R.I.P VHS - The end of an era

[bronx ratnik]

I have 4x minty players at home.
Both VHS and S-VHS players.

I still record tv-shows on my S-VHS players.
I love the analogue system

[bronx ratnik]

it's too bad it's getting difficult finding certain parts for VCR players!
wear n tear parts like rubber pinch roller and drive belts are no problems to find.
however if you need brake parts for your player you're fooked, these are impossible to find!

for 3 years I have been getting my players serviced at at local electronics repair shop, there are not many of them left anymore.
getting audio/video heads cleaned, replacing wear n tear parts, getting mechanism cleaned and lubricated is important.
my repairman told me not to wind tapes in my players due to causing wear to parts..
so if you still use a VCR, don't rewind or FF tapes!!
just press PLAY to watch the movie and then STOP when you're finished.
get a tape rewinder to wind your tapes.
everytime you wind your tapes you'll wear the brakes which is stopping the tape from winding.


getting a player repaired nowadays don't come cheap, must be a hardcore nut paying high priced repairs.
I grew up with this shiet, still use this obsolete electronic device!
I guess it's worth for me to pay for repairs having players in top condition where someone else might decide not to pay for steep repairs.

I'm all about analogue system, I also run my laserdisc players on regular basis watching 80's - 90's action and horror flix.

[platostotal]

My Panasonic VHS is still going strong, don't know how long it's got left but I'll definitely miss it when it goes...

[bronx ratnik]

Originally Posted by platostotal

My Panasonic VHS is still going strong, don't know how long it's got left but I'll definitely miss it when it goes...

I had a very near mint condition Panny NV-FS90 S-VHS player from the early 90's.
2 years ago I had it serviced and cleaned.
after that I had it for almost a year after having it serviced then sold the Panny player for approx £500GBP including some extra wear n tear parts.

It was really a hot looking player with glowing VU-audio meters.
all stereo players had nicely designed VU-meters up to mid 90's, then companies downgraded most of the cool options making players look dull and cheap.
Panasonic had solid build quality with aluminium chassies.
However their component quality was not up to par with the build quality of their players!
On german eBay there are lots of Panny S-VHS players with half dead displays.
Their caps has dried making display look very faded.
Very sorry looking players nowadays.
Back in the days a Panny S-VHS player was very high end and expensive to buy!

All brand electronics will eventually suffer from faded displays because caps dries out.
2 of my JVC S-VHS players have faded displays but still works perfect on playback.

My latest edition JVC S-VHS player still has a perfect illuminating display, this player is approx 18 years old today where my other two JVC players are 20 years old.
All players are serviced and works like a charm.
I can ashore you it wasn't cheap to service them!

Nothing beats analogue HIFI STEREO!
Audio is so bombastic and dynamic when playing movies in hifi stereo sound through a 2 channel stereo!
Much more fun to listen to audio when watching a movie on tape rather than listening to the same stuff on a dvd which is digital crap!
Of course piq quality is better on dvd, but it's not the same like watching a VHS.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

I currently have two vhs players. Both work fine, but i never use them much. I mainly have them for the clocks which i use to tell the time when the room is in darkness and i'm watching dvd's.

Last time i played a vhs was the Tyburn collection cassettes of The Ghoul and Legend of the Werewolf a couple of years ago.

[Demoncrat]

I still have The Ghoul I taped off a BBC1 showing aeons ago. Cut to be sure.

Ahem. Tapes ye say? Hmmm ...

[hivemind]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

I currently have two vhs players. Both work fine, but i never use them much. I mainly have them for the clocks which i use to tell the time when the room is in darkness and i'm watching dvd's.

Last time i played a vhs was the Tyburn collection cassettes of The Ghoul and Legend of the Werewolf a couple of years ago.

Are they the Rank Video (rental) releases?

[platostotal]

Originally Posted by bronx ratnik

Nothing beats analogue HIFI STEREO!
Audio is so bombastic and dynamic when playing movies in hifi stereo sound through a 2 channel stereo!
Much more fun to listen to audio when watching a movie on tape rather than listening to the same stuff on a dvd which is digital crap!
Of course piq quality is better on dvd, but it's not the same like watching a VHS.

Back around 92/93 I hooked a JVC VHS up to my hi-fi and recorded music onto TDK 3hr tapes with really great sound quality, even on LP mode it was far better than my Aiwa cassette deck so for a few years I would record 3hr mix tapes from CD, but as video tapes would tangle I moved first to mini-disc and then recorded to DVD and now just rip the music as Wav files and enjoy high quality music even on my bog standard Android phone, but yeah Hi-Fi vcr was a real eye... or ear openerwhen connected up to a Hi-Fi.

[bronx ratnik]

Originally Posted by platostotal

Back around 92/93 I hooked a JVC VHS up to my hi-fi and recorded music onto TDK 3hr tapes with really great sound quality, even on LP mode it was far better than my Aiwa cassette deck so for a few years I would record 3hr mix tapes from CD, but as video tapes would tangle I moved first to mini-disc and then recorded to DVD and now just rip the music as Wav files and enjoy high quality music even on my bog standard Android phone, but yeah Hi-Fi vcr was a real eye... or ear openerwhen connected up to a Hi-Fi.

did you use blank high end video tapes to preserve hifi audio quality or did you use stock TDK HS blank video tapes?

cheap tapes had more noise.
back in the days I used to read electronics magazines with articles reviewing blank video tapes.
that was fun to read.

blank tapes were very expensive to buy back in the old days the so called great 80's era.
oooh how much I miss the video piracy years!
having two players and bootlegging, that was fun!

finding high quality copies of uncut movies from abroad and bootlegging them.
I could sell copies to friends and with the money I got other movies.
that was fun!!!

I don't have the same feeling for dvd's or BD.
of course they are much better in quality than VHS and most of the time offers full uncut versions.

VHS has a very special place in my heart which dvd or BD never can replace.

In 2nd place comes laserdisc, I didn't get a player and LD's until mid 90's.
laserdisc was a grey import in my country, had to be a member in video clubs to buy discs because LD's were never an official product sold in stores and therefore not censored.

we had arbitrary censorship for rental VHS movies, most violent scenes could be completely removed or be chopped in certain movies or movies could still get banned after being butchered for several minutes by the censorship, this happened with Commando and many other flix!!
WTF!?
stupid bureaucrats prohibiting all the fun!

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by hivemind

Are they the Rank Video (rental) releases?

No. Sell through releases, but timecoded with publicity material.