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A warning if you have a VHS rewinder: they can damage your tapes since they rewind so fast it's better to rewind in the VCR
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Aug 11, 2016 19:24
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Ein cooler Typ posted:A warning if you have a VHS rewinder: they can damage your tapes since they rewind so fast But that breaks the VCR. It's a vicious cycle.
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Aug 11, 2016 19:26
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the VCR we had growing up basically played the movie backwards to rewind it, so god drat slow.
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Aug 11, 2016 19:29
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I feel like there was a space race with head counts for a while, the 1st VCR we owned didn't advertise how many heads it had, every subsequent VCR purchased had badging indicating its (ever increasing) head count all over the place. I never noticed a perceivable difference in picture quality but I was young and most of our VHS collection was well worn.
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Aug 11, 2016 19:42
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Humphreys posted:Did you open them? I opened Robin Hood. Space Jam is still sealed until the day I can score some good LSD.
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Aug 11, 2016 19:42
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drunk asian neighbor posted:I never planned to get into Laserdisc in tyool 2016 but then I found sealed copies of Space Jam and Robin Hood: Men in Tights for $.50 each and it's all been downhill from there Same but it was A Clockwork Orange and then someone on Craigslist hooked me up with a good player and a box of like 50 movies for free. Lotta Disney in there, including a couple copies of Song of the South (Japanese release), but there's also Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Ferris Bueller, The Princess Bride, Spaceballs, Blazing Saddles... Good poo poo. Also a bunch of Japanese releases of pop music albums from the 80s and 90s, still haven't tried those although I imagine the A-ha disc is amazing.
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Aug 11, 2016 19:44
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I would kill a person for Clockwork Orange, Song of the South, Akira and Battle Angel on laserdisc
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Aug 11, 2016 19:50
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Honestly, I don't have too many but I see classic movies on LD all the drat time at garage sales, it seems like those and CDs are the only really retro technology that people my age don't wait in line for a garage sale to open so they can grab everything. Good luck finding old video games or computer equipment unless you want to be standing outside someone's house at 8:55AM waiting for their 9AM garage sale to open. It's gotta be pretty bad because this summer I saw tons of garage sale signs that had "NO EARLY BIRDS" in big letters at the bottom. The only movies I would really seek out outside of thrift stores or garage sales would be the Star Wars trilogy, since AFAIK the LaserDisc versions are just about the closest thing you can get to the original theatrical release without turning to independent projects released only through BitTorrent, but they still run pretty expensive (not absurdly so but also not enough to justify paying $30+ for each movie when I already own them on VHS, DVD and BluRay)
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Aug 11, 2016 19:50
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drunk asian neighbor posted:Honestly, I don't have too many but I see classic movies on LD all the drat time at garage sales, it seems like those and CDs are the only really retro technology that people my age don't wait in line for a garage sale to open so they can grab everything. Good luck finding old video games or computer equipment unless you want to be standing outside someone's house at 8:55AM waiting for their 9AM garage sale to open. It's gotta be pretty bad because this summer I saw tons of garage sale signs that had "NO EARLY BIRDS" in big letters at the bottom. This is true but there is a pretty drat good 1080p version of A New Hope that has been created from a 35mm print out there which I thoroughly recommend checking out. One thing I miss about VHS were the trailers at the start of the tape, I'd never skip over them as quite often the trailers would be of a similar genre to the movie you were watching and would lead to me seeking out those movies. I know Some DVD's had trailers but it wasn't the same and blu-rat just updates to trailers of recent releases.
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Aug 11, 2016 20:00
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To give you an idea of how long the format lasted, the 1st season of The Sopranos was released on VHS before DVD.
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Aug 11, 2016 20:02
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They put seasons of TV shows on VHS? How many tapes is that? I figured the reason why they even did seasons of TV was because of DVD.
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Aug 11, 2016 20:04
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Cojawfee posted:They put seasons of TV shows on VHS? How many tapes is that? I figured the reason why they even did seasons of TV was because of DVD. Someone gave me a Dragonball GT tape for my birthday once. It only had two episodes on it. Regarding video tape formats: I remember my dad trying to explain this joke to me:  Is Betamax still used a lot in TV/news studios? I somehow doubt it now that digital recording is so ubiquitous but it was Beta's only last market for a while as far as I know. Mak0rz has a new favorite as of 20:10 on Aug 11, 2016 |
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Aug 11, 2016 20:06
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So the thing with VHS is some movies were actually filmed for full screen vhs releases and the DVD letterbox was made by cutting the full screen top and bottom off. That is how some cameras/projectors worked from the 50s on and one director I think it was james cameron laid out his shots to work best full screen. I've been googling all day trying to find an awesome documentary I saw that covers the 80s vhs production/rental market. Video store documentary 80s video documentary Low budget documentary Straight to video documentary Endless Google searches. Then I found it It's called "rewind this" https://youtu.be/KgPIysM1m54 Watch the full video. I think it was on netflix or amazon but I'm phone posting and can't verify. my turn in the barrel has a new favorite as of 20:15 on Aug 11, 2016 |
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Aug 11, 2016 20:08
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Mak0rz posted:Someone gave me a Dragonball GT tape for my birthday once. It only had two episodes on it. I honestly thought Betamax died completely after that format war ended. Wasn't the whole point of that war the fact that neither format had any real advantage over the other, except VHS tapes were a lot smaller? I don't think the BluRay/HD-DVD war really had any substance beyond "which giant media companies are backing which format" either. Cojawfee posted:They put seasons of TV shows on VHS? How many tapes is that? I figured the reason why they even did seasons of TV was because of DVD. Surprisingly not too bad, here's the first 5 seasons of M.A.S.H:  looks like 3 tapes per season which isn't too bad at all, I don't own any TV shows on DVD but IIRC they're usually 2-3 discs per season, it's just that you can technically fit 3 DVDs in a standard-sized DVD case, which isn't really an option for VHS. Gaz2k21 posted:This is true but there is a pretty drat good 1080p version of A New Hope that has been created from a 35mm print out there which I thoroughly recommend checking out. Yeah, I've seen that version and it's pretty awesome, but supposedly they went so all-out that it's somewhat noticeable when they switch sources, especially since they apparently do it multiple times in a single scene. As far as DVD previews, I dunno if it was player limitations or hard-coded into the DVD, but IIRC, back in the day you couldn't skip trailers on DVDs which was annoying as gently caress.
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Aug 11, 2016 20:25
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Gay Weed Dad posted:I feel like there was a space race with head counts for a while, the 1st VCR we owned didn't advertise how many heads it had, every subsequent VCR purchased had badging indicating its (ever increasing) head count all over the place. I never noticed a perceivable difference in picture quality but I was young and most of our VHS collection was well worn. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VHS Basically, from what I remember, the number of heads was directly proportional to the picture quality you could expect to record and play back with. Bare minimum was 2 heads--the old, mono VCRs. The number of heads usually referred to the number of heads on the spinning drum portion of the player, as there were always at least 3 "traditional" heads, one for erasing the tape for recording, one for mono (or "Dolby Stereo"), and one for timing or "tracking". "4-head" VCRs had two additional heads on the drum for video, and those players gave you a more stable picture during playback, and would usually give you a much cleaner pause picture. HiFI VHS players would usually have 6 heads (I think), the two additional heads used for the audio portion of the signal. Side point: HiFiVHS sound rivaled CD sound quality in both fidelity and noise floor. It also beat the poo poo out of regular VHS sound, and "Dolby Stereo" sound VHS. Imagine tape the same width as one side of a regular audio cassette, but moving across the heads at about 1/3 the speed, and you can get an idea of the lack of bandwidth available for audio on standard VHS. Split the width of that same tape in half, and you have each side of the "Dolby Stereo" signal. HiFi VHS used the same surface area and recording technique used for the video portion of the signal, eliminating the limitations of tape speed and width. Adding to the jumble, there were some models of VCRs, and a LOT of camcorders that used an additional "flying erase head" on the drum as well. This made it so that if you began recording in the middle of a tape, you didn't get those weird, stripey color bar artifacts floating through the picture for the first few seconds. Yeah, I spent a lot of time back in the day learning about VCRs and poo poo because I worked at a place that sold them, and I had to know what the differences were and how to explain them to people. I also found the technology fascinating. Of course, like most tech knowledge, it's all pretty much worthless now as progress marches on. Edit: Regarding the format war between VHS and Beta... Essentially the winner was decided, like many things, by politics and business practices. Beta tapes were actually superior in quality (both audio and video), and were physically smaller than VHS tapes, but Sony owned the Beta design, and demanded a higher license fee for building Beta machines and tapes. VHS was designed by a consortium, and the licensing fees were next to non-existent, making it much cheaper to build machines and tapes. In the end, cheaper won because it was able to take over the market by selling to people who couldn't necessarily afford or justify a $700 Beta machine, but could come up with $200 for a VHS VCR. woodch has a new favorite as of 20:36 on Aug 11, 2016 |
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Aug 11, 2016 20:27
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Cojawfee posted:They put seasons of TV shows on VHS? How many tapes is that? I figured the reason why they even did seasons of TV was because of DVD. First season is 5 tapes which is the same as with the DVD/Blu-Ray, its just VHS quality. http://www.ebay.com/itm/The-Sopranos-Season-1-VHS-no-case-/250814277102 Keep in mind that DVD players were new on 1999-2000 and cost quite a bit. I think I paid $500 for mine and it was the size of an end table. Mak0rz posted:
I think most are pure digital now but their archives would be in betamax.
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Aug 11, 2016 20:28
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Also if netflix doesn't release stranger things on VHS bundled with the soundtrack on cassette for $$$ they are throwing money away. And if they do they should give me a free set. My idea my rules.
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Aug 11, 2016 20:28
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drunk asian neighbor posted:I honestly thought Betamax died completely after that format war ended. Wasn't the whole point of that war the fact that neither format had any real advantage over the other, except VHS tapes were a lot smaller? I thought Beta tapes were smaller, and higher quality, but they never got market traction because of dumb bundling/marketing moves by Sony or something like that. Of course I could research this instead of  ing
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Aug 11, 2016 20:29
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Mods, please change my name to Flying Eraser Head.
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Aug 11, 2016 20:30
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Pubic Lair posted:Also if netflix doesn't release stranger things on VHS bundled with the soundtrack on cassette for $$$ they are throwing money away. I think Guardians of the Galaxy had its soundtrack released on cassette, no idea if people went nuts for it or not though
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Aug 11, 2016 20:32
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Data Graham posted:I thought Beta tapes were smaller, and higher quality, but they never got market traction because of dumb bundling/marketing moves by Sony or something like that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Videotape_format_war
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Aug 11, 2016 20:34
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Mak0rz posted:Someone gave me a Dragonball GT tape for my birthday once. It only had two episodes on it. You are (understandably) confusing Betamax and Betacam. Betamax was the home version, with slightly better picture quality than vhs, but much shorter tape length. Betacam and Betacam SP were professional formats very popular with broadcasting. I've seen some Betacam SP stuff and it looks as good as DVD. Pretty much every TV commercial you saw in the 90s or any MTV music video was given to the station on Betacam SP. It's probably still used today in limited capacity at some TV news stations that never switched to HD.
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Aug 11, 2016 20:39
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Yeah, forget my edit above and read this. It's much more in-depth and accurate, as I was going from my memory.
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Aug 11, 2016 20:41
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Pubic Lair posted:Also if netflix doesn't release stranger things on VHS bundled with the soundtrack on cassette for $$$ they are throwing money away. They could release the soundtrack on cassette but no one has a VCR anymore.
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Aug 11, 2016 20:48
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Code Jockey posted:I would kill a person for Clockwork Orange, Song of the South, Akira and Battle Angel on laserdisc I have A Clockwork Orange on laserdisc. It's not a rare disc Song of the South is really rare and only available in Japan but you can find some on eBay for over $100 Don't know what the other thing is sounds like some gay chinese cartoons
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Aug 11, 2016 21:03
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Bonzo posted:Keep in mind that DVD players were new on 1999-2000 and cost quite a bit. I think I paid $500 for mine and it was the size of an end table. My parents bought one from Shoppers Drug Mart in 2001-ish for like $99 and it worked about as well as you'd expect. I can't remember for the life of me what it was called but it was a budget brand named after a US city, was fairly small, and lacked pretty much any basic feature a DVD player should have. Uncle at Nintendo posted:You are (understandably) confusing Betamax and Betacam. Betamax was the home version, with slightly better picture quality than vhs, but much shorter tape length. Betacam and Betacam SP were professional formats very popular with broadcasting. I've seen some Betacam SP stuff and it looks as good as DVD. Pretty much every TV commercial you saw in the 90s or any MTV music video was given to the station on Betacam SP. Ah, yeah that's probably what I was thinking of.
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Aug 11, 2016 21:04
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Ein cooler Typ posted:I have A Clockwork Orange on laserdisc. It's not a rare disc Really? Because I have at least two copies of Song of the South on LD, possibly three. Maybe I should get on that ebay jam and sell some racist movies.
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Aug 11, 2016 21:13
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Gonz posted:I no longer own a VCR, but I still have something like 24 hours worth of 9/11 CNN/Fox News/ABC/CBS footage on a handful of long play VHS tapes (I figured it was a pretty major historical moment, and I had a bunch of empty tapes laying around that I used for monthly wrestling PPV's, so I just recorded various channels until I ran out of blank tapes; each tape was a different network.) they have those dvd/vhs dual units that have a transfer function. my mom had one at one point to transfer old family videos and poo poo
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Aug 11, 2016 21:16
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Did they ever make a home DVD recorder that worked like a VCR? VCRs were still holding on during that period between where DVD players were in every household but of course they couldn't record all of your favorite soaps while you were away at work. Then PVRs became a thing bundled with every cable/satellite package you could get and finally wiped VCRs off the face of the earth.
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Aug 11, 2016 21:28
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Mak0rz posted:Did they ever make a home DVD recorder that worked like a VCR? VCRs were still holding on during that period between where DVD players were in every household but of course they couldn't record all of your favorite soaps while you were away at work. Then PVRs became a thing bundled with every cable/satellite package you could get and finally wiped VCRs off the face of the earth. Yes, I have one
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Aug 11, 2016 21:30
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Pham Nuwen posted:Really? Because I have at least two copies of Song of the South on LD, possibly three. Maybe I should get on that ebay jam and sell some racist movies. this one is $230 buy it now but it probably won't go for that much http://www.ebay.com/itm/SONG-OF-THE-SOUTH-Japan-Laserdisc-PILF-1096-Rare-NEW-Sealed-Disney-OBI-LD-NO-RSV-/152188897710 this one actually has a bid at $99 http://www.ebay.com/itm/SONG-OF-THE-SOUTH-Disney-Laser-Disc-Japan-Import-Laserdisc-RARE-/142075759971 this one sold for $70 http://www.ebay.com/itm/WALT-DISNEYS-Song-Of-The-South-LaserDisc-Japanese-SF078-0033-VERY-RARE-/182204115652 guess not as much as I thought if you have Song of the South on laserdisc consider donating it to my archive
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Aug 11, 2016 21:32
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Mak0rz posted:Did they ever make a home DVD recorder that worked like a VCR? VCRs were still holding on during that period between where DVD players were in every household but of course they couldn't record all of your favorite soaps while you were away at work. Then PVRs became a thing bundled with every cable/satellite package you could get and finally wiped VCRs off the face of the earth. i think thats how the one i was referring to works. iirc you have to play the vhs while having the device digitize its output for burning onto the dvd
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Aug 11, 2016 21:33
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Captain Yossarian posted:Yes, I have one My mom used her VCR up until maybe a year and a half ago when they finally got satellite TV with a PVR and now it's just in the basement collecting dust. Probably still has a tape in it with a week's worth of Coronation Street episodes. Sp1r0_Agn3W posted:i think thats how the one i was referring to works. iirc you have to play the vhs while having the device digitize its output for burning onto the dvd That... still requires a VHS though?
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Aug 11, 2016 21:34
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Mak0rz posted:Did they ever make a home DVD recorder that worked like a VCR? VCRs were still holding on during that period between where DVD players were in every household but of course they couldn't record all of your favorite soaps while you were away at work. Then PVRs became a thing bundled with every cable/satellite package you could get and finally wiped VCRs off the face of the earth. Yeah, they exist but IIRC even nowadays where you can buy a standalone DVD player for <$25, those standalone recorders are still in the ~$200 range.
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Aug 11, 2016 21:34
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drunk asian neighbor posted:Yeah, they exist but IIRC even nowadays where you can buy a standalone DVD player for <$25, those standalone recorders are still in the ~$200 range. Yeah I suspected they'd be pretty pricey. Maybe that's why my parents ignored them.
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Aug 11, 2016 21:36
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Mak0rz posted:That... still requires a VHS though? yea i just skimmed your question and misunderstood
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Aug 11, 2016 21:36
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Yeah I should clarify, my device is a standalone DVD player/recorder and I used it to record Roseanne and also the NBA finals in glorious standard def off an antenna
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Aug 11, 2016 21:39
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I remember trying to get my Ninja Turtles fix from Blockbuster after it had stopped airing. Those tapes were really bad and you'd spend most of the episode running the tracking back and forth.Pham Nuwen posted:Really? Because I have at least two copies of Song of the South on LD, possibly three. Maybe I should get on that ebay jam and sell some racist movies. Casimir Radon has a new favorite as of 21:52 on Aug 11, 2016 |
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Aug 11, 2016 21:49
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Bonzo posted:Back then if you wanted a copy of a movie on VHS you paid $100 retail. What
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Aug 11, 2016 21:53
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Yeah, rental stores had a 3 to 6 month window where VHS tapes weren't sold to the public. You could still get them if you really wanted, but you had to pay the price that the rental chains did, which was $80-$100 a copy. Which is why for those old enough to witness the transition from VHS to DVD, it was so amazing that you could get a DVD copy of a movie at the same time the rental stores got theirs, and for cheap.
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Aug 11, 2016 22:03
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