Repairing/splicing a broken VHS tape?

What's the best way to repair/splice a broken VHS tape?

 

Where is the break? Is the surrounding tape stretched or damaged? Do you have a spare donor cassette body?

 

Please post some pics.

 

If the tape is physically severed, there's no practical way of doing it.

Reel-to-reel and cassette tape can be spliced with purpose-made adhesive tape on the side of the tape that does not come into contact with heads and guides. VHS has guides on both sides, a rotary head spinning at high speed, and there's too much potential for splicing tape to get caught up in them. Gluing tape together is a no-no.

If I was pushed for a solution, I would find a donor shell of the same make/model, take the front or back end of the current tape, and transplant it to that other shell. Cut out any damaged section, and content myself with playing Part A up to the break, and Part B from the break. Some improvisation required to secure loose tape to leaders and hubs, etc.

 

I rented a VHS tape about 30 years ago that the previous renter had taped back together, apparently. The tape broke at the splice point when I played it. It ruined the head of my VCR. The heat made the sticky tape smear the glue all over the head. Kroger paid for my VCR repair. I don't think that VHS tapes can be repaired, same as the previous poster.

 

They are very thin.

 

Where’s @Vidiot ? That’s the man with the answers.

 

I use a kit and splice tabs from Hudson Photographic Industries at work. I don't think that they are available anymore. VHS tape splices are ugly, not seamless like an audio tape splice. The signal will glitch where the splice occurs, unless the tape broke at the very beginning or end of the recording. As long as the splice tape is applied to the back of the tape, it should pass through the mechanism without gumming up the works. Always a good idea to make the repair and then transfer it to digital. Then you can hang on to the VHS to use only if necessary. We charge $10 for VHS repair and we're located in Kentucky if you're interested, just let me know.

VHS are the easiest video tape to repair. Mini-DV for instance, is a nightmare.

Here's a youtube video describing the basic process:




Good luck!

 

Just what I would say. I fixed hundreds of VHS and Beta tapes by splicing one half to the transparent leader tape of another cassette shell. You never want to splice in the middle of the tape. The transparent leader is detected inside the player and that splice never passes over the heads.

 

You think Mini DV is bad try DAT, if I never see a dissassenmbled DAT cassette again it will be too soon, plus the people I fixed them for seemed to think it was easy, but yes VHS was very straightforward compared to small digital formats.

 

To clarify about my VCR, the repairman said there was bits of the Scotch Tape in my VCR. The person who "fixed", or is jury-rigged the tape had some idea of how to do splicing, surely...??? I suppose they thought they'd be charged for breaking the tape, so, they turned it into a VCR deapth charge for all practical purposes.

 

Amen. I actually have one, but I haven’t had the nerve to fix it yet.

 

I’ve seen that type of fix. I’ve even seen a wad of Scotch tape wrapped around a Super 8mm film break. At least you can see that coming.

 

You can fix VHS tapes in the middle of the spool. I used to work at a video store and we did it all the time. The trick is you need a special VHS splicing block that lets you cut on an angle, as the video is recorded on a "slant," and you have to match the slant with the direction of the video. If you cut it straight across, the VCR's tracking will freak out, and you will wreck at least several seconds of extra video instead of what was just lost from the break. It's not hard, all you need is the small aluminum splicing block, a sharp razor, and the appropriate splicing tape tabs.

 

I wouldn't trust it. They used to edit 2" tape with a splicing block, but those heads were huge compared to the heads in a VHS or Beta deck.

 

1/2" tape splicing is rough. I had an Editall 1/2" block (and a 1" and 1/4" and even a 1/8") for years and years and years, and we even had the special foil-backed adhesive splicing tape for videotape. @jbmcb's method above is pretty much what we did: splice the tapes on a slant. Trial and error will teach you what works (and what doesn't). If the adhesive hits the spinning video heads, you are screwed -- don't do that.

There are a lot of reasons I don't miss analog videotape.

I worked for big LA post houses for decades in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s (and 2000s), and only one of them had a 2" videotape splicer. It was in mothballs, covered with cobwebs, and unfortunately got thrown out before I could get to it. It looked like this:



They hadn't used it in many years -- that was more a 1960s-early 1970s kind of thing. Tape splicing was easy on open-reel audio tape, provided you had a "feel" for where the beat was and how to mark the tape and all that stuff. Video signals are tougher since the sync pulse had to be aligned, and if you didn't do that, the edit would "glitch" and the picture would roll vertically and break up for a second. When fixing 1/2" VHS tapes and stuff like that, you just have to let it go -- I think just repairing "around" the tape break is the best you can hope for.

 

https://i.imgur.com/dvBkLkQ.jpg

 

Has that been stored in damp conditions for some time?

 

years ago I repaired many VHS tapes...scotch tape worked, but it probably was not the best choice...don't have many left but the ones I do are still fine.

 

Yeah, it looks really bad on the close-up, doesn't it? There was some sticky brown residue that I attempted to remove.

The tape is about 28-29 years old.

 

What footage is on the tape?

I've used Scotch tape to make repairs to rips like the one pictured.

 

It's a friend who died young in 1995.

I've read about Scotch tape on other sites. But the replies to my post advise against it.

 

I have also repaired them successfully with scotch tape.

 

I would strongly advise people not do that. That **** is deadly. There's a reason real videotape splicing tape is what it is.

VHS & Reel to Reel splicing tape 1/2 Inch X 1200 inch roll

"Never use Scotch tape on your audio or videotape. Eventually a chemical reaction will cause the glue to melt down and leak to adjacent parts of the tape and damage it beyond repair."

I don't completely agree with this, but it is true that the adhesive can leak to other tape layers and get on the heads, which is a disaster.

 

"There was some sticky brown residue that I attempted to remove."

Get two new shells, either by purchasing New Old Stock or decent quality used tapes.

Put the front part of your damaged tape in one, with one hub from your existing tape, and the back part with hub in the other, cutting the break out, enough to get a clean cut

Secure the cut ends to the leader tape and hubs in the donor shells with proper splicing tape, but DO NOT leave enough leader tape to allow the splice to touch the video head. If necessary, trim the leader tape short to achieve this

Fast-forward and rewind a few times before playing

Transfer to digital or some form of copy on your first pass.

If there's any residue on the tape itself, come back here for more advice.