- Humidity damage usually causes a tape to break repeatedly
- When a tape is exposed to humidity and gets wet and dries repeatedly, the thin layer of lubrication on the film's surface deteriorates and becomes glue-like in places. In Video8, Hi8 or Digital8 cassettes the tape will begin to stick together on the reels and ultimately snap as playback is attempted. In VHS, VHS-C and S-VHS tapes humidity damage can cause the tape to foul the heads of your equipment in addition to creating breaks, which will usually cause a high-pitched squealing on the rubber rollers inside your equipment.
- Each tape that has been exposed to humidity damage must be individually assessed
- Every case of humidity damage is different, and the very extreme cases cannot be repaired when the tape becomes too brittle to work with. We have fixed many, many tapes with this kind of damage, but we'll have to see yours before we can know if it can be repaired; since we do not charge an assessment fee you will not be charged unless your footage can be recovered.
- $69.50 per tape repaired for humidity damage
- VHS, S-VHS, VHS-C, miniDV, miniDV HD and Audio Cassette - anything and everything that's wrong with your tape is covered, please visit our FAQ page for details regarding the repair process for Video8, Hi8 and Digital8 tapes. Discount pricing is available.
- Discount pricing
- The repair process for humidity damaged tapes is slow and gentle in order to increase the chances that footage can be recovered; working with tapes in batches allows us to be more efficient. If you send in 5 - 9 humidity-damaged tapes we can offer 10% off of the repairs and if you send in 10 tapes or more in a batch we can take 20% off of the repair costs. When you place an order you will see a prompt that will ask if you will be sending more than one tape and the discounted price will be reflected in the automated quote you receive.