Video tape fungus...

[soneman]

I'm currently in the middle of clearing out things in my house and I have just discovered some old video tapes which have a white mould or fungus on the top of the tape. You can see it through the plastic windows on the top of the plastic case that houses the tape.

However, when you lift the flap at the back of the housing, the tape looks fine. I haven't tried playing them and I haven't touched the tape itself. I have touched the plastic housing however which doesn't seem to be infected.

The tapes are about 25 years old and they do have content on them which I would like to watch again.

Can they be restored? Is it safe for me to try removing the mould/fungus by myself? What should I do with these old video tapes as I would like to keep them for transfer to DVD?

[edDV]

I'm currently in the middle of clearing out things in my house and I have just discovered some old video tapes which have a white mould or fungus on the top of the tape. You can see it through the plastic windows on the top of the plastic case that houses the tape.

However, when you lift the flap at the back of the housing, the tape looks fine. I haven't tried playing them and I haven't touched the tape itself. I have touched the plastic housing however which doesn't seem to be infected.

The tapes are about 25 years old and they do have content on them which I would like to watch again.

Can they be restored? Is it safe for me to try removing the mould/fungus by myself? What should I do with these old video tapes as I would like to keep them for transfer to DVD?

I'd bet they will play but you may want to buy a cheap used VHS machine so you don't contaminate your main player. The fungus you see would be on the top surface edges. Over time these will spread deeper and make the tapes unplayable.

[soneman]

I'd bet they will play but you may want to buy a cheap used VHS machine so you don't contaminate your main player. The fungus you see would be on the top surface edges. Over time these will spread deeper and make the tapes unplayable.

Is it safe for me to play them on my VCR? I read somewhere that the fungus can be harmful to humans as in the fungus could potentially be a biohazard.

Also, you might want to read this:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/jul/20/heritage.familyandrelationships

I have 3 VCRs in my house, 2 of which have an Auto Head Cleaner function and 1 which doesn't.

The tapes that I've just discovered were lost for many years. Some of them have family footage on them and wedding ceremonies which are irreplaceable so I would definitely like to watch them again.

Also, some of the tapes I discovered are not infected despite them sitting next to the infected tapes. I'm not sure why some of those tapes have survived?

[lordsmurf]

Get these professionally cleaned and transferred. Odds are you'll just screw it up more. Even I won't mess with these problems, too much work, too delicate.

[edDV]

It depends how much the tapes are damaged. I wouldn't play these in your normal equipment. The fungus spores will spread throughout the VCR and contaminate other tapes you play. That's why I suggested using a throwaway VCR. If the damage is too great, you will need to use a restoration service where they will clean the tapes before playback.

[soneman]

I just want to know if I decided to play these tapes will it harm me or others who come into contact with the VCR that played the tapes?

Some of the tapes are covered with the white mould, some only have big white spots, some only have small white spots and some only have one fine spot. Only the top of the tape is affected. The recording side of all of the tapes seems to be unaffected.

If these tapes are a biohazard and can harm my health then I will just throw them away as I don't want to be taking risks with my health or other peoples health.

If they can't affect my health, then I will play them on one of my VCRs to transfer them onto DVD then throw away the VCR as suggested.

[lordsmurf]

Yes, biohazard. I have allergies against certain molds native to where I now live (lucky me, right?), and it can cause some pretty nasty reactions. This stuff grows everywhere after multi-day rains. Spores are bad.

A pro lab could clean and convert, but only ones equipped for such issues (I know of a good one, PM me if you need to know more).

[edDV]

For health, do it in a well ventilated space (e.g. patio).

My main point is you want to keep the fungus spores out of your normal playback deck or you will contaminate all your other tapes. Use a throw away VCR to dub.

[soneman]

Just to update, I eventually managed to transfer the recordings on these infected tapes and onto DVDs.

A friend of mine gave away an old VCR that they had which they are never going to use again. This VCR is about 12 years old and has a built-in Auto Head Cleaner.

I put the tapes in this VCR one by one and hey presto, the recordings played back fine with no tracking issues or anything like that. Only thing I noticed was that the sound had deteriorated so much so that you could only just hear the speech and music but at an acceptable level.

Also I noticed that as soon as I put the infected tapes in the VCR, the fungus/mould disappeared from the tape completely and looked almost new again. I'm guessing that this means that the VCR has now taken in the fungus/mould that was on the infected tapes?

Furthermore, I noticed that the head needed cleaning after putting in about 25 infected tapes into the VCR despite the fact that this VCR has an Auto Head Cleaner function. To solve this problem, I used an old Head Cleaner tape (wet type) to clean the head when needed.

I'm pretty sure now that the VCR I've used (to play the infected tapes) is now infected as is the Head Cleaner tape that I used to clean the head in the same VCR. So I've disposed of them now along with the original infected tapes and will take special care of the DVD versions of these recordings.

Just thought someone might want to know this for future reference.

[lordsmurf]

Well, that's one way, I guess. Having them professionally cleaned, however, may have yielded higher quality DVD versions of the tapes. If the contents are important (wedding, family home movies, etc), then I'd for sure pay for professional care on such a project.