Reel to reel videos

[News]

When I sold my place back home and came out here I brought a pile of reel to reel videos with me, films, music and some I had transferred from my viduo camera.
I now find that these are all unplayable, presumably because of the condensation from the humidity. I assume that the Thai's used this format and got around this problem, so can anyone tell me how to ' dry them out'

[chopsticks]

You could try putting them in a room with a dehumidifier appliance operating or in a well air-conditioned room which will also have a lower humidity.
Another way would be to use a dessicant, such as slica gel crystals, packed with them in a sealed bag or box.
Let the video machine acclimatise for a few hours if you move it from one room to another, before operating, to prevent dew or moisture forming on the rotating video drum as this prevents the tape moving freely across the heads.

[BaaBaa.]

Here you go mate.

[News]

You could try putting them in a room with a dehumidifier appliance operating or in a well air-conditioned room which will also have a lower humidity.
Another way would be to use a dessicant, such as slica gel crystals, packed with them in a sealed bag or box.
Let the video machine acclimatise for a few hours if you move it from one room to another, before operating, to prevent dew or moisture forming on the rotating video drum as this prevents the tape moving freely across the heads.

Thanks for the tips. The video machine in kept in the bedroom which with the air-com is the coolest part of the house, but the house itself has no insulation so does get on the hottish side.

[News]

Still having no luck finding a desiscant. I've tried contacting various distributors but either get no reply to my messages or get
the standard reply that they only supply a minimum of 10,000.
All the stores I've tried cannot assist me, probably because the staff are too young to have been around in the days before DVD's
and several locals I've asked say 'transfer the video tapes onto a computer, which sounds like typical Thai logic.
Any more suggestions please.

[chopsticks]

Are you sure all the tapes are unplayable ?
What happens when you press play - does the tape pass normally around the drum ? and onto the take-up spool ?

Have you tried cleaning the video heads on the drum and the tape transport mechanism ?

[chopsticks]

You used to be able to buy small containers of dessicants to prevent mould and put in wardrobes etc. in most supermarkets - try Tesco or Homepro.

[News]

Thanks for the advice, I did try Homepro but nobody could help, possibly because they were all young assistants.
Not too easy to access the head on the video player now as my cleaning kit seemed to have vanished when I moved my stuff out here
but will try again, maybe an artists paint brush with a drop of liquid from the DVD cleaning kit would do the trick.

[Ginjaninja]

You used to be able to buy small containers of dessicants to prevent mould and put in wardrobes etc. in most supermarkets - try Tesco or Homepro.

You can usually buy Silica gel capsules in camera shops but they are not really that cheap.

Or try Macro as this is the sort of bulk item they may stock. Can't recall ever seeing myself though as this is the kind of thing I'd probably buy.

I might make a visit tomorrow as I need some of that Jamaramboomboom (or whatever it's called) red wine .


GN.

[Ginjaninja]

No silica gel sachets at Macro unfortunately.

Red wine 1 - 0 Silca gel


GN.

[News]

I tried Home Pro again, the first assistant said that they didn't stock silica gel but when I asked another one he led me straight to a selection of different sachets for clothing, shoes and cameras. I put some video cassettes with some of the packets, a bit of moisture on the gels after one day so hopefully we will get there in the end.
One video did have a very long lead in tape so I applied a bit of cleaner to that and it seems to work a bit easier now.