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I have an old betamax tape of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Now understand that this is the ORIGINAL, FIRST VIDEO RELEASE of the movie, meaning that it is now 23 to 24 years old.
This was the copy I used to watch as a kid and I saved it when our old betamax VCR and tapes went by the wayside. I would like to convert it to DVD as it's sort of sentimental in a way. I can get a Betamax VCR on eBay with no problems for the conversion.
My question is......is the tape still playable? I've heard of old tapes getting put into machines and melting and ruinning VCR heads, thus destroying the tape and the machine completely. Since the Betamax machines are pretty expensive on eBay, I don't want to buy one and then ruin it since I would re-sell it once I finished converting the tape in order to get my money back.
Also, I have not stored this tape in the best conditions either over the years. It has been kept in a trunk with other momentos in the garage year round for more than 5 years at least.
Given all this information and any experience of those of you who know about this sort of stuff....what are my chances of converting this thing successfully? Should I just forget the whole thing?