Getting a 2" Quad Videotape to Play

We forget sometimes how far video technology has come in just the past few years. I recently needed to get some video from an old 2" Quad videotape and discovered that the machines that can play them are almost non-existent, not to mention people who know how to operate and maintain them. Also the tape manufacturers built in a time-bomb that is literally destroying these old tapes as they sit on shelves - even in properly climate controlled rooms! My friend Larry Odham just happens to have a working Ampex VR-1200B - and he shows us what it takes.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• By
• Dave
• Sieg

[davesieg]

Great idea! Why don't you suggest hey consider doing so! I suspect the members of the quad video tape group (quadvideotapegroup (dot) com) would be happy to help find any such old equipment - whether Ampex or RCA!

[davesieg]

You can still find the old machines if you know who to ask and where to look.

The companies that rebuild the heads (they only last about 1000 hours) are still around.

But most people don't realize how much air conditioning, power, space, spare parts, and air compressor support systems you have to have just to fire one up! Much less how to tweak it to make a tape play!

[davesieg]

Ahhhh, well its kind of his "secret sauce" :))

[davesieg]

While there are still people around who can operate and maintain these machines, we need to make use of this opportunity! Better Late than Never!

[davesieg]

I know of libraries with thousands of these tapes on their shelves and they don't realize the machines to play them are mostly gone and the tape is disintegrating day by day.

[FranklinParkIL]

In 1986 Bell & Howell was using two Ampex Quad Machines in their VHS/BETA reproduction facility in Northbrook Illinois. The units were used to transfer Hollywood movies to four hundred VHS machines then the VHS tapes were sent to the distributors.The machines we used had heads (2) about three inches in length. I could be wrong. Quad machines are high quality resolution similar to 4X5 camera film. Anyways, an interesting video you made. Best Always - Ben

[static1994]

that machine was built on awesome.

[musikdoktor]

WOW!! larry you are DA GUY!! i admire people like you.. im 32 years and i'm totally agree with you.. the quality is perfect even over 30 40 years..

I Work with 1 inch but i found few 2 inch reels.. unfortunately, we don't have any 2 inch machine to save the material.. they throw all 2 inches to the trash (literally) but the smart guys missed first to copy the material...

All the best! Sorry my bad english.

[Boeing744andRCAquad]

@vegasguy01 LOL!

[thehificlub]

Ahh I was a tape op at GTV9 Melbourne in the 70s. Our senior used to check the tapes with black and tone while eating his jam sandwiches. We still love you Chaff. We had the first VR1000 low band, 3 hi band 1000s and 2 2000s then the avr1 and 2

The memories,

[wado1942]

I just watched one of those machines get sent to a recycling plant. All I had time to grab off of it was a 14" reel.

[johnmeyer77]

Great video! I do audio, film, & video transfers and restoration, but am limited by space and budget to consumer formats. I have an EE degree, and I am in awe of what Larry has to do in order to maintain sync and keep the three-ring-circus Quadruplex contraption running. It takes skill, artistic knowledge, and a lot of dedication to transfer video from this original format.

[AidanLunn]

@connoisseurnic I think the reason for the BBC's poor reputation is just because some people don't like paying for a public service broadcaster.

Such a bad reputation for the world's best loved broadcaster!

[AidanLunn]

@Drjamesaq2 Yup.

[OofusTwillip]

@connoisseurnic - Wiping and reusing tapes was common practice around the world, not just at the BBC, until the early 1980s. If anything, a B&W kinescope copy might be made, more to be syndicated to another station than for archival purposes. It's sheer luck if one of those other stations happened to hang onto the kinescope. Even audio tape was wiped and reused, which is why so many old radio shows from the tape era have disappeared. The BBC is now actively searching for such lost items.