Hydrolysis and Baking of V-30 Videotape

Most 1/2" reel to reel videotape from the 70s and 80s show the effects of hydrolysis, water vapor is absorbed from the air by the tape and its lubricant. While it is impractical to re-lubricate a tape, the average home user CAN make some of these tapes viewable (if only for a few days, time enough to move them to another medium) via the process of Tape Baking. But, don't do this at home in ANY kind of kitchen oven, or you will wind up with a gooey mess or even a major fire.

My 100th YouTube video upload!

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• hydrolysis
• v-30
• tape
• baking
• video
• restoration
• danger

[jluilia]

Oooga Booga!!

[kimberlyKfnOphiEAGLE]

Is this the same thing that's done to some old quadruplex videotapes to restore them to a playable or transferable state, or is the process different with 2-inch quad videos?

[spiniton]

I had to do this wtih 1/2" audio tape that is only 16 years old. Exposure to high humidity oxidized my tapes. A used food dehydrator solved the problem. I did it in 2004 and just yesterday tried to play the same tape--it will need another baking. Takes about 2 hours to reactivate the tape. Ampex 456 brand tape had this problem before they changed the formula in 1988. My Ampex 499 reels from the same time still play flawlessly.

[jcice2]

I recall Howard Stern saying that many of his recently aquired K-ROCK tapes of his radio show were fallen victim to hydrolysis, and he also mentioned this baking process to restore them. It's interesting to see this applied to video tape. Thanks for the interesting upload.

[Toledo1837]

Too many normal people just never know how priceless these recordings could be over time.

[cpmisalive]

This is one reason why you should keep magnetic media in a dry environment. I've been given audio and video tape where the magnetic coating drops off as soon as you touch it, all of it was stored in a shed or garage. If more people were aware of these problems they might take better care of their archive material, e.g. air tight cases with silica gel in them.

[Toledo1837]

This was VERY informative! I remember hearing about baking tapes before elsewhere.