Every movie you love can vanish overnight — a rights deal, a dead server, a cancelled subscription. So can your own memories: a crashed hard drive, a lost phone, a corrupted memory card, a deleted cloud account. Tape-riot records your wedding film, your family archive, your favorite recordings onto real VHS tape: something you can hold forever — that no one can delete or cancel — and that will still play in thirty years. Plus used & repaired VCRs to play it all on.
Streaming gave us everything and then took our ownership away. Here's the case for putting your media on the shelf — in your hands.
A service loses a contract, a studio pulls a title, a platform deletes your uploads — and it's gone, legally and forever. You were renting it the whole time and never knew.
Brand-new VHS tapes, recorded on calibrated decks with Hi-Fi stereo audio. Analog that plays on any VCR — no app, no account, no internet required, ever.
Nobody opens a folder on a dead, dusty laptop. But a shelf with three tapes on it? That gets played. That gets passed down. That's the point.
We also sell used & repaired VCRs — cleaned, re-belted, tested end to end on real tapes — so your shelf of media stays alive for another thirty years.
Four steps. No subscriptions. No account required. Just tape.
Tell us about your video and get an honest turnaround up front — about two weeks when we're quiet.
Drag your file into our upload folder — most formats, up to about 10 GB, no account needed.
Recorded to a brand-new tape, checked end to end, wrapped in a one-of-a-kind cover hand-made for your tape.
The tape arrives ready to play — and it's yours, on your shelf, for the next thirty years. Nothing can cancel it.
Every unit here has been opened up, cleaned, re-belted where needed, and tested end to end on real tapes. When it's on the shelf, it's ready to play — first come, first served.
Got a deck that won't play? We repair & service VCRs too — email us.
per tape — + $6 flat shipping (US & Canada)
One flat price for any video up to 4 hours — no hourly add-ons, ever. Flat $6 shipping within the US & Canada — we collect your address securely at checkout.
We make every cover by hand, for your tape and no one else's. Send us a title, a few photos, and any details worth telling — the cover is as one-of-a-kind as the footage.
Two minutes, and you're on the shelf. No account, no subscription — just your video and a stamp.
We'll email you the moment a slot opens. First come, first served.
That's kind of the point. Obsolete means no one can take it away, no one can change it, and no one needs to give you permission to play it. It's permanent media you actually own — no account, no subscription, no one who can switch it off. It just plays.
MP4 (H.264) is ideal, but we work with most common formats — MOV, MTS, AVI, MKV, and more. Files up to about 10 GB are fine. If you're unsure, just ask before ordering.
You'll see an honest turnaround estimate on the order form before you pay — about two weeks when we're quiet, and a few weeks more when we're busy. If our queue ever pushes past two months, we pause new orders rather than keep you waiting, and you can join the waitlist.
We hand-make one for every tape — your title on the front, photos or stills you send inside, a matching spine and label, in the style of a classic video-store release. No two covers are alike, and each one is made for your tape and no one else's.
Tapes are recorded in NTSC and play on standard North American and Japanese VCRs and combos. If your VCR is outside that region, check with us first.
It's covered by a 30-day guarantee — tell us and we'll re-record it free, no questions asked.
When you order, you confirm you own the footage or have the rights to share it (wedding films often belong to the couple, and that's fine — you're the couple, or you've asked them). We keep a copy only long enough to fulfill your order.
Private view for the shop owner. The Google Sheet remains the source of truth — this is just a quick window into it.
Got a tape from Tape-riot, or just love physical media? Say hi. Be nice — it's a small shop.
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