Video tapes and cassettes are a thing if the past. You don’t see much of them these days at all, especially not considering the wide variety of gadgets that are available to hold movies and music. Still, many see the value in holding onto these vintage items, whether they be to resell them, to use them later on or to show them off to younger generations. No matter the reason, you should know about the best ways to keep these items in top notch condition.
• Star by keeping them free from dust: Try to make sure they stay in their original containers, or if you can’t make new containers for them, using paper or thin cardboard. You can also store them in shoe boxes, but make sure you cover the boxes with the lids.
• Make sure that you keep them out of light or direct sunlight, because they can severely damage your tapes and cassettes.
• Make sure that wherever you store them will have a relatively constant level of humidity or temperature. Try to avoid storing them in places like your shed or garage, because the temperature is often fluctuating in there.
• Always keep video tapes and cassettes standing upright in their containers.
• Believe it or not, there are items that can wipe the recorded materials off of your tapes and cassettes. For long term storage, keep them away from such items, which include “electrical motors, TV sets and electrical appliances”.
• Rewind them before storage, so that when you’re ready to use them, they’re ready to start from the beginning.
• Play them all the way through before you store them, so that you won’t wear out that more popular section that you’ve been rewinding to and replaying. This will ensure that it plays evenly too.
• Keep them clean and maintain them. Try to transfer or copy some of your more precious content to a digital storage format or some other more modern kind of format instead of the tape format. You want to do that to prevent permanent loss of meaningful content.
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