I have broken a few VHS tapes.

Not worried about the tapes,its the content.

Is thier any way I can splice them with out resorting to a visit to the repair shop?

Also I know I found it easy to splice audio cassettes when they snapped,using a biro pen.

Would any thing similar be available for VHS tapes?

Where are they broken?

If it's near one end then you could re-attach the tape to the spool and just lose a bit of tape in the process. That is if the case has screws holding it together so you can get at the tape and the spools.. If it doesn't then that complicates matters rather a lot.

If the tape is broken anywhere else then I doubt it is a DIY repair job. You can splice video tape using a special adhesive tape but if you've never done it before it can be more trouble than it's worth. plus finding anywhere that sells the tape could be difficult. You can't use sellotape for this!

This may be one for a professional.

long ago i did a ghetto splice. the tapes held in the spool by a slide in clip at the base of the hub. it should be gripping the clear plastic tape they add at the end but i just clipped it to the end of the actual tape so it worked good enough.
if you want to be professional i guess you can always try to buy that splice tape.

I'm with Chris on this one, I've tried this myself many years ago and it was very difficult and even with the correct tape it did not last (somebody better at it than myself may have made longer lasting repairs). As Chris said if it has broken at the end of the spool this is a different matter.

If the recording is worth keeping then getting a professional job done and transferred to DVD is the way to go though remember to regularly back up any such DVDs. Obviously this is only worth it for irreplaceable personal videos as it would be much cheaper to buy a new DVD of commercial VCRs (assuming they exist).

I have not used these guys myself but I did suggest them to another DS member who found them to be helpful with a copying job they had.

http://www.digitalcopycat.com/video_tape_transfer.html

If you scroll down to the bottom of the page they do say they will attempt a temporary repair of broken tapes before transferring to DVDs.

That may be the best option. In any case I would never ever play a repaired video tape more than once, ie just to copy it to a DVD or capture it to a PC. It is asking for trouble if you rely on the splice to hold for repeated playbacks.

surely you can splice a join with tape - all you will get is a momentary drop out, surely

thats one good thing with analog formats

Splices within the working area of the tape are usually a bad idea as they can catch on the spinning video heads if not done absolutely perfectly. At best, you can get clogged video heads. At worst, the tape can be ripped out of the shell and mangled by the spinning video heads. It can also snap the tips off of the heads.

Absolutely, it's not at all like repairing a compact cassette. I don't think some people realise how the heads on a VCR spin around.

I have spliced videotapes together using selotape in the past, it works, but the tape will have a blank part for a few seconds, and will most likely destroy your video heads as the tape drags over them


Best option IMO, is to canibalise another spare cassette you dont need, and move one spool in the new cassette and leave one in the old.

Your tape tapes contents will be split over 2 tapes, however they will work without (much) loss.

DON'T, touch the front side of the tape, fingerprints will screw it.

Google "audio/video repair kit" and there is a choice of them. I repair mangled tapes fairly often using one I bought a few years ago. As stated by others you will get a glitch on the join and the best advice is once repaired transfer to DVD or another tape.

I've used nail varnish to join VHS and audio tapes for years without any problems.

If I was to catch anybody using some of the methods described in this thread to splice tape then I would be using the razor blade on certain delicate parts of their anatomy!

Using anything other than a proper splicing block and the correct splicing tape to make the join is guaranteed to both fail at a critical moment and damage the machine.

Mind you these days a lot of the people I work with wouldn't know what a reel of tape, a splicing block, chinagraph pencil, single sided razor blade and splicing tape were if I sat them down in front of it. They certainly would have even less idea how to edit a recording with those items.

Not so sure I'd be that good now either, been a few years since I wound a reel of tape onto a deck.

I agree but in the past I have spliced both 1/8" and 1/4" audio and VHS using medical tape. Probably more by luck than judgement but it has always worked. I do remember holding my breath as the splice went past the rotating video heads though. I still have the splicing kit for cassette. I wonder if I'll ever use it again?

As i said, i think the best way is simply not to splice it, just move the tape into another cassette.

that has its own dangers, as there is no clear part at the beginning/end and i beleive some players look for that to slow the rewind/FF mechanism down to prevent tape from snapping.

but to me its the best way

My bruv took a trolley of VHS tapes down to the basement in BBC White City.

He lost it on the shelves.
(Have you seen Raiders of the Lost Ark, when the Covenant goes into the US Army warehouse. Just like that.)
Don't turn around for a second. He was panic stricken.
Could have been a lost episode of Dad's Army or Monty Python or whatever.

He found it after a few mins. But he never made that mistake again.
BBC employees are very diligent.

And he has done some splicing in his time.
Kits are best (ish)....in emergencies...but really mag tape should not be spliced. You may be thinking of 16mm or 8mm Cine stock.

If you really, really have to....use Scotch tape not Sellotape. But but don't blame me if your video recorder chews the tape.

Sellotape always worked for me, just a tiny stripe on the back of the tape.

As Harry Hill would say on TV.....FIGHT!!!

Scotch Tape vs Sellotape.

My first vid cam was from Hong Kong £700. Tried to smuggle it in thru' the Green Channel at Heathrow and got done.

Extra £300 in fine and VAT.

Can get them here now for £199 can't you?

OK...

1. DO NOT use Scotch or Sellotape. The adhesive can clog the video heads if you happen to make an imperfect join.

2. Always do a "butt splice" with videotape

3. Get this: http://www.keene.co.uk/electronic/un...-kit/VE20.html

The splicing tape uses proper, non-melting adhesive.

Easy.

Not really easy, note the warning at the bottom of the advert. However much better than doing something silly like using Scotch or Sellotape or nail varnish.

I wasnt recommending it. But it can be done in emergencies.

Best bet is to dub to another unit.