Stock up on VHS VCRs when can

[67Zenith]

Originally Posted by Combwork

Can anyone tell me how long pre-recorded tapes are good for? I was wondering if the signal would fade away in storage. I hope not; I've a wonderful old VCC (video compact cassette) machine that still works plus a few brilliantly un-PC cartoon tapes that I doubt will ever be broadcast again. I don't know if this format made much headway outside Europe; tape cartridges were only slightly larger than VHS but played both ways like an audio cassette. Definition was better than either VHS or Betamax but being late to market, VCC never really caught on.

My oldest series of VHS tapes are the ones in which I taped The Donna Reed Show off of Nick-At-Nite, I guess about 1989 or 1990. I also inherited a dozen VHS tapes of Leave It To Beaver as taped off of WNEW TV Channel 5 New York, from 1985 (they were bought by Fox TV January 1986). All these tapes still play just fine.

As far as VCRs - I have a 1992 RCA. It's fine but I don't use it anymore and it's in the original box in a closet. I bought a JVC DVD/VHS combo thing off of fleaBay about 5 years ago and I basically use it because I switch back and forth, some things I saved on VHS and some of the newer tv shows on DVD.

I think that the way the Obama administration wants everything old to be trashed (such as their program to scrap refrigerators built before 1995 and the "cash for clunkers" program, which means cars made before 1998 - well...they want us to trash everything vintage. Maybe this is their way to make consumers spend money to buy newly made junk. It's scary to wipe out our history but we live in these times. Maybe next they will say that VCRs are unsafe (LOL) and everyone has to scrap them and only use DVDs! In any case, I'd keep a few of ANYTHING vintage you can afford to keep now and hang onto them.