Stock up on VHS VCRs when can

[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.

[PioneerGuy75]

Must be 40 or 50 at the thrift store near me!

[andy]

000

[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.

[DragonMaster]

You can still buy VCRs with digital tuners, I guess they're not going away anytime soon.

Bought a nice HS-U80 recently, without the remote though...

[RobtWB]

Always looking for CLEAN bpc vcr's at thrift and estate and yard sales.
Seldom find nice ones though, usually scratched and dent models, yellow'ed with nicotine and sticky from little childrens fingers with candy and soda pop.

Recently fell into 2 early 80's Sony betamax vcr's, PRISTINE contition, in original boxes and wrapping and packing. Hell even the boxes and packing are pristine. Anyone know what they are worth? I don't own a single beta tape, never have, never will.

Still searching for the early RCA Selectavision VHS machines to match my RCA consoles. Any new 30$ vcr will produce an infinitely better pix and be trouble free, but would still like to have a pair just the same.

[andy]

000

[Combwork]

Originally Posted by 67Zenith
[I

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.[/I]

Interesting point. We've got the same program just started here (U.K.). So far it's for cars only and you have to have owned the clunker for 12 months or more but even so, saving £2000 off the price of a new car means the supply of cheap old cars for your kids to learn to drive on is drying up.

67Zenith and andy

Thanks for your assurances. As to the VCC, mine's badged GRUNDIG and even with a plastic case, it weighs a ton. When you look inside you can see why. There may be the odd IC hidden in there somewhere, but what you see are half a dozen full size stacked circuit boards with hundreds of discrete conponants on each one. Plus a heavily engineered tape transport and a good size mains transformer. Built to be serviced, not thrown away.

I've got to clean the heads and get that old cartoon tape copied to DVD; one of the things on it is the first broadcast of "The Snowman" with David Bowie doing the voice over. His are the only words on it, the rest apart from one song from a very young Aled Jones is music and movement. It's on TV every Christmas, but the voice over is by someone else.

[wilkes85]

Originally Posted by 67Zenith

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.

Scrap fridges made before 1995?! cars made before 1998?!

But trust someone who has enough cash in his dresser drawer alone to buy a brand new Lincoln to propose something like that.

And it wouldn't surprise me if they made it illegal to even own anything over 10 years old. They'll probabally have cops rade your houses and give people heavy fines for owning older electronics/appliances/etc.
That sounds a lot like Canada, actually. I can totally see the RCMP doing that. because of course, who cares about the rapists, murderers, gang members, etc, when there's hard working honest people driving older cars with slight exhaust leaks.
And here in Saskatoon, they actually have spot checks all over the city, and the cops pull every car over 10 years old and inspect it. I know someone who's car got pulled off the road because it had a small rust hole in the back, the battery wasn't strapped down with anything, etc.
He doesn't have a lot of money, so he bought some cheap POS with a million things wrong with it, and it needs constant servicing. But hey, it's under 10 years old. His old car was very reliable and never gave him problems.
Now he's in debt, but hey, at least the pigs are happy.

[DragonMaster]

That sounds a lot like Canada, actually. I can totally see the RCMP doing that. because of course, who cares about the rapists, murderers, gang members, etc, when there's hard working honest people driving older cars with slight exhaust leaks.

It's not like that everywhere. Here, you just need to get an inspection check when you buy the car, nothing else after.

[wilkes85]

Originally Posted by DragonMaster

It's not like that everywhere. Here, you just need to get an inspection check when you buy the car, nothing else after.

Is that for every car you buy no matter what?

Because here in SK you only need a safety inspection if it hasn't been registered for over a certain number of years or it's been pulled off the road at some point.

Luckily, they don't keep track of pre-1980 VIN numbers, so I was able to plate my 1974 Ford LTD without an inspection even though it was pulled off the road because some son of a bitch decided it was a good idea to cruise the streets of Saskatoon with straight pipe.

[DragonMaster]

Is that for every car you buy no matter what?

Everything you buy used... They don't pull off cars though, at least, not without very good reasons.

[kx250rider]

Originally Posted by wilkes85

And here in Saskatoon, they actually have spot checks all over the city, and the cops pull every car over 10 years old and inspect it. I know someone who's car got pulled off the road because it had a small rust hole in the back, the battery wasn't strapped down with anything, etc.

We need to meet in the middle somehow. In California, you can drive a car with bald tires, no steering wheel, broken windshield, body held on to rusted out chassis with zip-ties, and crabbing down the road sideways because it's so badly damaged from an accident, but it's perfectly legal if the car passes the smog test. There IS NO mechanical inspection in Caifornia for private cars and trucks. Thank goodness, there is for commercial heavy trucks and buses. I've driven along behind cars here with parts literally falling off; menaces on the highway. Heck; half of the cars here don't even have current license plates! And one more point: The older the vehicle, the less the smog inspection requires. Diesels are 100% exempt for any age, new or old, and all vehicles are exempt from all inspection if older than 1974.

Charles

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by 67Zenith

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.

Where did you hear or read this? It's flat-out ridiculous. If this administration even tries to have legislation passed that would prevent anyone from keeping anything more than X number of years old, there would probably be a huge outcry from antique dealers and collectors the likes of which you wouldn't believe. I am specifically referring to antique radio and television collectors, such as those here at AK (Doug, drh4683, for one, myself, for another, et al.--I'm sure Doug won't give up his collection of Zenith TVs and I have about seven vintage Zenith radios here that I will not give up without a fight).

However, I don't think we have anything to worry about. Because there are so many antique dealers and collectors here in the US and Canada, such legislation as I mentioned above, if anyone in Washington is bold enough to introduce it, may not and probably will not even come close to becoming law.

I do not believe for a second, either, that VCRs will ever be declared unsafe by this administration. Why would or should they be? A law was passed in 1975 that gave the public the right to tape television shows off the air for their own use; people have been using VCRs for this purpose ever since. The DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act), enacted eight years ago, only outlaws recording television and radio programming onto digital media, then reselling the copies; it says nothing about people copying DVDs for their own use, although since most if not all commercial DVDs are copy-protected, such copying is all but impossible. I say "all but impossible" because there will always be some technically sharp and dishonest people out there who will figure out ways to circumvent the copyright law and defeat the copy protection schemes used.

The VHS/DVD players available for dirt-cheap prices at Big Lots, Best Buy, et al. are just that, playback devices only that do not have the capability to record off the air, as the dirt-cheap ones do not have ATSC tuners. DVD recorders with such tuners almost certainly carry warnings on their shipping boxes (and likely in their instruction manuals as well) against using the decks to copy commercial DVDs, either to a second DVD or to VHS; as a matter of fact, the ads for these devices in the Sunday newspaper flyers always carry a disclaimer that states "Does not duplicate copyrighted material." This probably (I would think almost certainly) means the recorder has at least one sensor and control circuitry that will detect Macrovision (and other copy-guard schemes) on commercial DVDs, will display a warning on the user's TV screen if copying is attempted, and will not allow the operation to continue.

Needless to say, the copying operation will fail, turning the blank DVD in the machine into a round piece of plastic unusable for anything except, perhaps, a coaster. If anything at all gets on the disc before the copying procedure is thwarted, it will almost certainly be an unwatchable mishmash of lines and distortion. The same basic system was used to prevent illicit copying of VHS videos in the '70s and '80s, when video rentals were just beginning. The Macrovision copy-guard system also makes it nearly impossible to use a VCR as an RF modulator for a DVD player; I am sure of this because I tried to use my Panasonic PV-4022 VCR as a modulator with my DVD player when the modulator I had been using went belly-up. The Macrovision copyguard signals caused the video to flash on and off on my TV screen after the disc had been playing about five minutes; eventually the screen went completely blank.

[jeyurkon]

I thought I'd be clever and use my digital Sony handicam to record the analog signal from a DVD player. It does an excellent job digitizing analog.

Well, the DVD player output a Macrovision copy guard and the Handicam displayed a message on the screen saying that the source was copy protected and can't be copied. I was surprised that they bothered to make it recognize the Macrovision rather than just fail.

Well, they do want us to get rid of the old stuff to help the economy and the environment. But it's through incentives rather than bans. There would be big trouble if people had to give up their vintage cars, planes, TV, etc.

John