Just as I was stumbling off to bed, I caught a glimpse of something I've been dreading...a story on the news about VHS tapes, and how they're finally, completely, one-hundred-percent dead!
Apparently the last distributor of new VHS movies is shutting down after Christmas. Not a big deal, really, because most people have moved on to DVD, gladly bidding goodbye to VHS tapes...but what do you think this could mean for blank video tapes? Do you think we'll always be able to buy the blank ones??
Several times a year, I'll pick up a six pack of 'em when in Walmart, and put two to four movies on each tape. Thanks to my trusty VCR -- the one Santa Claus brought me back in 1994! -- I've managed to build a nice collection of old movies. Largely consisting (though not pictured here) of titles otherwise unavailable in any format.
Lots of old movies were once released on VHS, but are now out-of-print. And while plenty of classics have been issued to DVD, just think of all the ones that haven't! And then if DVD dies too, as many say it will, then the ones that did make it to DVD might not survive the next round...can't you just imagine THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL (1934) now on Blu-ray at your nearest Walmart??
Ha...nuts to that.
I love my VCR! I love those stacks of ugly tapes. Making labels. Choosing themes for each six hour movie marathon of TV-provided goodness. And it's not about getting them for free, since A) I pay for the tapes, and B) I pay for the satellite service, and the DVR service that catches 'em for me -- I remember just last year, when I still had to jot down what time a movie was coming on, so I could wake up and run to the living room just to start the VCR. Now I wait until after I've watched 'em, then I clean off the DVR by recording everything I want onto a blank tape.
It took me years to buy a DVD. I was one of those who insisted on still buying the VHS version of any movie I wanted, and a few years ago, when most stores decided to get rid of their entire VHS inventory and carry only DVDs, I was one of those people who proudly bought a VHS copy of CITIZEN KANE for ninety-nine cents.
I just don't get it.
Well...perhaps I do, but I don't want to get it! Not with the blank tapes anyway. I don't care if there are no more store-bought movies on VHS...I just don't like the thought of someday not being able to tape off movies, therefore being at the mercy of what makes it to DVD and/or Blu-ray, and as always, to the scheduling and generosity of good ol' Ted Turner.
It's icy here. I have writer's block and a headache and desperately need some sleep. And now all I can think of is how there are millions of more important things going on in the world...but also, how right after Christmas, I'm gonna drive to every Walmart within a sixty mile radius and buy up all the blank tapes I can find!
Like Elaine Benes with her precious case of Sponges...I'll have to decide which movies on my DVR are tape-worthy! ;)
Or hopefully, the blank tapes will just stay with us for a while.
_________________
Links:
L.A. Times: VHS Era is Winding Down
_________________
12 comments:
Sad, but maybe inevitable news-- looking at it from the music side in terms of comparable technology, I know it's difficult to buy a cassette recorder (tho you can still get a 4-track tape recorder on the cheap). I believe these days blank cassette tapes are available, but you have to know where to look for them.... My wife Eberle & I were able to compile a pretty nice VHS collection over the years, like yourself-- for financial reasons, we dropped satellite & went to Netflix exclusively, but we're glad to have the tapes around, because Netflix can't compete with Turner Classics, especially in the silent film dept. Netflix really could do a lot to improve its silent film selection....
Good luck hunting down as many VHS tapes as you can find!
John H
Speak it sister! I hear you!
I don't know what I would do if blank tapes were to go bye bye. I don't have the luxury of digital cable, satellite, DVR, TiVo, etc. So I get my mother to program and tape movies off of TCM and Fox Movie Channel. Pathetic but true. But without my mother's help, there would be so many obscure classic films I would miss. I'm thinking of all those wonderful Norma Shearer films I wouldn't have seen if it weren't for VHS tapes. I have more movies on tape than I ever will on DVD.
Can we start a protest? I'm feeling passionate about this subject after reading your post.
Have a Merry VHS-Filled Christmas!
Ginger... I must confess. I threw half of my VHS collection in the bin when I changed appartments. Hundreds of tapes gone forever.
If I had known you then I would have shipped them to you!
Hey! You could become like the Red Cross for VHS tapes! People from all over the world could send you tapes they no longer need. You don't have to buy or even look for tapes anymore.
Think of all the great things you could find on the unerased tapes. Funky Transylvanian circus films, shaky documentaries in laguages unknown to man or Strange music that will move your soul in directions you never knew existed. It will be great! I see a bright future for the VHS!
VHS may be dead, but VCRs are still pretty sophisticated hardware.
Because they have clocks integrated
with mechanical servos they are convertible into all kinds of cool robots:
Automatically timed cat feeder, plant waterer, security applications... et al.
John: I agree; music is gone a similar path, what with records, tapes, etc.
Same thing for the film camera industry with the popularity of everything digital.
And you're also right about Netflix: they do still have a long way to go, as far as stocking up on old movies, and on silent film.
Here's hoping they get to it. :)
...
Raquelle: "I get my mother to program and tape movies off of TCM and Fox Movie Channel. Pathetic but true."
Oh I don't think it's pathetic; I think it's sweet! :)
...
Jonas: "You could become like the Red Cross for VHS tapes! People from all over the world could send you tapes they no longer need."
I could be like a home for unwed mothers and unloved children, but for the video tapes nobody wanted.
Perhaps I'll start walking cross-country, knocking door-to-door asking for people's unwanted tapes. Then I'll bring 'em home and open up my VHS sanctuary...build small houses; have giant stacks of black plastic for me and Cornel to bathe in. ;)
"Think of all the great things you could find on the unerased tapes. Funky Transylvanian circus films, shaky documentaries in languages unknown to man or Strange music that will move your soul in directions you never knew existed."
Ha...sounds divine. :)
...
Vince: Oh, I agree. VCRs are terrific! I bought a DVD player last year, and it's already on the fritz, while my VCR, as mentioned, is already fourteen years old, and still works perfectly! :)
I once had a gigantic collection of DVDs. I used to tape stuff on the highest quality setting, so I had tons of one-movie-per-tape stuff. Those I've eventually given away or thrown out as I've picked up the DVDs. But I have whole runs of old television shows, and movies that have never been released -- and those I hang on to with all my heart! Just like I still have LPs of some unreleased film scores that I refuse to let go. And I still buy VHS tapes off Amazon when there are movies with my favorite actors that aren't available any other way and I just gotta see them. Now. I treasure them all and my VCR isn't going anywhere anytime soon. I'd do the same thing, run around and stock up on all the blank tapes I could find. It's either that or figure out the whole DVR thing.
And I used to have my mom tape me stuff off TCM or the Western channel too -- only they got a new tv and the tech guy who set up everything somehow made it so she can't tape anything anymore. And my parents won't let me mess with it when I visit to get it working, so there went that outlet. (Which is probably okay, as I don't have to listen to my dad complain about my taste in actors anymore. I swear, with me still being single? He treats my actors like potential boyfriends. Dana got roundly condemned, until I explained he kicked the alcohol and became a spokesperson against it. And that he studied to be an opera singer... the latter argument got him all excited, until he asked, "he was a tenor?" "No, a baritone..." and then Dana was in the doghouse again. I can't win.)
And you do change stuff in your entries, don't you? Hee! It was a different video tape picture yesterday! :-D
VHS dead? Never! Not 'til charity shops stop taking and selling videos will I accept such a thing.. Do you have charity shops in "Not NY"?
I think my main reason for switching over to DVD, is that it doesn’t take up as much space as VHS does. I kind of prefer DVDs to VHS (but when it comes to LPs, I surely prefer it to CDs). However I do wish they wouldn’t stop making VHS, so we who still record to VHS can still do that. Sometimes I feel that technology goes too fast. It feels like we have to update to the newest devices more often than we have money for. So therefore, I say; hurray to you, for sticking to VHS!
I held out against dvds until about 2003, when they released the extended version of Fellowship of the Ring to dvd. Had to have it, had to get a dvd player to watch it. Now my collection is about half and half. And I have 4 shelves full of recorded-off-tv vhs that I definitely don't want to get rid of.
And I still buy used vhs movies from video stores or the library. I'm definitely pro-vhs!
dKoren: Funny your Dad doesn't like Dana Andrews...my Dad likes Dana, but he doesn't like Fred Astaire! :)
"And I used to have my mom tape me stuff off TCM or the Western channel too -- only they got a new tv and the tech guy who set up everything somehow made it so she can't tape anything anymore."
Yeah, you have to be real careful with how you hook up a VCR once you have cable or a satellite. Otherwise, when you try to tape something, you're just taping a blank screen.
"And you do change stuff in your entries, don't you? Hee! It was a different video tape picture yesterday!"
Ha...Yeah, I changed it; I didn't know I was gonna be posting anything that morning, and so I didn't have a picture ready to go; had to reuse some old picture, which I don't like to do, so later in the day, I took a new one and replaced the one here. :)
I thought all writers were perfectionist? ;)
...
manwithoutastar:
"Do you have charity shops in "Not NY"?"
Nope. Just trees and cows... ;)
...
The Maiden: Thanks! Hurray to you too. :)
...
Rachel: LORD OF THE RINGS...that was probably some of the first DVDs I bought too. Since I really wanted to see 'em, and they had the extras and all. :)
We got rid of our vhs machine years ago, when we realized after Raiders of the Lost Ark for about 100+ times, that when we played it, the images were very very VERY blurry. Tape wears out too easily even after a few times, dvds will keep Harrison Ford, Humphrey Bogart etc. Crystal clear forever.
Post a Comment