Used Tapes Not Always a Bargain, Can Harm VCR

Beware of used tapes.

They may look like a great bargain: A popular movie that just two or three months earlier was selling for $80 or $90 can now be purchased for a fraction of that. In reality, however, such used tapes--or, as they’re called in the industry, “previously viewed” tapes--can be harmful to your VCR.

Used tapes have been in the news recently because Paramount, in disclosing plans last week for the rental-market release of “Ghost” on March 21, said that each cassette will include an industry first: a 60-second spot promoting the purchase of used copies of “Ghost.”

Selling used tapes is the retailers’ most common way of disposing stock. Once demand for a new release has died down after two or three months, the cassettes are mostly just taking up shelf space. So retailers may market them as previously viewed, for anywhere between $6 and $30.

By then, says John Thrasher, Tower’s vice president of video purchasing and distribution, the average rental tape will have been viewed between 35 and 50 times. And therein lies the problem for would-be buyers: After all those rentals, the tape may be in bad shape--peeling or just plain dirty--because of damage inadvertently done by the VCRs of previous users.

A soiled used tape can dirty the heads of your VCR. Dirty heads distort the picture and also transfer dirt to your clean tapes, making them produce lower quality images.

If you buy used tapes, therefore, it is wise to clean the VCR heads with a proper head cleaner after each play.

Even if you don’t buy used tapes but frequently rent videos, you should clean the VCR heads after every five or six hours of play.

KATZENBERG MEMO: The home-video industry has been buzzing about the infamous memo from Walt Disney Studios’ chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg to company executives, which surfaced last week in the news media. While his remarks about shying away from big-budget movies received most of the press attention, he also suggested that future rental movies may sell to home-video retailers for $200--more than double the current price, which probably would force a rental price hike to $5.

Disney home-video executives spent the week assuring retailers that no such price boost was imminent.

“That memo obviously wasn’t supposed to be made public, but it’s disturbing to know the studio heads are even thinking in those terms,” said Tower’s Thrasher. “The rental market is soft now. The last thing retailers need this year is a huge wholesale price increase, which would force high rental rates and force some people out of business.”