How to clean video tape

[willpalin]

Some of my Video8 tapes have mold on them. Appears to be on the outer edge and the tapes haven't been played for some years. Whats the best way to remove it?

[Buenchico]

I suspect that the mould will have got further than just the edges of the tape. (I've had a similar problem myself). If you pull a short length of tape clear of the cassette and hold it up to the light - try looking at it sort of 'edge-on' - you'll probably be able to see that there's some mottling across the full width of the tape.. This type of damage is probably not repairable, although I've had some luck making short sections of tape viewable by the tedious process of pulling out a foot or so of the tape at a time and wiping it over with a (very) slightly moist piece of kitchen towel.

Chris

[snapdharlich]

Firstly, from now on, store them in a dry, slightly warmer environment.  Then have a look in the yellow pages. There should be a few companies who specialize in transferring the material from these tapes - hopefully to a more stable format - If you really want to save the stuff on them.  Or you could just take a chance and transfer the stuff yourself.