VHS you dare?

[shopgirl61]

I started collecting blu-ray almost 4 years ago, so I find it VERY hard to go back to FUZZY VHS. About the only thing I have left that is VHS resolution, are some Republic serials that I transferred to DVD-R.

As for the life span of VHS vs DVD-R, it really depends on the quality of the media you buy. Even with the best quality magnetic tape, the oxide is going to start losing the information recorded on it with in 5 to 8 years. This doesn't mean that you will notice it, but the process has started by that time. With in 15 years the "tape" on which the oxide is adhered starts to stretch, causing wow and flutter. By 20 years they are pretty much garbage. Yes they might play, but the more often you play and old tape, the more you destroy the signal recorded on it.

If you buy cheap Chinese DVD-R blanks, you will end up with lots of them in the garbage. However if you buy quality media made in Japan, a properly handled DVD-R should have a life exceeding 100 years.

Of course that is irrelevant because all physical media is on its way out. I read a thing last week that stated that most retail stores are planning to stop carrying music CDs with in the next year. I suspect that DVD will be gone with in 5 to 8 years.

Doug

I don't have any of the problems you mentioned with my tapes although I have heard this from other people.

 

[bunnyb.gal]

I have certain tapes with stuff taped off of the telly that I treasure. Lots of films off of TCM, many of which may not make it to DVD anyhow, and with Robert Osbourne's commentaries which I wish I could have for every film that I ever watch! I also have some tapes from the UK channel Bravo (now unregrettably defunct), when it was weird and wacky and alternative, before it went all lads mag-esque. In kind of the same vein, stuff taped from TNT's "100% Weird" Monstervision, when that station too had weird and wacky moments.

I also own and have on my wish list quite a few obscure pre-code/horror/exploitation films that I wouldn't expect to appear on DVD anytime soon.

So no, you will pry my VCR from my cold dead hands!

 

[Travis Lee Johnston]

Joe Bob Briggs, yes.

 

[I Adore Film Noir]

We have a collection of VHS, luckily our t.v. has a built in player/recorder. We have the entire Thin Man series, all of the Prime Suspects with Helen Mirren, doo-wop music shows from PBS, films noir, etc.

 

[fnoprx]

Another thing to consider is the fact that original vhs tapes are becoming collectables in their own right. I have a friend who sold an Italian horror movie on vhs for close to 600 dollars!

 

[Amy Jeanne]

I have six crates full of VHS tapes of things I taped off the air, some of them over 25 years old. I've yet to come across one that wouldn't play back. My wastebasket is full of DVD-Rs recorded in the last five years that won't.

Same. I have VHS tapes from nearly 30 years ago that still play.

I still have a working VHS player and like to pull them out every now and again. I find the COMMERCIALS more interesting that the shows, most of the time lol

I had a TON of movies taped off TCM on VHS, but I converted them ALL to DVD to save room. Two huge boxes got reduced to two small spindles.

 

[Atomic Age]

Same. I have VHS tapes from nearly 30 years ago that still play.

I still have a working VHS player and like to pull them out every now and again. I find the COMMERCIALS more interesting that the shows, most of the time lol

I had a TON of movies taped off TCM on VHS, but I converted them ALL to DVD to save room. Two huge boxes got reduced to two small spindles.

Now this is funny because when I used to record TV shows, I would diligently edit out the commercials as I would record the show, pausing the recording when the commercials came on. Now I wish I hadn't. The commercials say much more about the era than the actual shows do. Fortunately lots of people have been uploading old commercials to you tube.

I recorded lots of movies off of TCM also, but the quality of the recent DVD releases of many of those old movies is SO much better on DVD, not just because of the higher resolution of DVD, but because of the much better film to video transfer equipment available now, and the ability to do dirt and dust removal from the film. Also most of the recent transfers of movies go back to the original camera negatives, where as the films shown on TCM even 8 years ago were often taken from old TV prints. The difference is night and day.

Doug

 

[Amy Jeanne]

Whenever possible, I buy the DVD. But some movies I know will NEVER see a DVD release. Like 1930's Men Are Like That with Hal Skelley and 1930's The Matrimonial Bed with Lilyan Tashman. I've only ever seen TCM air these movies once at, like, 2am (could've aired them other times, but let's face it -- they are no THIN MAN! lol.) So I set my VCR and now I have them on DVD

 

[LizzieMaine]

That's the thing -- there's tons of stuff TCM showed once, and once only, fifteen years ago, and won't ever show again because they're too busy with the 900th showing of Singin In The Rain. I've got things I taped off TNT in 1990-91, early-talkie Winnie Lightner pictures and such things as that, and I doubt some of that stuff will ever be shown again. No hipster-film student appeal, which seems to the the direction TCM is going.

As far as historic taping goes, I have an entire *week* of NBC News coverage of 9/11 and the aftermath, seven full days, on VHS cassettes. That took some doing.

 

[Atomic Age]

Very true about movies that have never appeared on DVD. Hence my collection of Republic Serials that I transferred from VHS. Also there are a lot of movies that have never appeared on ANY home video format, and I've found lots of them are now showing up on Netflix streaming. LOTS of film noir from the 40's and 50's, some of which I have never heard of before!

But I'm still clinging to my really crappy VHS recording of The Brasher Doubloon off of AMC from about 1985 when they were still commercial free. I know that Eddie Muller recorded a commentary for it, but Fox has never gotten around to releasing it, and it never seem to show up on TMC.

Doug

 

[bunnyb.gal]

Another thing to consider is the fact that original vhs tapes are becoming collectables in their own right. I have a friend who sold an Italian horror movie on vhs for close to 600 dollars!

What was the movie? Maybe I'm lucky enough to have it!

 

[Derek Cavin]

We have quite a collection of VHS tapes. I will continue to watch them until they wear out or VHS machines no longer exist.