vhs tapes

[Becco22]

I have some old VHS tapes which my recorder can no longer play without a lot of flickering. Auto and manual tracking controls cannot cope. Maybe the tapes have stretched ? Is there anything that can be done to retore old VHS tapes like this ?

[pug100]

Thing to ask is it the playback machine that's developed a fault or is it the tapes.
Did these tapes ever play back cleanly on this machine.
Do all your other tapes play back ok or do they present problems too
Can you borrow another machine from someone (or take the tapes there) to see if they play back ok on another machine.

It can be very difficult to fix a faulty recording once it has become unplayable. I'm assuming the recordings are not off air recordings of films or tv progs and they are not available on dvd .
Best thing to do is to copy what you can now onto dvd and do away with the vhs.

[Becco22]

Thanks pug100.
I've tried the tapes on 2 machines, including a brand new one. A lot of my other tapes play OK on both.
All my tapes had been stored in the basement, & it's maybe a bit damp down there. They've been upstairs in the warm & dry now for weeks, but no apparent improvement. Some of the films are available on DVD, guess I'll have to lash out eventually. The rest I'll do the best I can with. Better a dodgy copy than none at all !
I intend to scrap the VHS set up as soon as I've done the copies.
Thks again for your comments.

[jeffmatt]

You may take a look at this guide, it's about how to capture video from VHS to computer and burn to DVD, it works pretty well for me
http://www.freedvdripper.net/how-to-capture-vh s-tape-video-vcr-to-dvd.html
Then you can play it on your DVD player.