Time has not been kind to VHS: As tech turns 50, preservationists race to save material stored on vanishing format. Methods include … baking?
2026-04-05 13:39 UTC
Replies (7)
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@homes@piefed.world 2026-04-05 14:08
Time hasn’t been kind to VHS, because VHS sucked as a format. It had so many flaws, I’m not even gonna bother to list them because anyone who was ever reliant on that format is already having PTSD flashbacks while they’re reading this sentence. We only used it because it was the best thing available at the time (other than BetaMax, of course, but the licensing fees that Sony demanded for it killed that format before it really got anywhere, and LaserDisk was absurdly expensive, and very cumbersome to handle). The instant a better format came along, we moved along with it.
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@vane@lemmy.world 2026-04-06 08:29
This reminds me of Nina making magnetic tape at home tech.lgbt/@nina_kali_nina/111275088385639559
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@Tim_Bisley@piefed.social 2026-04-05 15:50
This is wild: > One problem: sticky shed syndrome. Instead of spooling smoothly off the reel, some poorly preserved tape adheres to the layer below it. “If you just play the tape, you start ripping oxide off it, which erases the tape in the most heinous way possible,” Ackerman explained. The solution is remarkably low-tech: baking. Using special laboratory ovens that are capable of holding a constant steady temperature, Ackerman bakes VHS tapes at 125 to 130 degrees Fahrenheit for up to five days. “If you can bake the tape at a particular temperature for a particular amount of time, you can temporarily re-cure the material for long enough to get a good preservation transfer,” she said. It’s a high-stakes gamble: There might only be one chance to read the tape before it’s too degraded to try again.
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@NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 2026-04-05 14:01
Ah so just like Xbox 360
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@defaultusername@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2026-04-05 18:17
Shout out to the Domesday Duplicator, vhs-decode, hifi-decode, and ld-decode projects.
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@EndOfLine@lemmy.world 2026-04-05 16:21
The digital age will be a mysterious time to future archeologists. We are erasing our history as we write it to all of these replaceable media formats that require specialized tools to read.
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@kokesh@lemmy.world 2026-04-05 16:57
Hi Guys, the movies were meant to be watched on VHS. Head to VFA to show your support