Our town library has hundreds of VCR video movies to be loaned out. I have noticed, however, that most of them have very poor contrast. Bright scenes are not really as bright as they should be and shadows are nearly black. Dark scenes are very dark—almost black. Also, they seem to have lost sharpness.
Is this because the videos are old and very worn out? I have heard that videos are subject to "bleeding" from one turn of the tape to another over long periods of time but don't know if it's true or not. Also, I'm wondering if the magnetic fields of so many tapes being stored to another could affect one another.
I have many VCR tapes of places such as national parks or NOVA which are still bright and contrasty. Maybe this would support the worn out theory of the library tapes?
Since the TV has no contrast control, I suppose this is just going to have to be the way it is. I'm about ready to give up on the library tapes.
I would appreciate any information you could give me.

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