Any 1” machines near DC/southern MD?
 

I got an old reel of video tape from work, interested in seeing what’s on it if anything. Anyone near me with a working machine?

Could also be computer data or analog studio audio. I remember seeing fridge-sized RTR computer drives still in use at some of my dad's old employers in Chicago.

If its video, it could be type A, B, or C format. All incompatible with each other. Does it have a label? What brand of tape is it?
My guess is that its type C since there was a lot of that around.

Hadn’t thought of that, it’s entirely possible there’s no video at all and it’s a bunch of computer data on here. It’s an Ampex reel, says hi-resolution 795 on it. There’s also a paper label that says ‘emu ground test, tape speed 60 IPS’. Worst case is what, someone tries to play it and we get a bunch of hash that sounds like an old dial up modem?

A defined tape speed like that sounds like an instrumentation recorder, not video. And... a quick Google shows lots of hits calling it an instrumentation tape. So it's likely got data on it, probably FM-recorded longitudinally, not helical-scan like video. What diameter is the reel?