As my husband struggles to repair yet another broken videotape, I am reminded to get the critical word out… you may be at risk of losing all those aging memories you have on tape.  So many people have stored away the tapes of their weddings, childrens’s births, graduations, etc. thinking that they will be able to look at them for years to come.  When portable video cameras and VCRs became popular, and affordable, back in the 1980s, we all thought video was such a great way to capture and preserve our special moments.  No more sending film out for processing.  The irony is, that these old super-8 and regular 8 films are outlasting videotapes!  I use my own story as an example.

It’s now widely known that the life expectancy of videotapes is much shorter than originally estimated.  Most tape manufacturers rate the life expectancy from 10 to 12 years.  Most high quality tapes will last at least 5 years if properly stored, but as it starts to get older the image quality degrades and becomes more noticeable.  If you’re lucky and your tape has survived for 20 or more years, it is now on borrowed time.

As newer tape formats have come along, like Hi-8 and mini-dv, they are forced to record more and more information on smaller and smaller tapes.  We are already seeing those tapes starting to degrade.  And when they break, the tapes are much harder to repair.  We never promise that we can fix them.  It’s always so tough to tell someone that their wedding tape cannot be fixed.