I do the same, well, mostly: I probably don't clean the heads as often as I should. I do have a head cleaner, but it's been around awhile and may need replacing. When I go to the thrift stores, I do see still sealed head cleaners; I really ought to pick up a spare or two.
The Devils? The Ken Russell movie? That's one of my favorite movies ever, right up there with Russell's Savage Messiah.
Yes, it was a mid-1980s WARNER clamshell release of the '71 Ken Russell movie THE DEVILS I sent to the fella in Canada. ------------------------------- I hauled down some 1982-issue '20th Century Fox Video' releases in the sliding-drawer boxes to play in the near future: 99 and 44/100% Dead! (1974), The Grissom Gang (1971), Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, Comes A Horseman, Hair, The Howling, The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia (1981) and A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum (1966). We shall see how the 40-year-old tapes play. Trivia Nugget: "99 and 44/100% Dead!" was only issued on VHS one time in 1982. It was OOP until the 2013 DVD release where it was paired as a Double Feature with a movie that was never issued on tape: The Nickel Ride (1975). It's hard to find a *nice* 20th Century Fox Video 1982 sliding-drawer box release. The majority of them were torn up, crushed, mangled, cut/up by old-time video stores and otherwise maligned or thrown out because it was difficult to remove the tape from the /tray/. I get the feeling most folks lost patience with 'neat' removal of the videocassettes and, thus, tore up the tray and parts of the boxes to get the tapes out.
Reminds me of seeing The Devils on campus here c. 1981 or so; after about 15 minutes, 2 female students that were seated nearby got up and started getting into the projectionist's face for 5-10 minutes, fairly loudly: 'How can you show this filth?', etc. I doubt very much that the projectionist was the one who scheduled the movie.
I went to a Christian college for 3 years (1993-96) and "The Devils" wasn't likely to be shown on campus. The only reason I parted with the U.S. Warner clamshell of "The Devils" is because I have a longer version on a PAL tape from the UK.
Up to around $75,000 US as of right now. Good for the two charities they are supporting, if the bids are legitimate, of course. Yeah the VHS collecting thing seems like a scam to me. Vinyl records last a *long* time. As do CDs. And, there is a solid stock of rare official releases from famous bands that are legitimately collectable - fan club releases, promotional copies, etc... VHS was developed as an affordable method of recording relatively low-resolution TV shows. Movies produced on VHS were developed to be mass produced as cheaply as possible. They don't last a long time, even if taken well care of. Perhaps a special edition VHS with extras might be worth a bit more to a serious collector. I have a deluxe 50th anniversary VHS copy of Citizen Kane that came in a big box with the shooting script, production stills, and a bunch of other extras. It's pretty neat, but I can't imagine it being worth thousands of dollars, even to a serious collector. A bog standard copy of Back To The Future? The same kind we would get hundreds of copies of at the video rental store I worked at? Yeah, just not worth it I think. The only tapes that might be worth *something* I think would be the original big-box Disney tapes, only because there are die-hard Disney collectors that collect everything. Or stuff not released in the US - my wife has a Japanese import of Song of the South, never released in the US, on VHS that's worth quite a bit.
This morning I watched a 40-year-old videocassette: 99 and 44/100% Dead! from '20th Century Fox Video' in 1982. I've got plenty more 1982-issue Fox 'sliders' to watch. Only question is which title to watch next? We shall see. In regards to the post directly above I don't think anyone knew how long VHS or ßeta tapes would remain in playable condition when they were first issued in September 1977 by the long-gone Magnetic Video Corporation. I've got about 450 videocassettes that date from 1977-82 and that's a long time for any kind of 'equipment' to remain use-able. But these tapes are still working hard for me; maybe the tapes 'sense' I like them so they keep working? For all of the movies that were mass-produced on tape like "Back to the Future" and many, many others there still are a sufficient number of titles released on tape at one time or another that were not issued in large quantities mostly because the companies that issued them were small -or- they were 'catalog titles' released by major studios that were high-priced as 'New' and not 'sell-thru' friendly so you didn't see them often for rent in video stores and you'd never see them for sale on video store shelves because they were $59.99, $69.99, $79.99 or $89.99. Once in a while I'd see an odd duck title for sale at my local Suncoast Motion Picture Company store because someone 'special-ordered' an expensive title and never picked it up. I recall one of those titles from way back when. It was on KEY Video in a pink-ish color video box and the movie was the silly, softcore flick MELODY IN LOVE from 1978 directed by Hubert Frank. → I ended up seeing "Melody In Love" years later and any resemblance by the characters in the film to real people was purely coincidental! Silly movie. Anyway, KEY VIDEO released a couple of other movies in a pink box: THE LEGEND OF BILLIE JEAN (1985) and KILLER PARTY (1986) . I have a 'KILLER PARTY' on Key with an unfaded box. Still very eye-catching to this day is that box! I recall many moons ago on VIDMARK Entertainment the 1992 Sci•Fi movie INVADER - "The Unknown Should Be Left Alone". I rented it from a Blockbuster when it was on the 'New Release' shelf long ago with its one measly copy but the distinctive green VIDMARK box caught my eye! I rather enjoyed this low-budget movie and asked how much it was to buy a new copy. It was $89.99 at the time. Years later, circa 2001, I had a 'Movies Unlimited' catalog at my disposal and I looked up "Invader". Still $89.99 new as listed. (I've kept that giant sales catalog from M.U. to this day; 815 pages to it. Makes a handy reference guide as to what tapes used to be available). I did procure myself a VIDMARK tape of "Invader" eventually and it resides upstairs.
Early this morning I stuffed the W/S Fox tape of "Volcano" in to the humble VCR for a watching. Seemed like a good time to watch it; I couldn't sleep worth a damn so I thought to watch something with some action. (If I wanna fall asleep I'll put "2001: A Space Odyssey" on. It does the job quite tidily of putting me to sleep). Before the movie starts you get a promo from 20th Century Fox Entertainment showing you the virtues of buying their W/S tapes with the THX Sound and Digital Mastering. What a thoughtful bunch! Then you a get brief featurette on the making of "Volcano" -- I'd forgotten that was there. I've watched the W/S tape once before yet the featurette slipped my mind. I like VOLCANO. I like "Dante's Peak", too, but I like "Volcano" a lil' more.
I still have some VHS tapes, not that long ago I went online and bought the Star Wars trilogy Special Edition widescreen box set and then a copy of Terminator 2. I even got a Sony 6-head VCR to watch them on the CRT that I've got. Apart from that, there was a box of ex-rentals which we were given probably more than 10 years ago with assorted titles including the Big Lebowski. That said I don't have a lot of interest in watching them, maybe one night I'll finish watching The Big Lebowski on VHS while I work out on the exercise bike, but now that I can watch pretty much anything in 1080p it's hard for me to sit down and watch an entire VHS tape. Though I do have a handful of titles I'm interested in looking for one day when I find some disposable income. Back to the Future, Jurrasic Park, etc, the Star Wars trilogy but the ones before the digital THX remaster. Stuff that I would have grown up watching as a child.
That's a pretty nice set-up for watching VHS tapes on; better than my current 2-head VCR set-up with a CRT set.
I still have hundreds of tapes packed in tubs in storage. The earliest are dozens of things I routinely bought from a mail-list outfit in 1978-79. Mostly music stuff, Beatles In Japan etc. Company always shipped tapes in yellow/black boxes. Lots of gems in there I'm sure. I have equally huge piles of dvd's packed away. A lot of those are h-u-n-d-r-e-d-s of known/obscure tv shows a guy was selling 15 or so years ago. I think I bought everything he had from Shindig to Adventures in Paradise to M Squad to Judd for the Defense, Name of the Game, Joe Pyne, Sea Hunt, Loretta Young show and bazillions more. My life is busier than it's been in fifteen years, so I sometimes wonder if I'm ever going to have time to watch any of them.
Joe Pyne? I remember watching him many times in the late '60s; Gut, one-time associate of Blue Cheer is one guest I recall seeing, using their line about "making cottage cheese out of the air" with volume. An African-American advocate for William Shockley is another guest that I recall.
@varispeed: There could definitely be a number of exceedingly rare videos in those storage tubs if they're from 1978-79. → Some of those early music videos released weren't exactly legal, you know? These lil' companies just put 'em out because they had a film print and it was like the 'Wild West'. I have a few music-themed movies on tape like FILLMORE (1972) and I've no idea if they're 'strictly legal' or not. FILLMORE is on an old-time label called 'ALL-STAR VIDEO'. The video is housed in a generic box with some cheap artwork on one side and the other side has other 'All-Star' releases. Was this release properly licensed? My guess would be 'No'! Anyway, you might have some *very* interesting old video nuggets in those tubs, varispeed. Check 'em out and make sure they're still playable and not mouldy! From my experiences with hundreds of old VHS tapes, to date, the biggest issue is not that they won't play: It's keeping the mould away after so many years. I learned my lesson from improperly storing some videos about 12 years ago. Never again will I make that mistake, but it cost me some nice tapes that got infiltrated with mould. ALSO: I had to look up 'Joe Pyne'. Died young in 1970 from smoking. He was 45.
IIRC, he even smoked on air. In the same vein, I think that Morton Downey Jr. was a frequent guest; numerous of his (Pyne's) guests were treated to his 'I think that you're a nut' attitude, but I have to admit that at the time, (I was still in high school) that had some appeal, and I thought that Pyne "was a nut" too. Part One Joe Pyne: The Man Who Invented Right Wing Talk Radio - Behind the Bastards | iHeart
I think the CRT part is the most important part, though I used to have a 43inch rear projection CRT which was great for watching DVDs and VHS back in the early 2000s, though it developed some sort of an alignment issue and I was too lazy to figure out how to fix it before it got taken out to the side of the road and someone drove off with it soon after. I kind of miss rear projection TVs there was something about the picture they made that I really liked.
I received in the mail today via eBay one of those 'New/Old Stock' (NOS) tapes from the 'MGM Western Legends' series of releases from the late 1990s: CHATO'S LAND (1972), a 1998 Widescreen videocassette presentation. I'd neglected to look for those "MGM Western Legends" releases because I thought all the releases were 'Fullscreen' + the movies issued in that series aren't rare, either. I've had a 1982-issue release from "20th Century Fox Video" in the sliding-drawer box of THE MISSOURI BREAKS (1976) for years so I didn't need another F/S release. And then I chanced upon a W/S release of "The Missouri Breaks" on Amazon; there was a picture of the box and I could see it said "DELUXE WIDESCREEN EDITION". Interesting. So then I looked to see what movies in that series had been issued in W/S for my viewing enjoyment besides "The Missouri Breaks". There was "Chato's Land" (natch!), Young Billy Young (1969) and Hang 'em High (1968). The majority of the movies from the MGM WESTERN LEGENDS series were not released on W/S tapes, but I have found 4 titles so far. And they could all be had for low prices. Nice. Maybe WANDA NEVADA (1979) came out in W/S, too, but I'm not sure about that one. Didn't see any for sale on eBay in WIDE, but I will check again.
Received a video in the mails today: The W/S Warner video release of CONSPIRACY THEORY, the 1997 movie with Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts. Seemed like a timely movie to buy. ALSO . . . speaking of dastardly conspiracy theories . . . I know now the Earth is flat. I know this because last week I made a left turn at Albuquerque and walked off the Planet. → I was hanging by a thread before a helpful alien drug dealer named 'Big Chicken', who looked suspiciously like Gavin MacLeod, rescued me by pulling me up by my nostrils! Sarah Palin was there, too, watching. You Betcha!
Anything rare in your tape selection, o Audiomixer? I have some rare video nuggets amongst my stash of aging VHS tapes, including a fat lot of tapes that are rare but not worth much money. GOODBYE, FRANKLIN HIGH (1978), anyone? Decent coming-of-age movie that seems to be a 'Lost' film at this point. To wit, the 1983 UK pre-cert CBS/Fox Video release of the 1970 Elliott Gould comedy 'MOVE' with Paula Prentiss and John Larch. FOX did not issue it on VHS in the U.S., but I discovered "Move" had netted a VHS release in the UK. In the 17 years I've endeavoured to collect various tapes from the UK I've only seen 'MOVE' twice. One of them I was able to buy (circa 2007/2008; I've had "Move" for a long time now). It's in pretty good condition overall and, to date, I've never found a better one. The tape is still quite playable, too. (I have noticed the U.S. DVD release of "Move" says the disc is in 'Fullscreen' -- just like the British tape so there was no point in 'double-dipping' for a W/S disc since their apparently isn't one). The thing with 'MOVE' and many other tapes of non-Horror movies I've been fortunate enough to pick up is that hardly anyone saved them -- and even if a person did find them there's no guarantee the tape isn't a mouldy, unplayable mess. I've seen plenty of those on sale. 'RARE TAPE FOR SALE CHEAP! MOULDY!'. Ugh! I've still never been able to get my hands on the 1983 UK CBS/Fox Video releases of "Cover Me Babe" (1970) with Robert Forster -and- "The Kremlin Letter" (1970-Spy Stuff). I'd still like to, but no one apparently saved them from 'The Bin'. Sheesh.
Still got some at my parents house. Haven't watched them over 10 years. Not sure if they even work. Infact I don't think I still have a VCR
I've played bunches of tapes over the years that clearly had not seen the inside of a VCR in at least a decade. Keep the pesky mould away and there's no reason an old tape shouldn't play ok. In fact, if you play it more than once it should play better the 2nd time. The 'tension' will be better. Better picture and better sound. I have some tapes I've played 2, 3 or 4 times that are so neatly re-wound now you'd think they were almost new by lookin' at 'em. Tapes want to work hard for you!
I got rid of almost all of mine, except for about a dozen, back in 1998 when I bought my first DVD player. I got pretty good money selling them for $5-$10 on eBay. BUT, since then I've slowly accumulated several hundred more, mostly music related ones that never made it to DVD or Blu-ray. Discogs has made it very easy to find many of the 80s and early 90s titles that are almost impossible to find in the wild. I'll also pick up random movie releases because they have nostalgia associated with them. This has become more difficult as Half-Price Books has changed from pricing them at .25 cents each to up to $10 or more.