VHS tapes!

[Fred83]

Got told by a repair guy NEVER to use the ones that looked like a bit of white paper than ran round you Video heads as it was abrasive and scratched the heads. The ones that were ok to use used brushes intead of that paper thingy!!

Some of the tape would look like its made of fibre glass or something,but i don't think it could damage the heads since they are made from steel and are coated in dirt anyway?.

[retromax]

Got told by a repair guy NEVER to use the ones that looked like a bit of white paper than ran round you Video heads as it was abrasive and scratched the heads. The ones that were ok to use used brushes intead of that paper thingy!!

Some of the tape would look like its made of fibre glass or something,but i don't think it could damage the heads since they are made from steel and are coated in dirt anyway?.

The guy mended video's and said he was always replacing head drums because they had been scored by head cleaning cassettes.

[Fred83]

Got told by a repair guy NEVER to use the ones that looked like a bit of white paper than ran round you Video heads as it was abrasive and scratched the heads. The ones that were ok to use used brushes intead of that paper thingy!!

Some of the tape would look like its made of fibre glass or something,but i don't think it could damage the heads since they are made from steel and are coated in dirt anyway?.

The guy mended video's and said he was always replacing head drums because they had been scored by head cleaning cassettes.

i read in the industry they use buds or some paper?

[retromax]

When you look at a head drum it's nice and shiny, when a head cleaning cassette has been used the nice shiny drum looks dull so not only would the same abrasive tape had done something similar to the heads themselves but what eventual damage would the dull drum have done to your precious video collection over time.
If I ever had a bad tape that put dirt on the heads i'd either put a tape on forward search until it cleared (that does work as I did it a few months back)... or I would open the video recorder and manually clean each head around the drum with head cleaning fluid and one of those hard spongy type tools you got with a head cleaning kit.

[Katzkatz]

I had a Scotch Cleaning tape which I used to use on my old Philips mono VHS VCR. Was quite unusal in that it just had a picture saying "Cleaning Video". You had to mark it off on the tape's label each time you used it. I think you could use it 15 times or something like that. On my current VCR I haven't had to use a tape cleaning cassette - yet.

[Liamh1982]

Well, I open the thing up and use cotton buds dipped in surgical spirit.

[retromax]

That was the only problem with renting tapes, you could end up with crap all over the heads of your video recorder!!

[Fred83]

That was the only problem with renting tapes, you could end up with crap all over the heads of your video recorder!!

Exact reason why i breathed a sigh of relief when dvds where invented,although people can be still careless handling them!.

[retromax]

That was the only problem with renting tapes, you could end up with crap all over the heads of your video recorder!!

Exact reason why i breathed a sigh of relief when dvds where invented,although people can be still careless handling them!.

Yeah but no phisical contact with the player.... unlike vhs...

[Fred83]

That was the only problem with renting tapes, you could end up with crap all over the heads of your video recorder!!

Exact reason why i breathed a sigh of relief when dvds where invented,although people can be still careless handling them!.

Yeah but no phisical contact with the player.... unlike vhs...

i know that mate,but theres still people out there that handle them like they where a biscut or something or scratch the hell out of them

[NintendoLegend]

My best VHS memory: There was a years-long period of my growing up where I was raised by a single mom and did not have much money (not a sob story, just relevant truth). I never had the best stuff (the NES being my own prized exception), but one cheap thing my mom did do for me was use VHS tapes to record episodes of The Real Ghostbusters show, as it was my favorite (by far!). Years later, we had dozens of dozens of episodes on VHS, and me and my sister loved watching them, a tape or two at a time, whenever we needed a fix. We definitely watched some of them so much that they began to wear out, both the audio and video. Good times.

[SJ_Sathanas]

Ghostbusters was the first film I ever saw on video.

[djcarlos]

Ghostbusters was the first film I ever saw on video.

Same here mate!

[Liamh1982]

Unfortunately for me, the first film I recall seeing on VHS (thanks to my mum and a rental section in our local newsagent) was Dirty Dancing, a tape that had been rented so often, that the tape had gone from near-black to a slightly patchy dark brown.

[JetSetWilly]

Unfortunately for me, the first film I recall seeing on VHS (thanks to my mum and a rental section in our local newsagent) was Dirty Dancing, a tape that had been rented so often, that the tape had gone from near-black to a slightly patchy dark brown.

Dude, you have my sympathies

Mine was Star Wars I think. What a great way to start watching VHS