Desperate help needed

[desperate]

Some years ago a local rugby club(professional) used to have their games professionally videod.They were then distributed to local rental shops etc.My in laws had one of these shops.

The club has since gone to the wall and a new club created.There are a number of rugby enthusiasts who have set up a museum to the old club.They have asked me to give them the old videos.

Unfortunately they have been thrown away after being left in a garage for years and getting mouldy and unplayable.

The society has the original master copies but apparently it is a very expensive process to put them back onto video.I do not know what format they were recorded on(they wre made in the 80's/90's).

Does anyone know what is involved to carry out this process,what format they were likely to have been recorded on,likely cost and anywhere it could be done ?

I appreciate this is all a bit vague but I really am desperate to try and help out.

I am leaving for a fortnight in Ireland this evening so will be unable to reply to any suggestions,but I would like to thank all for any help they can offer me with this.

thanks
Desperate

[Marc Peters]

You really need to find out exactly what medium was used to record the video. If were talking 80-90s here, then more than likely were talking about your bog standard camcorder (i believe they were introduced around '83). That would represent a fairly easy medium to transfer - all you need to do is grab a second hand camcorder that's capabable of playing back the tapes and feed the video from the analogue conections to your video. Infact, I was only a very young lad, but I seem to remember that early tapes could actually be played in a VCR (with or without a special adapter).