Anyone collecting V.H.S. cassettes?

[ChrisW6ATV]

Many of the TV shows I recorded, I have now replaced with DVDs. I will probably keep the tapes (all Beta, in BI or BII speeds) to look at the commercials some day. (I only ever used BIII in emergencies.)

[gobies]

I've probably a 1000 VHS tapes, 95% purchased for 99¢ at GWs (just like my TDK MA90s), many letter-boxed, some still factory shrink wrapped. 95% are movies worth watching again. Roger Ebert's probably "two thumbs"ed up nearly all of them. I've purchased duplicates sometimes, just to make sure I've got a good copy around.

I've a teenager who naturally knows everything, but who trusts me enough to watch an "old, stupid black and white movie", if I tell her she'll enjoy it. "Arsenic and Old Lace" may be her favorite movie. She loves Lillian Gish rocking with the shotgun in "Night of the Hunter". She went nuts for "Cars", and because of the VW bus (she thought it was Tommy Chong), has now listened to some early George Carlin. She liked Paul Newman in "Hombre" too.

If you actually want to watch a film, as opposed to listening to explosions and gunfire, VHS is a bargain. Except for "Open Range" most movies don't accurately reproduce gunfire anyway (about as "real" as John Wayne fistfights). I've noticed instructions on RTR sites about baking tapes. I think, well cared for, VHS tapes will last as long enough for most folks, and certainly until several more generations of "state of the art formats" have arrived and gone. I buy DVDs of movies I really love, especially if I haven't found letterboxed VHSs.

As with books, imagination is what makes the movie experience "real". Truman was president when I was born, so my eyes and ears and the rest of me are past prime, damaged by common experiences of the 60s and 70s (Somewhere I have the 13th Floor Elevators first album and Rolling Stones prerecorded RTR) The tapes and I will probably expire about the same time, by which time all movies ever made will fit on a NanuNano Ipod the size of a quarter.

I listen to movies with some Klipsch home theatre speakers (GW) and an older Onkyo Pro-Logic receiver. I listen to music on a Fisher 500-TX (and other older SS receivers) and Bozaks ($20), or Wharfedales, or Kenwood 777s (four for $45 @GW), Norman Labs,etc. Loud music from the next room doesn't cut it. I've got a little Rotel receiver and MB Quarts on top of the refrigerator. A system in every room should be your goal. I've even have some Boses, the little outdoor speakers. They play in the garage.

I recently picked up two Nakamichi 480 decks, and started looking for cassette tapes again. Prerecorded Dolby HX Pro chrome tapes can sound pretty good. Especially for 99¢ or less.

My rant ends some questions: I noticed TDK doesn't give SA tape thickness specs on their website? Does anyone know when they thinned the tape, and how to tell based on packaging?

AudioKarma is a great community.

[gobies]

On the topic of obsolete formats, I should've added:

Does anyone else remember listening (for several minutes) to the the inside grooves of a classical LP on mono FM, because the "DJ" hadn't come back from his "break"? Or "Alice's Restaurant" or any Dylan cut being played on AM in the early hours right before the farm report, because there were no commercials then? Or handing a bottle up to Willie Nelson on stage.... Reminds me of a professor (circa 1974) asking the class if anyone remembered when Allen Ginsberg was on campus...then pausing..."Never mind it was 1959."

[RaymondLeggs]

I have a 1980-s Zenith Semi-Professional stereo VCR with remote It has microphone inputs! and LCD VU meters! I only payed $3.00 for it at the Salvation army. It's heavy too and it is an great machine!

I have yet to find A laserdisc player and laserdiscs though...

[fujifrontier]

Raymond, i have a sony laserdisc player with a weak door motor belt, you can have it for the cost of shipping. LDP-1011 or something... it only has a power and eject button on the front.

[RaymondLeggs]

Does it have the remote?

[Jeffhs]

I have a collection of about 70 VHS videocassettes, mostly 1960s-'80s TV series and movies, with two cassettes of the Grand Canyon in Arizona as well (the latter from Reader's Digest/Rand McNally video). About the only use my Panasonic VCR gets these days is viewing these old tapes. Don't record much off the air anymore since finding out that so many TV shows are being streamed over the Internet and are on DVD, with more being added almost every time I turn around. I intend to keep these cassettes long after VHS is obsolete, as most of the shows are one-of-a-kind and irreplaceable.

VCRs are coming down in price, though--I saw one at a Big Lots store for $28 about a year ago, more or less, although when the time comes to replace my VCR, I'll probably get a VHS/DVD deck--they ought to have come down in price quite a bit by that time (whenever my VCR gives out; with its cheap plastic gears in the drive mechanism, that could be any day now). A friend of mine has a VHS/DVD dubbing deck and has transferred most, if not all, of his old VHS tapes to DVD; it's the way to go in the digital age.

[Findm-Keepm]

Originally Posted by gobies

On the topic of obsolete formats, I should've added:

Does anyone else remember listening (for several minutes) to the the inside grooves of a classical LP on mono FM, because the "DJ" hadn't come back from his "break"? Or "Alice's Restaurant" or any Dylan cut being played on AM in the early hours right before the farm report, because there were no commercials then?

I do remember one of our stations playing either "American Pie" or "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald" because the DJ (a lady!) had to have a restroom break.....Alice's Restaurant was a treat one of our classic rock DJ's used to play - sad to say, I've not heard it aired in the last several years.

Cheers,

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by Findm-Keepm

I do remember one of our stations playing either "American Pie" or "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald" because the DJ (a lady!) had to have a restroom break.....Alice's Restaurant was a treat one of our classic rock DJ's used to play - sad to say, I've not heard it aired in the last several years.

Cheers,

Speaking of weird goings-on at radio stations, I remember back in the late sixties-early '70s (1968-'71 or thereabouts, IIRC) when a local FM station (a big 70kW ERP bruiser that could be heard for perhaps 50+ miles in all directions) was about to change formats. They played one record, only one (Jim Reed's "When You're Hot, You're Hot") over and over again for two or three days in a row (over a weekend, I think), using every gimmick they could think of: forward, backward, two copies of the same record simultaneously, at 78 RPM . . . I never heard anything like that in my life, before or since. But you have to remember (no joshin', now--I wouldn't kid about this) that that was the only record they had in the studio. When they started their new format the following Monday morning, things were back to normal, but believe me, I will never forget that weekend stunt of theirs.

[mr_fixer]

we had a station in nashville do that, when they changed format, i think the song was "hit the road jack" played for 3 days. the new format sucked and was never listened to by me again.

[radiotvnut]

It seems like radio stations are changing formats every time the wind changes direction. We've got an FM station that's been on the air since the early '90's and I wouldn't even begin to guess how many times they've changed their format. I do wish someone would start a decent oldies station around here. About all that's left now is rap, teenage "rock", country, gospel (all kinds), and (puke) talk radio. I do listen to a classic country station on FM and a Southern Gospel station on AM when I fire up a tube radio. I HATE talk radio!

I do remember one local classic rock FM station screwing up one night. They kept palying "You Shook Me All Night Long" by AC/DC over and over. Their automation system must have been screwed up or it was someone's idea of a joke.

[blownsi]

Collecting -- I can't find anyone who'll take them at all. I have about 400 store bought pre-recorded movies that I have been trying to give away for the last couple of years. I see them all the time for free at yard sales also.
Sad thing about all this is that I bet a few years ago vinyl was like this and now it's nearly impossible to find here locally at thrifts and yard sales.

[ChrisW6ATV]

Radio stations usually play something over and over when they change formats because they intentionally want to chase all of their old audience away. Playing "Hit The Road, Jack" is a rather direct way of telling them...

Regarding collecting old formats, I used to see a box of 78 RPM records in every thrift store I went to in the 1970's. Now I'd like to have a few for when I restore my two old combo consoles, but I bet they're hard to find too. I think my brother still has my mother's collection of them, though.

[Lady Ayeka]

Originally Posted by Captain Video

I have a load of VHS tapes, they were been sold really so cheap around here that in fact no one wants to sell then anymore, because they were really getting no profit at all. Even used book stores and thrift shops now prefer to sell used DVD discs than VHS tapes.

It's quite impressive to see that, in a relatively short period of time, DVD players became extremely popular. There are players from good brands for sale at ridiculous low prices. In fact, in the 1990's It was normal to meet people who didn't had a VCR; now I even get shocked when I meet someone who still don't have a DVD player. It's just so cheap that even the poorest of the poorest can have one.

There are millions and millions of VHS tapes out there, to a point I doubt that anytime in the future they will became a special collectable like, say, 78 RPM records. Anyway, I collect them, because, valuable or not, they will represent a special moment in the History of home entertainment technology, specially for me, who was a kid in the 1980's and thought it was the greatest thing ever, to be able to watch movies of my choice at home, and to record movies and programs from television.

I still have our first VCR, a 1986 Panasonic. It's not working, and looks a little beat up, but I keep it for nostalgic reasons. Had I not took possesion of it, It could possible be in the dumpster by now.

I still want to put my hands on one of the VERY OLD models, one of those VCRs from the late 70's or early 80's - one of those with top loading and rotary tuners.

I think that probably the most valuable VHS tapes will be those of the first releases of famous movies. The oldest I have is a 1984 American VHS of "Diamonds are Forever" ( 1971 ).

It would also be good to put my hands on Beta tapes and on a Betamax player, I think it will became more valuable than VHS, because it is a rarer format.

AMEN, BROTHER

[Lady Ayeka]

Originally Posted by ChrisW6ATV

Radio stations usually play something over and over when they change formats because they intentionally want to chase all of their old audience away. Playing "Hit The Road, Jack" is a rather direct way of telling them...