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Beta SP tape age
Is there an average lifespan on Beta SP tape, assuming it has been stored properly, in a closed box in normal temperatures?
An ad agency I work with recently gave me a box of old tapes, mostly 30 minute Beta SP dubs, that had just been sitting for 10 years. They play fine, look the same as new, and I have recorded over some of them with no apparent defects, just wondering if there’s an unwritten rule on this? For that matter, if the tapes had not been labeled by the dub house, how I would know how old they were anyway?
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4 Replies
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I recently had a friend tell me that they pulled 25 Year old 3/4′ tapes from their garage and had them dubbed to DVCPRO 50 and they held up remarkably well.
These were in an OPEN box in a garage for years…covered in dust.
But that is 3/4″, not beta. But might be an indicator.
Shane
Littlefrog Post
http://www.lfhd.net -
I worked on a documentary that had shot Betacam tapes from 1983. They sat in storage for over 15. When we dubbed the tapes to Digi-Beta for safe keeping, we did not have a single problem. But when we needed to grab additional footage not included in the Digi-Beta run, we snapped a few of the master Betacam tapes. The deck we were using in the edit suite (BVW-75) got pretty gunked up from the old tape particles. So watch out for clogging errors if you use those old tapes over and over.
Andy
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I have been making money out of rust since the late ’80s. Betacam and Betacam SP tapes are rated around 50 years if my 20 year old research still holds true. Remember the tapes are “getting brittle”, we all do. So double check the machine you are playing it in. Betacam series decks do get out of adjustment and can snap tapes. Old tapes do neccesitate head cleaning.
I exercise the decks. Take an old tape and run it thru the deck. Slowly at first and gradually up to full throttle. If the deck is warm and did not trash the work out tape, those betacams will last a long long time. And with proper TBC adjustment look beeeeea….uuuutiful…..
I just had my old AB roll system retimed, including new heads on my UVW 1800. It was so pretty that I re-digitized the current Betacam camera tapes for the final edit on my Cinewave.
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Funny that you posted this thread. I was watching some old 3/4″ tapes from 1977 last night. I was amazed they still looked good! My wife and I laughed so hard at how bad the content was.
We decided to have a party and invite all our media friends over. But everyone has to bring the absolute ‘worst’ thing they’ve done. This should be pretty damn fun!
Ernie Santella
Santella Film/Video Productions
http://www.santellaproductions.com
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