Testing Severely Neglected VHS Tapes And CDs

An experiment testing the playability of severely neglected VHS tapes and CDs that had been abandoned outdoors in an old house for at least a decade. The VHS tapes, despite containing dirt, debris, and even a spider nest, played mostly fine after basic cleaning. CDs fared well as long as their data layer was physically intact, but deep scratches rendered them unreadable. The results highlight that VHS magnetic tape is surprisingly resilient to environmental exposure compared to optical discs, which are vulnerable to surface damage.