Q: How many VHS tapes fit into a paper box?
A: Too damn many!
When I got home last night I realized that the DVD/VCR was still plugged into my AV Receiver so I decided I’d get going on the VHS to DVD transfers, but I didn’t realize just how many VHS tapes I have. For my move from Alexandria to DC I took empty printer paper boxes from the EPA, they didn’t recycle at the time anyway and didn’t really care. It made packing a breeze, naturally the boxes with books in them were well-packed and very heavy and the VHS tapes were similar, just not as heavy. Man if I thought books fit tightly, the VHS tapes are like Tetris Nirvana. Fortunately not every tape will be copied, but the ones that do go at real time. I started one at SP speed (remember SP, LP/EP, SLP?) this morning, but when I got in last night there was a 6 hour SLP tape that happily did its thing all evening while I cleaned and ate dinner. The quality is as expected of sorta-abandoned video tapes, but for the stuff I know will never be broadcast again or put out on DVD, this is a good solution for the time being. Still, this could easily take a few months, even if I’m able to do 2-3 tapes a day. The results for this portion of the cleaning won’t be as immediately apparent, but it does count as cleaning!
