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  #1  
  07-07-2012, 09:50 AM
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With the ability to preserve out collection on DVD which killed of VHS and Bluray is presumed to do the dame to DVD at some point, I was just curious to how many people see incorporate VHS in their life. Yes they were bulky and took up a lot of space, but like cassettes which I still use on a regular basis for writing music, I miss both video and cassette tapes, the smell...the splicing when they break and all the headaches that would occasionally come along with the format.

I still have a lot of my collection on VHS that I just don't have to time to transfer onto DVD, and probably well over 1500 commercial release VHS from where I used to own a video store. There just something about walking into my "video room" and seeing all the tapes and packaging from the old bulky plastic big box sets down to the slip cover cases...I love the nostalgia.

So how about anyone else....did you completely phase the VHS format put of your life and will you do so when DVD is transitioned to Bluray (if that happens)?

Excuse my rant...guess I am feeling old today, everyone have a great weekend!

Dwen
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  #2  
  07-07-2012, 12:38 PM
 
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I converted to DVD recorders around 2005 but still have about 6000 hours on VHS (and a few Beta) from 1981 on that i will never be able to convert so I am kind of anchored to both or just call for a dumpster. Some days i'm tempted.
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  #3  
  07-07-2012, 01:47 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by vidaddicted View Post
I converted to DVD recorders around 2005 but still have about 6000 hours on VHS (and a few Beta) from 1981 on that i will never be able to convert so I am kind of anchored to both or just call for a dumpster. Some days i'm tempted.
if it is regular tv recordings from 1981 on both vhs and beta please contact me before throwing it out.

VHS is getting a recent surge again for the nostalgic crowd (which incs myself). There are quite a few sites dedicated to the format and a in the works documentary "adjust the tracking' is currently shooting. Vhs/beta still plays a big role in my life as well as many others. The real honesty is I do not think it is going away anytime soon. If anything in seeing the way a few things are going, it is going to get a stronger fanbase due to the appreciation which in turn is due to its disappearance-
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  #4  
  07-07-2012, 04:12 PM
 
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In my opinion the invention of the home video recorder was up there with the invention of the printing press (which brought books to the masses), the radio (which brought news and culture into the living rooms), Television (which allowed us to see the world). Video recorders allowed the masses to see and experience the world both as seen on TV and millions of other ways limited only by the imagination of the creators. No matter what interests you video recorders allowed you to live and learn it. DVD is simply a limited expansion of the idea. Much is lost when converting to DVD from VHS. VHS was easily handled, almost universally liked and available. I remember in 1979 my local library actually checked out one of the first VHS recorders for overnight use. DVD's take less space and have better pictures but they are more delicate. If one spot on a DVD is damaged the whole disk is bad. VHS could be repaired and then copied if the tape was even broken in half. Perhaps someone could perfect a system that double records on a disc so it can be salvaged if damaged. When it was new VHS was damned as ruining the movie industry and Hollywood did anything they could to discourage it. Instead it revived the industry. Straight to video became the norm because you could sell enough even bad movies to make a profit. And if not for VHS the Porn industry would still be selling 8mm loops and be a nitch market. DVD's managed to succeed in discouraging home recording because there are few DVD recorders and most people either don't know they exist (they just figure home recording is dead or they use a PVR so the idea of keeping recordings just drops out of their reality) or the forced conversion to high def makes keeping recordings too hard or expensive. I don't think stand alone HD DVD recorders (for off air) really exist. But I ramble. I LOVED VHS and like DVD but as of now i have to stick mainly with backward compatable formats. Many older (and wiser) people miss VHS. I was working in a store when the digital conversion first took place and i felt for people who just wanted to continue to do what their VHS recorders allowed them to do. They found out all to quickly that to make that possible would be complex and expensive. And then VHS recorders disappeared. Yes, there will be a market for VHS, just look at LP's, but it's getting harder to find tapes and soon enough they will be in Museums like the wire recorder or the Edision Cylinders. Sadly also the DVD will be replaced by other formats. Perhaps when high capacity solid state memory becomes cheap enough we may return to the "home video recording device" and get back some of the function that were lost with DVD's. Unless monied interest screw that up.
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  #5  
  07-07-2012, 04:25 PM
 
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I don't want to hijack the thread, but I will say dvds are a bit more durable than you would expect and also a few programs exist to do what you had issues with- recover from nasty errors that would prevent the full file from being backed up (isobuster is one such program that will dummy out an error so you can still copy and have a workable disc)

Also I do not think much more will come after bluray. The human eye can only perceive so much and current theater use is working with 4k film transfers. If anything another format would then do 2k for home us, but in the end anything above that is a waste since the human eye cannot really perceive the difference at that point
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  #6  
  07-07-2012, 04:39 PM
 
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My idea isn't that DVD's are that unreliable,But, that if they are damaged most people will just throw them away and get another one. As for the limit of human vision, It's not he technology, it's the money to be made by releasing to another format (think Disney) that might drive the technology.
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  #7  
  07-07-2012, 05:02 PM
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I agree w. vidaddicted, I always were splice vhs and beat tapes back together and even transferring the tapes reels their self to a whole new tape housing if I had a mechanism or something go bad in the tape cartridge. In the later years 8 and 10 hour vhs blank media came out ...but I remember sketching idea out as a teenager trying to develop the 2 sided vhs tape where you could flip sides like a cassette tape...lol. But I have a lot of appreciate both beta and vhs ..I too have more video hours than I do man house to transfer everything to dvd. I I watch something on vhs and see it's really in need of a transfer I will do it just to preserve it.

I have a DVR Directv unit which I do not use...call me a tight A** but I for one still can't bring myself to have to pay a extra $4.00 a month just for the access to be able to record something off TV, I have 4 vhs all Hi Fi and 4 or 6 head models I use tor record and a coupe of standalone dvd recorders. I t may be a hassle having to set them all individually if is a weak of taping a program that comes on at the same time as another, but I am old school, I won't pay just to be able to record TV in which I all ready pay for, or for a free off air station.
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  #8  
  07-07-2012, 06:42 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dwen View Post
...but I remember sketching idea out as a teenager trying to develop the 2 sided vhs tape where you could flip sides like a cassette tape...lol. But I
HAHa I know I tried something like that many years ago (I think I used a betamax tape for it)
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  #9  
  07-07-2012, 06:52 PM
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LOL the 2 sided VHS/ Beta could of happened, I remember when I was in the studio writing and recording I even used VHS ad a audio source for recording tracks, with a HI FI deck it sounded better than cassettes. And for parties, before there was Pandora and other streaming sources for music I remember just recording 6 hours of of tunes of Digital Cable Radio (which was big back in the late 80's) and using that has a part music tape with a VCR deck hooked through my stereo. Good ol' days..I'm so old!
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  #10  
  07-07-2012, 09:29 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dwen View Post
LOL the 2 sided VHS/ Beta could of happened, I remember when I was in the studio writing and recording I even used VHS ad a audio source for recording tracks, with a HI FI deck it sounded better than cassettes. And for parties, before there was Pandora and other streaming sources for music I remember just recording 6 hours of of tunes of Digital Cable Radio (which was big back in the late 80's) and using that has a part music tape with a VCR deck hooked through my stereo. Good ol' days..I'm so old!

you aint that old.. I used to record certain live broadcasts off a College radio station. Problem was these events could go from 4-7 hours. I used to run my radio tuner through my vcr and use a t160 tape to fully record the event (dvr type of goods never existed back then). I just set my machines timer to click on at whatever time and go. Sadly I never did reconvert anything off those older vhs tapes, which I think I still have floating around here
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  #11  
  07-07-2012, 09:38 PM
 
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In the early days of Beta there was a unit that you could "stack" tapes into for longer recordings. I use a PVR and DVD recorders for a couple of reasons. It's more convient and sometimes a storm will knock out my DISH and i can try to pick up the show later or off the internet and a couple of times a disc i was recording just went bad. But even at that i miss stuff because programs last too long or other reasons. I have a dozen or so VHS recorders i don't use and a one that i have dedicated through a video stablizer and processor to correct the signal before i feed it to a DVD Recorder. I have captured directly to my computer but I get almost as good a recording the other way and it's a lot easier. And my computers are not usually fancy enough to do a good job. $$$ If i run across an item i want to keep i just pop it in the VHS recorder, preview the tape for color and ballance and record it to DVD. Basicly one shot realtime recording. Fast and dirty so to speak. The DVD's are for my own use generally so i don't mind basic VHS quality. If i want to get fancy i rip the disc to my computer, reauthor it adding menus and burning a new disc. One of the few things i've never been able to do though is make a "have" list. Too many item to list even though i have set up a couple of databases over the years. Recently a lot of the "rare" items i know i have somewhere are showing up on Youtube. Poor quality usually but nice to find anyway.
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  #12  
  07-08-2012, 12:12 PM
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Well, I still have thousands of VHS tapes, hundreds of Beta tapes, and several working units for each format. Plus PAL, DVD recorders, DVRs. Lots of technology, not enough time. But perhaps when I retire in 15 years, I will. Surprisingly, the older tapes in my collection - the ones from the late '70s and early '80s - seem to be holding up the best. My theory is that tape was not produced is such mass quantities that the quality suffered, and so the magnetic particles are denser and more cohesive. I could be completely off my rocker, but that's my theory, my theory by me.

That said, I haven't bought a single blank tape in years. I've stopped obsessively transferring shows to DVD, pending retail releases. And I haven't made a set in a year, preferring instead to store the shows on DVR extenders. Nowadays, almost everything I watch ends up on retail DVD, so why spend the time putting together a set - if I shop carefully, I can get the retail set and not expend the time on making one of my own. Which frees me up to watch other stuff. Right now that's working for me, but there are still things in my collection I'd really like to transfer - just taking a wait and see approach to see what else is in the pipeline.

For example, there is now a retail version of Roddenberry's Questor Tapes out in Australia. Really a lovely transfer. However, what I didn't realize is the overseas version of Questor is missing 8 minutes. I have an ancient - like recorded in 1980 - VHS copy of the film that is complete and uncut. I'm going to eventually have to dig that out and transfer it. One of the challenges for me is that some of the spine labels are so old, the ink has faded to unreadability! With more than 5000 tapes, it's going to take me a bit to track down that tape, but ultimately it may prove worth the effort since it's unlikely the original uncut version will be released when the edited ex-US version has been remastered.
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  #13  
  07-08-2012, 07:11 PM
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I'm so glad to hear that I'm not the only one who still has TONS of VHS tapes! lol I used to spend way more money that I should have buying the retail releases of shows and movies that I loved...or at least thought I couldn't live without for some reason. And then when I found out about Blockbuster's previously viewed tape sales (and I had a decent paying job...and a nice inheritance that I probably shouldn't have used...oh, well, live and learn, at least I have the tapes to show for it). On my way home from work, I used to hit 4 or 5 stores on the first night of the sales and come home with bags full of treasures.
While I have replaced several of the tapes with retail DVD's and transferred several more, I still have boxes upon boxes filled with retail VHS tapes. And then there are the home recordings...argh! Not only are there a ton of those but oh so many that we were in such a hurry to record something else that we'd switch out tapes and never get around to marking the contents! (I just ran across another box of those last week.)
My house is small and really needs a good going through. If I could only bring myself to part with some of my media we'd actually have at least 2 rooms free to use for something else. But, ya know, if I did that, it wouldn't be long before I had them filled up again with something else...so I may just as well leave things the way they are and let my kids deal with all this stuff when I'm gone! I'm such a mean old mom, aren't I?
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  #14  
  07-08-2012, 07:30 PM
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@grillgoil43, I am with you, when our local Blockbuster closes I took advantage of there VHS when they were phasing them out. Ironically my ma and pa buy,sell, and trade video and game store I owned didn't survive long after a Blockbuster moved in 1/2 mile away, even the Wally World didn't hurt me as much as BB because they had already phased out VHS. My store with the place to go for collectors looking for VHS and Beta films that were OOP, now my 3000 square foot store's inventory is scattered between my garage and fall out shelter. It was nice getting in stuff in trade that I would keep for myself that knew was worth something, especially the old clam shell VHS releases. I was a big collector of Lightening Video,Vestron and Prisim labels.
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  07-08-2012, 08:01 PM
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It's too bad that there isn't a less costly way to ship these bulky items. I'd much prefer to pass along the ones I can part with to someone in the group who would really appreciate having them. I've been taking some of them to the Half Priced Books stores and getting about $2 for them...total...whether I take in 40 or 120...tapes just aren't appreciated there. Most times I end up taking them to Goodwill or similar places. I figure that there they may actually be of help to someone.

@dwen...as much as I loved the volume and variety that Blockbuster had available I really hated what it did to folks like you. The 'mom & pop' stores were great assets to our communities...I hate to see our free enterprise system get strangled out by the big business, major corporation guys. You not only supplied entertainment to your community but you probably also offered jobs with a little more flexibility when your employees needed it.
I live in a rural area...our closest towns are about 6 miles away. All the little towns in our area used to have locally owned video stores, but they have all gone out of business. These towns are so small they don't even have RedBox kiosks...I think one grocery store does still have a small DVD rental corner. I really miss being able to go to the local video store and find something good to watch. I know, we now have Netflix and Blockbuster by mail but they take forever to get to ya. And streaming is too cost prohibitive out here in the boonies...I really miss the 'good ol' days'. But I guess everything changes, right? =)
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  #16  
  07-12-2012, 05:54 PM
 
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I love my vhs tapes granted I convert them if I watch and have extra discs but a lot of things r only on vhs
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  #17  
  07-24-2012, 12:38 PM
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I still have lot's of VHS tapes
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  #18  
  08-05-2012, 07:30 PM
 
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I have a dual deck VCR/DVD recorder, so VHS hasn't and probably won't disappear for a very long time from my life. I have hundreds of VHS that I haven't gotten around to converting to DVD yet. I actually preferred VHS to DVD. It was a helluva lot more durable and I didn't have to wory about a fingerprint or scratch to screw it up. Heck I had a bunch of tapes that got rained on, and a bunch of them was still working after they dried out. Only reason I switched to DVD is because for anyone that still trades here you need to have a DVD recorder since virtually nobody trades for VHS copies of anything anymore.
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