In praise of VHS! (1 Viewer)

[Jerome Grate]

I'll join the praise a bit, flexible recording medium, perfect for time shifting. S-VHS step way above VHS, and D-VHS, according to Gregg Loewen, can make standard DVD look like VHS (figuratively). D-VHS records High Def signal with 20+gigabytes of recording space. Right now if D-VHS was affordable (in the 500.00 range) and Hi Def more available, who knows where it would be. VHS is so far the only medium that can brag about the fact that over 80% of the homes can lay claim to a VCR.

The sound of the trailer on LotR on the Blow VHS [my sister rented it], blows [yeah, I know!] away the sound of

the trailer on Total DVD.

I agree with that, I still enjoy the great sounds of the Indy trilogy on widescreen VHS. The right VCR I think will give you cd quality sound or darn near close to it. I know if hooked my DBX (broken) to the vcr, I wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Until we get that Sony machine, with 23 gigabytes of recording memory, and IEEE connection, with an affordable price, VHS is slated to be here for a longer time than some you may want.

 

[Brian Kidd]

Wow, I can't believe this thread got resurrected! Somebody had time on their hands.

Just to add to the topic at hand, I recently moved to a new house and set up my (meager) home theater in the basement. As I was moving my collection of stuff in, I came across videotapes of things that either, a) aren't out on DVD yet, or b) are out, but I can't afford to add to my collection yet. I popped in a tape and after a bit, forgot about the fuzzy picture and just enjoyed the movie. I guess the point is, I know it's outdated and flawed technology but I'll never forget my Dad bringing home our first vcr and finally being able to watch great movies in my home. VHS is dead, but it did its job well.

 

[BradG]

Adding my 2 cents in, I find I still have a place in my house for a few VCR's, in addition to my laserdisc player and DVD players.

In fact, I consider my laserdisc player even more obsolete than the VCR's with the availablity of DVD's. You have a very hard time getting laserdiscs now, but you could still get VHS tapes.

VHS is great to tape children's programming off the TV for whenever my 20 month old daughter wants to watch something. Buying VHS tapes is the next best option, followed by buying DVD's - who needs to pay that much for a DVD of this sort when the VHS tape is cheaper or you could tape it off of TV. I would rather my daughter mess around with video tapes than DVD's - the quality is not as good, but it doesn't need to be.

Also, there are still tons of movies not out on DVD, and many of those will likely never be put in that format. I can always manually put them in that format, but I wouldn't even have them if not for the VHS format.

 

[Lou Sytsma]

I agree that VHS allowed movie viewing to take place in the home. Everyone remember getting their first hifi VCR and hooking it up your stereo? The difference was dramatic.

OTOH videotape has also led to the perpetutation of MAR'red presentation of movies. As the more casual movie viewers migrate to DVD they have been conditioned to watch pan and scan.

So it's place in HT is a double edged sword.

 

[Jerome Grate]

OTOH videotape has also led to the perpetutation of MAR'red presentation of movies

Definetly one of the pitfalls of VHS, in this DVD age. My wife wanted a DVD player for the bedroom, but now with the combo units, it's even more attractive for her because she can still get the kiddie stuff on DVD and play the recorded VHS and S-VHS movies from satellite. I think I'll start a new thread, what was you're first Hi-Fi VCR.

 

[DeathStar1]

>>Two words: giant dominoes. [/i]>>
Two Words: Stress Releif . In the are instance that a DVD will fail, and your out 40$'s for a new 2 Disc set, smash that old tape around and watch the tape fly ...
>>I think I'll start a new thread, what was you're first Hi-Fi VCR.>>
1996. A GE 4 Head, Hi-Fi VCR. The Picture quality of our local stations was not improved by much, but the sound was ten fold. I still had it up to a week or two ago, when I finally ditched it for chewing up one tape two many.

 

[Matt Heebner]

The reasons some of you are giving "props" to VHS (bringing the 'theater' to you at home) is sorta the same reasons I hate VHS. True that VHS may have paved the way to what is now a pretty popular hobby, it also was "modified to fit your TV". I would have to say that it's because of VHS, the fight for OAR, the pan-n-scan/wide-screen dual releases, people not understanding about letter-boxing and OAR.

HAd VHS done it right 20 years ago with true OAR releases, we would not have to fight and educate people about "not wanting to see those black bars".

So while VHS was directly or indirectly responsible for the home theaters of today, it also was responsible for the studios wanting to pander to the "Joe Six-pack", and the ever enduring fight for OAR!

Matt

 

[Barb Jarvis]

VHS still meets more needs for my family and friends than DVD does. Why? Many of them are blind or deaf. How many DVDs do you know of that have audio tracks for the blind? The OOP T2 is the only one I've come across. VHS tapes with SAP audio blind tracks can be found. Also there are a few cable channels that offer blind audio SAP tracks that can be recorded. Most TV is close captioned and VHS releases. Unfortunately, CC wears out on VHS after a few dozen plays. Major studios are pretty good with CC on DVD. But many studios either CC or sub DVDs, not both. And most of the sub work, frankly, sucks. Dialogue gets clipped and meaning altered. Short replys are often not subbed at all. The real pity is, the DVD format can offer alternative audio tracks, like blind audio, and CC and proper subs. But doesn't. Till then, VHS will still rule with my family.

 

[Garrett Lundy]

I think I'll start a new thread, what was you're first Hi-Fi VCR.

Hmm... A JVC S-VHS VCR. I'm not sure of the model. I bought it about the same time that I bought my new JVC television (Some time last year).
I already had a DVD player by then (am on my second one now)but needed a VCR to play movies that weren't available on DVD, such as Panther Productions
Nihon Goshin Eijin-Ryu Iaido train at home martial arts tapes. Yes, it sounds dumb. but it's fun.
Also my family was far too poor to buy a LD player. I didn't even know what one was until about 1994 (This fact alone should describe the home-entertainment wasteland that is Carthage, NY). But they were hella-expensive and I wasn't about to trade a single tape for a disc I had to flip over halfway through a movie.
But VHS allowed me to see some of my favorite films that I couldn't in the theater (Robocop, Conan the Barbarian), and still can't find on DVD with a decent transfer (Ikiru).
Without VHS I wouldn't love movies (never being able to see them), and as much as they've been out-done by DVD, I must admit that they did their job: Allowing people in crappy towns with no cinemas to see movies on a very small budget.

 

[Mattias_ka]

True that VHS may have paved the way to what is now a pretty popular hobby, it also was "modified to fit your TV". I would have to say that it's because of VHS, the fight for OAR, the pan-n-scan/wide-screen dual releases, people not understanding about letter-boxing and OAR.

HAd VHS done it right 20 years ago with true OAR releases, we would not have to fight and educate people about "not wanting to see those black bars".

Well, this is a USA thing because most of the early 80's VHS tapes in Sweden, and many other country's here in Europe had widescreen on their tapes. I think that's one reason why there are so little trouble getting people buy 16:9 now.

If I'm not mistaken, where there not a law before in USA that said the tv-station and VHS must cover up the entire screen??

 

[Augustin Rodriguez]

When I think about what is to come, it makes me sad. In 10 years we'll be bashing DVD and complaining about how old and dull it is. I love the format of DVD and for that reason I am afraid of anything new to come.

Sure, HD-DVD will be great, but at what price? $50-60 for one movie, maybe more for special editions. I am a big proponent of technology but boy does it cost money. I only hope that when a new technology hits the street we can all be humble about what has been left behind.

VHS was the format of the 80's, LD of the 90's, and now DVD of 2000. I'll bet my house we'll all be singing a different tune come 2010, and it won't be HD-DVD. Something better is always out there or being developed.

This is our plight as home theater enthusiasts.

 

[Brian Kidd]

I must refute the assumption that VHS led to MAR presentations. Not so. Television led to MAR presentation.

I'm not trying to say that VHS is great shakes when compared to newer technology. I'm just saying that it was groundbreaking and led to a major cultural change all over the civilized world. It gave old films new life. It allowed movie fans to watch and rewatch their favorite films. It gave Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen careers. God bless it.

 

[Qui-Gon John]

Time-Shifting and Commercial Skipping are the 2 best things about VHS for me, these days. Still, I have some movies that I like on VHS, but do not like enough to buy the DVD (or the DVD is not available).

 

[Ted Todorov]

I'm not trying to say that VHS is great shakes when compared to newer technology. I'm just saying that it was groundbreaking and led to a major cultural change all over the civilized world. It gave old films new life.

VHS tape was the worst thing that ever happened to old films. VHS did more to destroy a flourishing revival movie theater culture than anything else, indeed I would submit that it did it single handedly.

Before VHS, in Manhattan alone there were at least 10!!! revival theaters, each showing a new double feature daily: The Bleeker St. Cinema, The Thalia, The Cinema Village, Theater 80 St. Marks, The Metro, The Regency, The Carnegie Hall Cinema (which had live organ music on weekends between features), The 8th St. Playhouse, a two auditorium theater on 8th ave. & 48th St. whose name escapes me, but I saw a ton of Fellini movies there and one in the Gramercy Park/Murray Hill area.

VHS, to me, is pure unmitigated evil. It destroyed the joy of being able to see a classic in a real theater, any day of the week, and having a choice of 20 different old films each day.

What did we get in the place of these great movie houses? The opportunity to watch a lousy quality, Pan & Scan tape on a 19" TV. Thanks, but no thanks.

Personally, I never owned a TV before the advent of DVD, much less a VCR. VHS is this film buff's worst nightmare. Die, VHS, die!!!

Ted

 

[Timothy Alexander]

VHS is this film buff's worst nightmare. Die, VHS, die!!!

Before joining this place, I never knew people out there even had that much anymosity towards just one product. I still don't get it to this day.

Yes, DVD is amazing and destroys VHS in every category but to me it still is an important machine.

Where else can I go back to watching old television shows and Saturday morning cartoons that I recorded waaaayyyy back in 1985 and still be in general OK quality without anything cut?

Where else can I go watch old home movies of my childhood, of my family, and of my friends?

VHS has done alot of things for me in my lifetime so I owe it all of the respect I can give out.

 

[Jean-Michel]

VHS tape was the worst thing that ever happened to old films. VHS did more to destroy a flourishing revival movie theater culture than anything else, indeed I would submit that it did it single handedly.

But wouldn't the same thing have happened if we lived in a magical fantasy land where VHS never existed and we skipped straight ahead to DVD?
I'm probably just speaking for myself here, but I'd rather watch a crappy VHS than see a film at a revival house with the uber-pretentious super-geeks I despise with ever fiber of my being. I'm not saying every revival house patron is like that, just all the ones I'm personally familiar with.
And don't take this the wrong way, but your post reminded me of something I read at a favorite website of mine (that is unfortunately out of commission for the time being):
The only compulsion stronger than the one that drives people who don't watch TV to tell you about it every few minutes is the mysterious force that compels people who live in New York City to mention that as often as possible.
Somehow you managed to do both in the same post. You deserve some kind of prize.

 

[Steve Christou]

Hey, whoa! Don't knock vhs, some of us wouldn't have started on this never-ending movie collecting mania if it wasn't for vhs, and not forgetting collecting tv shows, documentaries, old glitchy home movies, dusty old porn tapes and so on.
I still have hundreds of documentaries on tape collected over a 20 year period many of these documentaries will prob never appear on dvd, over a thousand tv episodes and hundreds of old movies that are still not available on dvd.
When DVD recording becomes more affordable I will transfer many of these to the more permanent and reliable digital format, but until than...
But also with over 330 dvds in just 3 years I'm replacing my old favorites quite fast.
ps. Some of the posts on this thread border on childish hatred for vhs, and probably some of you are too young to even have ever bought a vhs tape, well all I can do is shrug, roll my eyes and move on to the next thread, to each his own.

 

[Brian Kidd]

In a perfect world, every town in the world would have a nice revival house where we could view our favorite films in all their silver screen glory. It's not a perfect world. I grew up in the mountains of West Virginia. The nearest movie theater period was fifteen miles away across a winding mountain road. Until vcr's became prevalent in the 1980's, I missed out on tons of great movies. Our first video store opened somewhere around 1982. You could rent new tapes for $6 and older ones for $3.50. It was then that my eyes were opened.

I'm very sorry, now that I live in a semi-large city (Cincinnati) that we don't have a revival house to go to. I'm really glad that I had my vcr growing up.

 

[Ted Todorov]

Quote:

For the record, I will be 40 years old in two months and was a film buff before the advent of the Betamax. And I think my hatred for VHS is perfectly well reasoned.
Ted

 

[Steve Christou]

Steve not available for commenting I'm afraid, he too busy admiring ancient vhs artifacts, please leave message when you hear beeping sound, thank you.