8mm Forum: Collecting "films" on VHS.

This is topic Collecting "films" on VHS. in forum General Yak at 8mm Forum.

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Posted by Ken Finch (Member # 2768) on March 05, 2019, 12:04 PM:

I know that many of us collect films on a number of formats and having reached the age of 85 have decided to dispose of a number of these and wonder if anyone is still collecting this format. Seems a pity that they may have just throw them away. Oh how I hate this throw away society we have become. Whilst I still have the facilities in my cinema to show them, It would take years to get through them all and one never knows what the future beholds. Many people deride this old format but I find them quite watchable as the projector appears to upscale the image as it does with DVD,s. Ken Finch.
[Frown]

Posted by Joe Caruso (Member # 11) on March 05, 2019, 12:54 PM:

Keep any VHS, much the same with Cassette (audio), believe me, they will be transferrable andif anything rare is contained, you won't want to dispose of them - Cheers, Shorty

Posted by Steven J Kirk (Member # 1135) on March 05, 2019, 01:13 PM:

Keep them or sell on eBay. I collect a few rare ones from the early days and I have kept most VHS I have had. Even the earliest 1979-1980 ones still play well enough... Don't throw them out.

Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on March 05, 2019, 02:31 PM:

You never know. A French startup is trying to resurect audio tapes.

https://geeko.lesoir.be/ (the article is in French)

Posted by Leon Norris (Member # 3151) on March 05, 2019, 02:32 PM:

I really don't think you can get much for vhs tapes? I also had plenty of them and when I got out of it! I tried to sell them! No luck! So I took them to a place that buys them! I got no more than .50 cents to 1.00 apiece. I had over 90 of them!Some were never open! I also did not care for the Quality of vhs to me it did not look all that sharp! I will always stick with film! It has vhs beat by a mile!

Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on March 05, 2019, 03:09 PM:

Credit where credit is due!

-without VHS tape Tom Hanks would still be stuck on that island! [Wink]

Posted by Steven J Kirk (Member # 1135) on March 05, 2019, 06:37 PM:

Keep everything. Never throw anything away. You never know when it might come in useful...

Posted by Bill Sherren (Member # 6743) on March 05, 2019, 11:51 PM:

Despite storing them in good condition. Not too dry or humid on an inside wall out of light I have found certain makes have developed white mould on the tape itself! UK made Maxwell are all affected, though any Japanese versions of Maxwell tapes are still fine. A few other tapes randomly tried have jammed also.

Posted by Brian Fretwell (Member # 4302) on March 06, 2019, 02:47 AM:

I believe that problem (or similar) happened to 2" video tape as well. However that was Memorex not Maxell, hence the name of the BBC Engineers Christmas tape being "White Powder Christmas" one year.

Posted by Melvin England (Member # 5270) on March 06, 2019, 05:06 AM:

Brian - I am glad you mentioned Memorex. Although I didn't have any issues with their video tapes, their cassette tape was another matter. Wow / flutter / drop out / mangled tape. The lot. Not a patch on TDK.

Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on March 06, 2019, 07:10 AM:

Hello Ken nice to read your post hope you are well.

When DVD came along I transferred my own videos onto DVD (not commercial) which was more than a job as I had well over 1000 tapes on VHS and Beta. In the end I let the transfers run when I was video editing productions at work finally completing after some months. We were lucky to be asked to field test a recorder 20 years ago so I guess you could say it had a good run. I also did a couple of Low Density open reels from the 60's.

Not a advert but I am still piled high with transfers of VHS,Super VHS,Beta,Video 8,Hi-8, Digital 8, Mini DV and DV Cam on a regular basis and actually pleased to say most of what I get in plays perfectly as well. Stored well tape is standing the test of time.

Regretfully the VHS film market is a shadow of itself although if you have any Pre Cert (Pre certification BBFC) material they do go for a few bob even yet.

Keep well my friend!

Posted by William Olson (Member # 2083) on March 06, 2019, 08:24 AM:

I'm with Steven Kirk on this. Hey Steve, VistaVision rocks!

Posted by Steven J Kirk (Member # 1135) on March 06, 2019, 09:35 AM:

On that the blu-ray of ONE-EYED JACKS is stunning. VistaVision was so good it yields the best transfers even now. I'd only ever seen the Brando film on TV, the disc is a complete revelation with lush colours and a good film look, ( on a Panasonic VP.) I have the Marketing Super 8 cutdown and it is a bit average but has good colour, the trailer ( don't know who did that ) was great definition but has faded, sadly...

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on March 06, 2019, 11:13 AM:

Occasionally they are still needful ...

I have been looking for a copy of "The Adventures of frontier fremont" for years! Incredibly rare, even on VHS.

Posted by Joe Caruso (Member # 11) on March 06, 2019, 11:23 AM:

Remember what happened when VHS came into being and was all-the-rage, while collectors of film dumped their quarry, to later regret - I have 123 VHS, some pre-records on MAXELL, they haven't disappointed - All have many rare shorts and such - Take it as you will, shorty

Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on March 06, 2019, 01:11 PM:

All my VHS tapes play fine. Can't say the same for DVD's many of which have failed, and continue to fail. At least with VHS you can skip thru any bad sections, whereas with DVD/BR the whole disc just locks up.

Posted by Leon Norris (Member # 3151) on March 06, 2019, 01:53 PM:

Hey Paul, your a lucky one! I had my ups and downs with VHS tapes! I had a few get jammed up in the machine! I'm film only! I don't miss VHS at all! Leon.

Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on March 06, 2019, 03:59 PM:

Last weekend I tried out my Panasonic NV-HD620 6 head long play unit that's both PAL and NTSC.

Its been years since I last used it, but to my surprise it still worked fine, so watched a number of our old home movies on it. I still have the Panasonic adaptor for the camcorder tapes. As a result I went to a local electronic shop and bought a USB Video and audio grabber that was on special. I have since loaded the software disc that came with it, so hopefully I can put some of the home movies into the computer then edit them.

What I am finding is the VHS tapes seem to be lasting a lot better than the DVD-R discs.

Posted by Nantawat Kittiwarakul (Member # 6050) on March 07, 2019, 09:25 PM:

This probably won't apply in this case but...

In my country some early VHS release could be more valuable than average,if it contains original theatrical dubbing (most foreign films were dubbed in Thai for wider release). Most later DVD/BD release were re-dubbed,and not so desirable by many collectors - hence the demand for those early release.

BTW while most of my Super8 home movies were VS attacked (even the ones that is less than 40 years old) and are now unsuitable for normal projection,almost all of my VHS home videos are still playing just as good as the day it was shot - although they're only 10 years younger than those Super8 counterparts. Only 2 cassettes that are so warped that it's now unplayable. But since they're from the same brand&batch so I suspect it's the specific problem for that lot. The hot&humid atmosphere in this region would be the main culprit IMHO.

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on March 09, 2019, 10:47 AM:

I'm with you Paul!

I switched from VHSC to MINIDV because the image quality was better, but i now have three MINIDV cam's over the years and even with cleaning cassettes, the damned MINIDV cassettes won't play ...

Ahhhh, but the low image quality VHSC cassettes, AND the camcorder, work just fine to this day. It was built to last, to be sure!

... and film, well, film outlasts them all!!! What a "format"!!

Posted by Bill Brandenstein (Member # 892) on April 01, 2019, 03:05 PM:

Osi, may I suggest trying to get a different playback device for your mini-DV tapes? You're so good with second-hand bargains, just look for something on eBay with a digital output. Oh wait... in those days that would be Firewire.

Well, this might not be too simple. But my suggestion is to play those tapes into a computer as a straight DV-codec transfer. Then you have a computer file containing the precise data of the original tape. Then it's just a matter of backing up some large computer files.

You might have to find an old computer and use an external drive to make this work, but when it's done, those files will play on any computer with VLC Media Player, or could be converted easily to DVD.

Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on April 02, 2019, 02:21 AM:

Unusual Osi for MiniDV unless poorly stored or branded TDK,the only tapes I have problems transferring for customers. The TDK ones seem to go very powdery and clog the micro sized video heads.
Transferred hundreds of Mini DV, Video 8, Hi-8, VHS, Betamax, Vid2000, Umatic and even 1" open reel here we sure have seen some funny things over the decades.

Posted by Steven J Kirk (Member # 1135) on November 04, 2019, 12:36 PM:

Keep every format, never throw anything away and just build more shelves!

Posted by Joe Caruso (Member # 11) on November 04, 2019, 01:05 PM:

Told ya

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