My dad swore by adjusting the tracking on VHS tapes with a butter knife

Tried it on a grainy copy of The Empire Strikes Back last night and it actually cleared the picture up for about 20 seconds before the tape got chewed up, so I guess that advice was half right, has anyone else fallen for a weird old fix?

2 comments

2 Comments

sanchez.mary6d ago

Wait, are we really acting like a butter knife on a VHS tape is some tragic loss? That tape was probably already on its last legs if a little spin with a butter knife killed it. People act like these things are sacred artifacts when half of them were recorded over with bad TV static anyway. It's not like you lost a master copy of a lost film, you just bought yourself 20 seconds of slightly clearer picture before the tape remembered it was a rental from Blockbuster in 1996.

claire_grant346d ago

Rental from Blockbuster in 1996" actually made me snort laugh. You're totally right. I had a copy of The Lion King that my little brother tried to "fix" with a butter knife when the tracking went bad. That tape was already held together with hope and a prayer. It had been dropped on concrete and run over by a bike at some point. The butter knife just finished what life had already started. People get way too precious about these things like we're handling rare film reels or something.