Hello, my name is Gabriel, and I'm curious about the Cassette format. I always been into physical media like DVDs, and there was a time I tried out VHS which ended sour. Now I'm expanding my horizons into the world of Blu-rays, and Music formats like Vinyl and CDs. Cassettes also pricked my curiosity since they seem like a convenient format for recording music. That's the reason I made a account for this form. To learn more about the Cassette format, and to suggest ideas.
Sorry for the late reply, welcome to the forum! I've noticed VHS has really hit the collector's market, I think the hardcore collectors really like the obscure horror movies and also music videos. I kept a few machines and box of tapes but it's a back-burner format for me at the moment. As far as tapes, I was surprised Tascam Portastudios and similar 4-track recorders were hot, basically you record three tracks and mix down to one. Before cassette bands were using TEAC Reel to Reels to do the same thing. There was a lot of classic albums recorded at home to these types of machines.
I have a big container full of VHS tapes I found thrown out over the years. I would pick out movies I thought were classic and throw the rest away. Maybe should have kept everything as could be collector $tuff one day. Have a few low-end still working VCR's too. Just awful low res junk video quality VHS has compared to youtube
I recently acquired my first VCR. I came across a small, portable 14" Philips 14PV183 all-in-one TV and VHS recorder at a thrift store and was allowed to take it home for 5 euros. I especially liked the original box it came with, which had giraffes on it, so I couldn't resist trying it The first time I tried it, it worked perfectly. After that, I let it perform the head cleaning procedures, but after that, it just malfunctioned. Eventually, I cleaned the heads manually and disabled the head cleaning system. I now use it to digitize old video tapes. I can imagine that collecting VCRs is appealing; it's a nice piece of technology, but I'm not going to start.
It works quite simply. There's an arm with a plastic brush that looks like a small cog, which is held against the head during cleaning. That plastic brush had partially deteriorated and was actually making the head even dirtier. This immediately stopped the good playback. I removed the plastic - Philips - cog, and now no more problems
Found a picture of the cleaning brush. Pic is not from my example, that was like new inside. But the brush was just as worn out as this one. Its really cheesy plastic.
It was probably for brushing off any flakes, it did it's duty and now is gone. For how much tape flaking happened, it's surprising these decks lasted so long.
My parents wedding was recorded on VHS, and the tape is somewhere in my parents bedroom closet. According to my dad, it was barely used so I'm hoping it's in good condition so I can digitize it. Mold is my worst fear as far as magnetic tapes go. Some of our family's old tapes are smothered in mold. As well as this, I found a few old Compact Cassettes that my dad would like to listen to again because he hasn't listened to them for years. One of them already looks too far gone so I'm not messing with it, but two of them seem like they might work. One of them is a recording of a sermon at a church my parents used to go to before I was born, and the other seems to be recording of a hymn, and before you guys ask. Yes, me and my family are Christians, and that's the genre of music I collect. Christian music isn't being sold on Cassette anymore, and the only reason I want a Cassette player/recorder is to record with and nothing else. I'm not interested in buying pre-recorded tapes apart from maybe a particular Thomas & Friends album, and maybe some older Christian albums if I get deep into Cassettes.
