Most common failure appears to be the
oxide coming off the backing, but that may depend on tape brand. Some older
backings appear to get brittle and break when the tape is played.
> Is there any test to determine the condition of the tape?
I've never seen a cleaner/verifier for VHS tapes, but there may be such a
thing. Without it, I'd say the best test is to run them through a VCR and
see how well they play. The deterioration is usually gradual, so another
test would be to clean the tape heads/path before and after, and see how
much oxide gets left behind. Of course, there's also a degradation every
time you play them, so perhaps you shouldn't do this too often.
> (wishing DVD recorders were cheaper)
Last I heard, computer DVD writers were down to $200 at the swap meets.
Still not cheap, especially since you'd also need a video capture card and
some software, but not out of this world either.
Randall
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