The Demise of VHS (1 Viewer)

[Finn]

This is not the newest article but thought it was worth sharing here.

 

[RickER]

I was an LD guy. Never bought a VHS tape in my life. But i did use tape to time shift shows. Before the joy known as TiVo.

Shoot, i have not owned a VCR in over 10 years!

 

[RobertR]

I was surprised when I read in the article that less than 4% of feature films in the TCM database are available on DVD. I would have thought it was higher than that.

 

[Adam Gregorich]

I pulled out all our VCRs a few years ago. I still have a bunch of Disney live action that have never made it to DVD, but years ago I switched all avaiable titles from VHS to LD and I have several LDs that haven't made their way to "affordable" DVD yet (Four Feathers being my favorite). As much as they get knocked here I think the DVD on demand services that studios are starting is the best solution, since there isn't a big enough market for some of the titles. This thread reminds me that I have a bunch of EP recorded movies in a box I need to get rid of that I recorded off premium channels back in the day (quantity not quality the indiscretions of youth!)

I think its market specific too. I asked someone from Panasonic what the heck they were thinking with releasing a BD/VCR combo player. They said it was developed for South America and some education markets, where VHS won't seem to die.

 

[Ockeghem]

I purchased a combo player (multi-regional) two or so years ago. I will be purchasing one or two more so I will have that capability for many years to come. We now have around 900 VHS tapes, and we watch many of them each week, both for entertainment and for educational purposes.

 

[Trekkie313]

I'm not a fan of VHS but I've recently gotten into collecting rare and obscure tittles on VHS. Many horror films have never made it to DVD or LD and can fetch alot of money

 

[Adam Gregorich]

We now have around 900 VHS tapes

WOW Scott. Thats a huge library. How/where do you store them?

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I still have a JVC S-VHS machine (as well as my original JVC Hi-Fi VHS recorder purchased back around 1985), but neither are currently connected to the home theater. I still have some titles that are exclusive to VHS, but I have archived them all to DVD-R.

Probably my most prized VHS title is The Compleat Beatles, a terrific documentary that will most likely never be released again. It was the very first VHS title I purchased after buying that JVC machine in the mid 1980's.

 

[Ockeghem]

Originally Posted by Adam Gregorich



WOW Scott. Thats a huge library. How/where do you store them?

Adam,

When we built our home, the plans included a 400 sq. ft. library. We double up 'like' titles (e.g., television shows); otherwise, all unique titles are just shelved one-by-one on our shelving units, which consist of 7.5 foot high units from floor to ceiling, with each around 24"-40" wide. We have about fifteen of these units. Some are used for DVDs, books, tapes, serials, etc. What's really nice about these units is that our builder constructed adjustable shelving -- this comes in really handy with books of varying sizes and shapes. Additionally, we planned for differing depths, so shelving for LPs -- which needed 12" from front-to-back -- are also included.

 

[Ockeghem]

Originally Posted by Scott Merryfield

Probably my most prized VHS title is The Compleat Beatles, a terrific documentary that will most likely never be released again. It was the very first VHS title I purchased after buying that JVC machine in the mid 1980's.

Scott,

I agree wholeheartedly. It is a fine documentary (which I own on VHS). I also own the two-volume music scores for virtually all of their songs (pre-Anthology I, Anthology II, and Anthology III, of course). These scores look very much like the VHS box cover (the same coloring and accompanying stripes are used). Although these scores are not perfect, they are very well representative of the actual notes (including keyboard solos) used on several of the Beatles recordings. And for the most part, they reproduce the tracks in their original keys. (When they do not, they furnish a footnote which includes the key of the original.)

BTW, did I mention that I received The Beatles Anthology (five DVDs) recently? I will have a ton of fun watching this.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Originally Posted by Ockeghem


BTW, did I mention that I received The Beatles Anthology (five DVDs) recently? I will have a ton of fun watching this.

You should really enjoy the Anthology set, Scott. I recently re-watched my copy, and was once again amazed at the depth of the documentary. Of course, being an "authorized" set, it does tend to gloss over some of the incidents that were more unpleasant. That is why I like The Compleat Beatles so much -- it is much more balanced. That is also why it will probably never be released again.

 

[Bob McLaughlin]

On the flipside, the advent of DVDs has made tons of movies available to me through Netflix. In the VHS era I was at the mercy of the local rental stores. Through Netflix I've finally gotten to see hundreds of movies I couldn't see on VHS because no local rental stores carried them.

Funny story: I was at Half-Price Books the other day and some old man came up to the counter and said "Where do you keep your movies?" and the clerk pointed out the DVD section to him, and the old man shook his head and said "No, the MOVIES." It took some discussion but what he meant was VHS tapes. Funny that he didn't even consider DVDs to be movies. See what Blu-Ray is up against? I still get people who say "What's Blu-Ray?"

 

[Stan]

Have always been an avid OAR purist, so never bought VHS until they started coming out wide screen. Luckily this overlapped with the intro of DVD and I knew which format would win, so only have about 20 VHS movies.

Still used them for time-shifting, the whole TIVO thing didn't seem like it was that big of a deal.

Wrong. Not until I got fed up with Comcast and had DISH installed last summer did I realize what I was missing. Haven't played a tape since. Although I did actually hold onto my "Wrath of Khan" Betamax just as a memory of a long, lost format.

 

[Kevin Hewell]

I still have a ton of tapes. There are just some dedicated PBS shows that I wouldn't have otherwise.
Quote:
They said it was developed for South America and some education markets, where VHS won't seem to die.

 

[Walter C]

If it wasn't for TV shows on DVD, I would probably not even know what a DVD is.

I still use VHS to record shows, not nearly as much these days, with Hulu and other sites offering full episodes.

 

[Finn]

i will not part with my VHS of The Death of The Incredible Hulk, with commercials and all.

 

[LarryH]

Originally Posted by Ockeghem Envy.....

I have VHS tapes by the boxload - but now I need a system for storing DVD-R's as well....

 

[Ockeghem]

Larry,

Yeah, it was well worth the wait. My wife and I rented for eighteen years before we bought our first home. We just decided to make the first home we bought one we designed ourselves (our 'dream home'), since we could not find any home on the market that had a library and a music room already in it.

 

[Bob McLaughlin]

Even though I don't have a working VCR in the house, I still have my VHS copies of my daughters' ultrasounds, The Beatles Archives, and about 6 episodes' worth of MTV's 120 Minutes program from the early 90's.

 

[Jon_Are]

Probably my most prized VHS title is The Compleat Beatles

Scott - You've just inspired me to seek out a copy of this. I remember viewing it many years ago and loving it.