The Rise & Fall of VHS

People nowadays buy, collect & watch movies on DVD & Blu-ray.
But I still happen to own a vast collection of VHS cassette tapes.
I even own just about every Walt Disney animated movie on imported Japanese VHS tapes.
I also bought "Nightmare", the video board game that was reviewed on Spoony's website.
I even record my favorite TV shows on my VCR with blank VHS tapes from my local dollar store.
However, every dollar store in my hometown informed me that they are indefinitely stopping sales of black VHS tapes simply because "it's getting old".
Every video rental store in my town have been shut down.
The only place where I can still rent VHS movies is at my local library.
Sometimes I feel like we are now entering the twilight of the VHS era.
Thankfully, my local thrift store is selling all of their used VHS movies for 25 for $1.
I will always treat my VHS collection as relics of the past.
Be kind, rewind & watch again.

I think I should also get into VHS collecting before they're all gone. I mean I would assume most people nowadays just throw them away or sell them for next to nothing at trift stores and ebay?

I own some VHS's, mostly "inherited" from parents. One of them is a cool Lethal Weapon trilogy box set, which I routinely watch every year I also have the original Star Wars trilogy recorded from TV way back in the early 90's. Doesn't play so well anymore unfortunately

Dang, you can still get blank tapes? I have a working vcr and I use it quite a lot. Our library quit the VHS a while ago but there's still plenty around at the thrift stores - and I could get quite a few at my local Mr. Movies when I had a membership there.
I like my DVD format too (no tracking adjustment LOL); I'm on the fence when it comes to streaming - I don't have the greatest Internet connection or very big or high-end computer screens (I have a medium laptop and a little Nook reader) so it really lessens the experience - but at the same time it gives me access to so much more. I live in the middle of nowhere and there's a LOT of movies I wouldn't get to see w/out Internet. But I'll be sad when the day comes that I can't play a tape anymore   

Otaku4Life wrote:

Sometimes I feel like we are now entering the twilight of the VHS era.
.

The twilight of the VHS era was 8-10 years ago. Now I think it's pretty much the post apocalypse already. Like it or not   

perkele wrote:

Otaku4Life wrote:

Sometimes I feel like we are now entering the twilight of the VHS era.
.

The twilight of the VHS era was 8-10 years ago. Now I think it's pretty much the post apocalypse already. Like it or not   

Yeah, I think we're already in the DVD-era twilight, which is kind of depressing.

i hate VHS, because i dunno how many of them i've watched that gotten worn out. do i still buy them you ask? once in a blue moon. when i know it's NOT on dvd & i know it's a rare ass film. i still have plenty of VHS tapes.

a LOT of it has to do with letterboxing, what i used to hate before dvd & Blu-ray came out was if i wanted to watch say Mad World for example i'd have to watch it on TCM to see it letterboxed. just to name a movie. i hate watching films full screen & yes certain films got the wide screen treatment on VHS, but NOT all films did.

certain films just make me dizzy cause of what it's shot in. the prisoner of 2nd avenue. the classic (1975) film with Jack Lemmon. that's shot in panavision. and watching Jack Lemmon walk back & forth across the screen in full screen and seeing it turn into a blur. made me dizzy cause the camera had to rush to catch who is on screen.
you don't have to worry about that if it's in letterboxed. there are some films you see on VHS like say the SAW series for example where that's shot in i think 1:85 & that's a film series where it really doesn't matter what the fuck it's shot in, you won't miss anything no matter if it's in full screen or not.

that's why i hate VHS. even as a kid. plus i dunno how many broke on me as well

wildhoney66 wrote:

i hate VHS, because i dunno how many of them i've watched that gotten worn out. do i still buy them you ask? once in a blue moon. when i know it's NOT on dvd  & i know it's a rare ass film. i still have plenty of VHS tapes.

a LOT of it has to do with letterboxing, what i used to hate before dvd & Blu-ray came out was if i wanted to watch say Mad World for example i'd have to watch it on TCM to see it letterboxed. just to name a movie. i hate watching films full screen & yes certain films got the wide screen treatment on VHS, but NOT all films did.

Y'know it's funny, because that letterbox/widescreen formatting is one of the huge advantages DVD/BR has over VHS, and yet, when I was working as a video store clerk that was the #1 thing customers complained about. "Bwah! I don't want those black bars on my tv! Why don't you have this in Full Screen!" Some of them would even try to argue that the widescreen cut off the picture and not the other way around. I don't miss that job.

perkele wrote:

Otaku4Life wrote:

Sometimes I feel like we are now entering the twilight of the VHS era.
.

The twilight of the VHS era was 8-10 years ago. Now I think it's pretty much the post apocalypse already. Like it or not   

We're totally experiencing a nostalgic revival, though. There have been three documentary films and several books about VHS released in the last couple years and there's been an influx of independent horror films being shot on VHS (yes, I'll count 'Shot on Shitteo' but NOT 'V/H/S'). New films are actually being officially released on VHS, from relatively major releases like the 'Maniac' remake to cult re-releases like 'The Toxic Avenger'. Heck, my local revival theater has been screening shot-on-VHS films, and the Chester N. Turner double feature was sold out! It still may not control the market, but the cult audience for VHS is still as big as ever, if not bigger.

I don't necessarily collect VHS, though I do have plenty of them. I don't think people realize just how many hundreds and hundreds of videos have yet to be and likely will never be released on DVD yet. Wasn't the number roughly about 50% of all VHS releases a few years ago?

actually i do realize that which is why i only buy them when i know they aren't on dvd or blu-ray. for example about 10 years ago a video store well bookseller went out of buisness i prolly spent over $1,000 bucks or more on books & VHS tapes. Summer School Teachers? the 1st one i bought on VHS it wasn't on anything else than. a shit load of Roger Corman films that either are on dvd now, or are out of print on dvd. the 1st Dark Shadows Film the (1970) film version. yes it's on blu-ray now but it wasn't than. the keeper a (1976) low budget film with Christopher Lee that my guess will NEVER be put out on anything else. mainly cause if you watch it on prolly you tube. you will see it's not one of his best films. or is it one of his most famous ones. it's a really forgotten film honestly. that was shot in i think Canada? & they were told not to shoot it i think the story goes & the union i think wouldn't allow it or something,

anyways that's a film that i think got lucky to be released on VHS, some of the story i said i may have gotten some or all the info wrong. i can't remember what the story went with that film. it was a film where i don't think anyone got paid actually cause they said fuck them & made the film anyways.

as for people who refuse to admit that letterboxing is better fuck them when i was in 7th grade i think. my brother was a freshman in college. i'll be 36 this year he just turned 40 in Jan. he took a film class & he brought home this book about films & the difference in ratio's. he still loves film but since he's got a family now & work he doesn't always get a chance to watch anything. anyways, he taught me

what the ratio's are, that letterboxing is better. and why. and i soaked it up like a sponge. i never really thought about it before, unless you watched an Indy movie where the start of it would be letterboxed than the credits would end & you'd have full screen & that woud drive me nuts cause i was able to see the whole picture,

though for many years i never put 2 & 2 together on how that's how it SHOULD look. anyways, i've been hooked ever since, my parents are a bit different. my dad doesn't understand the difference, nor does he give a shit either. he's not a person who hates it or loves it, he'll watch a film no matter if it's letterboxed or not. he just doesn't give a shit. my mom understands it better. sometimes her mood is

she gets it & seeks it out if she can find it. but sometimes she doesn't give a fuck either. as for me i hated the bars for a long time too. but at some point i stopped paying attention to them and started to enjoy the flix.

or tried to if it was a shitty film. what's funny as hell is that tv shows are now letterboxed! and though i think it's pretty fucking stupid to do that to a tv show. i find it funny as hell that people if they have the right tv & buy it on whatever format are forced to watch it that way. i love the fact that on blu-ray you only have 1 format. on dvd, it doesn't bother me if you have a disc that has both options to watch it to your preference. the only thing i don't like is when they sell them separate and it's a film you want to buy or see. and the only

version they have is the full screen version. my mom tries to go for the letterboxing version when renting films.
but they don't always have that option. if she gets a dvd. we still have family video but we don't go there. there's not around here. our drug mart still rents videos though. sorry for the ramblings on here folks he he

Alyxx wrote:

I am an absolute VHS whore. I love watching 80's movies in particular on VHS. Just feels more appropriate than cleaning them up for BluRay. Though some movies like Blade Runner admittedly look better on BluRay there is something about VHS you can't replicate on digital media. It feels more alive.

It's a warmer and more organic picture. I equate it precisely with people who prefer to listen to vinyl over CD.

Provided, with me, I prefer to watch pretty much only pre-'90s horror and exploitation on VHS. Films like 'The Toxic Avenger' or 'Street Trash' just weren't intended to be seen in 1080p.

that's fine if you folks prefer it that way. and while i don't think they need to clean up say the wizard of oz 66 more times and release it. i do enjoy watching my clean version compared to my (1989) 50th Anniverary Edition where the quality is pure shit. on how i got into my love of films. my grandmother used to rent them and tape them for herself. and though she's sadly been gone for 20 years now. i do have some of the videos she had. my uncles got the rest. anyways, my point is i go back and watch those and i get blinded by the damn guard that flashes on & off while trying to watch this or that film. it looks even worse now on the more updated tv's than it did back than. and when you are watching some films like a Charles Band film on VHS that's not so bad.

cause most of his films aren't shot in 2:35 though a few are. but looking at puppet master 1 & 2 on blu-ray they are beautiful to look at. my point is i love it when they clean up a movie and i think it can look better than a VHS
copy. but i also think that for certain films there is such a thing as TOO clean.

for example on how good a picture can look. i have the film M.A.S.H. on dvd i'm talking about the (2002) edition when it i think 1st hit dvd. and they had remastered it for dvd back than. and if you look at the back of the dvd and even on the dvd itself there's a special on what was changed and why.

i've never really been into troma. but i do like Toxie. and Lloyd Kaufman does make me laugh

fair enough. there are movies i've seen on VHS that the transfer is soo shitty that it NEEDS cleaned up in order to watch it. i love it when they clean a movie up don't get me wrong. but what really pisses me off is when you read a review of it and you see about 4,000 people complain about certain parts of it that they missed. i'm not that picky when it comes to cleaning a movie up. sometimes the transfer they use certain parts of it can't be cleaned.
a good example is the dark shadows tv series. they cleaned that up for the dvd. i have no idea if they did it for the VHS. but there are some episodes where the sound is shit and the picture is too. but they put a warning on the episode guide in the 1st editions dvd's. i don't think the current versions have the episode guide? anyways

in it, it has them apologizing for the shitty picture. using my own words of course. and they used the original master tapes and if they had cleaned those episodes up it would have needed stuff taken out and you would have lost possible dialog and or scenes. and in that case i think they are being honest. so i'm ok with the shitty looking pictures and shitty sound if that means we have the entire episode. i used to have that entire show on VHS that i taped of Sci-fi Channel well when it was still a good channel that is! and i wore the tapes out and had to throw them out. but what i find really interesting is when i watch those on VHS cause i still have some of them let.
and than watch the same episode on the MPI dvd''s. the picture on the ones that they were able to clean look and sound soo much better than the VHS ever did. and that's the kind of thing i love.