Moudly Betamax Tape

[philljp]

Hi all,

I sent my Betamax tape of a childhood holiday off to be transfered to DVD, however they have told me its got moudly on and stuck together so breaking when played.

Can someone recommend me a company that might be able to restore this?

[jman98]

Welcome, but seriously, how did you not realize that letting us know what country you live in might be important? For example, Australia's best video service might not be particularly useful to an American poster and vice-versa.

I don't criticize anyone for not putting their true location in their profile (see mine), but this is one of those times when you need to at least put in your post where you are from because the answer you get depends on it. There are reasons why my location is a joke here, but I have often admitted in posts that I live in the USA and if it's relevant then I explicitly mention it in posts.

[philljp]

Well, thanks for the quick reply, lol.

Consider my wrist well and truely slapped, it was a stupid thing for me to do, but it literally just slipped my mind!

Updated Location: UK

I really hope someone knows of somewhere, because im googling loads of stuff and cant seem to find anyone decent UK based.

[jman98]

We have people here who can probably help you, but for some reason none of them have posted. This is a good question and it's worthy of an answer, so I'm posting this to kick this thread back up to the top in the hopes that maybe someone who knows a UK restoration company can help you.

I did find these sites via a search. Of course I have never used them.
http://www.vhsrestoration.co.uk/
http://www.videos-dvd.co.uk/Transfer-Copy/Video_Tape_Repair.html
http://www.kodakexpresscamden.com/

[TreeTops]

If that tape is truly moldy and stuck together so hard that it breaks, I doubt that anyone will want to touch it. It may damage their equipment and that means they will want an upfront fee to cover the cost of any equipment that is damaged by your tape. That fee could be many thousands of dollars/pounds.

[jman98]

Well, according to my web search it is possible to clean even moldy tapes but it would be a good question about whether the original poster would have the willingness and/or ability to do so. If you know what you are doing you can open the tape case and clean it by unspooling it and carefully going over the tape, but it's very labor intensive no matter who does it. So I don't think that your concern, although valid, need be a problem if a repair shop is willing to do that.

[philljp]

Cheers guys, I'm willing to do whatever it takes, but I want to try make sure i've covered all angles before i let someone get their hands on it and make things worse. I've read some company in America has special machines for this type of thing, but ideally wanted to keep things UK based.