My VCR ate my Star Trek tape last weekend in Tulsa

Been holding onto this old 1998 recording of Star Trek: TNG for years, but my VCR chewed it up on Saturday. I tried the pencil trick to rewind it but the tape got twisted bad. Anyone else had a machine destroy a favorite recording back in the day? What'd you do to recover it?

1 comments

1 Comment

david73915d ago

Did you check if the tape itself is still playable in another machine, or is the actual magnetic strip torn? I had a rental place in the 90s that mangled my copy of the X-Files season opener, and I spent a whole weekend carefully splicing it back together with tape. It played, but the picture jumped for about ten seconds right at the cut spot, and I could never fully watch that scene again without flinching. You might have better luck if the damage is just at the leader, but if it's twisted deep in the reel, you're basically out of luck. Was this a store-bought tape or a homemade recording, because that changes what you can do to save it? I'm just wondering if you've got any chance of salvaging the actual show or if you're already planning the funeral.