Over the past thirty years, most families have added more and more video cameras and home movies to their personal archives. Today, camcorders are super-small and easy to use. Thanks to these devices, we have become the most recorded human beings ever! We have videos of weddings, birthdays, parties, grandparents, children, and more. Future generations will inherit amazing records of their ancestors, and will be able to see and hear their great-great grandparents in vivid clarity.

Or will they? The vast majority of family videos are currently stored on videotape. It wasn't until recently that newer formats such as MiniDVD and hard drives changed the basic videotape format of camcorders. (And those formats have their issues too.) If we want to truly preserve our home videotapes for our children and grandchildren, it's essential to understand a bit about videotapes.

FACT: VIDEOTAPES DON'T LAST FOREVER. HERE'S WHY.

It's not an exaggeration: Videotapes really do degrade much faster than most people realize. In as little as 8–10 years, tapes can suffer deterioration, and total life expectancy is less than 20 years. A tape frequently shows a lower quality of picture crispness just after 5 years.

So why does videotape deterioration happen? The tape in a videotape is comprised of three main parts: physical plastic tape; magnetic particles (iron oxide), which contain the video and audio; and the "binder," which is glue that holds the magnetic particles to the plastic tape. The particles act like tiny bar magnets and are changed into patterns when the tape passes over an electromagnet during the recording process. When the tape is played back, the patterns are picked up by a playback head and become the video image. Over time, the binder glue weakens. When this happens, the magnetic particles lose their adhesion to the tape.

Why does this happen to the binder? First, some of the tape is rubbed off every time it is played. This simply happens from the wearing, mechanical nature of VCRs and camcorders, all of which have moving parts that thread the tape over playback heads.

The environment also plays an important role. If you store your tapes in high humidity, or in a room where the temperature changes substantially (such as a spare room that might be warm in summer and colder in the winter), that dramatically affect tapes. Plus, magnetic fields in the environment can also cause signal loss, even when the tape is just being stored. Furthermore, tapes are vulnerable to sudden data loss resulting from static shock or strong electric fields, such as those generated by TVs and other electronics.

Even worse, the magnetic particles can become separated from the binder just over time, a process that accelerates as the tape gets older. This happens because as the binder absorbs more and more water from normal humidity, it swells and exposes more surface area – absorbing even more moisture.

Signs of a weakening binder can first include faded color and audio changes. Later, the timing and color signals that the tape outputs to the VCR also start to fade. Straight lines begin to look a little wavy, rolling lines can appear on the video, and the picture can start to jitter because your VCR has trouble picking up the necessary signals.

A tape is in an advanced state of degradation when it clogs the playback heads of a VCR or camcorder. Eventually, the tape can become unwatchable and the video will be completely gone. When this happens, the magnetic particles have finally completely broken free and ended up on the bottom of the tape case.

Thus, the vulnerability of videotapes make them the most unsuitable media for long-term storage of precious video memories.

TIPS FOR STORING VIDEOTAPES SUCCESSFULLY

But you're not fighting a losing battle. Proper tape maintenance can slow the deterioration process and preserve family video as long as possible. And even if you transfer videos to DVD, always, always, always keep your original tapes! Never get rid of your master copies because they will always be the best version. And this way, you have the option of transferring your tapes to an even-better format in the future if possible.

Here are some tips for maximizing the lifespan of your family videotapes:

– Avoid storing tapes in the following places:
          – Concrete floors: Susceptible to water and high humidity
          – Attics: High temperatures
          – Cellars/basements: High humidity
          – Near bathrooms or laundry rooms: Humidity from steam
          – Next to electronics in a cabinet: High temperatures and magnetism

– Store your tapes in a stable, cool, and dry environment. Heat and humidity are the two greatest threats to videotapes. The reason for this is because magnetic tape expands and contracts as weather conditions change. This changes the tape's physical dimensions, which can confuse a VCR or camcorder. (Do not go cooler than 45 degrees Fahrenheit though.)

– Avoid rapid changes in temperatures. Do not use tapes, VCRs, or camcorders if they have been in high or low temperatures or in humidity. Let them sit in room temperature for awhile before using them. Temperature changes and humidity can clog video playback heads and jam tapes.

– Keep tapes out of sunlight and away from magnetic fields.

– Store tapes in their cases. This prevents dust and dirt from entering the tape cassette, which can increase the amount of magnetic particles rubbed off during playback and exacerbate magnetic charges.

– Store tapes in an upright position, like a book on a shelf. This helps prevent damage to the edge of the tape. Never stack tapes one on top of the other.

– Watch important tapes as little as possible to prevent wear and tear on the tapes. Transfer tapes you want to watch over and over to DVD, then watch the DVD instead and carefully store the original tape.

– Break the tape's write-protect mechanism. Doing this prevents the tape from being recorded over accidentally. To do this, use a small regular screwdriver to break off the small square tab that can be found on the tape's spine (the opposite side from the tape mechanism).

– Maintain your VCR and camcorder as well as possible. Use head cleaners to eliminate the dirt that can cause abrasive conditions for tapes. Cover machines and store camcorders in cases to prevent dust.

– Never touch a cassette's plastic tape with your fingers.

– Don't splice and reuse broken tapes. Splicing can damage a VCR's heads.

– Don't clean tapes contaminated with adhesives, fungus, or other substances yourself. Leave repair work like this to the professionals.

– Transfer your tapes to DVD so the content is safely backed up!

TRANSFER VIDEOS TO DVD. IS THAT REALLY THE BEST METHOD?

DVD is currently the most practical and affordable medium to use for transferring videotapes. DVDs are durable, easy to play, have wide marketplace acceptance, and provide excellent capacity for high-quality video. Top-grade DVD discs (such as those used by Timeless DVD) are expected to last about 100 years. Lower-quality consumer-grade discs, such as those sold at office-supply and electronics stores, are a bit lower at 20-30 years.

DVDs can be played over and over without any loss of quality. This is because there are no moving parts on a DVD player, unlike a VCR. A laser reads the DVD as it spins, and no part of the DVD player ever touches the disc. So there is no wear and tear.

Although a videotape can be destroyed by a static shock or magnetism in the environment, a DVD avoids this problem because the data surface of a DVD is optical, not magnetic. The data on a DVD disc consists of an optical layer protected by a polycarbonate protective surface – which is the same material used in bulletproof glass! A DVD can even experience light scratches on this surface and survive intact.

DVDs can be copied with no quality loss. So it's easy to make backups if you only have one disc and want additional backup copies. This is not possible with videotapes, which suffer "dubbing loss" whenever they are copied to a second tape. DVDs store video in a digital format, like files on a computer, which is why they can be copied perfectly.

And finally, wide marketplace acceptance means that you'll be able to watch your DVDs for many years. While new technologies are always on the horizon, DVDs have permeated the market in such a way that machines are available in almost every household and will be available to buy for many years to come.

For these reasons and more, DVDs are currently the most reliable format for long-term storage. However, we're often asked about other current formats, such as MiniDV tape, high-definition DVDs, and hard drives. All of these are excellent mediums, but they do have drawbacks from the preservation perspective.

– MiniDV: It is still a videotape, with all the same drawbacks as VHS. In fact, the tiny width of its plastic tape, the less-durable metal evaporated technology used by the format, and the delicate nature of MiniDV camcorders create a perfect storm of potential problems. That said, MiniDV provides excellent quality for a transfer and is particularly good at preserving video for short-term use, such as footage you may want to edit on your computer.

– High-definition DVD, such as Blu-Ray: In early 2008, Blu-Ray triumphed over competitor HD-DVD. But while DVDs for both formats are available, few consumers have a player, and only time will tell if high-def DVD will be accepted by the masses or just used by video enthusiasts. In any case, camcorder video that's transferred to a high-def DVD will not look better than that of a regular DVD transfer. This is because your camcorder video is still analog. Whether the video is transferred to DVD or Blu-Ray, it will still only look as good as the original tape. A regular DVD already preserves 99% of the original quality from your tape, and high-def cannot improve on that. The only advantage is that when/if Blu-Ray discs are more widely used, they will provide more data space than a regular DVD.

– Hard drives: Hard drives can be used to store video. But the big drawback here is failure rate. Say you have all your home video on a hard drive, be it a computer hard drive or a DVR. If that hard drive dies, all your video is gone. ALL of it. Poof! Hard drives may be convenient, the possibility of failure is a major problem. Alternatively, if you have your video on a few DVDs, and those DVDs have backup copies as well, you're in pretty good shape even if one breaks.

Of course, technology marches on and it's inevitable that another format will come along to replace DVDs. That's the way of the world. If you want to preserve your video in the best way possible, we advise that you preserve family video onto DVDs, make backup copies of the DVDs, store your original videotape correctly, and transfer additional copies onto MiniDV and hard drives if desired. The more backup sources you have, the better chances will be that your video will last a lifetime and beyond.