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How to Repair A Video Tape, A VHS Repair Guide
Chris
Posted: 10-14-2011
For repairing audio cassettes, refer to our How to Fix an Audio Cassette guide.
Watch our Denver manager, Steve, perform a detailed, step-by-step VHS repair.
For many families, video tapes often contain some of the most precious memories they have. Since the advent of the camcorder, millions of people worldwide have been filming important events in their and their family’s lives. At some point, many of us have had a tape break, or a VCR eat up their video tape, resulting in a tape that simply won’t play normally anymore. At first glance, you may think all hope is lost, and your tape is gone forever…but it’s actually very easy to repair video tapes yourself! After reading this guide you will have the knowledge to not only repair VHS tapes, but repair video8 tapes, repair betamax tapes, or even repair MiniDV tapes!
Working with large amounts of older media for some time now, I’ve seen nearly every problem a video tape could have. The most common problem is that the tape simple snaps or breaks in the middle somewhere. For this guide, I will be demonstrating the repair of a VHS tape, which is the most common tape repair I see. To perform your own repair, you will need a phillips screwdriver, some splicing tape, scissors, and a steady hand.
First inspect the tape, look under the flap, and see if the tape has been damaged. If the tape has split, the evidence will be obvious as there would either be a mess of garbled up tape:
or no tape visible under the protective flap:
Once you see that the tape is indeed split, the next step is to open the casing of the VHS up. For this step you will need a standard sized phillips screwdriver. The typical VHS cassette contains 5 screws, one at each corner, and one in the middle.
Once you remove all 5 screws, turn the tape OVER, so the front is facing you, and then gently rock the casing back and forth to lift it up from the base, taking care not to disturb the internal components too much. If you labeled your tape with a sticker, it may need to be cut down the middle in order to separate the two halves of the casing.
The casing should now look like what I have in the image below. Take special note of where the internal components are located, in case anything should get bumped loose or knocked out of place. Taking a digital photo of the opened case, or having a diagram will help you with this.
The next step is to give yourself enough “clean” tape to work with. If the tape has been eaten up or garbled, or mangled, it’s best to simply remove all portion of tape that has been damaged, so you’re left with nothing but clean undamaged tape. Unwind the tape from the reels a little bit to give you about 6 inches on both sides. You may need to gently lift the reel from the cassette in order to pull some of the tape out. Once you have the two ends of tape, take some scissors, and ensure that the tape has been cut with a clean edge. It’s much harder to splice a tape with a frayed or jagged end
Cut a small strip of splicing tape (scotch tape can and will work, just know that it’s much thicker and harder to work with than splicing tape and not advised) Now the trick is to stick both ends of the video tape as flush as possible against the splicing tape, it’s best to splice the underside of the videotape, but not essential.
Now your goal is to remove as much of the excess splicing tape as you can without removing the actual video tape. You can use an x-acto knife if you prefer, but I just use scissors. You’ll need a pretty steady hand to perform this step successfully.
Your video tape should now be all spliced and almost as good as new. Now you need to run the tape through the pinch rollers and wrap it around the top of the cassette. Use the images below as a guide for how the tape runs through.
The last step is to put the casing back together the same way you took it apart. Gently rock the top part of the casing on (You may need to hold the protective flap up as you’re fitting it back on) and then screw it back together.
Voila! You have, hopefully, now just repaired your video tape! Remember, if your tape has been severely damaged, it’s best to bring the repair job to a professional videotape repair guy who has experience with all types of different media, and the best way to go about fixing them.
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Great post!
How do you suggest rewinding the tape once it has been repaired? Is it safe to say the splice will hold up to a VCR’s standard rewinding speed?
Thanks!
Once the splice is in place, it should be good to go for normal VCR use. I suggest manually rewinding the tape a few rotations past the splice point if you’re worried it may not hold.
You can do this when the casing is apart, or if its screwed together, you can stick a pencil or pen in the little hole on the back of the cassette, which will disengage the lock on the reels. Good luck!
A tape I am trying to repair has a different screw in the middle that looks a little like a Mercedes-Benz logo. I once had a special screwdriver in that shape but can’t find it. What are those screws/screwdrevers called?
Most likely a Torx screw. There is a chance it could be a strange proprietary format specific to that tape, in which the best case would be to transfer it to a new cassette shell. The link below lists the most commonly used screws that you can use to match it up.
http://simiandesign.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/screwheadsinstructable1.jpg
Thanks for the guide, I repaired my daughter’s old Disney tapes with this method, saved me a headache.
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How do you separate the clear-plastic reels from the spools of tape? There is supposed to be a clamp that can be removed temporarily with a pointed tool like a tiny screwdriver, maybe a pen point. You put the tool inside an opening in the reel created for this purpose. Can you post a diagram marking these tiny parts? (Note: my goal is to clean mildew).
The easiest way I found to remove the reels is to actually cut the leader tape with scissors as close to the reel as you can. After you’re finished cleaning, you’ll just re-splice the leader tape back together again.
I do it this way because a lot of times (especially older tapes) the little clamps do not like to be disassembled and reassembled, and when you do manage to do it, they often fall apart and do not hold the tape to the reels very well.
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This post was a lifesaver! I was in the process of transferring my family movies, which were converted to video in the 1980′s to dvd and I rewound the tape. Well the end of the tape separated from the reel. I was able to fix it in a few minutes with your post, and, I did not have to pay anyone or worry about being able to find someone to fix it for me…Thank you very much!
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Hi! I have two questions:
1. Before I splice the torn video tape, should I cut out/off all the crinkled part of the video tape and just splice together two smooth ends, or can I leave it and it will run through just fine if I leave it (albeit the video quality will stink)?
2. Will the VHS still be able to be copied on a DVD after such splicing?
Thanks,
Chantalle
Hi Chantalle,
You can splice the two crinkled ends, but there is a chance that the tape will get stuck or have trouble running through the mechanisms in the machine, but chances are that you will be fine doing it that way.
The VHS will also be perfectly fine for transferring to DVD once the splice has been completed.
-Chris
Alright, Chris!
Wish me luck. Thanks so much, your website is super informative!
[...] Popular How to Repair A Video Tape, A VHS Repair Guide For repairing audio cassettes, refer to our How to Fix … 8mm Video Cassette Adapter? | What About [...]
[...] Popular How to Repair A Video Tape, A VHS Repair Guide For repairing audio cassettes, refer to our How to Fix … 8mm Video Cassette Adapter? | What About [...]
Great! Thanks!
Thanks for the detailed instruction. Had a VHS tape that is over 20 yrs old and had planned to send it away to be fixed. Your instructions saved me that cost!
Thanks.
Hi Chris! I have a VHS tape that appears to be in good condition, I even opened the back to look at the reel, and all is fine, but when I put it in the VCR, it sounds distorted, like I’m hitting fast-forward, and there is no picture. My TV says “no signal” after I hit play. Other VHS tapes work so I know it isn’t the VCR. This video is very important to me and I don’t know what to do with it! Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Sincerely, Carissa
Hi Carissa,
This definitely sounds like a tracking issue, or that the tape is playing at standard speed when it was recorded at a slower speed initially. When we encounter this problem, often times playing it in a different VCR will yield better results. It’s going to be hard to tell if it’s able to be transferred from here, but if you’d like, we can definitely take a look at it for you.
-Chris
I have an 18 year old family VHS video tape. I tried to watch it and it is scratchy, rolling, flipping, fuzzy and is really hard to watch. The audio is fine. Is this a repairable problem?
Thank you
Hi Cheryl,
It sounds like some tracking issues are happening, or the tape was originally recorded on the extended play setting. Often times this problem is corrected by playing tapes on different VCRs. On the other hand, it is possible that the tape has sustained permanent damage. If you’d like we can take a look at it for you!
I have a tape that is bad at the very front. I repaired it with tape but now I does not know to stop on rewind.
John
John,
You may have to rewind the tape at the slowest possible speed, or even manually rewind it, as it appears some of the data on the tape has been lost or corrupted.
my problem is the small triangle plastic part loged in between the ratachet held by the spring which acts as a brake ,when removed….WHERE DOES IT GO???????
LOU WOODWORKER23@AOL.COM
hi Lou,
If it’s the part I think it is — it can be very tricky to reinstall this part without very delicate hands. I would maybe suggest purchasing a blank VHS tape, opening that up, and transferring the reels of video from your broken tape into the new one. If you don’t have access to a replacement tape, you should still be able to play the affected tape enough to transfer it.