Order NOW!

On Line

35mm Slides

What Happened?

Save the Tapes

Types

Pricing

Photo Albums

 

Losing Memories!VHS-C type

(your tapes that is)

Audio and video tapes have been around since the early 1970's. Many of us have gotten years of enjoyment from our audio recordings, movies, home movies and reunions that were so much easier to use than vinyl records and photographic movie film.

Then, just before our entry into the new century, the tape media format was replaced by optical recordings on plastic disks that we now call DVD's. How many of us still have that clunky old VHS or BetaMax player around so that we can play our family movies or old classic's recorded years ago?

If you are like me, you now use your DVD's much more often than the tapes. They are clearer and easier to plop right into the player. So those old memories of trips, weddings, Grand-Pop & Grand-Mom are brought out at holidays such as Christmas or during family reunions.

BEWARE! YOUR TAPES ARE FADING ON THE SHELF!

What happened to my tape?

Anyone who has ever played with two magnets notices that if you hold them one way they snap together but if reverse one of them, they repulse each other. Remember the little dog-magnets toys?

Set one magnet free on the table and bring the other magnet to it and the free one will spin around to snap together properly aligned.

VHS home and movie tapes are coated with a thin film with thousands of tiny magnets. The image or music on the tape is then recorded by changing the orientation of each of these magnets in sections of tape called domains. A very intense magnetic field is used to re-orient each domain during recording.

When stored on a reel, these sections are separated by the backing of the tape so they are isolated from each other. However, if you leave the tape un-touched for a long period of time, then the lower intensity field of the tape sections will eventually cause these magnets to re-align across the layers. When a small re-alignment occurs the tape becomes noisy and fine signals like colors are lost. Eventually the whole image will be lost.

In the past you used these tapes much more frequently than today so the re-alignment never had a chance to occur. Stored as most tapes are today, they remain untouched and slowly decaying on the shelf.

Save the Tapes!

One method of saving these memories is to unwind and then rewind them periodically. Just as you used to do when you watched them. They will eventually fade but at a much slower rate than previously.

The best way to save these tapes is to convert them over to DVD's that can be played with menus like the movies you buy in the store. DVD's images are clearer, easier to use and you never have to re-wind them.

Types of tape to convert

Here are just a few:

Pricing for DVD Conversion

high quality DVD's can store two hours of VHS memories. Contek USA will create menus for your tapes and place them onto DVD-R media. Note that you need one of the newer DVD plays purchased in the last 4 years to view this media.