Will your video tapes do a vanishing act?

• Author: Barrett, Wayne M.

There's no label saying so, but be warned: VHS tapes don't last forever. Those personal, irreplaceable videos--be they of the big game, the birth of a child, your wedding, baby's first steps--one day could break down. It probably won't happen, though, because today's VCR tapes are too good and ways to extend their lives too easy. The trouble is, no one seems to know exactly how long those tapes will remain operable.

"You have to keep an eye on your tapes," notes Bill Drysdale, Fuji's Consumer Video Product Manager. "But if they're stored properly, they should last 20 years or more."

"There's no absolute answer to how long your tapes will last," indicates Bob Fontana, TDK's Manager of Customer and Technical Services. "But it's safe to assume that, with proper care, 25 years or more can be expected. The real question is whether or not the hardware will exist to reproduce the recordings."

"It all depends on how they're stored," explains Patricia Glotzbier, Maxell's Technical Applications Specialist for Consumer Products. "Under optimum conditions, a tape can last more than 30 years.

"Actually," adds Andrew Mougis, Sony's Senior Vice President of Consumer and Professional Tapes, "it's very difficult to say. No one really knows for sure. I have Beta tapes from the late 1970s that I'm still using now. I've heard a lot of numbers tossed around; a decade, 15 years, 20 years. You can't really say. The industry's still new. It hasn't gone through the test of time."

All the manufacturers USA Today spoke with, however, do agree on one thing--the best way to store VHS tapes. They should be kept upright in airtight containers (or at least their jackets) in a cool (55-70 [degrees] F) spot with low relative humidity (40-60%). It's that simple. It is best to fast forward and rewind the tapes at least once a year (every six months is even better). Of course, for fail-safe insurance, make a copy of your most precious tapes. True, it's a bother, especially for individuals with extensive video libraries. And, as a hard-bitten consumer, you probably deserve a package warning--some sort of written alert from the manufacturers--but none is forthcoming. So save yourself from anxiety overload and make the dupes--now! Moreover, take heart, because, for all its annoying pitfalls, modern technology has given Americans the most advanced home theaters in the world.

"Tape technology today certainly is better than it used to be," Maxell's Glotzbier points out. "The most...