Saving Tape

Since the 1970s people have recorded events on videotape. But can you still watch them? This series of articles, written by video conservator Jamie Lean, explore the issues surrounding the preservation of videotape.

Part 1 - A Pocket History

Weddings, Birthdays, Graduations, Sporting Highlights, Backyard blockbusters.

Since the 1970s people have recorded these events on videotape. But can you still watch them?

Videotape has never been as durable as film and has the added problem of needing relatively complicated machines to play it. Add to this the fact that there have been dozens of different formats developed, and superceded, over the last 40 years, and the future for historic video starts to look somewhat clouded.

The early days of video involved big heavy cameras on tripods attached by cable to enormous video recording decks. These systems were almost solely the province of television stations and film production houses. The videotape used was 2” wide and the reels required were large, heavy and expensive for even short programmes.

From the early 70s artists, government departments, schools, sports organisations and businesses experimented with smaller video formats. These included 1/2” open reel machines similar in operation and look to reel to reel audiotape players and the 3/4” tape format known as ‘Umatic’ which used a cassette shell similar to a VHS cassette, but much larger. The camera was still separate and attached by a heavy cable while the so called ‘Umatic Portapak’ was designed to be used in the field. It required two people, one to operate and carry the camera and one to carry and operate the recording deck.

In the late 70s consumer video began to take off with a format war between JVC’s VHS (1/2” tape) and Sony’s Beta system. VHS won the battle for the consumer dollar while the technically superior Beta format went on to become the television industry standard.

From the 1980s the popularity and relative cheapness of the VHS format meant that recording events in sound and vision became accessible to a greater number of people. The tape recording and playing mechanism became part of the camera and cameras became lighter, cheaper and more sophisticated.

Towards the end of the 1990’s the VHS was overtaken in the home market by new smaller tape formats such as Video8 and Hi8. In the last few years these have been made redundant by DV (digital videotape), mini DVD (digital video disc) recording devices and hard drives. All of these are part of the digital revolution for the consumer market and you can guarantee that new formats will be produced in ever increasing numbers to entice consumers to upgrade and spend more and more money in the name of ease and quality.

Tape Tips #1
Videocassettes should be stored on their edges (like a book) in a cool & dry place and away from magnetic fields such as those found in TV sets and stereo speakers.

Saving Tape - Part 2 What is Videotape?