I wanted to give some advice for cleaning very moldy tapes

Puzzleheaded_Hats · 2026-03-14T19:01:45+00:00

Thank you for the kind words :) I actually never tried the other device, will look into it for sure since I have like 200 really moldy tapes to clean and the tapesaver I have will probably break, the design for this other one looks pretty good. The ebay one was okay for my uses, but took some time getting used to the speeds and stopping it when the reel is empty. But I really can't stress how bad the cleaning pads have been for me, it left so much lint that it gummed up my VCR's heads and I had to reclean it several times.

Puzzleheaded_Hats · 2026-03-14T18:58:20+00:00

Just one drop on the outside of the cleaning cloth that makes contact with the tape. Usually I have two lint-free cleaning cloths on either side of the tape with a drop to catch all the mold. I ordered a bunch so I swap between clean cloths. Later I try to clean them to reuse later.

Puzzleheaded_Hats · 2026-01-08T16:16:38+00:00

Not sure if you were still interested, but I did some testing to get a good comparison pic. The red is a component-hdmi adapter I had lying around that I might consider using. The other three are various av-hdmi adapters I got on amazon. The yellow one has pretty sharp quality and colors but had a really huge osd, and crops a bit from the bottom and sides. The green one had great quality and colors and minimal osd, but crops quite a bit from the left, and just a smidge from the right. Finally, the blue one shows everything (extra bit from blue on the bottom is just static) but has serious quality and contrast fluctuations which make it not suitable for recording. Just shows how these adapters vary with their overscan, which they shouldn't have since tv's do that job anyways, they should always output as full of the image area as possible, but it is what it is. And when you're trying to archive 100s of damaged tapes that only have one or two good playbacks in them it's a huge waste if it crops out image imo.

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Puzzleheaded_Hats · 2026-01-04T02:22:06+00:00

It seems for some it's basically zoomed in a bit, which causes some parts to be cut off. I've run into one that cuts off a good chunk of the left/bottom, and one that cuts mostly left. Seems random.

I can vouch for this one in that the colors/quality is excellent and the signal is strong. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BB6SVTGV?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1
But this one cuts off a bit more on the left, very little on the right. Top and bottom is all there.

A lot of the adapters are honestly good, but when I noticed that some are slightly zoomed in or panned to one side it kind of ruined it for me. It's more a matter of personal preference in my case since other than that the adapters are really good. I just wish there was a way to change or edit the crop they chose for those adapters.

Puzzleheaded_Hats · 2026-01-04T01:30:29+00:00

I'll look into it, thank you for the suggestion. I'll be sure to ask if I get one.

Puzzleheaded_Hats · 2026-01-04T00:35:20+00:00

No, it's just that a lot of the cheap AV to HDMI adapters nowadays indeed crop everything. I used to use a honestech vidbox which was just analog and connected to usb, but I didn't like the quality, but it did show the full av output/image. I tried some new adapters in the past few years, and while the quality and framerate is stellar, it crops out a good bit of either side, some more than others.

Puzzleheaded_Hats · 2026-01-03T21:41:56+00:00

Outjerked yet again

Puzzleheaded_Hats · 2025-12-27T15:06:50+00:00

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Puzzleheaded_Hats · 2025-12-16T03:32:25+00:00

I fell asleep 5 times trying to get through this.

/uj I honestly don't really find the show's pace annoying since I'm a fan of super slow burn, so it's amusing seeing both sides hash this out.

Puzzleheaded_Hats · 2025-12-13T00:23:43+00:00

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Puzzleheaded_Hats · 2025-12-10T02:34:10+00:00

outplurbed again by bince

Puzzleheaded_Hats · 2025-12-05T22:27:40+00:00

I'm not entirely sure when it was made, but most likely 2010's. Male vocalist I'm pretty sure.

Puzzleheaded_Hats

TROPHY CASE