Is This VHS Tape Blank? How to Tell Before You Pay to Convert It

Key takeaways

• Only playback proves a tape is blank. Everything else is a clue.
• A broken-out record tab means someone protected a recording on purpose. Treat that tape as recorded.
• Spool through the window: tape wound partway through means it was played or recorded to that point at least once.
• Spot-check at the start, a third of the way in, two thirds in and near the end. Snow or a blue screen at all four points is a good sign the tape is blank.
• About one tape in 75 that people send us turns out to be blank, and camcorder tapes are blank far more often than VHS.
• A tape that turns out to be blank is refunded, so sending a doubtful one costs you nothing for that tape.

Five checks you can do without a player

Apart from a sealed wrapper, none of these proves a tape is blank. Together they tell you which tapes are clearly recorded, which are clearly unused, and which need a spot-check.

Check	What you see	What it means
Wrapping	Still sealed	Never recorded. Certain.
Record tab	Broken out	Someone protected a recording. Treat as recorded.
Spool	Tape wound partway or to the end	Used at least that far. Spot-check.
Label or sleeve	Handwriting, date or crossed-out title	Used, maybe recorded over. Spot-check.
Format	Small camcorder cassette	Blank more often than VHS. Spot-check.

1. Is it still sealed?

A tape in its original shrink-wrap has never been recorded. That is the only check that settles the question without a player. Once the wrapping is off, assume nothing.

2. Is the record tab broken out?

Every VHS cassette has a small plastic tab on the back edge, the edge facing you when you push it into the player. Breaking it out stops the tape being recorded over. People did that to protect something they cared about, so a missing tab is the strongest sign a tape is recorded. A tab still in place tells you nothing: most home recordings were never protected. If someone has covered the gap with sticky tape, it was protected once and later reused.

Most camcorder tapes use a sliding switch instead of a tab (VHS-C has a tab, like full-size VHS). On MiniDV and Hi8 cassettes, a switch set to "SAVE" or showing a red mark means someone protected it.

3. Where is the tape wound to?

Look through the window on top of the cassette. A brand-new tape has all the tape on the left-hand spool. A tape that has all its tape on the right-hand spool was played or recorded to the end and never rewound. A tape stopped partway through was used at least to that point. A full left spool is not proof of a blank tape, because most people rewound before putting a tape away.

4. What do the label and the sleeve say?

A handwritten label, a date or a crossed-out title means the tape was used, though perhaps recorded over since. A blank label means nothing either way: plenty of family tapes were never labelled. Check inside the sleeve too, where people often wrote the contents on a card.

5. Is it a camcorder tape?

Small cassettes (MiniDV, Hi8, Video8, VHS-C) came out of a camera, and spares were often bought in packs and never used. They are blank much more often than full-size VHS. If you are unsure what a small tape is, our guide to camcorder tape types shows how to tell them apart.

How to spot-check a tape in a player

If you still have a working VCR, a spot-check takes about two minutes a tape. Do not record anything while you check.

1. Check the tape first. Look through the window for white or grey fuzz on the tape, and listen for rattles. A mouldy or damaged tape can ruin the player's heads and the tape itself. Set it aside unplayed.
2. Play the first minute. Many home recordings start a few seconds in. Reset the counter to zero.
3. Fast-forward to about a third, then two thirds of the way. Press play at each point. On most players you can hold fast-forward while playing (picture search) to scan for flashes of picture.
4. Play a minute near the end. Many tapes were recorded for twenty minutes and then left; others were recorded over from the start, leaving an older recording later on.
5. Read the screen. Grey snow with a hiss, or the player's blue screen, means nothing is recorded at that point. Any picture, however faint or noisy, means the tape is recorded.
6. Rewind and label it. Write "blank?" or "recorded" on a sticky note so you do not check it twice.

What the screen is telling you

The common mistake is to call a faint picture blank. Worn tape, dirty heads or bad tracking can leave a picture so washed out that it looks like noise at first glance. Look for shapes moving under the noise, and listen for voices under the hiss. If you see or hear anything, keep the tape.