The True Value of a Collectible VHS Tape

[pigface]

Digital VHS was definitely around in 1993/94, but it was crippled by copy control systems so the machines were never allowed to make direct digital recordings. This made it almost useless as a successor in home recording.
Super-VHS was a thing for home cameras and home editing, giving better copies of camera tapes. But a high end standard VHS recorder could make a very close copy of a tv broadcast.
Cheap, plastic vhs recorders and poorly duplicated movie tapes gave the format a bad image.

For some odd reason, Americans seemed to get their cassettes in paper sleeves, not the solid plastic boxes used in Europe and other places. This likely led to vhs cassettes being damaged and degraded much faster than those protected in good boxes.

 

[NotHardUp1]

Edd, it sounds to me like you could try to play lesser valued VHS tapes to test a player and then play any more valued once you've proven the player hasn't died yet. If I remember correctly, the players were clunky and always sounded like they were rearranging their innards as they stopped and restarted, etc.

I still have a CRT television in the basement that has a VCR and DVD embedded in it, and the remote. I think it allowed for recording onto DVD from the VHS. I know other decks sold did.

You have some chance of recording precious tapes onto a DVR or other digital memory to extend the life. Also, if a VHS player starts to eat a tape, you can stop and have a technician salvage the remainder of the tape after he splices it.

 

[me203]

Edd, it sounds to me like you could try to play lesser valued VHS tapes to test a player and then play any more valued once you've proven the player hasn't died yet.

Good idea. And it's not like it's hard finding a tape--thrift shops are full of them if nothing else.

If I remember correctly, the players were clunky and always sounded like they were rearranging their innards as they stopped and restarted, etc.

Yes. I remember all too well all the noises the first VCR my family had would make. Not just the startup--but also just the running.

I've watched VCRs load with the VCR cover off. (One needs to be very careful, of course, doing this not to get shocks or harm the VCR.) It's amazing watching it get the tape running. The system is not a simple one.

I still have a CRT television in the basement that has a VCR and DVD embedded in it, and the remote. I think it allowed for recording onto DVD from the VHS. I know other decks sold did.

CRT is something else I don't particularly miss--but sometimes think a small set would be nice to use with video tape. A better match than any modern set--particularity a big modern set. Modern TV standards are much better resolution than what they had in the VHS era. And VHS was limited by the standards of that era to start with. So a big TV of today will show just how limited VHS was...

 

[me203]

For some odd reason, Americans seemed to get their cassettes in paper sleeves, not the solid plastic boxes used in Europe and other places. This likely led to vhs cassettes being damaged and degraded much faster than those protected in good boxes.

That was all I remember seeing. Sometimes the "sleeves" were plastic.

I remember seeing an artilcle on preserving your VHS library that ran in the 1980s--and I think one thing they might have commented on was that plastic boxes were a good idea. Although I suppose other storage systems might help mitigate the problems of those paper sleeves. If the tape in a sleeve is put inside something else (e.g., video tape cabinet with doors) at least that something else will help keep dust out.

 

[EddMarkStarr]

There is one VHS tape I own that is special to me.

I ordered a copy of, "ABC 2000 Today - The New Millennium Highlights".

This is the special broadcast that started December 31, 1999 and ran until noon, January 1, 2000.

 

[EddMarkStarr]

Digital VHS was definitely around in 1993/94, but it was crippled by copy control systems so the machines were never allowed to make direct digital recordings. This made it almost useless as a successor in home recording.
Super-VHS was a thing for home cameras and home editing, giving better copies of camera tapes. But a high end standard VHS recorder could make a very close copy of a tv broadcast.
Cheap, plastic vhs recorders and poorly duplicated movie tapes gave the format a bad image.

For some odd reason, Americans seemed to get their cassettes in paper sleeves, not the solid plastic boxes used in Europe and other places. This likely led to vhs cassettes being damaged and degraded much faster than those protected in good boxes.

It's really my poor care in storing my cheap VHS TV recordings. I kept most in a drawer unprotected by the package case.

My purchased prerecorded tapes in storage may have faired as well as the video right above!
That YouTube post was uploaded today by VHS&DVDcollection7.

 

[smokeshadow]

Never got into VHS My preference was Beta; so, all my pre-recorded cassettes; as well as blank tapes I recorded off-the-air are still alive and kicking. Went from Beta, to Laserdisc, to DVD's. I finally bought a VHS player so I could play ( and eventually transfer to CD/DVD) copies of old 8mm family movies that uncles/aunts and other relatives had transferred to video tape. And, I still have the connector/adaptor that allows me to convert VHS tapes to windows media files on the computer