7 News: Australia VHS tapes not digitised by mid 2025 might be lost forever

[VHSvideocapture]

Australian media is saying digitize your VHS tapes now. 7 News: VHS tapes not digitised by mid 2025 might be lost forever?
(January 19, 2025)

Reference video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0k0rXldx1w&pp=ygUVaG93IHRvIGRpZ2l0aXplIGEgdmhz7

Experts are warning if you don't preserve your old VHS tapes this year 2025, they could be gone forever?


Use whatever equipment you can find because something is better than nothing.

Anyone reading this if you haven't started digitizing your tapes, you need to start doing so now, please don't wait around for the recommended equipment like a timebase corrector because those are hard to find in good working condition, if available they are risky to buy because the electrolytic capacitors have failed on them especially on the Data Video TBC 1000, other parts of the recommended Data Video TBC'S are failing too.

The CYP sold as TV one are unreliable some are made with good chipsets and some are made with bad chipsets, it's very difficult to identify which is good and which is bad so avoid them altogether.

I would recommend starting off with basic gear like a 2 head JVC or Panasonic VCR connected to the ES15 DVD RECORDER, if that doesn't work I would recommend just connecting a 2 head JVC VCR to a DVD recorder with a hard drive and saving everything on the hard drive, I think the hard drives are replaceable too, you can replace it with one that has more storage.

S-VHS players are failing the parts for them are not available, video repair guys are different to find, some have retired others have passed away, don't worry if you can't find an S-VHS player just use whatever VCR is available to you.

Don't send your tapes to these online box companies like Legacybox, Southtree, Kodak, Scan Cafe, Current Pixel, Got Memories, Emerald Coast Digitizing, Yes Video (Costco use them)

Got memories guy comes across as very arrogant, he uses basic equipment you can buy yourself and he charges $350 for 10 VHS tapes

[Alwyn]

MIGHT.

Loved the "digitising your CDs and DVDs" implication, unless of course the story editors stuffed it up...

[pandy]

lol - classic FUD

[dellsam34]

Any physical media and its playback hardware is prone to degradation and failure, However magnetic tape proven to be the most robust and can live the longest, I had CD's, DVD's and Blu-ray discs failed on me, I've never had a tape failed on me, digital or analog.

[ProJiJi]

Any physical media and its playback hardware is prone to degradation and failure, However magnetic tape proven to be the most robust and can live the longest, I had CD's, DVD's and Blu-ray discs failed on me, I've never had a tape failed on me, digital or analog.

Before I try watching that YouTube video, may I ask if maybe it is all a bunch of hogwash? Maybe there is no need to be worried about my old VHS tapes? I have some reel-to-reel stuff, too? In fact, I have the machine in some location; here or at the wife's residence. Haven't poked around looking for that in ages.

Sorry, I wandered off the trail.

Is that info in that YouTube piece worth watching?

Oh yes; I might not know, or have forgotten, what "FUD" stands for? Guessing it isn't a kind abbreviation.

Funny how my old brain works when I am on these sites doing these threads; I just remembered way back and that little 'long' card thing that had data stored because of holes punched in the card. Now that has to be reliable storage of data, yes? Just that machines to read them are hard to find.

[dellsam34]

Watching that video is like watching the warning videos from politicians saying that the end of the world will be in 12 years if we don't take action now, That was in 2010 by the way.

[ProJiJi]

Watching that video is like watching the warning videos from politicians saying that the end of the world will be in 12 years if we don't take action now, That was in 2010 by the way.

Thank you for the feedback. I'll not let this thread bug me, then.

But I must confess to being very surprised that you are informing me the world did not end a bit back. Let's see, I was sure I was in a new world back in a split second after midnight on December 31st of 1999. My whole being transitioned into a whole new me. I was free.

Well, I thought so. Now I have doubts. Maybe I am the same me as before that "split second after"? Oh no, wait 'till my wife is told about this. We are all still we?

[jagabo]

Oh yes; I might not know, or have forgotten, what "FUD" stands for? Guessing it isn't a kind abbreviation.

Fear, uncertainty, doubt.

I don't know about "mid 2025", but the gist of the story is true. VHS decks aren't being manufactured any more and it's getting harder and harder to find old ones in decent condition. The sooner you get your tapes digitized the better. And then you have to worry about how to protect your digital archive!

[ProJiJi]

I appreciate the feedback, jagabo. I better not be so lazy and take a look at the piece, when time permits. That makes sense, the finding of quality older machines being the main idea behind their news editor's approving that piece going out to the public.

[timtape]

Somewhere on a pro video tape digitising site is an article which lists the video formats most in danger of being lost. VHS tape were on the very bottom of the list. Pro videotape formats like the original 1956 2" Quad format are way more at risk because the machines were basically superceded by the then new 1" pro formats in the mid 70's. Most of the original machines are probably now gone.

Having said that lot of VHS and Betamax decks went to landfill many years ago as consumers switched to DVD's for watching pre recorded movies.

But as for the VHS and Betamax tapes, as Dellsam says, stored sensibly the tapes themselves have lasted very well for up to 50 years when those formats first appeared. Often sadly those people scaring others into "preserving" their VHS tapes are the same businesses who stand to profit from digitising those tapes.

To speak of digitising as "preserving" such tapes is misleading. Digitising certainly makes it a lot easier to view, duplicate and share these recordings but that's not the same as "preserving". If the tape has lasted all these years it has been preserved.

[ProJiJi]

I'll do some studying of the issue after I take a look at that video, BUT one thing I have learned over the years is one absolutely great place to try and get good quality old equipment is the Department of Defense in the U.S. and I'd bet the same is true of the various defense related departments in other nations. Especially the education sections of a defense department entity. So frequently they upgraded and simply stashed the old equipment into storage and forgot about it. Many times in a storage atmosphere that isn't so bad. But knowing how to get information about bulk dumping/sales of such equipment is the trick.

And I think I've noticed that here in Japan it might be that some large commercial entities also stashed old equipment away and forget about it until prodded by somebody to clean out some storage room. Not so sure about that same idea in the U.S., or other countries, but I might just take this VHS thing seriously and do some research. I do have a fair number of old VHS tapes and many are from a few decades back and are related to VFW post and district activities, and family stuff. Might be able to talk my daughter into helping me out, if a little bribe is passed under the table and the wife isn't informed of our devious ways.

[timtape]

Interesting how powerful television can be. A digitisation company employee I know told me today that since this "news" report came out they have been flooded with new work. The same story can probably be repeated right around Australia.

While they are careful with their words, the TV journalist left the impression that mid 2025 is some sort of natural cutoff point. Questionable journalism.

[Alwyn]

While they are careful with their words, the TV journalist

I wouldn't put it past them that it was a setup. Journalists are the lowest forms of life, surpassed only by real estate agents and used-car salesmen.

Probably good for you; get a few new rush-jobs on VCR repairs to get those tapes digitised by June 30!

[lordsmurf]

Mostly fearmongering malarkey.

@Alwyn, real journalists are a gem, whereas most clickbait TV bobbleheads are not journalists. The difference is the quality of research. Bobbleheads just read press releases from their corporate overlords (like Rupert Murdoch).

[timtape]

Interestingly the young journalist doing the VO described the young man interviewed as an "archivist" yet on his Linkedin page and website pages he describes himself as a Director, DOP, Videographer, Video Editor, Colorist etc. No mention of being an expert in preservation and digitisation of vintage/legacy media. He doesnt seem to claim that title for himself or even mention his day job transferring customers' media.

It seems that after a young journalist announced it on national TV, overnight he became an "archivist".

[ProJiJi]

While they are careful with their words, the TV journalist

I wouldn't put it past them that it was a setup. Journalists are the lowest forms of life, surpassed only by real estate agents and used-car salesmen.

Probably good for you; get a few new rush-jobs on VCR repairs to get those tapes digitised by June 30!

Thank you for a laugh! And you bring back memories from so many years ago when I was stateside and I remember how there were so many pokes at used-car salesmen by all sorts of those professional comedy gals and guys. Lawyer jokes used to be a big deal, too; now that you have me remembering back then. Oddly, I don't think I saw much of that style in Japan or Korea when I used to watch television. Haven't watched television in a whole bunch of years, though.

Now the topic of journalism I think we aren't allowed to go into in this Community, right? Gets too close to that no politics rule. But as of late, journalism in the U.S. has caused me some bad thinking moments. Too bad we can't discuss that here, as so many of you folks are really good thinking folks and your views could be educational.

[dellsam34]

It's true that media and journalism is bad in our modern era because it is controlled by very few wealthy elite, but so does the social media platforms. It is not bad because of this fact only but it is mostly because people want to see what they want to see and they tend to lean to their comfort zone, I learned that if you want the truth you should listen to all parties involved from several sources and make an informed judjment, Something the majority don't do in our modern era.

[Vostok]

Any physical media and its playback hardware is prone to degradation and failure, However magnetic tape proven to be the most robust and can live the longest, I had CD's, DVD's and Blu-ray discs failed on me, I've never had a tape failed on me, digital or analog.

Magnetic media is good if cared for (and stored in a cool, dark, dry place etc) but a lot isn’t cared for.

My wife’s dad passed away a couple of years back and he had a stack of VHS and cassette tapes. Like, a couple of hundred audio tapes and about 60 VHS cassettes, some commercial releases, many just TV recordings of stuff. Rather than dump them all into landfill, we completely disassembled all of them so that the hard plastic components could be recycled and only the spool with magnetic tape would go to the dump.

A number of the tapes were mould affected and would have completely destroyed any player if they had been inserted into one. Some had spools that had seized up for some reason and could break the belt of a player if we had have tried. So yeah they can fail.

There were only a couple of tapes that I thought were interesting to keep and digitised and remastered them before disassembly and recycling/disposal.

[Vostok]

I don't know about "mid 2025", but the gist of the story is true. VHS decks aren't being manufactured any more and it's getting harder and harder to find old ones in decent condition. The sooner you get your tapes digitized the better. And then you have to worry about how to protect your digital archive!

I didn’t see this story but it’s funny because at that time I was in the process of doing just that - digitising all my remaining tapes. A small number of audio tapes but mostly VHS recordings.

I had a pro Sony SLVE-1000 player which had timebase corrector, flying erase heads and all sorts of advanced stuff for its day. It cost nearly $2000 way back in 1996. Fast forward nearly 30 years and it still worked but the drive belts were nearing the end of their life, it played back tapes OK but it groaned. A lot. And fast-forwarding or rewinding tapes took forever.

So I set time aside to digitise about a dozen VHS tapes that had not previously been digitised, and a few audio tapes. It took a while but job done. My cassette deck died after I digitised the last audio tape, and while the Sony didn’t die, it was clearly on its last legs and just a matter of time. Both soon went off to the e-waste recycler and I now no longer have any audio or video tapes, except some commercially released ones that I have emotional attachment to and will keep for posterity (but all have been digitised).

I guess the message is - don’t leave this sort of stuff until it is too late. I was a bit lucky to be able to get it done when I did, and before my equipment died.

And clearing out all those tapes has freed up quite a bit of space in my study - quite cathartic

As to archiving the now digital media… I still use optical disks to store the stuff I really do not want to lose - as data disks, not playable. My oldest optical disks are 20 years old and they still work fine. I also have backup hard disks that are rotated and stored in a fireproof and separate location to my office. Both will almost certainly outlive me, and what happens to it after my death is something I don’t really care about… because I’ll be dead.

[rodling]

I didn't know VHS tapes were originally programmed with a kill switch that said
"if this tape is not digitized by 2025 when digital technology has become common,
this tape shall self-destruct".

Does anyone not recognize by now how to recognize clickbait trash ?

[Vostok]

I didn't know VHS tapes were originally programmed with a kill switch that said
"if this tape is not digitized by 2025 when digital technology has become common,
this tape shall self-destruct".

Does anyone not recognize by now how to recognize clickbait trash ?

Nice sarcastic response. Sure the specificity of the 2025 date is not based in science but the message in this story is completely true - if tape media is not preserved via some means (digitization or duplication) then there will come a time when it can no longer be preserved because the original media degrades or fails.

Are you claiming that magnetic media never degrades or fails?

[rodling]

I didn't know VHS tapes were originally programmed with a kill switch that said
"if this tape is not digitized by 2025 when digital technology has become common,
this tape shall self-destruct".

Does anyone not recognize by now how to recognize clickbait trash ?

Nice sarcastic response. Sure the specificity of the 2025 date is not based in science but the message in this story is completely true - if tape media is not preserved via some means (digitization or duplication) then there will come a time when it can no longer be preserved because the original media degrades or fails.

Are you claiming that magnetic media never degrades or fails?

based on the fact that there are still today videos being uploaded to youtube from taped media going back to the 90s
or older that is in decent condition, I think we are still a long way off from the apocalypse.

the only thing "dying" is good journalism as is evident by stories like this.

[Vostok]

based on the fact that there are still today videos being uploaded to youtube from taped media going back to the 90s or older that is in decent condition, I think we are still a long way off from the apocalypse.

the only thing "dying" is good journalism as is evident by stories like this.

Sure, tapes that have been stored well in cool, dry conditions will last. I have owned many old tapes before digitising them as per my above post.

I have also encountered VHS tapes that have already died through mould and seized up spools, also as per my above post. Not everyone will store tapes correctly. And that’s the point. What you do is not necessarily what everyone else does.

So the message in this story is completely valid - digitise before it is too late. Don’t get obsessively hung up and worked up on the 2025 bit, that’s just a call to action.

[rodling]

based on the fact that there are still today videos being uploaded to youtube from taped media going back to the 90s or older that is in decent condition, I think we are still a long way off from the apocalypse.

the only thing "dying" is good journalism as is evident by stories like this.

Sure, tapes that have been stored well in cool, dry conditions will last. I have owned many old tapes before digitising them as per my above post.

I have also encountered VHS tapes that have already died through mould and seized up spools, also as per my above post. Not everyone will store tapes correctly. And that’s the point. What you do is not necessarily what everyone else does.

So the message in this story is completely valid - digitise before it is too late. Don’t get obsessively hung up and worked up on the 2025 bit, that’s just a call to action.

Article aside I agree with the message. If I could afford to continuously buy up a bunch of old tapes off ebay/kiijii etc and digitize them I would but it would quickly turn into an expensive hobby. I know sometimes in the past when I considered buying from some people tapes of old shows, that part of the problem even in selling them is knowing exactly what's on the tapes because some have a bunch that are not labelled.

Nevermind those people going to the trouble of digitizing the stuff themselves by buying the needed equipment and tinkering with it. I agree
there should be better incentives (not just shaming)

[Alwyn]

Nice sarcastic response.

And appropriate given the typical, catastrophist "news" item.

So the message in this story

The "message" was that your tapes will blow up on June 30.

Sure, you need to digitise your tapes sooner rather than later. You do not need to rush out and do something drastic by June 30. As for mould, I suspect that if they aren't mouldy now, they'll be OK for a few years yet. If they are mouldy, get them cleaned. It's not a big deal.

[ProJiJi]

Very interesting bit of something came up a few hours ago as I was going through my opening Net routine, which starts with JMA for weather and info on shakes and because I can use that same browser for this site I usually jump to here for a quick look at the latest posts. This morning I was quite surprised to see the following advert at the top of the landing page:


[Attachment 85670 - Click to enlarge]

The "surprise" was seeing that cassette recorder and then looking at the text, which seems to be indicating some sort of recording "FROM" a computer. Those first two words in Japanese are 'pasocon' [computer] 'kara' [from] and then goes into a brief on what you are recording and because it is brief I am not so sure it means from the Net to that cassette recording and I didn't check the website for more information. But it seems close to stating we will record music from the Net to "something" and even notes file conversion, BUT the indication we will download to that cassette player is because there is that image, BUT it doesn't specifically make note of the cassette player in the text.

Seems really weird. I mean, how many of you would record music from the Net to a cassette player?

In fact, that company's name seems a bit odd, too; Internet Company is the very basic translation. "Company" translated to Japanese can get complicated, but that is the basic translation.

So after a minute of wondering about what I was seeing, I did the screen grab with this thread in mind.