VHS Memories

[horror1o1]

Man what great times I had with VHS. I remember when we first got a VHS player we rented from this place called "Video USA" this was maybe in 84 or 85 that's when i first got to see a lot of scary movies. I remember me and my uncle who was 10 years older than me on the couch scared watching Halloween. Good times. Also dollar days at Dillons was on new release day so for a while i was renting most worthy titles.One day I rented 10 movies in the summer and they all had to be back the next day. I'm smiling just thinking of it.

[ChrisW]

I mentioned in another thread how I just picked up a VHS-to-DVD recorder for 5 bucks at a yard sale. I now peruse the old VHS titles at thrift stores and bought some MST3K tapes cheap that I've converted to DVDs...
BTW, I didn't go through all of the pages, but is there any love out there for BETA? That is what my dad and I owned. The nice thing about it was the anti-copying signal to prevent copying DVDs and VHS didn't work copying to beta so I could make  copies of anything rented or borrowed. NOT that I would of course...that's illegal!

[Rich]

I never owned Beta and my VCR broke down like ten years ago and I never got a new one. I just stick to DVD and Blu-ray now. Unless I get something used and/or cheap I pretty much only buy Blu-ray now and with that's only buy what I consider to be essential.

[Zombiology]

Just came across a VHS of a movie I'm looking for that isn't on DVD yet (One of my Wives is Missing).  But, before I bid, I remembered I don't have a VCR anymore.  Will have to correct that at the next garage sale.

[Anton Phibes]

Walking into a Hill's Department store and purchasing Creature from the Black Lagoon in all its bright yellow box glory  for $3.99 started me on my way to collecting vhs movies.  I distinctly remember my brother paying  $79.99 to order me a copy of Theater of Blood before it was made mass market. Now it can be had on dvd with madhouse for PROBABLY AROUND $10.

[yendor1152]

The first VHS I watched, in a top-loader machine, was "20,000 Maniacs." I remember that as clear as yesterday. We rented the machine and perused the shelves of videos--many of which we'd (my sister and I) seen years before. What a thrill to pick up that great film and Texas Chainsaw Massacre, as well! That led me to collecting videos, but I wanted them perfect in "perfect boxes." So, I joined the Columbia Video Club. In my first package was a tape of The Wolfman, with a review on the front by Gene Shalit! At one point, I must've had over three hundred perfect videos, all purchased by me and kept out of harm's way.

Then, I read the bad news: videos can become corrupted. And in less than ten year's time, or so the article said. I began to notice that if I hadn't watched a video for a while, the picture was sometimes "wavy." Thoughts of blanked out screens, snow and "corruption" preyed upon me. No matter how lovingly I maintained my collection, Time itself would destroy what I'd tried to preserve.

So, when I read about DVDs for the first time, in 1995 or so, I couldn't wait to try this new technology! At first, DVDs were way out of my league, cost-wise. I recall looking at a copies of Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow and "Dumb and Dumber," and each one bore a pricetag of $100.00! Amazing. Now, you can find them in the five dollar bin at Wal-Mart. DVDs were great. Not only did they store better, but supposedly the discs were impervious to any imperfections (haha!) and would last "forever." I also liked that every DVD seemed to be something "special." The marketers went out of their way to add special features, like deleted scenes, commentaries, etc. What a wonderful concept!

Eventually, I sold all of my VHS tapes on eBay and tried to replace them with DVDs. Reality crashed in upon me. There were literally dozens of movies I had legitimately on VHS that have yet to see the light of day on DVD. Phantom of the Rue Morgue, for one. The AIP version of Black Sabbath, for another. Silly me, I fully expected that everything on tape would come out on DVD.

And now, we're in the Blu-Ray era. Once that departs, it'll be the interactive era, where we can actually act in the film. All of this is moving way too fast for me! And I gotta admit, I miss my VHS tapes! Some of them, especially the Universal Monsters, had gorgeous artwork. True, they were a bitch to store, but I wonder if they'd really "corrupt" on me? Alas, I'll never find out.

[Scatter]

Just came across a VHS of a movie I'm looking for that isn't on DVD yet (One of my Wives is Missing).  But, before I bid, I remembered I don't have a VCR anymore.  Will have to correct that at the next garage sale.

Your local GoodWill likely has around 10 of them sitting on a shelf for $5 a pop with a 24 hour return policy. That's where we get ours.

[neonnoodle]

Yes--I do recommend going to your local GoodWill or Salvation Army store, and checking out their VHS decks.  It seems more important now to do this, because since VCRs aren't even being made anymore, even used/discarded ones are becoming harder to find.

If you should find one that looks good, you might be in luck.  Many people who dropped their machines off at the GoodWill may have done so thinking their machine was worn out and beyond repair, when in reality the playback heads were simply dirty from oxide deposits.  Opening the machine up and carefully cleaning the heads may restore the machine to perfect working order.

[general gruesome]

There's an old school video rental place in San Diego, CA called Kensington Video. They have lots of awesome stuff there and there are some overview videos on YouTube showing the place. They have awesome cutouts, posters, standees that really make it look like an old 1990s video store. I'd really like to work there

http://www.kenvideo.net/

[Zombiology]

Your local GoodWill likely has around 10 of them sitting on a shelf for $5 a pop with a 24 hour return policy. That's where we get ours.

Thanks, Scatter

[RICKH]

Last time I checked Wal Mart carried a VHS/DVD combo player.  It ran around 70 bucks.  I got one and use it often.  BTW I buy a lot of VHS tapes at Goodwill.

[jimm]

my Aunt still has a working combo and one of those mini toshiba tvs with built in...uses then almost daily still...

[neonnoodle]

There is actually a weird feeling of satisfaction buying cheap old used tapes and LP records at the Goodwill store!  It's buying memories.  Feels groovier than buying all this newfangled stuff.  The Goodwill down the street has a whole bunch of I Love Lucy and Addams Family VHS tapes!  Like a scadload of them! 

A couple of years ago they had all these The Avengers VHS tapes, all Diana Rigg episodes.  OMG!  I bought a stack of them for almost nothing.  I hadn't seen the show since the 70's and it was a real treat!

[Rich]

I have not had a VCR in over ten years now. I still do have some of my old VHS tapes, just for collector purposes. I still have my copies of Dracula, Frankenstein, The Bride of Frankenstein, Son of Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, and Creature from the Black Lagoon.

What I think is cool about holding onto those is to hold onto generations of home video editions of these classics from VHS, to DVD, to next month's Blu-ray box set. That makes me proud.

Here is what I own:

VHS
Dracula
Frankenstein
Bride of Frankenstein
Son of Frankenstein
The Wolf Man
Creature from the Black Lagoon

DVD
Universal Studios Classic Monster Collection (Dracula, Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, Mummy, Invisible Man, Wolf Man, Phantom, Creature)
Monster Legacy DVD Gift Set (Dracula/Frankenstein/Wolf Man Legacy Collections + busts)
The Invisible Man The Legacy Collection
The Mummy The Legacy Collection
Creature from the Black Lagoon The Legacy Collection

Blu-ray
Universal Classic Monsters Essential Collection (Dracula, Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, Mummy, Invisible Man, Wolf Man, Phantom, Creature) on pre-order!

[Bonomo]

That is funny because the exact same thing happened to me with the original Friday the 13th on DVD at Blockbuster. So that shows that any store is capable of receiving a bad batch of merchandise. It happens. However I being a product of a town that used to have a mom and pop video store on every block would support the mom and pop over 500 LB guarilla any day. It's so sad to see what Walmart and Netflix has done to the video store.

My mom owned a video store when I was growing up. Blockbuster put a stop to that.