The VHS Revival Culture

I think Tim Burton's 1989 Batman was one of the cheaper VHS releases at the time when released for home viewing.

 

I remember BATMAN being $17.99 or so, and was given a big push as a "sell-through" title when it was released.

 

I bought a copy of the film "10" with Dudley Moore back in 1981. It cost me about $75.

 

Yeah, I'm not sure if it was quite that low, but it was definitely super-cheap for a big 'new' movie at the time. I've got an ad posted on my Youtube channel for the November 1990 release of the first Ninja Turtles film on VHS, and a big selling point in the ad is its "low price" of just $29.99. It's drawn several comments posted by what I'm assuming are fairly young people who are shocked at how expensive a VHS tape was and thought that New Line was actually charging a higher-than-usual price for it because of how popular it was. I had to post a reply to explain this was actually a bargain at the time.

 

Adding to the Batman blitz, GoodTimes Home Video released the 1943 Batman serial in a two-VHS tape set, with each tape retailing for $9.95. In a concession to the politically correct tenor of the times, the narrator’s anti-Japanese slurs were edited out of the home video. The company also released the 1949 Batman and Robin serial on two VHS tapes, again for $9.95 each. Warner Home Video got into the game with their release of 1968’s Batman-Superman Hour, retailing for $14.98, and Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman for $24.98. For fans of the 1960s TV series, Playhouse Video released the 1966 Batman movie on VHS for $19.98. As videotape had proliferated, the price for individual cassettes had dropped dramatically from a few years previously.

Scivally, Bruce (2011-12-20). Billion Dollar Batman (Kindle Locations 5945-5950). Henry Gray Publishing. Kindle Edition.

 

here we go again. vhs is not better than a dvd or a blu ray.

 

It has a warmer picture, and the all-analog sound is so much better than the fatiguing digital audio on DVD and BD.





dan c

 

I have about 40-50 tapes.
Need thin the heard a bit more.

Darryl

 

I picked up those Goodtimes BATMAN AND ROBIN serials at K-mart at the time. I think the $17.99 price for Burton's
BATMAN was a discount at one of my local video stores, now that I see the original SRP above.

 

I remember buying the Goodtimes serials at K-Mart as well. I'm pretty sure I bought several CDs too. How times have changed!

 

What? Not sure if trolling, but last time I checked 240p looks worse than 480, 720 or 1080p, and the audio on VHS tapes never sounded as good to me as discrete DD 5.1 or DTS 5.1.

 

But...what about 'analog warmth'??

Wasn't trolling, was just kidding. Hence the ''

dan c

 

Dan was just being funny. By law, all VHS tapes should be burned. The only exceptions are a) once-in-a-lifetime events [personal happenings, home movies, etc.], b) obscure movies that have fallen through the cracks and can never or will never be reissued on DVD, Blu-ray, or downloads, or c) live TV events that evaporated into the ether. There are rare exceptions, like a weird version of a movie that only came out on VHS, and I can see keeping that.

Everything else... burn 'em!

 

ahh ok, my bad

 

I'm a 39-year-old guy who has some SERIOUS nostalgia around VHS. Renting obscure horror films from the long-gone video stores was a real highlight for me as a kid. These were the days before the internet, so this was the only real way to discover movies outside of those you might read about in one of those Leanard Maltin movie guides or similar books.

Hell, I've recently been buying VHS tapes myself on Ebay despite telling myself before "NEVER AGAIN!!!" The format itself sucks compared to the new digital formats, but dammit, you can't replicate the look of the box and tape themselves which immediately transports me back to the days when I spent hours at the video store trying to decide which two titles I would settle on taking home that night. For me, the excitement now comes from finding the absolute oldest VHS tapes I possibly can. Titles on the Meda or Magnetic Video labels, for example, hoping to rescue a tape that somehow miraculously survived for 35 years.

As for the youngsters who are getting excited about collecting VHS, I've conversed with many on Facebook and I can't say I understand a lot of them at all. It isn't about nostalgia for them, and in too many cases, it's just about being able to boast about finding the rarest title that someone else may actually want more than they do. That is, my observation is that many of them don't love the movies like I do, they don't know or care about the labels who put them out, but if you say that a title is rare as hen's teeth, they sure as hell want it so they can post a picture of it on the internet and say "Look what I got!"

This is proven by the fact that some people are now printing up limited edition VHS tapes of 50 copies or less and people are scarfing them up at crazy prices ($30 - $50). The movies contained within are crap or are otherwise on DVD, so what's the draw? That the item is limited surely.

So let me say that my love for VHS isn't quite like my love for vinyl. Whereas there is nostalgia around my love for vinyl, I wouldn't spend so darn much if it didn't sound good, and often better than what is available digitally. VHS is crap overall, and I never spend more than $20 on a tape these days (usually more like $2 - $10), because in most cases, it's just there to sit in my collection and look pretty. Although I do still watch my VHS tapes of movies that are not available digitally.

 

If I ever re-visit my VHS tapes again, I will only do it to enjoy seeing a nostalgic snapshot of what was being shown on TV in the 80s and 90s...commercials, station IDs, previews, etc. I doubt I would ever use the format again for actually watching programs or movies that are now available on DVD or Blu Ray.

I did record some news events that took place...the Challenger explosion, 9-11, etc. and have those on VHS...and those can be interesting viewing. But I have found many of those news clips already on YouTube in decent quality. I was also an avid taper of Doctor Who while I was growing up, but I now have all of those episodes on DVD, so all of those can probably go in the bin. The only tapes I would save are musical performances from local public TV programs that are no longer available...such as performances by The Jayhawks before they were well known outside of the Twin Cities. I was terrible about labeling tapes, however, so it may be hard to find some of those performances again.

There is almost nothing about that format that I miss, other than perhaps the joy of unwrapping a fresh new tape and putting it in the VCR for the first time. That was always kind of fun. It also helped having a Dad who worked for 3M. He could get blank tapes at the company store much cheaper than the street prices.

 

Plenty of nostalgia for me, too (46 here). I don't buy the new tapes, but a local store still has an extensive rental selection of VHS tapes that are otherwise unavailable on other formats and I still watch 2-3 a month.'

Putting the tape in the player, seeing the opening Magnetic Video, Wizard, Thorn/EMI, or Prism logos, then watching trailers for several more obscure films (wow, I've gotta check that one out!), and then sitting through the film itself. For me at least, it's an altogether more satisfying experience than watching the same film on Youtube (if it's even there).

 

I'm not sure, but I think I may still have some original 1978 Magnetic Video Betamax tapes, which they issued for a couple of years along with the VHS. Those are even stupider to hang on to today than VHS.

That horrible MagVideo logo is so hokey, but I can see why people would be nostalgic about seeing it, especially if they're of "a certain age."

Here's a high-quality version of the MagVideo logo from lay-za disc!

 

Just wait. Ten years from now, this forum will be filled with people "of a certain age" who nostalgically look back to the loss of video disc formats and decry AmaAppleFlix for only carrying the complete films of Michael Bay.

 

I've been helping a friend go through his old VHS tapes.
I've only saved about 40-50 & dumped 1200.
Most of it was old TV shows & movies (all of which are on DVD now).
He said that if he knew it was all going to be available on DVD in a few years, I would never had bothered recording off TV.
He must have spent a small fortune on blank VHS tapes.

Darryl

 

Ohhhhhh.... don't get me started. I'm sure I spent 10 years of my life recording movies & TV shows that I was certain would never come out on home video (some recorded before home video releases started happening). I eventually wised up. What's really been tough is the death of so many formats over the years: VHS, Betamax, Laserdisc, even the fade of DVD and Blu-ray. I think once you have it as digital files from DVD or Blu-ray, you're good for the duration. Analogue videotape... fuggetaboutit.

 

Just for kicks, I pulled out the VCR today and grabbed a box of VHS tapes which have sat in my garage through 13 years of humid Wisconsin summers and bitterly cold winters. I didn't expect the tapes would play at all, since I didn't put much care into their storage (thinking I would never watch them again)...so I was SHOCKED to discover they look as good as the day they were first taped. (Actually, I think they look better than the day they were taped, because my TV is so much better now.) The particular tapes I viewed were from 1989-1992. Of the half dozen tapes I tried out, all worked amazingly well...with excellent tracking.

Of course, I quickly got tired of fast forwarding and rewinding the tapes to see what was on them. What a pain in the ***.

I did stumble upon some of the rare local music performance programs that I had been looking for, however. Now I just need to transfer those things to digital before another 20+ years go by.

 

Just don't put them in a damp basement. One word Mold.
Several of my friends tapes suffered from this because of where he stored them.

Darryl

 

How does it compare to RCA's SelectaVision? (I don't really know, I've only heard *of* SelectaVision.)

 

SelectaVision was roughly similar in picture quality to VHS, however it was extremely susceptible to skipping. It used a stylus on a record that easily collected dust.

Believe it or not, there is a pretty big collecting community on Facebook. When I was working retail 30 years ago, people would come in looking for styluses. I have no idea how they are playing the discs now.