brokesn video tapes

[stokesay]

I have two broken 8mm video tapes, is there anyway you can get these mended????

[badlad.biz]

Video and sound tapes can be spliced in the same way as old cine films. search on ebay for an old splice kit and do it yourself. All that is done is the two ends of tape are slightly overlapped and cut at about 45deg with a modelling knife and joined with a thin tape.
or
If you really need someone to do it try a company who do wedding Videos.

[pug100]

Videotape can be spliced back together but it is very unlikey to play without breaking. The main reason for this is that unlike audio tape, vcrs employ angled spinning heads which go against the passing tape. This usually pulls the splice apart again and trashes the tape.
In practice what will usually be done if the break is in the middle of a tape the two spools are separated and put into two cassette shells. You will then only lose the portion of video 10 seconds or so around where the break was. This is still not infallable and for added peace of mind the two tapes should then be copied onto either a new tape or DVD.

[rojash]

There is another problem with splicing video tape in that, as the video track is at an angle to the tape (it runs off the bottom and reappears at the top, and is scanned with an offset rotating drum), unless you can accurately match up the two sections, the tracking will be way out after the splice. As pug100 says, the best option is to reload into two separate shells and then copy to a new tape or DVD.

[stokesay]

Thankyou very much, your comments were really helpfull again thanks