Wheather you have VHS,BETA,etc... what is the earliest recorded tape you have???

The oldest one I have is a 1980 release of SILVER STREAK by Magnetic Video on VHS.....

Not sure which one i have is the oldest. I'll have to go through them. My oldest Beta is Tron.

I have the two-tape Magnetic Video version of The Towering Inferno, from 1977 or 1978, one of the first fifty movies to be released on Beta (or VHS) videotape if I remember right. My oldest home-recorded tapes are from fall 1979. I recorded the original broadcast of "Jaws", when the two blank tapes (for my one-hour-only Beta VCR) cost me a full day's pay. Understanding that cost issue, that movie may be one that I recorded over, later.

Not videotape, but about a year or so ago, I dug out a cassette tape I'd made back in 1971... Didn't even know to run a patch cord from the "Rec Out" jack on my Sony CRF-230 to the "Mic In" jack..It was done w/taping a mic to the speaker panel.. Lots of radio station airchecks, vintage commercials, etc. HORRIBLE sound quality, but it sure did bring back LOTS of memories..

I got a buncha stuff like that too..... Somewhere between 2000 and 2007 I think, WABC am radio
did a anniversary special, and they played a tape backup they found at the transmitter
they kept there if the line went dead between the transmitter and studio..... I taped it,
and got a few hours of it somewhere.... It was Gan Ingram from the 70's Pretty cool...
I bet by now there are copies of it on the internet....

We watched a movie a few months ago that was really old, I forgot what it was, but funny old
FBI warning, and some studio run contest to win a vacation trip.... I really wanted to send
in an entry form...... Wonder what would have happened.....? How many they still get.....

M*A*S*H 1977, Magnetic Video, VHS.
jr

one of my oldest tapes would be Williard on vhs and beta...

Y'Know, when I'm Dead & Gone, somebody MIGHT find that 1971 tape amongst my belongings, & pop it into a cassette player.. MAYBE I'll "Speak" to them thru the years, & formats... And POSSIBLY, they WON'T Throw Me Away...

MASH 1977 (MVC)
The Sand Pebbles 1977 (MVC)
The Boston Strangler 1977 (MVC)
The French Connection 1978 (MVC)

....and dozens from 1979-1980 (including Silver Streak).

All of them still play fine.

Yes and I figure with good care they should continue to :)

That MASH one you have is that the FIRST release on VHS?? (I have Silver Streak by them)

1979 and both it and I look fine!

Recorder Panasonic NV-8400, Camera WV-3300E (Both still in the garage)

Recorder weighed over 20 pounds and the camera over 7 - so outings were a manly affair. Wish I was still in that shape!

MASH, Patton, and the Sound of Music were the first three released in the US, according to other sources.

The back cover of my 1977 copy of M*A*S*H from Magnetic Video lists what I believe to be the first 50 movies released by the company:
IIRC the copy, which was a gift cost about $50.

Add: just found a picture of a 1980 MVC release that shows added titles:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IZUwIBl5cW...40/Picture.png
Now including "Sound of Music" and "Towering Inferno" ("and many more").

jr

Peter Pan off-air from KYW-TV NBC in March 1989 on VHS. Still looks good and the commercials are great.

I bet they do buddy!!

My 1980 release of SILVER STREAK has the same movies listed on the back.. (In the same order also)

Some time back I bought a 1971 Sony VO-1600, THE first U-Matic deck, with tapes. Though I've yet to watch them all I can say that they go back to at least 1973(there was a Dodge commercial touting the new '73 models). Most of the stuff on them is over the air taped material from Chicago and Rockford stations.

My first commercially recorded movie on VHS was "2001 A Space Odessey". I saw the film release of the movie in 1969, I think, in Cinerama. Loved it and bought it on VHS somewhere around 1980. Paid a whopping $100 for the tape, and at that time, it was recorded in mono sound. A few years later, I bought a second copy, this one done in HiFi Stereo. When DVD's came out, I upgraded to that version of the movie.

Ahhhhhhhh I love stuff IN ANALOG MONO,from records,cassettes to VHS............ To me it sounds the absolute best :)

If audio tape is allowed, my oldest pre-recored tape is from the late 1940s.

It is a paper backed tape. IIRC, it is half track monophonic and is square dance music, including the caller.

I acquired it the early 1960s, with I with the acquisition of a portable Webcor half track bi-directional recorder and a Brush half track portable recorder, both 7 inch reel machines.

I had a spool of magnetic wire for a wire recorder, but I am not sure that I still have it.

Wow 1940s??

Excellent!!!!!!!!!!!!! -- I bet it still sounds good :)

From the '80's. Probably 1987-1988. Most cartoons for me (I was a kid) and some music (for my fathers). The oldest prerecorede cassettes are with cartoons also (I think from around 1985-1987... have too look for them).
I'm curios, a prerecorded V.H.S. cassette from around 1980 still offers a decent image and sound today or most of them are D.V.D. (Dead, Verry Dead)?

Early VHS should still be as playable as new with some possible exceptions. Magnetic media don't degrade unless you store it in horrible conditions (like outdoors for example), or it is one of the 60's-70's formulations where the glue bleeds through (fixable by subjecting the tape to a few hours dry heat something like 100-150 Fahrenheit) the magnetic particles and makes the tape stick in the mechanism.
I have 70's U-matic, and EIAJ tapes that play fine, and some 80's home recorded VHS that also play fine.

June 1976 board meeting in B/W at Otis Elevator.. I got that U-Matic tape about 15 years ago with a bunch of CCTV equipment when I still owned The Massco Group.

The oldest audio tape I have is reel to reel.. My Sister and I recorded it off the air in March, 1969. It was about 10 minutes of CKLW in Windsor. The tape is still in perfect condition, unlike some others I have.

My grandpa john has a few of the first recorded tapes big much like reel to reels he was one of the first people to have a video tape recorder in the early 60s

I have a few '77 Magnetic Videos and late '70s Allied Artists VHS, but this Japanese VHS of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) on "Once More Video" might be as early and far rarer. Even in its native country tapes this early are rare as hen's teeth.

Wow 77 Magentic video??

The earliest I have of those is 1980 -- Wasnt 1977 when Magentic Video started??

My oldest and only videotape came with the JVC CP-5200U U-Matic deck I got last month. I have no idea what's on it. I doubt it's blank as the deck does not record.

My oldest video is williard on beta video than carrie on vhs and beta...

I believe my oldest VHS tape is 'Alien'(1980, Magnetic Video) while my oldest Beta would be 'The African Queen' (1979, Magentic Video), 'East of Eden' (1979?, WCI Home Video), or 'Superman: The Movie'(1979, WCI Home Video).

Oldest title, and a favorite movie of mine: The Blue Max, 1979.

Welcome to VK :)

I have the 1980 release of African Queen also and Im wondering if the original 1979 release is even BETTER than what I have which is excellent.......

My oldest tape now is FAREWELL CONCERT FROM CREAM - 1978 MEDA release.....

They did a horrible job on that!!!!! (Not MEDA (Media),the ppl who recorded that concert)

The oldest tape in my possession is a home movie taken by either my Great-Uncle Neil, or my Great-Uncle Skip. My Grandfather appears in it, and is clearly still healthy, and my Great-Grandfather appears, so it would have been shot prior to about August of 1980. If I had to guess, I'd say late 1978 or early 1979 would be more likely.

Little Shop of Horrors!
 

I picked up another copy of the occult classic, Little Shop of Horrors.
That tape doesn't play either. It really must be made by a cheap outfit, as the original movie was.
I tried to transplant the spools in another case, no joy. That tape was damaged so bad by others, that tried to get it to play. It seemed like the spools were binding in the case and wouldn't move easily. :sigh:

The oldest VHS tape I have is the blank tape that came with my 1979 Magnavox top-loader VCR. I think the oldest pre-recorded one I own is 2001-A Space Odessey from 1980-1981 when I paid a whopping $100 for it at the video shop. Repurchased the same movie a few years later when it was released in hi-fi stereo, then repurchased a third time when released on DVD.

Oldest videotape is a portion of the "Jack Paar Show" ("Tonight Show") from December of 1959, on a 2" quad reel.

Oldest audio tape is an off-air recording of the soundtrack of an episode of NBC's "All-Star Revue" from December 13, 1952.

- Kevin

Oldest Beta: Half hour of Jimmy Carter Inaguration Coverage from January 1977, back on an old K30 or K60 tape.

Oldest VHS: Have a handful of 1977 Magnetic Video Corporation tapes, and others from 1978 and 1979. Home recorded I have some from Spring 1977-through early 1982. All still play great in a 2000s era VCR. It amazes me that stuff 42 years old still plays but it does.

Yes if it was taken care of the early stuff makes it quite nice :)

Sadly newer tapes in the 80s were not made as good and alot dont make it....

As far as recorded off the air stuff:

VHS: "Ewoks: Battle of Endor" recorded off a station up in Green Bay in December of 1985.

Beta: Some Dr. Who, all of "Revelation of the Daleks" and the second half of "Keys of Marinus" recorded off a local Madison PBS station, also in 1985, complete with the pledge breaks

The oldest tapes I have are those 2 Quasar VX tapes (1976 / 1977?). But I won't know if they're blank or if there's anything on them unless I get that Quasar VR-1000 to work.

Probably a couple of 1" reel tapes made on an IVC VTR. The 7" reels are about 40 minutes I think. The two are part 1 and 2 of a show of some sort, title is "subversion and debauchery". Some day I need to fix that VTR and back up the tapes. Strictly for documentation/historical purposes of course.

Opcom, I think I have a IVC in the attic. Come get it in SE PA before it collapses my house.