The official "I still use VHS" thread

[OvenMaster]

Yup. I use VHS daily to tape shows for the family. I have my DTV converter connected to the line inputs, and I am presently putting the right cables and adapters together to try to play S-VHS video from my computer and have it recorded on the VCR.

[rpm1200]

Originally Posted by jedo1507r

Is that a Whirlpool Gold Series laptop in the foreground? I knew Westinghouse was getting into computer equipment, maybe Frigidaire and Kitchen-Aid will be next!

(j/k!!! I put a Sony badge on my Heath/Zenith DMM and occasionally get questions about it!)

Nice Sharp, I always liked that variety of portable deck with the vertical cassette layout.

[rpm1200]

Oh yeah, VCRs.... I used to have a house full of them. For many years I amassed a full Simpsons collection, now the DVD sets are coming out so I don't need the VHS tapes except for the newer seasons. I'll keep the first/second season tapes with vintage ads.

There's a VCR hooked up to my living room, bedroom and basement systems. All hi-fi and late 90s vintage. The basement has a Sharp, Sonys in the other two rooms. The kids use the living room Sony a lot, the other two are rarely used. I recorded much of my VHS programming to DVDs using an awful Polaroid DVD/HDD recorder.

I also used to use hi-fi decks for live audio recording. Nowadays it's easier to use a laptop but 10+ years ago that was not practical, and you could get 6-8 hours of good quality sound on a tape.

I do have a soft spot for cheesy 80s digital video effects. There was a brief fad of including those effects in high-end VCRs. I have a broken Toshiba and Sears and a working Sharp that have picture-in-picture, mosaic, solarization, freeze-frame, etc. I'll hang onto those decks.

[jedo1507r]

Originally Posted by rpm1200

Is that a Whirlpool Gold Series laptop in the foreground? I knew Westinghouse was getting into computer equipment, maybe Frigidaire and Kitchen-Aid will be next!

(j/k!!! I put a Sony badge on my Heath/Zenith DMM and occasionally get questions about it!)

Nice Sharp, I always liked that variety of portable deck with the vertical cassette layout.

LOL, I had people ask me how old my computer was as it was so thick, even though it was made in 2005. One day, I put the old Whirlpool badge on the Panasonic CF-29 as a gag, as the badge was lying around when my parents had disposed of the refrigerator (after saving quite a few quality parts from it). Oddly, I do leave my computer on like an appliance, clocked at 12k hours according to the BIOS and no failures--yet.

Thanks, the Sharp has been my favorite despite the immensely dull videos I have played with it.

[Dennman6]

I have NEVER given up on VHS taping! I just don't trust recordable DVD-Rs to still function after 27 years, as my 3 oldest VHS tapes still do(Maxell). Of course I have a pair of Pioneer DVD recorders for transfers, & I always tell friends who want me to do transfers to hold onto your original tapes, "just in case". I became a tape-a-holic in 1984, using an RCA VJP-900(convertible), which I still have. Then came a VKP-925 in 1985, still got it. Got a stereo hi-fi RCA VLP-950HF in 1986. This one could PLAY hi-fi tapes, or record in stereo thru the aux in jacks but had a MONO tuner in it. Great machine, did double duty taping off cable & for family home videos using my 1984 RCA Small Wonder-yep, still got it.

I have 3 Mitsubishi hi-fi VCRS here, 2001-2004 models. In between these "eras" I had a 1994 Panasonic, which at 4 years old wouldn't load tapes & would just quit & turn off. Then in 1995 I got a pair of RCA 603HFs, really good hi-fi VCRs. Gave one to a friend, kept the other. Also got a nice JVC that year, still tapes off of TCM for me every week I liked them better than the competition as just by looking inside them you can see a much larger loading motor to pull the VHS tape into it-that's gotta be a good sign.

I am a vintage movie buff, & will BUY DVDs(pressed) without hesitation, but for my own archive(1,000 tapes plus) I will use VHS tape til good ones are no longer made. And stay away from TDK VHS tapes, now made in China. ALL 4 of the ones I tried to use for the Obama inauguration clogged heads on 3 machines! Sony, Fuji, & Maxell still seem good-made in either Mexico or Korea. And if you run out of new, buy old stock from the Goodwill, still wrapped! I found 35 unwrapped Scotch-3M Pro VHS blanks at a buck a piece last year. You bet I bought 'em all up at once!

[radiotvnut]

The question is: How long will we be able to buy good quality VHS tapes at retail stores? Around here, wal-mart and rat shack are the only two places that I've found that still stock VHS tapes. IIRC, RS has TDK and WM has Sony. WM used to carry Durabrand, as well; but, I think they are down to Sony now.

And, none of the newer tapes feel as heavy as the old ones did.

Back in the '80's and '90's, I could pick up tapes at just about any store in town. Back then, I mainly used Scotch, Maxell, TDK, BASF, Fuji, and Memorex. I remember the Memorex tapes coming in hard plastic storage cases.

It probably won't be too much longer before we are forced to either buy NOS tapes from wherever we can find them or buy used tapes and record over them.

Like has already been said, I don't put a lot of trust in DVD's lasting for 20+ years like my VHS tapes.

[Username1]

While I quit buying new tapes, I tend to judge quality by the picture stability on my worse machine at the slower speed. For that I found that Fujifilm HQ tapes still available believe it or not at Hanaford supermarket for $7.99 t-160 3 pack. Target has Sont HQ T-160 8 pack for $18.00 and Sont T-120 4 pack for $6.99 I also found that lots of people who sell lots (Lots as in 10, 20, 30 tapes) of tapes on ebay have for the most part only used them once or twice, are pretty good quality and even the old off brand tapes work very well. I guess Sony and Fuji either had good quality, or were manufacturers for other branded tapes, and these two actually "make" the stuff.??? Anyway those two brands seem to be in most stores. Sears has some off brand I don't remember the name. Iff you look around near the bottom of the shelf between the moth balls and esso motor oil you can still find VHS tapes in yer town. Funny thing also seems the really old stuff came in so many different lengths. I got 100 minute, 130 minute, 145 minute, 170, 180, I even got a buncha MGM Studio Grade T-120's Neato package, nothing special but they do weigh a bunch more than the FUji's and Sony's. And if you type in blank VHS tapes into Google there are lots of mail order places to get them at less than walmart prices for new ones. Buy.com and others.

[Ed in Tx]

Originally Posted by Username1

While I quit buying new tapes, I tend to judge quality by the picture stability on my worse machine at the slower speed. For that I found that Fujifilm HQ tapes still available believe it or not at Hanaford supermarket for $7.99 t-160 3 pack. Target has Sont HQ T-160 8 pack for $18.00 ...

Personally I would avoid T160-T180 etc tapes unless you really need the extended time. The tape is thinner and that includes a thinner oxide coating, which yields less of the FM-RF signal (b&w or luminance part at 3.4-4.4mHz on standard VHS) from the tape picked up by the heads and on to the head amp circuit. Can be several dB lower, which makes for a noisier picture. Also can reveal minor tape path or skewing problems that a T120 tape works fine with. More dropouts in the video and hi-fi audio too. Did a lot of testing on various brands of tapes when I was in the VCR repair biz for 25+ years. My favorite brand of tape is/was Fuji. Fuji supplied OEM tapes for JVC the "Inventor of VHS".

[Username1]

Fuji ROCKS! and the JVC s-VHS ET machines have about 1/4" wider video bandwidth for recording than standard VHS and the "ET" means you can use non S-VHS tapes in the unit and get almost all of the advantages of the "S", but on a regular tape. We have only one plane jane Magnavox Hi-Fi plastic VCR that comes close to the picture quality of our JVC S-VHS ET machines. And a plus to those JVC S-VHS machines is that they seem to have a super ultra supreme tracking system that we can play tapes recorded on any of our VCR's on, and they are stable and free of lines etc. Until the S-Vhs we had a Magnavox, Bon-Sonic, and another Philips/Magnavox. Each had really good pictures at slow speed, but the tape had to be played only on the machine it was recorded on. I think the Bon-Sonic, which has a really good picture, when you open the hood to do a tune up you can see its only got 2 heads but the front cover says 4 head. But to make up for it, the machine has a built in tape head cleaner and the front cover, and instruction manual don't say anything about it. Anyway all these plastic vcr's all come from the same automated factory just a different assembly line. Good for $7.00 at garage sales. I'm always a sucker for a $7.00 garage sale vcr. The squirrel finds 'em for me early in the morning so I don't have to drive around all day following signs.

[NowhereMan 1966]

I still use VHS. We have a Toshiba combo from 2003, the DVD does not work but the VHS tape does, I had to fix it once though. It is on the main set, the 1982 Zenith. For DVD's, my friend gave me a Blu-Ray player, I hook it into the Line 2 inputs of the Toshiba combo. I have a Maggie VHS/DVD combo in my room and I have an old Samsung VCR, an old RCA VCR and a Hatachi from 1986.

[Dave A]

I have had so many DVD recorders die on me, I may go back to my JVC SR-V10U decks. They are the best I have ever seen for playback with it's TBC/DNR playback.

And I still have one of the digital decks RPM1200 describes and still working. It is a RCA with freeze/posterization, etc. It cost me a bundle in the late 80's.

[zenith2134]

2 Sony decks here. One is circa 1994, recall it being very high end for it's time 4 head hi-fi stereo 'flying erase-head' for editing and APC button.

Other is a 1999-ish Malaysian 4 head hi-fi stereo... both work well.

[Robert Grant]

Has anyone out here noticed that the VCR is alive and well. I see most mass-retail stores these days still offer new VCRs from several brands. Sure, they are bundled with DVD players, and they no longer have tuners (a cheap way of dealing with the mandate that devices with tuners be digital-ready), but the VCR lives!

[OvenMaster]

Originally Posted by Robert Grant

Has anyone out here noticed that the VCR is alive and well. I see most mass-retail stores these days still offer new VCRs from several brands. Sure, they are bundled with DVD players, and they no longer have tuners (a cheap way of dealing with the mandate that devices with tuners be digital-ready), but the VCR lives!

What stores offer these combo machines? In my area, the only place that still offers any VHS/DVD units is Costco, and most are VHS-playback only, no recording. Even Wal-Mart offers only DVD players in my area.

[Username1]

I was thinking about Robert's comment above and VCRs being alive and well but stand alons that record not for sale anymore. But I remember seeing them on ebay, I guess as reconditioned factory returns.... Don't remember. But I did find one like the Magnavox, Philips that I have.
http://cgi.ebay.com/MAGNAVOX-4-head-...item35a86890db
This is the one unit I have that comes very close to matching the picture performance
of my S-VHS machines with ET. Same cabinet, and remote. I guess the 19Micron head
gap makes for a pretty nice performance improvement.