Thank you Jeff, I'm glad you liked it. I could say a lot about that right here, but I suppose its best to just present it and let the viewer see it for themselves and ask me questions afterwards, if they want to know more. Heres some more 2" for you: kzfaq.info/sun/PLJQg3rQJzoosbgyXSXE7AFEC_6U9dtKYj&si=OizDf5m6YoK0d2iN kzfaq.info/sun/PLJQg3rQJzoovLIWQ1VcnDdhNkikwBF5Qb&si=3NsBIRIrb3xhhGQ- kzfaq.info/sun/PLJQg3rQJzoosKKRCrNrwgU13TE_KFqY6t&si=1-tnY990gNVjF_0b And even more 2" vtrs here: www.quadtapetransfer.com Have fun! 😃

Thank you Drake. I think the video educates folks a little bit about what is possible better than me talking about it. Seeing is believing, etc. No worries here, I make my own tips and rebuild my own quad video heads in-house. Here are a few videos re: Quad heads: kzfaq.info/sun/PLJQg3rQJzoovLIWQ1VcnDdhNkikwBF5Qb&si=mlLOgv4FOCCaS9Uv I did type A for a while years ago. You gotta bake type A tapes longer and hotter to get the base to respond. But the overall problem is the high head-to-tape tension type A has: as the tip projection decreases thru hours of wear, the tape to drum tension increases, and the fm tape signal decreases. Heres some more equipment videos you may like: kzfaq.info/sun/PLJQg3rQJzoosbgyXSXE7AFEC_6U9dtKYj&si=otAmoS1l9bxgcS_T This was another interesting tape recovery job: kzfaq.info/sun/PLJQg3rQJzoosKKRCrNrwgU13TE_KFqY6t&si=C6G-N3FLIljRp23i Have fun! 😁

Thank you Reg. I'm not much for talk, I show the actual work that I do, and maybe that will enlighten the archivist and preservation folks about what IS possible, even with the most destroyed-looking basket cases.

Thanks! It's what I do.

Yes. Exactly right. This was one of the very few reels of tape of that program that still survives. And it was a mess to bring back to a playing condition, as you can see here. But I did manage to get the entire program saved and digitized. It was a lot of long hours but was worth it in the end, seeing the results.

I appreciate what you and others do to preserve our history. This show meant a lot to me when I was little.

@@scotth6536 Thank you Scott. I certainly like being able to do it, rescue an old damaged tape that noone else will consider doing, and figure out a way to make it playable again. 😊

Thanks Tom. I love a good challenge. And this was a good one!

Thank you Mike. It's what I do...2 inch tape.

Thank you Warren. I started in TV in 1977. Left it all in 2003. I do this at home now just to be doing something and keep my brain and hands active. Yeah, it gets in your blood- once a tek, always a tek. I love a good challenge!

@@LarryOdham exactly! Same here.

I thought it was amazing even though you can't record or play it repeatedly. Very helpful. 👍

Thank you Don. That is what I do, basket cases nobody else will take on.

no, can't the tape is too fragile condition. But I was able to completely play it back once, recover, and digitize to a computer file, so the contents are saved and preserved for viewing.

Thank you Chance. I do jobs like this for free, no charge to the nonprofit entity or higher learning institutions. Otherwise, most of it would not be saved.

Thanks! I try. 😊

Thank you Dazz.

Thanks! It is a sample of some of my more intensive preservation work. Maybe folks will realize that sometimes not all is lost, even under the most hopeless looking conditions.

Thanks Terry. Yeah, pretty much so. This is a step or two past preservation, more like forensic archaeology, figuring out ways to do things that haven't been done before. It is very interesting work...and time consuming!

It's surprising to me sometimes just how far a seemingly hopeless tape can be brought back to life. It does take a lot of hours of work. Try baking a test batch of your betamax tapes at 129-130 degrees F for 15 to 20 days in a fan-air circulating oven. Then burnish-clean the oxide surface. I wouldn't go any higher than 130.5 for that type of tape.

Thanks! I'm glad you liked it. Thats what I do, tapes nobody else will. 🙂

Thank you Jan. ☺

Thanks! Thats what I do, 2 inch preservation work. By demonstrating what can be possible, may inspire someone else. 😊

Thank you John. Some of it is. The old 2 inch tape is pretty indestructible...to a point. I love a good challenge, and this was a good one! About 4 months start to finish.

Thanks! That is some of the 2 inch quadruplex tape work that I do occasionally...the basket cases nobody else will touch. I like a good challenge.

Thanks! I'm glad you like it. This is the work that I do. 🙂🙂

Thanks. I been working on another reel(1 of 5) now for about 2 years that was worse than this one. Stuck together. I have a salvageable picture and sound on playback now, but still a long way yet to go. It is rather satisfying to put in the work and then see the results. With each reel I gain a little more knowledge and technique of how to deal with these hopeless reels nobody else wants to touch, and get results. It ain't easy!

@@LarryOdham I'm glad to see you capture the results with each pass, so you at least have an emergency transfer of the best achieved so far should it fall apart later! A Blackmagic Decklink Mini-Recorder by the looks...?

@@mbvideoselection I had that happen once. The oxide layer falls off the mylar backing in chunks..unzipping it is called. I have some video footage of that somewhere. Scary. Yes. I capture every inch, every time, all the time. Sometimes that's all you ever get. . There's several different and various BMD capture cards and devices here. A full Decklink, a Teranex 2D, several Intensity pro 4K, a Grass Valley Canopus that works very good on SECAM. And a firewire 400 in the old stuff department. For file cleanup and real time digital restoration there are several different models of Digital Vision DVNR. Mostly Media Express software.

Thank you Paolo. That is part of my work, extreme tape preservation, when I am not playing the guitar!

@@LarryOdham super!!!!

Thanks. Haha, no, this isn't my first rodeo.. I've done this level of preservation work for years. Been a quad ops tape guy since 1983. TV work since 1977. I can usually get something out of a tape when nobody else can if anything's there. This was a challenge, tho! I put these videos out so folks can have a better understanding of what is possible sometimes. Here's another interesting project you may like: kzfaq.info/sun/PLJQg3rQJzoosKKRCrNrwgU13TE_KFqY6t&si=whbDGHZh0blglwBi

@@LarryOdham I'll definitely take a peek. I operated those in 1985. They were long in the tooth but still just workhorses. The smell of shredding oxide flying into the tape room is in my permanent memory. Regards.

Thanks. It's Ok. Been doing TV work since 1977. It is becoming an extinct profession nowdays, and soon will be. I keep a little bit of it alive. I don't know how to do much of anything else, except guitars, or ever wanted to. Tape and guitars...that's all I know to do.

Thanks Peter! Most of the time it is. I've had tapes that it would not play, bad recordings. Luckily this tape was a good recording, just had a lot of physical damage. A TR-70 a or b (not a 70C)with dual demods will sometimes play a tape with a bad edit when the avr-1 wont. The digital capstan in the avr-1 mostly is finicky. If it gets lost it goes nuts hunting around. 70 and sometimes a good tr-60 are rock solid capstans(analog.) It takes a combination of different vtrs to do this work, finding a good match between the tape and the machine, and the video head. I've had good results restoring some pretty ugly looking tapes. Just takes a lot of time to do it, can't get in no hurry. Heres some more: kzfaq.info/sun/PLJQg3rQJzoosKKRCrNrwgU13TE_KFqY6t&si=7Ewlu7SfLmcsR0VU kzfaq.info/sun/PLJQg3rQJzoosbgyXSXE7AFEC_6U9dtKYj&si=TSoOHbEiMNY2AkTg Have fun! 😀

Well I have to say that's pretty sad so I'm not even surprised that you openly admitted it. That just reinforces the age old adage that when when someone poo poos another persons idea just means they can't do it. It saddens me the things we've lost or inventions not brought to fruition because some "expert" somewhere told them it wasn't possible.

@@SlickArmor Yeah. I'm used to it after a lifetime in tv broadcasting working with narcissists, egotists, and other assorted a-holes. I get some of that from time to time from the mainstream archiving and vendor people that think they know everything, and will tell you so. I don't really care what they or anybody else thinks or says. The work and results speak for itself. it's kinda hard to argue when I post a video of me actually doing it! That really makes them angry. Good! 😄😄But seriously, it serves an informative purpose that there is always another way to do things and just because it hasn't been done or some industry leader hasn't done it, doesn't mean it can't be done. If I can convey that one meaning across to the viewer thru some of my work examples, then maybe i have served a worthwhile purpose. Maybe it will inspire some youngster to carry it on a bit further in the future. That is my hope and wish.

@LarryOdham Well sir, I believe that your goal will be achieved more than you can imagine. Just the fact that you're putting it out there on display instead of quietly toiling by yourself is sure to inspire an untold amount of people to pursue their dreams instead of being stifled by the naysayers.

@@SlickArmor Well, if I had listened to what other pros and experts on these internet vtr lists had to say, I would have probably never gone on to make my own tips, rebuild my own video heads, and come up with a way to double the life of a video head. I was laughed at. Still am laughed at by the quad 'experts'. And thats fine, go ahead and laugh. Question is: whos the fool?..the one being laughed at or the ones doing the laughing.? The point to all that is there is only one company on earth now that rebuilds heads and their future is looking shaky since the main guy retired. Theres no money in it and nobody there wants to do it. They may be out of business in five years from now. I saw that coming 15 years ago and decided to prepare for that day so I could continue doing the tape work. Here are a few videos on video head work: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/Y9CRrJiSlZ25gIU.html&pp=gAQBiAQB Here is another interesting and involved tape job you may like: kzfaq.info/sun/PLJQg3rQJzoosKKRCrNrwgU13TE_KFqY6t&si=n9lKJeZgaDayIZIw Ther are a few of us nonconformists around. James Paterson at channel Australian Television Archive. Zdenek Houska at channel Tech Story. Those two guys are waay smarter than I will ever be.

Thank you Ken! Thats what I do. Here was another tape job: kzfaq.info/sun/PLJQg3rQJzoosKKRCrNrwgU13TE_KFqY6t&si=M92wcXJRq3LTTf_9 Have fun! 😁

Yep. 2 inch Quadruplex video. Been around since the late1950s. The first practical recording standard for high quality video. Was used thruout the tv broadcasting and studios on into the late 1980s and a little into the 1990s at a few places. Thats what I did at the tv station waay back when, was a tape guy. Still am! 😁 I don't know how to do nothing else. 😅 Well...play the guitar maybe. 😂 2 inch quad here at the shop: www.quadtapetransfer.com Quad nuts & bolts: kzfaq.info/sun/PLJQg3rQJzoosbgyXSXE7AFEC_6U9dtKYj&si=Jy7CDA7_EOoxSmun Some more tape work: kzfaq.info/sun/PLJQg3rQJzoosKKRCrNrwgU13TE_KFqY6t&si=SngcRKQnpRhUGU4r Have fun! 😃

Thank you Rick. That's what I do, 2 inch tape and guitar fingerpicking. Normally, bake them longer. 130F is good, need to go 2 to 3 days bake time. For a severe case 7 to 10 days. Then clean afterwards to remove the sticky shed residue. I wouldn't go over 130F for a 1 inch tape. 2 inch can go higher. I have baked some of those problem 2 inch tapes at 140F for 2 weeks with good results. And no failures or destruction BTW. I have gone as high as 152F on 2 inch tapes with no problems, but don't do that unless you've had a LOT of experience, too much can go wrong at that temperature and destroy something.

@@LarryOdham Larry, thank you so much! I was hoping I was doing the right thing, I will certainly follow your advice!! What would be the best cleaner to use after baking?? I appreciate this greatly!!

@@rickcurtis2983 Well after baking, if you don't have a commercial tape cleaning machine, or know someone that does, you can use cloth, cut into a long strip a little wider than the tape, wrapped around the r/p head stack or a convenient tape guide, and pass the tape past the cloth in hispeed ff and rewind, or in hi play(15 or 30 ips). That will clean off a lot of residue so it will be less likely to gum up the heads and cause problems during playback. It will also tell you how good the baking cycle was. If its still sticky there will be a lot of friction and drag against the cloth and a lot of black residue on the cloth.

@@LarryOdham Larry you are the man!! Thank you for helping me, I never would have thought about wrapping the heads like that to clean/check the tapes!! I really appreciate it!!

@@rickcurtis2983 No problem. If you try it, let me know how things turn out.

Thank you Scott. Thats what I do: 2 inch quad tape. Since 1983. I love a good challenge! Here was another difficult one: kzfaq.info/sun/PLJQg3rQJzoosKKRCrNrwgU13TE_KFqY6t&si=hzxdBlX8zMQ5JbcY More equipment stuff: kzfaq.info/sun/PLJQg3rQJzoosbgyXSXE7AFEC_6U9dtKYj&si=udQwDJEd4omUpiFd Head rebuilding work: kzfaq.info/sun/PLJQg3rQJzoovLIWQ1VcnDdhNkikwBF5Qb&si=000SnTejJQzPIgvp Have fun! 😀

It isn't sticky(in the sense of honey or molasses, or glue), it is mineral encrustation dried like concrete, from the water and aluminum reel corrosion that took place over years of time being wet and sealed inside the container. Maybe an accurate way to think of it would be as growing crystals. It builds up a layer between the aluminum flange and the tape and forces down and in between the layers of tape. It is more like busting concrete. White vinegar will penetrate it somewhat after a few weeks of reapplying. The video is a little misleading as to the length of time, as the work took about 3 months start to finish...not 15 minutes as the video depicts. I couldn't very well make a 3 month long video! Ultrasonic can loosen it, but it can also loosen the oxide from the backing, so thats a very risky procedure. I have another video of up-close unwinding of another similar tape. I'm not sure if its uploaded. It was much worse and required extensive(60 to 70) splices of the lower edge. The lower edge ripping apart is not a very big thing. The tape control track gets destroyed but it can be played allright on an AVR-1, which can play a tape without a control track. The active video tracks begin about 5/8 inch from the tape edges(factoring in the track overlap) so you can 'get away' with a lot of bottom edge damage. The top edge is a bit different. That is where the audio track is. If you lose that- its lost. Luckily this tape didn't have any top edge damage. Here are a couple more videos where I go into some more detail about machine and head modifications to further enable playback of damaged tapes, if you are interested in this sort of work: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/fZt4d6eQ3c6bZ2w.html&pp=ygUWdGhlIHF1YWQgdGFwZSB0cmFuc2Zlcg%3D%3D kzfaq.info/get/bejne/jrGDaLB4srbLf3k.html&pp=ygUWdGhlIHF1YWQgdGFwZSB0cmFuc2Zlcg%3D%3D kzfaq.info/get/bejne/bL-oh9lj39Omm5s.html&pp=ygUWdGhlIHF1YWQgdGFwZSB0cmFuc2Zlcg%3D%3D

Thanks, I'm glad you like it, the preservation work I do. 🙂

@@LarryOdham : I have never seen it before. I do t want to imagine how many memories could have been recovered /restored and digitized .

@@advisevo2153 Well, just think of all the tapes that have been thrown out or given up on that were not in this bad of a condition. That may put things in perspective. Maybe I can raise awareness a little bit that sometimes not all is lost. 🙂

Thanks! I have one of the Editel NYC Ampex AVR-3 quad vtrs here at the shop. www.quadtapetransfer.com. Had two of them but scrapped the rusty one for parts to make one really good vtr. No...IVC sorta tried that in that mid 1970s with the 9000 vtr. It's apples and oranges. And the 9000 supposedly was the best 2 inch helical ever built, was a total flop. 67 were built and sold. Rare vtr. I have one sitting here. It's pretty useless. It is a pile of junk start to finish. What killed the 2 inch helical concept before it ever got started is the huge amount of head to tape tension and how to control that. So you may actually be inheriting another set of problems while trying to get away from the original problem. The best way still is to get a quad vtr and play the tape on it. It isn't as difficult as some would have you believe. The secret to a lot of successful playbacks is in how you go about prepping the tape for playback. I hardly ever have a quad reel that I can't playback... I think to do what you are suggesting would be very expensive and could take years. I remember having this exact conversation with a UT Professor off & on for about a year about 10 years ago. Nothing ever came of it. His idea was to still-scan the magnetic tracks one at a time and demodulate them digitally in memory. Other people have been working on that idea for years and nothing viable has resulted yet...as far as I know...I am glad you are taking an interest in some of this ancient history technical stuff. Here are a few more videos of some of my quad work around the shop: kzfaq.info/sun/PLJQg3rQJzoosKKRCrNrwgU13TE_KFqY6t&si=YTuabFja4g7IU9OH kzfaq.info/sun/PLJQg3rQJzoovLIWQ1VcnDdhNkikwBF5Qb&si=ZJQtwYZNyWnt58CU kzfaq.info/sun/PLJQg3rQJzoosbgyXSXE7AFEC_6U9dtKYj&si=zKspNflcCxArn6-c Any time you have a tape question I will try my best to answer it, although I'm not by any means the smartest tape guy around, but I've been around and seen and experienced a few things in the past 45 years on the job at TV stations and in my own shop. Have fun! 😁

Thank you Diane.

Thank you Greg. That's what I do.

Hello Paul, For a tape like this with corrosion and water encrustation I use white vinegar and a toothbrush to soak off the majority of the scale. Then when the tape is fairly clean from the debris, I will go over it with eucalyptus, then bake it. After baking I go back to the white vinegar soak and brush while the tape is still hot from the oven. After a few cycles it is loosened up enough to try unwinding/unsticking the layers slowly by hand. It took about 2 months to get this one completely unstuck and about another month after that to get it to a playable state.

@@LarryOdham Remarkable work. Do you have to remove the oil residue before baking? I have some Scotch tapes where the foam from the upper flange has liquefied and seeped into the tape layers. I was going to use eucalyptus to clean it down but worried what impact there would be if there was any residue left during the bake.

@@Misterquill Yes. I remove all the glue on the top surface using eucalyptus oil, then wipe off all the remaining oil with a thick absorbent cloth. Then bake. If the tape is evenly packed and wound tight, there will not be too much seepage. After baking I give it 2 or 3 cleaning passes on the Magnatek/Elcon cloth roller cleaner straight from the oven while still warm, then 2 or 3 passes on the Recortec vacuum grating cleaner, then put it on a quad vtr I have setup with an old worn down quad headdrum and burnish the tape a couple passes and monitor the RF Tracking meter level for head loading, stop & clean the head as-needed until it plays good enough to put on a good vtr for digitizing. Sometimes if the tape does have seepage, I have to unroll it by hand and clean the spots by hand with a cloth and eucaluptus. Not fun.

The problem with this tape is that there is no control track in spots because the oxide has flaked off from the water damage. The AVR-1 doesn't need the control track. It's secondary tracking mode detects the individual video tracks on the tape by looking at/for the fm signal peaks much the same way auto-tracking works, and then uses a derivative from that signal fed back into the control track phase circuit in place of the original control track. It does the same thing as the separate control track, indicates where the video tracks are located on the tape. It's nice to have that built-in function in a VTR to use on tapes with damaged or missing control track pulses.

That is such a sensible concept I wonder why AMPEX never used it in the VR2000s

@@tortysoft Ampex came close to it on the VR-1200-C. It was equipped with auto-tracking, which has all the ingredients needed to run without a control track. That machine had a -13 revision Intersync. I have a 1200-C autotracking vtr here. Im not sure when the Intersync revisions stopped on the 2000B. I have a 2000B that is a -09. Its an earlier vintage vtr so maybe that is a reason why it was never considered, the Intersync revisions stopped before auto-tracking was introduced. A quad friend there in the U.K., David Dean, and I talked about doing it to one of his AVR-2 machines once upon a time a few years ago. There's no reason why it wouldn't work on another vtr.

I used an external ctrl signal to lock up a VHS that I used for recording broadband signals, like the medium wave. That worked very well. I've never had a pro machine - no space - or the need to try on a Quad.@@LarryOdham

@@tortysoft Thats basically it. A very stable artificial(external) reference signal. Ampex went one step further and derived an envelope from the fm video tracks, detected it, and used the d.c. derivative voltage to self-correct the external reference subbed in for the control track. I have done it manually before using a HP function generator set to a high frequency and counted down for a 240/250 cps output. The HP was an oven crystal and the pot was a 20 turn shafted to a 100 to 1 vernier dial. You can get it down to 1 hz resolution.

Hello Michael. Possibly. You should probably check with the NBA Archivist first. They will no doubt claim copyright ownership (and rightfully so) if you try to post it online, etc. You can contact me thru my work email at: larry@quadtapexfer.com

In USA you could ask Myron Lenenski at CinePost in Atlanta. In Europe, ask David Dean at West Point Television.

@@LarryOdham Thank you, I will try that. You have very interesting content, are you also restoring 35 mm film or only magnet tape?

@@GregorPQ No, I don't do any telecine film work, just 2 inch quad video tape and equipment. Years(40) ago, I operated film camera chains for on-air at a tv station for about 5 years, that's the extent of my film experience....not much! I was a tape tech for years in Tv, that was my forte'.

It was an educational tv show produced at Alabama A & M University in the early 1970s. Low Band Color. It was part of a collection I worked on for the school.

That was a job for Alabama A & M University. It was(is) part of their tape collection. I decided to document the work as a reference to what is possible and what can be done if a person knows what they are doing. I tend to demonstrate and let folks ask questions if they are interested. I have recovered a lot of 2 inch tapes that everyone else in this business abandoned or gave up on. Thats what I do. It is a good technical challenge for me and I would hope that my presentations here will educate folks to what is possible sometimes. Heads: Yes. If you are everyone else on the planet thats true. Not here. I make my own ferrite tips and rebuild my own video head assemblies in-house. Currently I have over 1,000 heads, about 350 assemblies and about 800 new tips on the shelf. If I outlive that supply, I will just make more. Its all in knowing how to do it. Simple when you know how. I have been making videos lately showing folks how to rebuild headdrums. Its a work in progress with a lot more to be added-onto as I get time. Here are some: kzfaq.info/sun/PLJQg3rQJzoovLIWQ1VcnDdhNkikwBF5Qb&si=n-w9QLmaIMZfTQfc Here are some more vtr-related things: kzfaq.info/sun/PLJQg3rQJzoosbgyXSXE7AFEC_6U9dtKYj&si=GMP1WFwXa8d5LZs8 Here is another fix-it tape job: kzfaq.info/sun/PLJQg3rQJzoosKKRCrNrwgU13TE_KFqY6t&si=CGLqZfUTYL6H4R29 Have fun!

It was part of a preservation job I did for the Alabama A & M University to save their tapes. It was an educational tv program produced at the school during the 1960s-70s of which very few survive and exist now.

Hello Eugene, I used two different solutions alternating between white vinegar and eucalyptus oil. The white vinegar is useful for softening the mineral encrustation and the eucalyptus oil is good for cleaning up the vinegar. Also used distilled water as a rinse. I spent about 6 weeks doing that cleaning, soaking, and brushing, over and over many times. The video shows the ending results.

Hello Vanessa, This was a water-damaged tape from the Alabama A & M University collection that I worked on in 2017-18. A few of the tapes in their collection was stored in a basement closet at the University campus. Some years in the past the basement had flooded, submerging seven of the tapes under water for a short period of time. During that time, water seeped into the cases and stayed there undisturbed. You can see the water mark about 1/3 the way up the tape, looking edge-on. The water trapped inside the case over the next several years caused the aluminum reel parts to corrode and the iron metal parts to rust, and mold to grow. When I received the tapes, they were dry, the water long ago evaporated and what was left behind was the damage it caused during the later decades sitting undisturbed since the 1970s. It was quite a study in extremes. I think it is somewhat uncharted territory, I don't know of anyone else doing this, to this degree. So I think it is of some value to publish my work for other archivists to learn from.

Hello Kent, There probably are. More than you would think. I would look at college and university archive collections. Usually a graduate of a college will leave stuff like that in their will to the school. A lot of times a network for instance, will reuse a tape or tapes over and over, erasing the previous week's game. Unless they need to hold onto it for legal reasons. But theres usually a coach or player or somebody high-up, like an owner, will want a copy to keep. Then they die and it all goes to their alma mater. Sometimes.

@@LarryOdham Thanks for the reply, Larry. I did wonder a little if I'd get an answer on a two year old post. Every now and then something new shows up on KZfaq regarding entire ballgames. Unfortunately for a Mickey Mantle, Lance Alworth, Jerry West fan like me most new things come from the 70s and beyond. But I'll keep hoping my era of best baseball and football games will appear on KZfaq. Like Super Bowl I. I'm sure you're aware that 1967 original television broadcast was recorded in its entirety original commercials included by an individual who's son tried to get it released recently to the public but the NFL threatened to sue. Why they would pull such a greedy thing as that befuddles me. But wouldn't that be a grand thing to see. I've seen only a couple of clips and the quality is spectacular... as if recorded last weekend. A copy is currently at the Paley Center in N.Y. It needs to go public. Thanks again. Take care.

@@kentduryea7109 No problem Kent. I am active daily here on the YT channel. I post a new video every week, sometimes two in a week. Well, that is the other side of the coin, the ownership and copy rights. I take pains to steer well clear of all that because I work for a lot of those folks. The 'fair use' as it's called, can cause trust issues for me because if someone brings me a tape or tapes they don't own, for me to digitize and I do it, it can have a bad effect on me with the legitimate clients that own the footage, that I work for and get paid to work for, legally. There are such vendors out there that will do the work with no questions asked and make money from it. But I'm not one of them. So I have to navigate that minefield at times. Best rule is: if you don't own it, don't do it. I really don't know of any good approach to advise you on how to persuade an organization to release footage. Thats a bit outside of my wheelhouse.

You might like my photos of the BFI open day. photos.app.goo.gl/nxbgTMxbZkSTm3nn9

Hello Marie. Very few worldwide. This is all I've ever done my whole life since 1977, tv engineering and tape ops. Since 2003 I have been doing it on my own, the archival work. Here is my place: www.quadtapetransfer.com

I'm still around. I started in 1978 in the UK- BBC :-)@@LarryOdham

@@tortysoft Haha, yeah, we are still around...for a limited time only! 😅😅

Hello Randy, No it isn't sticky-shed aka Binder Hydrolysis. The tape was baked 4 times thruout the cleaning process over about a 2 month period. The baking cycles lasted 8 to10 days each at various temperature steps ranging from 126 to 140.5 F. with a 2/day gradient. What you are seeing at 5:45 is mineral encrustation from the water and aluminum reel corrosion depositing a surface layer on the edges of the tape over a period of years being wet. To soften that layer, it was repeatedly soaked in white vinegar and scrubbed with toothbrush, breaking off a little at a time. Some of the deposits were below the edge down into the tape which couldn't be reached by brushing. Small granules hard as a rock. This video is an edited down version that had 5 parts and was about 3 hours long originally. Some of the shortened scenes do need a little better description.

@@LarryOdham Aaah. I was wondering if the adhesion was at the edges or not, since I watched you working them with the brush. I've been digitizing audio reels from the early 1990s (Ampex 456). So for, just 8 hours at around 122°F seem to get the job done - nothing like the extensive work you did here. Thanks for taking the time to clarify what I was seeing. You did an amazing job of bringing those images back to life.

Hello, Thanks for the nice words, I try! It took about 3 months of work on this tape start to finish. This used to be a 5 part series of videos, and I edited/shortened it down to make it a little easier to view. Some of the meaning was probably lost in doing that, but still the viewer can get some idea of what is possible and what can be done. And of course, ask questions! Yeah, the AVR-1 is not my favorite vtr or my first choice. Most of the time it is more trouble than its worth and 99.9% of all tapes that were recorded correctly without any problems, you can't tell one bit of difference side-by-side comparing the files. And its a more dangerous and destructive transport than a conventional tape path transport on very old tapes. But it does come in very useful on some of the marginal or problem tapes. My first vtr choice is a vr-1200C or a 2000B and/or a RCA TR-70 dual demod & cavec. But in this instance was not any good because the control track was destroyed beyond repair on this tape, so the AVR-1 was the way it had to go and play back without the control track. Its a good 'tool' to have in the vtr toolbox.

I've got a lot of 1/4 inch audio tapes that are falling apart, oxide all over the place. Does Baking actually stick the oxide back on the tape? If so, when can I find the cookers? (in the UK) Thanks ! @@LarryOdham

@@tortysoft No, I don't think so. Baking will dry out the moisture from a sticky tape. Baking may cause it to crumble even faster. If you had some way to heat it up and reintroduce some moisture or chemical molecules back into the tape, that may make it stick and become pliable once again. I built my ovens from conventional ovens, remodeled them with digital thermometers and heating controls and installed fans inside to maintain the temperature precisely and evenly over a period of days.

1971. Late emulsion formula w/carbon backcoating. It is a Low Band Color recording.

Hello Tony. Well, it helps to be crazy. Thats the first requirement! But seriously, it's no problem for me. I have my own ferrite bricks and make my own head tips. I rebuild my own quad heads from my stock of over 300 head assemblies. (its probably more like 350 but I lost count around 300). And you know what...I will let you in on a little secret: my tips last a lot more hours than the ones a head refurbisher puts on their refurbished heads....go figure. And then theres another advantage to doing it myself, I can make/change tip shapes and dimensions for certain problems with tapes that work better than a 'standard' tip. That realization came thru years of working with problem tapes and later on getting into doing the head work, and having a lot of heads to experiment with. I really don't know how much equipment is still left in the world, and none of these 'experts' do either I don't think. But my feeling is probably "not that much". I've noticed in the past 10 years it has dried up to nothing if that's any indication. Heads- I noticed a couple years ago that after the Aheadtek guy retired and a chinese lady tookover, the prices on ebay went sky-high for used unproven heads. I haven't seen one on ebay in about a year. I am holding my own. I have collected vtrs, heads, parts for decades and have a mountain of spare parts, machines, and heads. I will never outlive what I have saved up. Have to nowdays in order to do the work. Just can't go out and find stuff like before. It ain't there! Here are the vtrs I use in the shop: www.QuadTapeTransfer.com If you look around and take stock of what the other folks are running, usually they have one or two, maybe the same model, or a couple models. I have(or had) about every model going back to the tube era. Running and operating. I don't have any tube vtrs (and don't want any!) I say all that to say this: the more diverse models and head types, the more capabilities. Each different model of vtr and head assembly had certain things it does better than another vtr model, etc. Those differences really come front and center when trying to get a 60 year old tape or a damaged tape to play back better or not so good. Its another tool in the quad toolbox. Heres some more tape work you may like: kzfaq.info/sun/PLJQg3rQJzoosKKRCrNrwgU13TE_KFqY6t&si=biTH-L60zUPJ-_N0 Here is some video head work: kzfaq.info/sun/PLJQg3rQJzoovLIWQ1VcnDdhNkikwBF5Qb&si=pp7snwwRwfltvrdP Here is some equipment work: kzfaq.info/sun/PLJQg3rQJzoosbgyXSXE7AFEC_6U9dtKYj&si=41pHHV62-3ENzQjR And if you get bored with all the quads, I will play you a tune on the guitar! 😃🎸kzfaq.info/sun/PLJQg3rQJzoosDp25C6aP8Sd_KC61b8-df&si=GEFY-oXXp0XqpN23kzfaq.info/sun/PLJQg3rQJzoosDp25C6aP8Sd_KC61b8-df&si=GEFY-oXXp0XqpN23 Have fun!

@@LarryOdham ...you rebuild your own quad heads? Now THAT is dedication. And, necessary these days if you want to keep a quad machine working. I salute you sir, got your links bookmarked, gonna be checking them all out. Keep doing what you're doing. Wanna talk old 2" tape. We once dug an old Valleydale spot out of the racks all dusty, to see if it was salvageable enough to edit a bit of it out to make a new spot with the old days compared to the recent times etc. This old 2" tape was BROWN, that old iron-rust-glued-to-cellophane stuff, and it played back perfectly in all its black&white glory. It proved two things... the old tapes could hold on to their data for decades, and the station never threw anything away. These days the only videotape I still fool with is 1/2", got a LOT of VHS tapes I've been converting to digital, been maintaining several high-end S-VHS machines for years... having long since learned the advantages of a TBC when resurrecting old tapes like that. Oh... just saw your video on the TCR-100, the bane of my existence. LOL! There were two of 'em, nicknamed FRED and FREDA (fucking ridiculous electronic device, and fucking ridiculous electronic device auxiliary). Fascinating to watch them working with the back door open. Cheers... :-)

@@tonyunderwood9678 Yep, rebuild my own quad heads, using my own tips. That is what it is coming to like it or not. Theres only one place on earth now that will rebuild a quad head, and they get $6,000.00 to do a rebuild.-NO THANKS!!! And when you figure in that their main guy retired a couple years ago, and the company is controlled now by a chinese lady that isn't all that interested(so I've been told, I don't know that for a fact), its anybodys guess how much longer they will continue. My guess is not long. I figured out years ago it was better for me to use the head rebuilding money to educate and prepare myself and get to the point where I can do it in-house rather than paying somebody else and hoping they will still be in business. I'm glad I did. It's not my problem anymore--its the rest of the quad world's problem....money well spent. I have been posting how-to and information videos here on the channel as I get time. I'm not going to rebuild anybody else's heads, but I am showing how to do it(how I do it) and someone else can follow my path if they want to rebuild heads of their own/ invest their own time and money. // The early formula tapes are fine, they do not require baking because the emulsion doesnt collect moisture like the later formula backcoated tapes. The earliest tape I have digitized was 1958. It played back as good as the day it was recorded. When quad was done right, it was second to none. It gets a bad rap nowdays because there are a lot of amateurs trying to do it. And that's a sad thing because there is no longer anyplace they can go to get the experience they need. That is why I started all this, to put out some useful reference information that maybe the younger inexperienced archiving people can draw from. Not just talking about it, but showing how it is done and proving it.

white vinegar, eucalyptus oil, distilled water.

It was a children's program produced at Alabama A & M University late 60s-early 70s. This was part of their archive collection that I was hired to preserve for the school.

Do you know the name of the program or when it aired?

@@jnabors1254 No, I've forgotten. That was thousands of tapes ago!

I think I had already explained that thoroughly on many other comments on this video. You can scroll around thru the comments and find several other explanations from me about the how-to. Basically its a toothbrush, cotton cloth, repeated soakings with white vinegar and undiluted eucalyptus oil, and distilled water rinse. Many repeats over about a two month period interspersed with step baking cycles from 126 to140.5 degrees F to loosen up the mineral encrustation and corrosion caused by the water damage. You can ask me questions and I will be happy to answer, if I know the answer...😁 I would rather demonstrate the actual work and let you the viewer ask relevant questions that are important to you.

Thank-you

@@whoam42a1 Anytime. Glad to help.

Thank you Duncan. I've restored a few Ampex tapes. Different set of problems, but it can be done. Most of the time. Happy new year. 🎸

Hello Casey, I am slowly by hand separating the stuck together layers of tape. Mostly it was confined to the edge surface but some of the water damage had penetrated down into the tape over time and built-up crystallized deposits in spots. This has to be unwound first by hand at a very slow pace to try and minimize the damage. One of the tapes in this collection, I had to make over 100 splice repairs to the lower edge. That is 2475 ft of tape on a 30 minute reel, all unwound by hand. It takes a good long while! In this particular tape I think I made 3 splices, it was not that bad. If course, forget about the control track, it is destroyed. Playback only on an AVR-1 which can play a tape without a control track. Cheers, 😀

HaHa. Ya think? 😅 Heres a few more "unreal" restorations: kzfaq.info/sun/PLJQg3rQJzoosKKRCrNrwgU13TE_KFqY6t&si=SxPddEzk3vK82yxP Or these, if you're into gear: kzfaq.info/sun/PLJQg3rQJzoosbgyXSXE7AFEC_6U9dtKYj&si=PxqGGtq6KTOWBp-T Or, if heads are your thing: kzfaq.info/sun/PLJQg3rQJzoovLIWQ1VcnDdhNkikwBF5Qb&si=SnaPYdAzLDFaLQWc This is as real as it gets. Have fun!

@@LarryOdham😂👍

I used a couple different things... first: white vinegar soaks to loosen up the calcification and corrosion from the water and aluminum. Many soakings over about a month. Then when it was clean from all the debris, eucalyptus oil several times with a toothbrush. Then rinse with distilled water and bake at 131.5 degrees F for 3 weeks. It takes a while. You can't force things to happen, or else might do irreparable damage, as odd as that may appear. Slow and steady.

Yeah I did too.

Here's a few more for you to look at: www.quadtapetransfer.com Have fun! 😁

Thanks! I'm glad you like my work. Here is another more lengthy restoration project: kzfaq.info/sun/PLJQg3rQJzoosKKRCrNrwgU13TE_KFqY6t&si=CsVoeGzy1TGiVvL8 Have fun! 😄