Anyone still using VHS?

[Atari 5200 Guy]

Seriously, though, if you can't find something to watch in my house then something is wrong.

Top shelf is all DVDs, VHS takes up the rest.  And there are more behind all those movies.  In a small closet is a tall wood shelf where all the Disney movies sit, away from sunlight.  All VHS tapes were either given to us or found at secondhand stores for $1 or less.  They invade my game storage lol.

Edited November 8, 2020 by Atari 5200 Guy

[RickR]

Here we go, guys.  For those of us who have moved on to DVD's. 

 

[HDN]

24 minutes ago, RickR said:

Here we go, guys.  For those of us who have moved on to DVD's. 

 

That's the stupidest thing I've ever seen in my life! What did it do? I honestly can't think of a use for this thing!

I know that if you push the stop button on a DVD player and take the disc out, it will resume to the same spot in the film that you pushed stop at when you put the disc back in the player. You need to push stop twice to get the DVD to fully reset and go back to the beginning iirc. But that's only for individual DVD players! It's not like a tape that will play at the same spot if I put it into a different VCR.

Honestly, what's the purpose of this thing?

[RickR]

The purpose is ridiculous humor 😁😁

[socrates63]

I remember watching Titanic with my wife in the theater -- there were several girls a few rows in front of us. A couple of them were just flat out bawling towards the end of the movie. I was a bit surprised that the movie had such a response, but then again, I suppose that was the DiCaprio effect.

@RickR I was thinking of this thread when I saw that on FB 😄

Edited November 9, 2020 by socrates63

[DegasElite]

I am sure that Leonardo DiCaprio did have something to do with it. :O)

[Control Issues]

I still have my VCR hooked up, but haven't watched a video on it about a year.

The video I watched was a freestyle bmx video, where they're doing lots of tricks on ramps and flatland.  It was made by a bmx bike company called Homeless Bikes that used to be in Austin Tx.  It's from around 93 or so.  My wife is in the video and that's why we have it.  (She wasn't riding a bike... she was actually watching a burning TV or something...)  I've been thinking about copying that video into digital form and posting it on YouTube, but I'm not sure if I'd get into any kind of copyright issues.

Other than that, I have only a few VHS cassettes.  Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Slap Shot, Star Wars Trilogy (episodes 4, 5, and 6), and a couple Young Ones videos.

 

Edit:  Might not bother with digitizing the bmx video.  Looks like it's already out there at least in some capacity.  I found the video with my wife in it.  She's at the beginning.  (Looks a lot different 30 years later, though.  lol  She was probably around 19 here.)

 

Edited November 18, 2020 by Control Issues
added video

[atarifan95]

I still love VHS. I never actually thought they looked bad unless they were recorded in EP mode (which few were). Also, I'd rather trust another person to hold a VHS tape than I would a DVD. If a VHS breaks, you can usually repair it. Snapped tape? Tape it back together with some of that clear tape that everybody has lying around? One second long wrinkled section that the payer won't go past? Cut it out with scissors and tape the ends together. There will be a brief skip, but nothing terrible. Smashed shell? Take it apart and put it in a different shell. With DVD, a single scratch can kill the entire movie.

Also (and I know this isn't technically an issue with DVD, as even some VHS editions of movies have had this problem in the past, but it seems to have become more prevalant over the years), usually the VHS versions represent truer versions of the films they contain. Many "remasters" of certain movies have botched the films. Yeah, I know you're probably thinking Star Wars, but many other movies have gotten it as well. Botched color grading, botched textures, over-saturation, etc. You name it, it's probably happened. Disney's Cinderella got it especially bad, and remains unfixed to this day (there are comparison pics online). In cases like this, the best way to get the film in it's original unbotched form is on a VHS tape.

In short, I love VHS tapes. I have tons of them, I still watch them, and most of the ones I watched hundreds of times when I was a kid still play perfectly and look great. If I had to complain, I'd say that it's hard to find one in it's original aspect ratio (though this only applies to films made after widescreen became a thing. Most movies before then are in VHS aspect ratio by default).

[RickR]

Good point @atarifan95.  I recently checked out the DVD of "Predator" from the library and was shocked to see how grainy the image is.  I don't recall the VHS version looking like that at all.  I wonder if that's another one they hosed.

 

[MaximumRD]

If I am honest I really don't BUT THAT SAID I will always have a warm spot for the format as I managed a Video Store back in the day, well that puts it lightly, as a young adult I literally LIVED IN a small family owned video store because I slept on a cot in the back room through the week 😆this assured I was there first thing in the morning to open as well as work all day and close but the added advantage was the moment the door locked for the night I would peruse the shelves to pick my viewing for the night. Let's just say these were my FULL MOON VIDEO years lol. I watched just about every straight to video scifi and horror flick, good times. This was also the time I would use composite video output of my Amiga and make simple animated titles for my home VHS movies. There will always be a fond memory of analogue video editing for me that was lost when everything went digital. When we moved here over 15 years ago I sold the last of my remaining VHS movie collection, I let it go insanely cheap to a small privately owned local video store that was just starting up and was still in business to this day so it made me feel good that people were renting those and still enjoying the many treasures I collected over the years. 😍We live in a small 1 bedroom condo so space which is always at a premium was always abused by me and my collections and hobbies so sacrifices had to be made. I literally have only a couple original VHS movies, all my home movies have been converted by me to DVD's. I still have a couple decks though, over the years I pulled a couple nice ones out f recycling and I even have some blank tapes left, even an unopened pack that again I found, a resident had left downstairs for disposal (we have an area not official but people just leave stuff there so other residents can take them before they get tossed) so I kept these things even if I will likely never use them just out of nostalgia. For some reason I could not give up my Hellraiser II Special VHS edition. 

 

 

 

 

[MaximumRD]

RE: Warlock 1989 starring Julian Sands. - Here is a promotional item our VHS distributor let me have back in my Video Store Managing days! 🙂 MY handy dandy WARLOCK CRYSTAL CHANNELER 😆

 

 

[- Ω -]

Everything I had in VHS has been replaced by higher quality digital copies.  I still have a VCR though, but it only gets used rarely and that is for converting old family videos to modern formats.  If you really want to see sucky video, imagine old 8mm film that was converted to VHS first.  Man, some of the videos I've converted look like pure excrement compared to 1080P or 4K.

[DegasElite]

I have a couple of VCRs. I also have a plethora of VHS tapes in my collection. I have a video capture device to capture old home movies and such, but they will be low quality. But, on the flip-side, I am hoping VHS collections will go up in value. That would be cool. :O)

[RickR]

I was just given a Samsung DVD/VHS combo unit that was "broken".  Indeed, the DVD drive no longer works, but the VCR portion was just fine.  I cleaned it up on the inside and it was good as new.  Honestly, one of the nicest VHS units I've seen with a really nice crisp picture and auto-tracking that works perfectly. 

After the refurbishment, I gave it away on the local "Buy Nothing" group to a lady who had her wedding video on VHS but no VCR. 

Win-win. 

[DegasElite]

I also have a Pioneer DVD recorder with a 160 GB hard drive. It's normally worth around $300.00, but I got it for around $11.00 from a thrift store in my area. It works great, too. It also has like five or six video inputs in it. :O)