That 1996 VHS repair video told me to rewind tapes with a pencil, ruined my player after 2 months

Found an old tape repair guide from my uncle's basement in Akron that swore manual pencil rewinding was safer than the deck, then the ribbon snapped inside my VCR and I had to spend $80 fixing it, anyone else trust retro advice from 90s instructional tapes and get burned?

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tarak177d ago

Wait, does that pencil trick actually work for anyone, or did I just manage to jam a Bic into my VCR like a complete idiot? My uncle swore by that method too, but after I tried it, the ribbon snapped and the deck ate my copy of Space Jam like a hungry raccoon. I spent the next week explaining to my parents that no, I didn't break it on purpose, and yes, the pencil was supposed to help. Honestly, I think those 90s tapes were designed by people who never actually touched a VCR. Now I just rewind with the machine and pray, which is probably what we should've done all along. 😂