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That's it for VHS then. . . .

#1
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Saw this today, and thought it might be of interest: VHS era is winding down

Funny, I was just thinking how many films on VHS still haven't seen the light of day in digital yet. Yor, the Hunter from the Future, Cool as Ice, Killdozer, The Town That Dreaded Sundown, Skatetown USA. . . .
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#2
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Re: That's it for VHS then. . . .

And just when Panasonic is releasing a BD player equipped with VHS.
Also it will be upconverted to 1080. Curious to see what these will look like.
Going to be great for folks with kids that have a bajillion Barney VHS tapes.
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#3
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Re: That's it for VHS then. . . .

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kevin Tx
And just when Panasonic is releasing a BD player equipped with VHS.
Also it will be upconverted to 1080. Curious to see what these will look like.
Going to be great for folks with kids that have a bajillion Barney VHS tapes.

A VHS unit that upconverts to 1080?!

That's like 4 times resolution of a VHS video!
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#4
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Re: That's it for VHS then. . . .

There are still many DVD/VHS models available so VHS isn't completely dead yet. Give it a couple more years before those are no longer available.

Chris
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#5
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Re: That's it for VHS then. . . .

I'm still kind of kicking myself in ther rear for not picking up a SVHS machine a few years ago. I was seeing them for about $89-129 back then. The last time I looked, only the DVD/VHS machines were available and the models with tuners are a bit more expensive than that.

I never had too many prerecorded VHS tapes but I sure recorded a lot stuff over the years. I'm just hoping my 11 year old Panasonic VCR holds up for awhile longer.
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#6
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Re: That's it for VHS then. . . .

What is this V H S you talk about?


I was always an LD guy. Never bought a single tape in my life. And i swear, i have not seen any NEW pre-recored tapes in YEARS!
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#7
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Re: That's it for VHS then. . . .

I'm not bothered, I was a Betamax person, forced to buy VHS.
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#8
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Re: That's it for VHS then. . . .

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kevin Tx
And just when Panasonic is releasing a BD player equipped with VHS.
Also it will be upconverted to 1080. Curious to see what these will look like.
Shit, presumably. But shit in 1080p.
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#9
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Re: That's it for VHS then. . . .

That's an interesting article. Thanks for the link.

I think from a cost standpoint that this could be good news for people like me, who use VHS regularly, and for those such as myself who use tapes for research and entertainment purposes. For example, I have complete runs of television series that I refer to regularly, as I'm writing a book, parts of which need to have information from a couple of series corroborated. These shows are not yet on DVD, and frankly, I'm not sure they ever will be, or at least not in the near future.

I'm hoping that those who see no use for VHS tapes whatsoever will unload their tapes at a substantially lower price than if it were still 'popular.' I particularly liked this line from the article: “Anything left in warehouse we'll just give away or throw away." I have the space for thousands of tapes, and would take several hundreds, if not thousands, of these in a heartbeat if I liked the titles and could use those that were available.

As for the VHS players, I saved my link for the DVD/VHS region-free players; I will be picking up another two of these units within the next six months as backups for the one I now have (and really like). The link also includes multi-region Blu ray DVD players, code-free DVD recorders, code-free DVD/VCR combos, and code-free Home Theater systems, among other interesting units.

Here is the link, if anyone is interested in any of these players:

Code Free DVD player, Region Free DVD players and Multi Region DVD Players, reviews, jvc, sony dvd players
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#10
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Re: That's it for VHS then. . . .

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ockeghem
That's an interesting article. Thanks for the link.

I think from a cost standpoint that this could be good news for people like me, who use VHS regularly, and for those such as myself who use tapes for research and entertainment purposes. For example, I have complete runs of television series that I refer to regularly, as I'm writing a book, parts of which need to have information from a couple of series corroborated. These shows are not yet on DVD, and frankly, I'm not sure they ever will be, or at least not in the near future.

I'm hoping that those who see no use for VHS tapes whatsoever will unload their tapes at a substantially lower price than if it were still 'popular.' I particularly liked this line from the article: “Anything left in warehouse we'll just give away or throw away." I have the space for thousands of tapes, and would take several hundreds, if not thousands, of these in a heartbeat if I liked the titles and could use those that were available.

As for the VHS players, I saved my link for the DVD/VHS region-free players; I will be picking up another two of these units within the next six months as backups for the one I now have (and really like). The link also includes multi-region Blu ray DVD players, code-free DVD recorders, code-free DVD/VCR combos, and code-free Home Theater systems, among other interesting units.

Here is the link, if anyone is interested in any of these players:

Code Free DVD player, Region Free DVD players and Multi Region DVD Players, reviews, jvc, sony dvd players

Scott, (or is it Pulitzer Prize Winner )

Best wishes for your future book-in-progress!

That sounds like it could be a bonanza of rare tapes to grab (unloading warehouse VHS inventory).

As for VHS, mostly like Rick, I was an early LD buyer but I did buy a very few studio VHS tapes...not many though. By that time, LD came on the scene and then followed the "history changing" format with DVD No Blu-Ray for me yet...waiting for the format to get more time to release more of the older titles but I'm not in a hurry to enter the market since I have an R-Free Upconvert player.

Thanks for the link to that R-Free store (220 Elect). I've used that one previously. Here's another link for those that may want to compare stores. I linked it to the "VCR" page here . I bought my most recent Std Upconvert DVD Player from this store as I preferred their Cust Svc communications a little better than the previous outlet. The guy that traded a few e-mails to me was a good source of info for some "tech" stuff regarding the internal PAL/NTSC Converters, etc.

"Checkmate King Two Out"   Jeff Willis  "Combat! A Selmur Production"

I'm a 50's - mid-90's TV/DVD Collector. One DVD show since '96: Firefly 

The Fugitive/See Hollywood & Die: [Miles] "What, you think I'm crazy?!" [Kimble] "Next question."

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#11
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Re: That's it for VHS then. . . .

Jeff,

Thanks so much for the well-wishes. It's much appreciated.

I'm going to keep my eyes and ears open for potential inventories being emptied out. It does sound like there could eventually be some gold mines out there.

I don't have much use for Blu-Ray, at least not now. I'm perfectly satisfied with DVDs and VHS tapes. That being said, if I ever were to purchase anything in Blu-Ray, it would no doubt be Star Trek as a test case. I've often done that: my first VHS tape and DVD were Trek.
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#12
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Re: That's it for VHS then. . . .

Quote:
Originally Posted by Scott
Thanks so much for the well-wishes. It's much appreciated.

You're welcome! If I had that talent, I might have written a book as well as Jo Davidsmeyer's "Combat! A viewer's Companion" (Combat's one of my TV/DVD "Grail" releases).

Quote:
Originally Posted by Scott
I don't have much use for Blu-Ray, at least not now. I'm perfectly satisfied with DVDs and VHS tapes. That being said, if I ever were to purchase anything in Blu-Ray, it would no doubt be Star Trek as a test case. I've often done that: my first VHS tape and DVD were Trek.

Good example, Star Trek TOS. I finally got the remastered Std DVD series sets for Christmas '07. I waited for "Santa" to give me that one
I know BR blows away Std DVD but for now, I'm the same. Watching those remastered TOS shows upconverted is

"Checkmate King Two Out"   Jeff Willis  "Combat! A Selmur Production"

I'm a 50's - mid-90's TV/DVD Collector. One DVD show since '96: Firefly 

The Fugitive/See Hollywood & Die: [Miles] "What, you think I'm crazy?!" [Kimble] "Next question."

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#13
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Re: That's it for VHS then. . . .

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeff Willis
You're welcome! If I had that talent, I might have written a book as well as Jo Davidsmeyer's "Combat! A viewer's Companion" (Combat's one of my TV/DVD "Grail" releases).
Jeff,

I used to watch Combat with my father. I loved Rick Jason and Vic Morrow. What a gritty, realistic show.
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#14
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Re: That's it for VHS then. . . .

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeff Willis
As for VHS, mostly like Rick, I was an early LD buyer but I did buy a very few studio VHS tapes...not many though. By that time, LD came on the scene and then followed the "history changing" format with DVD No Blu-Ray for me yet...waiting for the format to get more time to release more of the older titles but I'm not in a hurry to enter the market since I have an R-Free Upconvert player.

I didnt buy many tapes back in the day (aside from a full run of Star Blazers on VHS - and boy did that cost a pretty penny), but I've been picking up more and more in the last year or so. Really hard to find stuff, stuff that's not likely to see commercial release for a long while (if ever) like Yor, Hunter from the Future, and I've been mastering them to DVD.

So yes, VHS still has it's place. I might have to see about contacting these guys and seeing if they have anything good, or is it a warehouse full of "Phantom Menace" and "Titanic".
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#15
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Re: That's it for VHS then. . . .

I own about 20 VHS movies, only started buying them when they finally began showing up "letterboxed", but once I realized DVD was on its way, no more. Probably haven't bought or rented one in over ten years.

I can't even watch the VHS movies I have now, the quality is horrendous. Many of them are still shrinkwrapped and they will probably stay that way until I unload them in a yard sale or somewhere else.

The only decent ones are ten that I own from the Fox Widescreen Series in the copper colored boxes. They actually had some "extras" along with the movie. Most of these I've replaced with double or triple dips as newer, better DVD versions came out.

Stan

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#16
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Re: That's it for VHS then. . . .

At the end of the article, the guy states that DVD will be obsolete in three to four years...I find that hard to believe, particularly for fans of older films.

Anyway, I'm still holding on to my VHS copies of the Universal monster movies of the 30s and 40s that were released back in 91-94. I would love it if one day Universal would replicate that great cover art for future DVD and Blu-Ray releases.
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