Forget Netflix, Some Movie Fans Rewind To VHS Tapes (wsj.com) 170
While the pandemic supercharged streaming, a few people decided to swim against the current and go back to the familiar format of VHS. It isn't the easiest of hobbies. From a report: VCR players haven't been in production within the last five years, and using the player on a current smart TV requires an expensive customized setup of several devices. Looking for a recent film on VHS format? It's likely you'll only find films from the 1980s and 90s, direct-to-VHS specials and home videos. That hasn't stopped die-hards. A small community of VHS fanatics has sprung up around the country, trading tapes and tips on how to watch. Much of it is organized around small boxes where people can drop off or pick up tapes. The "Free Blockbuster" boxes started in Los Angeles and spread. There are VHS tape trading events and auctions.
In the late 1990s, Hollywood studios began selling films on DVDs and VHS rentals lost their grip on home viewings. Blu-ray took over in the early 2000s. By 2010 Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy protection. To try to re-create a bit of the video-store experience, Brian Morrison started Free Blockbuster in 2019. The group turns former newspaper boxes into free little libraries of movies. VHS die-hards hope the effort encourages the exchange of home entertainment with strangers in their neighborhood. A film fan who worked at various video stores throughout his teenage years, Mr. Morrison, 37, stocked his first Free Blockbuster box in Los Angeles with old VHS tapes, hoping to create community around film watching.
Though DVDs and videogames showed up later in some boxes, he says VHS tapes were the more interesting draw for Free Blockbuster users. Mr. Morrison connects tape fanatics in different places, who maintain their own boxes. VHS tapes "aren't just DVDs' older cousins," Mr. Morrison says, "they're an art form in many ways." The 69 Free Blockbuster boxes, now located across the U.S. and in Canada and Australia, are maintained by a network of fans. Mr. Morrison said he received a request from Blockbuster, which is owned by Dish Network, last year that he change the name of his organization. He said he asked if the company would consider licensing out the name but hasn't heard back.
In the late 1990s, Hollywood studios began selling films on DVDs and VHS rentals lost their grip on home viewings. Blu-ray took over in the early 2000s. By 2010 Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy protection. To try to re-create a bit of the video-store experience, Brian Morrison started Free Blockbuster in 2019. The group turns former newspaper boxes into free little libraries of movies. VHS die-hards hope the effort encourages the exchange of home entertainment with strangers in their neighborhood. A film fan who worked at various video stores throughout his teenage years, Mr. Morrison, 37, stocked his first Free Blockbuster box in Los Angeles with old VHS tapes, hoping to create community around film watching.
Though DVDs and videogames showed up later in some boxes, he says VHS tapes were the more interesting draw for Free Blockbuster users. Mr. Morrison connects tape fanatics in different places, who maintain their own boxes. VHS tapes "aren't just DVDs' older cousins," Mr. Morrison says, "they're an art form in many ways." The 69 Free Blockbuster boxes, now located across the U.S. and in Canada and Australia, are maintained by a network of fans. Mr. Morrison said he received a request from Blockbuster, which is owned by Dish Network, last year that he change the name of his organization. He said he asked if the company would consider licensing out the name but hasn't heard back.
It just comes over you. (Score:3)
Change the name to NostalgiaLocker.
Good luck finding an analog input (Score:3)
I'm not sure if any HDTV today has analog inputs; I believe receivers will upsample analog video in, but it's probably going away soon...if it's not there.
Re:Good luck finding an analog input (Score:5, Insightful)
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There are quite a few standalone products that convert analog to HDMI with decent results.
That said, it's mostly the retro video game scene that uses them. I have no earthly idea who would want to watch VHS tapes unless there was no other option.
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People who are curious when a tape arrives [imdb.com] and want to know what's on the tape [youtube.com].
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Here's a reason--there's some videos/movies that are not on DVD or streaming. A couple of days ago someone brought "Song of The South" over on VHS. I dug out a player I'd been saving and hooked it up to the 55" flat screen TV. New TVs have a coax connector because that's what cable uses. You have to hunt for the menu selection to search channels. The TV should have an analogue as well as a digital scan for channels. Set to 3 analogue and set the VCR to the same and you're good!
The cartoon part of the
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I use my S-VHS deck once in a while because I have a lot movies on VHS cassette and occasionally I want to watch one. I never saw the need to re-purchase them all on DVD/blu-ray and I am to lazy / determined its not really worth the effort to capture and convert them. If they detorate and won't play or if the deck dies and I can't ebay a replacement for $20 someday; oh well..
Right now it costs me nothing to leave the old VCR in the bottom of the stereo cabinet cabled up the receivers analog inputs.
That said
Channel 3 (Score:2)
Some modern TVs still have composite inputs. My LG C8 has one.
In any case, for some reason modern TVs can still tune analog channels. Plug the VCR into antenna jack on the back of your TV, tune to analog station 3. It's the lowest-quality way to watch a VHS tape, but it's already pretty bad.
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In any case, for some reason modern TVs can still tune analog channels. Plug the VCR into antenna jack on the back of your TV, tune to analog station 3. It's the lowest-quality way to watch a VHS tape, but it's already pretty bad.
The last analog transmissions (all from low power licensed stations) didn't go off the air until July of this year. Granted a whole lot of those exist for the sole purpose of forcing cable companies to carry their signals for free under the FCC's 'must carry locals if no rebroadcast fee is demanded' rule. I think Canada is now the last holdout for NTSC countries, with their final shutdowns scheduled for 2022. There also might be some analog cable channels hanging out on small cable systems. But mostly I im
Re: Channel 3 (Score:2)
Re: Channel 3 (Score:2)
The last analog broadcast holdouts didn't have much in the way of good content. Mostly religious stations, and shovelware programming that is also shown on digital subchannels.
I didn't even realize all analog broadcast TV was now gone in the US. The last time I saw such a station in operation was shortly after the switchover, and it was a low power TV station dedicated to religious programming.
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But most of us old NERDs still own CRTs. I have a TV/VCR combo, Commodore 1702 Monitor, and a handful of CRT monitors. The TV I still use for entertainment is a color corrected Plasma, which looks wonderful by today's standards and for older con
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Most SmartTV's still have RCA connectors, but unfortunately the upscalers all universally suck, and unless you have a vintage setup (eg a CRT and a surround receiver) you're pretty much unable to experience a movie on VHS in HiFi. So you would be better off literately watching a movie on VHS or Blueray and if you wanted it to look like VHS apply a downscaler and and an upscaler to it.
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I don't recall any VCR that didn't have a coax out connector (and an analog RCA out). Last time I looked (admittedly a few months ago by now) all the current TVs had a coax input for an external antenna that should accept the output from the VCR. Most (if not all) of the televisions also had an analog (RCA) video input. This input may have been shared with the RGB RCA inputs but it was usually there.
Maybe I was just looking at the wrong televisions though. 8^)
Re: Good luck finding an analog input (Score:2)
Re: Good luck finding an analog input (Score:2)
The 4:3 setting is probally buried deep in the set up menu.
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The 4:3 setting is probally buried deep in the set up menu.
Probably somewhere, yes - I poked around a bit but didn't find it. Gone are the days of an aspect ratio button on the remote :) Eh, it's not so important, I have 4:3 CRT monitors galore. I really only need to view the VCR's output directly when I'm digitizing stuff; once it's digitized, VLC on the same TV will play it with black bars on the sides just fine.
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There are inexpensive boxes that do composite to HDMI as well as other inexpensive boxes that do component to HDMI. I have a couple and they work pretty well.
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Composite and analogue RF aren't that uncommon. Although I expect for the proper experience the fans are going to be after CRT screens. They require a certain amount of hunting these days. A few years ago there were so many available you couldn't give them away but I expect by now they've been disposed of.
Yea Goodwill won't even take them anymore and hasn't for a while. If you want one you need to stalk the local classifieds or be lucky enough to have an old-school TV repair shop that is still in business in your town. I still have one I'm holding onto for nostalgia sake. And also it's in my basement and heavy as fuck.
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Nice! I'm just a bit envious of you for hanging onto it. FWIW my grandma bought a 26" color TV (Motorola) in 1968, still had it (and working!) when she passed in 2001.
I still have some of my TV repair manuals, imagine that... doing algebra with analog circuitry to decode the color signals.
Re: Good luck finding an analog input (Score:2)
Oddly a few months ago my local Goodwill had a couple CRTs and it was those trashy 5 inch B&W sets you found at questionable electronics stores in the early 2000s.
Your GW probally has better 'quality control' than mine has.
Re: Good luck finding an analog input (Score:2)
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Is there a chance someone might want the 2 boat anchor CRTs I still have? Sony WEGA and Phillips. And 2 VCRs that don't work and a modest collection of VHS tapes.
I remember seeing probably one of the last VCRs sold at Walmart. It came with a burner for easy conversion. I almost bought it. It was about $40 - maybe even cheaper. That was probably close to 10 years ago, I guess?
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Is there a chance someone might want the 2 boat anchor CRTs I still have? Sony WEGA and Phillips. And 2 VCRs that don't work and a modest collection of VHS tapes.
The WEGA will be a Trinitron I assume, and thus desirable. But basically no CRT, even non-working ones (within reason) will be turned down by the collective (The group in which I participate most is a Facebook group called The CRT Collective - there are quite a few others though, on various forums). The VCRs, well, they seem to sell well on eBay. The tapes ... well, normally I would say "only off-the-air recordings are really of interest, because they may have captured ephemera like local advertising, local
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Re: Good luck finding an analog input (Score:2)
Too bad the VFD games from the early 80s are not nearly as common as old CRT television sets. They are rarer than hen's teeth.
I am aware of all of the 'retro' rereleases that try to simulate the old VFDs with LCDs, but it's just not the same. Of course, an LCD is far cheaper to manufacture than a VFD, and no one is going to even try to start up a manufacturing plant for game VFDs just to make a quick retrofeels buck.
And the advantage of tape is? (Score:2, Insightful)
Because I can't see one.
Unless they are simply trying to be hipsters...
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Unless they are simply trying to be hipsters...
TFA is using singular "they". One guy is profiled, and they provide no evidence and cite no figures for any additional kooks doing this.
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TFA is using singular "they". One guy is profiled, and they provide no evidence and cite no figures for any additional kooks doing this.
Third paragraph...
"The 69 Free Blockbuster boxes, now located across the U.S. and in Canada and Australia, are maintained by a network of fans."
Unless you believe this one guy traveled to all those 69 locations to set up the boxes himself.
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I think he was confused about what exactly was at these "69 Locations" and left very disappointed.
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Yeah it's the hipster "anything old and/or obscure must be better".
While newer isn't always better, sometimes it is.
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Well, they picked VHS not Betamax.
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Less DRM.*
*Macrovision.
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Which is arguably less DRM, or at least way easier to thwart than any contemporary bullshit.
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Grrr. I still remember trying to watch DVDs on a TV that didn't have the right inputs, but the VCR did and watching the picture go in and out and in and out. Curse Macrovision! Curse them to the fiery depths!
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Unless they are simply trying to be hipsters...
Another possibility is they're trying to grab their 15 minutes of fame, but discovered that all the good ideas had been taken already.
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Like vinyl records, VHS is the pure way to watch a home movie. There's supposed to be static and skips throughout the film. DVDs and crystal clear streaming are not an authentic experience.
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Like vinyl records, VHS is the pure way to watch a home movie. There's supposed to be static and skips throughout the film.
Why, because the director called for it? Or wanted them there? Inferiority glitches haven't been an expectation in film making for literally decades. The industry has invested a lot in video camera development since the 1960s. There's a reason some older movies actually look damn good even compared to today.
DVDs and crystal clear streaming are not an authentic experience.
When your $3000 4K OLED HDTV is being crippled with shitty 1080i "HD" streams coming from the providers, I'd say there's still plenty of artificial impurities being introduced, even in those "crystal
Many advantages (Score:3)
- no internet connection required
- no monthly subscription fee
- no advertising (except for the occasional skipable trailer)
- you own the movie instead of renting it
- you can lend it/give it to a friend when you're done with it
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All of which also apply to DVD. So again, what is the benefit of TAPE?
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Some stuff that came out on VHS never made it onto DVD or Blu Ray [obsev.com] such as Star Wars
The original theatrical cut of “Star Wars” has never been available on home release at any point in its history. Even before the film’s first VHS rental release, George Lucas had already begun tampering with his beloved masterpiece, adding the text “Episode IV: A New Hope” to the opening crawl. But while the 1997 "special edition" of the movie is available in many formats, the oldest VHS releases
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"The original theatrical cut of âoeStar Warsâ has never been available on home release at any point in its history."
Not true. I have the original theatrical release ("Star Wars" in the opening crawl--no "Episode IV: A New Hope". Han shoots first. No Jabba the Hutt) on DVD. It came on a supplemental disc to one of the DVD releases.
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There are LaserDisc versions of the film that date from the 1980's so unless LaserDisc is not a home release which I am pretty sure it is, the OP statement is bollocks.
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I've got those DVD's too, I bought them specifically because of those supplemental discs. I believe the source for those supplemental discs was Laserdisc and no effort was put into cleaning them up what so ever so the quality isn't great. Laserdisc was the highest quality home release of the theatrical cut that LucasFilm released.
Re:Many advantages (Score:5, Informative)
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I've found some obscure titles over the years that are only available on VHS. Many I can't even find a pirated version for. So I keep a VCR and a cheap Chinese USB capture device that doesn't seem to care about macrovision so I can "rip" them when I run across them.
This is great, be sure to upload them to archive.org, you could be doing a great service to future generations!
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The original theatrical cut of “Star Wars” has never been available on home release at any point in its history.
I have the original Star Wars on VHS. I also have my Panasonic Hi-Fi VHS VCR ready to put on a variac and slowly power up over a couple of days.
Hopefully then I can sell them all - I'm happy to get rid of them and my collection of VHS everything, it takes up too much space.
Oh and Han absolutely shoots first.
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Disadvantages:
- Atrociously low resolution (VHS is 240 lines which is effectively half of SD resolution)
- Format that literally degrades a bit each time it is used
- Required to rewind the medium after you're done.
- Pausing is nearly useless to get a clear picture of the current frame - it is only useful for taking a break
- Medium physically takes up more space
- Frequent artifacts and issues on the video - sometimes fixable via tracking but not always, particularly on older media.
Seriously - DVD's are a FAR
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Seriously - DVD's are a FAR superior format if you want to avoid streaming.
Sure. AND you can avoid the predictable mocking.
When your anti-answer to streaming services makes public library offerings look modern and advanced, it says a lot as to the stupidity of it all.
Re:Many advantages (Score:4, Insightful)
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240 analog lines per picture height is about 320 pixels across at 4:3, so it's about half the resolution horizontally, but still around 470i vertically (NTSC's 480i minus about 10 rows of head switching noise, give or take).
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- you own the movie instead of renting it
As a matter of interest why would you want to "own" a movie? On an average year 800 movies are released just in English language and just in Canada / USA. Are you actually going to waste your life rewatching the same shit when you can discover something new?
Control (Score:2)
Control. No need to worry about whether the streaming service you subscribe to no longer has the rights to that movie in your region, or has put it "in the vault", or can no longer license the original music and has substituted generic music (WKRP [wvxu.org]), or has decided to change it and won't let you see the original version anymore (Star Wars [digitalspy.com]), or decides it isn't woke enough (Gone With The Wind [bbc.com]) or features a celebrity that has been cancelled (Michael Jackson episode of The Simpsons [indiewire.com]).
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The same can be said for books and yet there's still plenty of people who have huge libraries full of dead tree bricks.
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If one,two, and three were that important Wavetop [microsoft.com] would have taken off a long time ago.
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Those satisfying whirring and ker-chunking sounds.
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That my thinking too.
About the own two things; I can say for VHS is it might be a bit more rugged than a DVD or Blu-ray disk; but only against some forms of abuse; certainly much more fragile in others (as anyone whoever absent mindedly set the tape down on top of the speaker cabinet knows...) and it can 'go places' where bandwidth is still at premium like disks can.
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Not everything that was released on VHS is available on DVD or Blu Ray.
Maybe someone wants to watch the original Star Wars (A New Hope) where Han Solo shot first.
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I keep a VCR around only to watch the occasional show recorded from the 80's or 90's that cannot be found anywhere else.
Such as the original broadcast version of The Gathering, the pilot of Babylon 5. The original and superior pilot had the cool and very well suited for the time electronic/techno music score. Later the pilot was changed-the sweeping camera angles during the intro was removed, scenes were changed or removed, and the techno was replaced with a more orchestral music score to match the rest
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Can't be hipsters. These guys obviously do it long, long after it was cool.
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Did you know if you start the VHS version of The Wizard of Oz and the vinyl version of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon at exactly the same time then both the audio and visual quality will suck since both of them have likely been stashed in someone's garage for the last umpteen years?
Yes, Dark Side of Oz fans DO in fact know all this.
That's why they downloaded the DVD version of that mash-up off Usenet...a long time ago, on an internet far far away...
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People who make copies of DVDs, BluRay discs or OTA broadcasts on used tapes. And then pass them around among circles of friends.
More than once, I've played a home recorded VHS beyond the end of the closing credits and seen a few things made with the old home camera that probably were not intended* to be shared.
*Or maybe they were. This may be a thing with some exhibitionists.
Re: And the advantage of tape is? (Score:2)
There are plenty of hipsters doing this to be 'hip' no doubt (technopuritanism, um yay?), bit we also have guys such as Technomoan who cover all kids of old tech on their Youtube channels.
Quality (Score:5, Interesting)
Analog cassette tape can produce high quality sound, if good quality tapes and a well engineered, well maintained deck are used. Entire commercial albums were recorded on four-track analog cassette.
VHS is not the same as an analog cassette. It's a dodgy technology that was popular because it worked well enough, especially when TVs weren't that great, either. You can get better quality on later decks with SVHS and decks with built-in time base correctors, but it even that doesn't come close to a mediocre DVD in terms of video quality.
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Much like Vinyl Records, you have a small period of time of superior quality until it wears out. DVD over tape your data can stay at a consistent quality over time, while VHS tape will stretch and data loss has no way of correcting itself. (unless it was some sort of digital tape, with a check bit)
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Except in this case that's not even true.
Standard NTSC DVDs gave you 480 lines. SVHS was only 400 lines, and few VCRs were SVHS machines, and even few TVs offered s-video inputs.
The very most over packed, over compressed DVDs *might* have poorer image quality when there is a lot of motion that mpeg2 struggled to encoded at lower rates but that is probably a rare situation in the case of commercial DVDs.
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"Much like Vinyl Records, you have a small period of time of superior quality until it wears out."
Superior quality compared to what? VHS has half the horizontal resolution of standard def video, and that's when the tape is brand new. It only gets worse as the tape ages.
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In this context, it's worth reminding people that VHS wasn't really invented or marketed for watching movies at home. It was created to record broadcast at home so you could watch at different times. The intended usecase of VHS was much more like DVR's than DVD's. With this in mind, the 'good enough' quality becomes readily explicable.
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Actually even standard VHS comes close, if you use a good S-VHS deck with built-in TBC plus a good external TBC to clean up the signal. It's just too bad they never made anamorphic VHS tapes!
Re: Quality (Score:2)
Too bad that the cassette mechanisms still being made today are all crap to be stuck in devices to make a quick nostolgia buck. Permanent magnetic heads, shitty motors, mono heads in faux stereo looking 'retro' monural boomboxes. Don't even think of Metal playback capability.
All the while the good or at least repairable decks are landing in landfills like snowflakes because "Honey, this has been sitting here for 20 years collecting dust".
Oh well, progress I suppose. Not many people are bemoaning th
Re: Quality (Score:2)
"Permanent magnetic heads"
Permanent magnet erase heads
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doesn't come close to a mediocre DVD in terms of video quality.
On the flip side, Netflix quality can really deteriorate simply because your internet connection is not fast enough.
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Small community, indeed (Score:2)
The article is behind a paywall, so I could only see the lede paragraph - plus the summary here, of course. But based on that, this "small community" may very well total all of two people.
They do it ironically though (Score:4, Funny)
News for nerds
stuff that matters.
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So do we. I mean, be honest, you think discussing here on /. isn't ironic by now?
Buy the films you like, then RIP them (it's legal) (Score:2)
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Indeed. Been doing this for years.
Use mkv format for films. Stick a 2TB drive in your laptop and sync your media to that. VLC on Mint can now use a Cromecast to render mkv files on the TV and If you're lucky the hotel you're staying at will have TVs with USB sockets in the rooms that can play mkv files from a thumb drive.
Re: Buy the films you like, then RIP them (it's le (Score:2)
Who dosen't miss noise bars, increasing grain pr. playback, and the loud "ssshWWEEEIOOOIIHHH" that some tapes make in the rewinder when the mechanism inside the cassette itself starts to break down?
VCD, SVCD, DVD, Bluray, Terabyte Harddisk Drive (Score:3)
I know extremism is a choice, but I'm in for the balanced liberal part.
You can get DVDs in huge amounts for nearly small change (I mean sometimes even literally for free) from your favourite classified ads site.
Since the advent and break through of netflix you can even get a bargain on Blurays.
Yeah and well, there still is the reason to have a "backup".
But yeah VHS has more vintage astonishment points in front of your nerdy friends.
But what tops all is a mint-condition ozone fuming 1983 Sony beta-max recorder - top deck loading - with still working belts and tape cassettes with non-tv-signal recorded content.
That's a fucking gazillion points on the vintage points score board.
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But what tops all is a mint-condition ozone fuming 1983 Sony beta-max recorder - top deck loading - with still working belts and tape cassettes with non-tv-signal recorded content.
That's a fucking gazillion points on the vintage points score board.
Bro, please. 1975 original Japanese release hardware is the only platform. ;)
dude you hit the jackpot an late fee & rewind (Score:2)
dude you hit the jackpot! an late fee & rewind fee!
Porn (Score:2)
After the end of the golden age of porn (1969-1984) most titles were VHS only (never on actual film) until DVD's took over.
Or, so I've been told...
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Ah, that's right! The porn industry exploded almost overnight because of VCRs. No more heading across town to some seedy dingy store in the red-light district.
Soon most video rental stores had a xxx section hidden behind a dark velvet curtain that contained everything from lame Electric-Blue soft core, to the regular hardcore and the infamous Sex Trek, to foreign-language European stuff where some guy with a thick Eastern European accent narrated in English everything going on: "Gertrude is now ready now
I started collecting VHS movies two years ago. (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm also making sure I own all the movies and music I like on physical media, since Streaming services think it's OK to go back and edit/delete content that might be considered offensive by an extreme minority's standards as of today.
No accounting for stupidity (Score:2)
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VCRs, compact cassettes and vinyl are ass. Maybe there is some nostalgia involved in these old formats, but they suck and there is a good reason the world has moved on from them.
When you try and compare the quality of music coming from talented musicians of yesteryear to the lip-syncing auto-tuned stage performers of today, you find a whole new meaning for the term "suck".
The "nostalgia" of these old formats has far more to do with the quality of the content than the quality of the recording.
I've been afraid to play my old tapes (Score:3)
There were scary comments about tape shelf life and how it could deteriorate to the point of damaging the player. Is that not an issue in reality?
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It would have to be pretty bad to damage the player, like the tape turning to mush or something equally improbable.
If you are worried see if you can buy one of those tape rewinder things. If the tape goes through that okay it should play back safely. Or just pay someone else to transfer it to digital with their equipment, they will doubtless be familiar with all the possible failure modes.
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I had a vcr die as it was *supposed* to have self-correcting tracking, but went too far out of track to recover, and had no manual override.
We took it back, and didn't give much thought to popping a tape in.
However, the first one had been recording that tape when it died.
Yes, the replacement followed it irreparably out of alignment . . .
One of only a couple of times in my life I paid for an extended warranty. It was rather clear that the build of the machines by that time was crummy, and I fully expected t
warning (Score:2)
I used to fix VCRs part time in a repair shop. I'm not working there anymore and the repair shop is no more. So good luck getting your old gear working. There are a bunch of belts and cams in them that are a pain to diagnose.
They're not an art form. (Score:2)
They're not an art form, they are a distribution medium, akin to music cassette tapes, but way, way worse.
Why? (Score:2)
VHS? Why? (Score:2)
It is now 2021. Do you talk the talk (Score:2)
The clock still shows 12:00. My Reservoir Dogs tape still hs a little bit of the original shrinkwrap. I'll trade it for your copy of The Three Amigos Toss in that rewinder while you're at it
Fansubs (Score:2)
I still have my collection of VHS fansubs from my college days.... :p
Here's Greenwood!
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At least LPs have the possibility of interesting covers and other fun things. VHS tapes never had that.