The memories of VHS

[Majors]

When anime first came out here, it was all VHS. Store bought or bootleg/dub'd, if you wanted anime, it was VHS. Some purist (read: fanboys) had LD's, but it was too much dough for my ass back then. I still have few shelves of tapes collecting dust, never to be watched again...too much new shit coming out plus so easy to get with the internet.

On a side note, I never got into collecting DVDs after I looked at all the VHS tapes I had plucked money down on.

[Ziggy]

My first VCR was a top loader and it had a wired remote! It had to be about 20" long, 15" deep, and 5 or 6" tall lol. Also, it weighed a ton. I have a pretty big VHS collection, most of my favorite ones I have on DVD. But, if I feel like watching a movie that I haven't bought on DVD yet, I'll watch the VHS no problem.

I still use my VCR a lot, mostly for the program timer recorder. A lot of times I'm at work during the time a show airs that I like to follow. So I'll just record it on VHS, most of my 'blank' VHS tapes have been recorded over 2 or 3 times.

And the thought has crossed my mind that I'll one day tell a new generation about VHS tapes. "Yeah, you had to rewind them!" I wonder if that concept could even be understood by then? And I might find my newest VCR, purchased in 2003, in an antique shop.

[lordofduct]

My first VCR was a top loader and it had a wired remote! It had to be about 20" long, 15" deep, and 5 or 6" tall lol. Also, it weighed a ton. I have a pretty big VHS collection, most of my favorite ones I have on DVD. But, if I feel like watching a movie that I haven't bought on DVD yet, I'll watch the VHS no problem.

I still use my VCR a lot, mostly for the program timer recorder. A lot of times I'm at work during the time a show airs that I like to follow. So I'll just record it on VHS, most of my 'blank' VHS tapes have been recorded over 2 or 3 times.

And the thought has crossed my mind that I'll one day tell a new generation about VHS tapes. "Yeah, you had to rewind them!" I wonder if that concept could even be understood by then? And I might find my newest VCR, purchased in 2003, in an antique shop.

Oh that reminds me... generation gaps. I'm not much older then my youngest sibling, but you can still see in that small gap a progression.

See I was old enough to see the onset of VHS, cassette and CD. My youngest sister was born well after my father purchased his first CD player. But I still grew up with him playing Arlo Guthrie, Elton John, Pink Floyd, etc all on vinyl. After he got his CD Player though he never went back to vinyl except for Thanksgiving and the religious "Alice's Restaraunt" (what is up with that anyway... ugh).

Well one day comes along where I'm on the back porch of my parents house enjoying some drinks and listening to some old vinyls. My little sister has a thing for hip-hop and the sort and we had some old R&B tracks spinning. She caught a tune she really liked and wanted to hear it again and went running to the stereo.

She sat their scratching her head, finally recognized the record was what was creating the sound, then sat there puzzled again examining the device. There was one button... well dial... the speed setting. She spins it this way and that and the singers voice turns chimpmunk and the sort... finally she turns to my step mom and I:

"Hey, where's the rewind button on this damn thing!?"

[Haoie]

When did DVDs really become popular? It can't have been more than 10y ago.

I recall our family didn't get a DVD player until at least 2002 ish. Before then it was always tapes.

[lordofduct]

It was after I graduated I know that much. I was well out of school when I started seeing VHS tapes removed from Blockbuster and the sort.

Can't remember to well though, mostly because it's debatable. What would you consider the point of "popularity"? Drawing lines like that is hard.

Some might say, when Sony released the PS2 and made available an affordable DVD player. Other will say when Blockbuster removed VHS from their shelves. Some might just say when they were first released on the market. Compare it to HD-DVD and Blu-Ray... I don't consider them to be popular yet, but I bet others do. (And God do I hope they rot in fucking hell... the market does not need a surge of more formats!)

[Funk, E]

It's not getting a surge of more formats, seeing as HD-DVD is being phased out.

[Ziggy]

HD DVD is phased out. If you see movies on sale in stores, its just new old stock. They don't make them any more though.

DVD players were affordable well before PS2 came out. I remember around the year 98 or 99 they first started to catch on. I'd say thats when they first started becoming popular. I remember talking to people in school and they'd say some thing like "yeah I have a DVD player. We have 15 DVDs now." Like, WOW! And I think it was 1999 my parents bought the family a DVD player.

Haha, which also reminds me... I try to explain what's up with HD DVD and Blu Ray to people, so I use the comparison to Beta Max and VHS being as its the same exact thing going on. So my friend at work asks me, who is older then me, and didn't know what Beta was!

But about Vinyls, I'd have to say they were past my time technically. When you went into 'The Wall' (music chain, bought out by Coconuts who was bought out by FYE) you could only buy music on tape. Maybe they had a few $40 or $50 CDs that I didn't take note to, but definitely no vinyls. Still, I knew about them because my parents played them all the time. Either that or tapes, then CDs came affordable and popular. I think music tapes disappeared much faster then VHS tapes.

And another point I'd like to make... I actually like vinyls a lot. I'm one of those people that say vinyls sound better then CDs, and it's true. I have a few that I plucked from my Mom's collection, Van Halen, Queen, Boston, Jethro Tull, Led Zep. And then some I was lucky enough to score on my own like Tool, Rage Against The Machine, and Pearl Jam. I really wanna score a Chili Peppers or Incubus Vinyl, but it seems that days are gone of getting a vinyl for cheap.

[RCBH928]

betamax vs vhs = blu-ray vs hd-dvd?

well we know the loser in both, but everyone almost swears betamax was the better technology. So which is the better technology, bluray or hd-dvd?

[The Apprentice]

I remember once during christmas my family sat down to watch It's a Wonderful Life, and when we started it up the quality was horrible and the the picture was jumpy and blurry. My dad drove down to Target to pick up a new copy, and when he got home he tried it out and it turns out our VHS player was busted.

Another time, my family was camping in the woods in a trailer we used to own. Me and my brother caught something and we had a fever. So we took the full-size bed in the front of the trailer while my parents had to sleep on the bunk beds. While we were sitting there we watched Biodome on VHS. The quality of the tape was perfect.

So yeah, before DVD, there was VHS, and it did the job quite nicely. It's not like movies were invented with DVD, quality on VHS was very good in its time.

[Ziggy]

betamax vs vhs = blu-ray vs hd-dvd?

well we know the loser in both, but everyone almost swears betamax was the better technology. So which is the better technology, bluray or hd-dvd?

Blu Ray is better. There's only a few differences, but the biggest one (in my mind) is BD holds more data. And from what I read, Betamax was a better format compared to VHS, but it still lost the format war. The reasons, I forget, but I'm sure you can google it.