So I watched some VHS tapes...

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

Ever heard of bit rot?

Bit rot is bull crap.

Bit rot doesn't happen to PRESSED media such as retail DVD's and CD's unless you've butchered them while handling, or left them in a hot car of humid environment for extended periods.

BURNED media on the other hand is manufactured to a much lower standard and doesn't have nearly as good of an air/watertight seal as pressed media and therefore will suffer from bit rot if exposed to even minimal damage and exposure to an unfit environment. This is where most of the misconceptions about pressed media come from as most people experience bit rot from their burned media and therefore mistakenly think that it applies to pressed media as well.

Laser Rot on the other hand is also where many of these misconceptions come from, Laser Rot can only affect Analog media such as LaserDiscs CDV's and CLV's, but not PRESSED DVD's or CD's.

Well I remember reading at one point manufacturers said something of around a 75 year life span for the average DVD. Maybe I'm wrong in my info but that's what I remember. Compared to the average 25 years for a VHS.

Yeah, it's something like 75 years in a sound household environment, but from what I've seen it can be as high as 300 in a climate controlled room (like the vaults where master copies of films are stored) or 150+ years in a household environment when manufactured to a higher standard than normal.

[crux]

VHS quality can be decent (that's a very big "can"), but to claim it's not clearly inferior to the quality of DVD is just silly. Upscale a DVD and compare to VHS on the same HD television and come back to me. Never mind audio.

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

Not true, older VCR's yes, but any quality Hi-Fi STEREO VCR post 1999 is usually under 2 pounds (unless it's a metal box) and around 1 ft. long, 2-3 in. wide, and 7-9 in. deep.

Wow, didn't know that. Guess I just haven't seen one in a while.

Also the average VHS tape is the exact same size as a DVD case, only about twice as thick.

True, but while the height and width are the same, they still take up twice the shelf space. Maybe a little more if you factor in the VHS case.

Agreed, although I always hated those big awful Disney cases (they generate static, which will degrade the tape faster) the paper slipcases with most tapes didn't take up any more space than just the tape itself.

[scribes1188]

..and the quality doesn't seem any worse than DVD's,

Hell it's not any worse than Blu Ray quality either.

I'm sure film studio's would also sell their new releases for a quarter, if we only had VHS. Also, DVD's have more features, like commentaries, deleted scenes and pepperoni's.

Oh and, you ever had a whole TV series on VHS? Compare a season of your favourite TV show on like 8 VHS tapes, and say umm five DVD's?

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

VHS quality can be decent (that's a very big "can"), but to claim it's not clearly inferior to the quality of DVD is just silly. Upscale a DVD and compare to VHS on the same HD television and come back to me. Never mind audio.

Yup, S-VHS comes close to DVD, but if you want an incredible VHS experience check out D-VHS.

D-VHS was the digital HD version of VHS and stored the info in 1080p and the exact same MP4 format as a Blu-Ray discs.

More info on it here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-VHS

Plus D-VHS is still the only way to see the original Alien movie in HD as it was never released on HD-DVD and still hasn't come out on Blu-Ray.

[Dylan]

Agreed, although I always hated those big awful Disney cases (they generate static, which will degrade the tape faster) the paper slipcases with most tapes didn't take up any more space than just the tape itself.

Ah, maybe that's more what I'm thinking about, considering that no less than 90% of our VHS collection was Disney related.

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

Agreed, although I always hated those big awful Disney cases (they generate static, which will degrade the tape faster) the paper slipcases with most tapes didn't take up any more space than just the tape itself.

Ah, maybe that's more what I'm thinking about, considering that no less than 90% of our VHS collection was Disney related.

Better get to digitizing those tapes!

VHS is still the only way to get all of the weird old drug related/perverted Disney moments from all of their movies as they've all been edited out in all the DVD and Blu-Ray pressings.

[scribes1188]

Plus D-VHS is still the only way to see the original Alien movie in HD as it was never released on HD-DVD and still hasn't come out on Blu-Ray.

Oh that makes it the superior format for now.

[Dylan]

Better get to digitizing those tapes!

VHS is still the only way to get all of the weird old drug related/perverted Disney moments from all of their movies as they've all been edited out in all the DVD and Blu-Ray pressings.

Those tapes are long gone.
But yeah, it's amusing that they cut all that stuff out. Ever since this internet thing was invented I guess information just started moving around faster.

[scribes1188]

Better get to digitizing those tapes!

VHS is still the only way to get all of the weird old drug related/perverted Disney moments from all of their movies as they've all been edited out in all the DVD and Blu-Ray pressings.

As long as the internet is around, those moments shall be safe. On a side note I still have my beta copy of the Little Mermaid complete with the unedited cover.