Video Asylum

Posted by Frank2001 (A) on August 23, 2001 at 15:36:48

In Reply to: Do not fully agree posted by John C. - Aussie on August 23, 2001 at 14:51:46:

Greetings John C. and Thanx,

You are right about TDK's and Maxell's from the 80's. The ones that I have from as far back as 1983 do seem to be holding up well. And most of my Scotch's, BASF's, Memorex's and some others also seem OK, although with them it is a tape-to-tape thing.

But it is the Ampex 189's (ALL-Gray) and Ampex Rainbow-on-a-Black Box from the 80's that are all dying on me. You can ONLY play them back on any Sharp VCR that uses the Mid-Drive Assembly, but that too is a tape-to-tape thing. The Sharp is amazingly tolerant with most of the Ampex tapes. However, some Ampex Tapes wouldn't play/wind at all in the Sharp, so it was bye-bye for them.

I have many Ampex's that are going to be trashed because the deterioration they are experiencing. I will be able to transfer some stuff to modern tapes, but a lot of other things are now irretrievably lost.

Thanx-A-Lot and Enjoy,
Frank
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