Restoring my childhood VHS tapes taught me more about analog tech than I expected

I found a box of old VHS tapes from family vacations in the attic last month, and tbh, I was shocked at how degraded they looked. The labels were fading and some had mold spots, so I knew I had to act fast if I wanted to save them. After scouring forums and reddit threads, I learned that I needed a working VCR and a capture device to convert them to digital. I snagged a cheap VCR from a garage sale, but it took forever to get the tracking right on these old tapes. Connecting it to my laptop via a USB capture card was a hassle, and I had to tweak the settings in OBS to avoid flickering. Once I got a clear signal, I spent hours digitizing each tape, and seeing those blurry home videos again hit me right in the feels. It's crazy how much tech has changed, and imo, preserving this stuff is so important for nostalgia trips. Now I've got all our 90s memories safely backed up on a hard drive, and I can't stop showing them to my family.

2 comments

2 Comments

lindaa925h ago

Can't believe you had mold growing on your childhood tapes, that's actually horrifying lol. I never even considered that could happen to VHS, like what if it eats through the tape? You must have caught it just in time. Dealing with the VCR tracking sounds like a nightmare too, I remember how finicky those things were. Honestly, major props for sticking with it and saving all those memories. The whole process sounds like a huge pain but so worth it in the end.

the_jana5h ago

What if it eats through the tape? A friend's VHS of her dad's speech got destroyed by mold, and she still gets upset thinking about it.