The VHS Revival Culture

Sorry. Should've guessed as much from the part of your post that I didn't quote.

 

Super 8

 

The ones to get are the machines with built-in TBC's. Even the inexpensive Panasonic AG-1980, which is a very rudimentary TBC, can do an OK job.

 

One of mine is the Panasonic AG-1970

 

The comparison doesn't work for me. I can still see the appeal of vinyl, particularly the 180g reissues, but VHS? I was glad to get rid of the format and would never go back to it. I'm even pleased to replace DVD with bluray. Vinyl, however, still holds an attraction, and I can never envisage completely replacing it with CD.

 

I was taking the piss Johny!

 

I'm glad. What a crazy idea!

 

VHS was the worst video format ever!

 

God, I've still got five drawers full of stuff to transfer to DVD one day. I used to record a LOT of TV from the mid-'80s to around 2005 when I got my first DVD recorder. Bought a decent Panasonic VHS machine for £5 around a year ago, but still haven't started transferring yet. One day.....................

 

Helping a friend of mine move and going through his VHS tapes.
He was constantly recording TV shows & movies (majority of which is available on DVD now).
Some stuff he wants to save like news events (2003 space shuttle disaster & 9-11) & home movies.

Darryl

 

Ditto. Got my first VCR in '85. Bunches of tapes I have yet to transfer.

 

Oh come on now. The only thing it could possibly have in common is:

- sparks instant nostalgia for some
- you once could find them everywhere used for dirt cheap. Only difference is that there is a big group of people who collect used vinyl while only a small group now collects VHS (like others have said previously, many of which are horror, Disney fans, or those who are gripping on to releases of their favorite film because it is not available on any other format yet).

A more apt comparison is VHS to audio cassette as they share so much more in terms of characteristics (recordable format, lower in quality to its brothers, smaller artwork, more likely destined for the dump, etc.).

 

What software is recommended for transferring the tapes to digital?

 

They're both older analogue versions of newer digital technology and are inferior in every measurable metric. Sounds a good analogy to me. Just because vinyl is more popular doesn't mean it's any better.

 

I have a fairly new (when I got it) Panasonic VCR. I haven't used it in a couple of years. I hope the dust doesn't warp the insides. I'll have nothing to watch my 100 or so VHS tapes on.

 

I still buy them. I'm suprised at the number of still sealed vhs tapes I find for a buck or 2. My VCR's still work so why not?

 

I gotta say, it's very, very hard to watch VHS in 2014 without wincing.

 

Remember when new VHS tapes were sold for more than $50 dollars in the '80s?

 

I remember seen a copy of ALIEN on VHS for something like $80 back in the early 80's and wanting it so bad. Even though I didn't even have a VCR yet.

 

Yeah, $70-$80 for certain new releases, circa 1980-1984. I believe the industry parlance was "Priced for Rental," meaning they gouged the retail price so that dealers would have to pay through the nose for rental copies. Maybe six months later, a new version would come out "Priced for Sale," and it'd be $29.95 or something reasonable.

Sad when you consider that even back then, it cost under $1 to make a VHS tape and under $1 to duplicate a movie onto it. So there was huge, huge profit in the VHS business... for a time.

 

This was definitely $50+ when it came out.

 

The "rental pricing" scheme went on well into the early '90s too, but I think it definitely declined sometime around 1992-ish when most "big" movies started being released at "sell" prices right off the bat. It still went on to some degree at least til the late '90s, as I was working at a library with a large video collection at the time and some titles would still be $50-90 bucks upon new release (we generally didn't order them and just waited for the price drop). I think DVD really killed rental pricing off for good, but they kept on gouging the remaining market for VHS as long as they could.

 

The first commercial video tapes I bought were the Star Wars trilogy, around 1986. I think I paid $29.95 for each ($65 each in today's dollars!), which was a fortune at the time.

I love the cover artwork on these releases:



I'm pretty sure these were the first (Jedi) or second time (Star Wars and maybe Empire) around for these titles, and the first time the price was somewhat affordable.

 

This guy has an interesting overview of the different releases:

 

Hahaha I knew I was making the right decision keeping all my old tapes!