I have someone sending me an audio cassette from a concert a friend of ours recorded in 1977. It has been kept in a sealed case in climate controlled conditions for basically its entire life. However I am still concerned about the tape possibly being brittle or the oxide flaking.  I don't know if I'll have a few minutes or less of the first time I play it, or if it does manage to play through fine, how many times I'll stay lucky with it before it breaks or whatever.  I *really* want to try to capture the playback with no screwups on the first playing of the cassette. It's potentially a historic recording, as far as 1977 music goes.

Ideally, I'd like to capture the output in stereo (the friend who recorded it had a very good quality portable cassette recorder with stereo mics) from my old but decent cassette player from the headphone out line on my deck, and input that into something that can record it.  I do not think the mic input mini jack on my computer is stereo, or I'd try to record it into the Windows Movie Maker or something like that.

Does anyone have any solid advice for how to get this done right the first time?

Thanks.

I appreciate the tips about cleaning and to look for a good deck that has push-pull rollers.  Do you have any advice on the 2nd half of the process, as far as how to capture the output from that first playing of the cassette to digital audio?

Thanks everyone for the really excellent tips. Looks like I have some legwork to do.