VHS recording of May, 1980

[Captain Video]

Since today is the aniversary of the release of "The Empire Strikes Back" ... here is a rare VHS recording of the review of that great movie, that aired on that now so-distant month of May, 1980:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9jqH...eature=related

[Eric H]

That was so cool!
I pick up old VHS tapes all the time hoping to find stuff like this but i seldom find anything older than 1984.
I guess that was a prime time for home recording.

[Aussie Bloke]

Awesome footage! Over here in Australia with VHS tapes I generally wouldn't find anything older than the 1990s, I have been very lucky to find 1984 recordings on VHS hehehehe.

Betamax on the other hand I have gotten pretty lucky, I have found recordings dating back as early as 1979 which is unreal! And I have a lot of Beta tapes from the early/mid 80s.

[freakaftr8]

Actually, the caption of the youtube video states it's original recording was Betamax format.

[Eric H]

These old home made tapes are a treasure trove of broadcast history, in real time as it happened, I think they should be sought out and preserved as much as possible.

The shows are rerun and issued on DVD of course but the whole experience of what it was like to watch TV in the 70's, 80' & 90's is right there on those tapes, I doubt any TV stations preserve entire blocks of programming like this, ads & all.

Can you imagine if we had had home video in 1946?

[JB5pro]

I agree old tapes should be searched and saved. I suppose one could find home recorded tapes back at least to 1963. I think that was the first year for a home video recorder from Ampex

[compu_85]

Originally Posted by Eric H

These old home made tapes are a treasure trove of broadcast history, in real time as it happened, I think they should be sought out and preserved as much as possible.

My mom has a fairly extensive collection of Star Trek TNG on T160 BASF tapes. It's neat seeing all the adverts from way back

-J

[GeorgeJetson]

I agree with you guys,its great to watch the old shows with the commercials intact,it would be great if they did have home video back in the 40's and 50's.

Someone on youtube posted some old episodes of Total Televisions "The Beagles" a virtually forgotten cartoon done by the same folks that brought you "King Leonardo and his short subjects", "Tennesee Tuxedo" and "Underdog" and they have some of the original commercials from the '60's.

Heres a link for those who may be interested

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXzF0...eature=related

On the subject of videotape,I am amazed that tapes as far back as 1980 have survived,I remember reading that the lifespan of video tape was 20 years or so.

[bgadow]

I save grab the early ones whenever I can. It's the commercials, and things like the cars in the background, that can make them worth watching. I'm not sure if I can remember finding a tape which had gone bad. (there are some cheap ones that were bad when they were new, and they didn't improve any with age)

PM Magazine/Evening Magazine-always a pretty weak show but we watched it most every night. Every city had different anchors but most of the stories were the same. I think that was a Group W concoction.

[tvcollector]

They say Cds and DVDs last longer than the old video tape.. Buy a pack or CD-R or DVD blanks, record on them and use them daily and see how long it takes to see corrosion, by simply just holding them with your hands, oils from your skin corrode them quickly, I use CD-R media to do DJ work and over time the edge of the discs start corroding, and depending on the manufacturer, some even start corroding very quickly anywhere on the surface.. I think tape will last more than a lifetime if stored in the proper climate..

[JB5pro]

I wish we could make a private club for legal reasons that we could offer to give whatever is worthwhile like munie, etc. or i mean we would never think of exchanging munie but it seems good to do and something i would do to experience such a treat from whomever could put those on dvd. seems to me that person should deserve good compensation for such a task