The VHS Thread

[minor muppetz]

I thought I'd start a thread about VHS tapes.

It seems like early VHS releases were more collector-friendly. For example, it seems like until the early 1990s video releases of classic animated shorts had more of the best-known shorts, while afterwards they seemed to be aimed more at kids, with more random/odd choices, or more double-dipping. Though oddly enough, it seems like the first major video releases of WB and Disney shorts (The Looney Tunes Video Show and whatever the first collection of Disney videos was... forget the series title) had more random shorts, and their respective second collections of shorts (The Looney Tunes Golden Jubilee and Disney's Limited Gold Collection) had the more important a and b-list shorts.

When did videos start having previews? Seems many early releases didn't, or had previews after the programs ended. Seems many of the Looney Tunes releases ended with a listing of other Looney Tunes videos, as opposed to any kinds of previews.

Most releases came in either clamshell or cardboard boxes. It seems like some early VHS releases came in big cardboard boxes, which opened from the front. I've also some releases where the front cover opened, like a flap, but the videos still came out from the bottom. I've seen this on some of the Spot videos from the 1990s. Was this also common on videos from Playhouse Video? I know it occured on the Muppet videos, and lately I've been wondering if Playhouse did that for most releases. I recently went to a flea market and inspected boxes for any Playhouse Videos the flea market had, and while most releases were in normal boxes, I could tell that Playhouse Video's releases of Fairie Tale Theater videos had opening flaps as well (for some reas there was tape on the flaps).

Seems like many early video releases that had previews only had previews for related content, if the videos were for a franchise. The Muppet videos from Playhouse Video only had a promo for those videos, and Playhouse Video's collection of Dr. Seuss specials only had a promo for video releases of other Dr. Seuss specials... and for some reason I'm thinking some of those releases had the promo after the program, others didn't.

Another example would come if you compare the Jim Henson Video releases with the Jim Henson Home Entertainment releases. Most of the Jim Henson Video releases only had previews for other Henson releases (some exceptions include MCC, MCT, and the sing-along videos, but those pretty much only had one non-Muppet promo each... though the last JHV release, Muppet Treasure Island, only had promos for Disney videos), while the Jim Henson Home Entertainment releases had just as many non-Henson videos as Henson videos, and too many promos at that.

 

[CensoredAlso]

I recently found two older VHS's at my library's book & video sale with some interesting features I'd never seen before. The VHS tapes seem to be copyrighted 1980 and 1982 (the films themselves are both from the '70s).

One of VHS boxes has a small window slit near the bottom to showcase the tape reel inside. Also, on the tape itself, the top part that flips out is grey instead of black, presumably to highlight the words "Insert this side into recorder Do not touch the tape inside". Also the tape itself is quite heavy, much different from other VHS's I have.

The other is a VHS box that initally seems unusually large for a VHS. The tape slides out from the side instead of the bottom and is seated in yet another box. This box is open on the top but has a sort of binding at the end with the words "VHS" at the bottom. When you put the two boxes back together, you can see the "VHS" label from inside a small window slit on the outside box.

 

[D'Snowth]

Also the tape itself is quite heavy, much different from other VHS's I have.

Is it a BetaMax? I think it was like the VHS of it's time before the actual VHS tapes quickly phased it out.

I really have a love/hate thing going on with VHS tapes, and for two reasons.

1. You get these two choices: either you can record content in pretty much superior quality, but get less content; or, you can record content in poor quality, but get more of it. The poor quality wasn't always quite necessarily so, so I could actually live without it... I seldom recorded anything in SP mode, almost always in EP/SLP mode... another "problem" I had too, was that when you pause tapes that were recorded in SP, half of the paused picture was snowy, but you didn't have that problem with EP/SLP. With older VCRs, that is. Newer VCRs, and VCR/DVD player combos seem to hate pausing VHS tapes altogether, irregardless what format you recorded.

2. VHS tapes can be VERY unpredictable, as far as their lifespans are concerned. I've always tried to take very good care of my VHS tapes, but the problem is, some seem to "age" quicker than others, and for seemingly no reason whatsoever... for example, I have tapes that are roughly 2-3 years old that have deteriorated rather quickly (my current VCR/DVD recorder HATES them), whereas sometimes I have that are maybe 10 years or older seem to have better playback quality. Of course, sometimes too, the playback itself can be effected by the VCR's performance at the time of the initial recording. The 2-3-year-old tapes I mentioned were recorded on a VCR that was really wore out, and basically was nothing more than a hunk of junk at that time, so that's probably why the playback is rather poor, because the recording was poor.

 

[CensoredAlso]

Is it a BetaMax? I think it was like the VHS of it's time before the actual VHS tapes quickly phased it out.

Nope definitely not a BETA; I've seen those several times at work. Plus this tape says VHS all over the box and plays in my VCR.

 

[minor muppetz]

Every Beta tape I've seen (and I haven't seen many in person)has come in a small box.

I've seen a series of videos at www.thatguywiththeglasses.com called The Big Box, hosted by Brad Jone of "The Cinema Snob" fame. In addition to reviewing movies, most of the talk about the video companies that released them, as well as sometimes showing the big boxes they came in. A review of A Christmas Story shows a very early copy of the video, showing that the box was big, the front of the box opened, and the other side provided some production information (supposedly many early MGM releases did this).

 

[CensoredAlso]

What I liked about VHS's was you could buy an individual tape with say, two episodes of your favorite old TV show for a reasonable price. And then later buy another tape if you wanted. Not like today where you're required to buy giant DVD box sets that are $50, $60!

 

[mr3urious]

Early VHS tapes also had this faint DTMF sound (sounds like a phone dialing) at the beginning for some reason.

 

[Sgt Floyd]

I cant tell you how many tapes have been eaten by my VCR. Most of them were actual movies, not ones we recorded

 

[Drtooth]

What I liked about VHS's was you could buy an individual tape with say, two episodes of your favorite old TV show for a reasonable price. And then later buy another tape if you wanted. Not like today where you're required to buy giant DVD box sets that are $50, $60!

That's exactly the opposite for me. Remember, 2 episodes cost 10 bucks. At least. 50 and 60 bucks could cover well over 100 episodes in some cases. Some company got the rights to re-release He-Man and Bravestarr... I forget how much the complete series of both cost (Bravestarr had at least 65 episodes, He-Man twice that) but they have 20 episode best ofs for 10 bucks... and that's SRP. In stores, they could be cheaper.

I can't abide DVD's that have 5 episodes or less for over 10 bucks. I'm spoiled that way. Imagine if we had to go back to paying 10-15 bucks for 2 episodes? I have stuff that had ONE episode... I have stuff that has one episode and BAD tape speed that muffled the sound. Lest we forget, a lot of cheapos that ran companies back then, to save on tape, put things in SLP or worse, LP (which rewound and paused like junk). Worse thing today? Double disks (easily scratched) and bad source material. We're getting more for our money now. An with the technology slowly fading, these things have gotten cheaper.

That said, ideal release? Complete seasons, complete series, best ofs... in THAT order. Is that too hard for companies to grasp?

There are 3 advantages to VHS, though... they're not quite as easy to break... you can scratch the heck out of a CD or DVD, but the part that reads is protected by that plastic flap. Secondly, you can stop the tape at any time, put it into any machine, and still be at that point. Third, well... I've noticed that DVD menus have ear blistering loudness if there's music or clips playing, but the actual program is several noticeable decibels quieter. It's like the difference between a shout and a whisper.

But then again, DVD's have advantages too... you can skip to a single episode or scene. I don't know how many times I had to fast forward and rewind the heck out of tapes to get to a single episode... I bought a LOT of Nicktoons collections for Ren and Stimpy episodes and impatiently waited for them. And of course, the cheapness factor I mentioned... VHS cost far more to produce than a CD... same thing with video game consoles in the 90's... cartridge and chip costs were pretty high... that's what killed games in the early 80's, a chip shortage. A CD/DVD costs considerably less to produce. I remember a time when they put DVD's of single episodes of stuff (and in cases, movies) right on the box of cereals. And of course, you can fit much, much more onto a disk than a roll of tape.

 

[CensoredAlso]

Early VHS tapes also had this faint DTMF sound (sounds like a phone dialing) at the beginning for some reason.

YES! I always remember hearing that as a child, lol.