Free to a good home

[threemonkeys]

So it looks like Blu-ray is winning the HD format wars. You know what? I don't care. When people start giving HD disks away with cereal and the next format is being pushed - then I will care because I won't be able to use anything else. Well that might be an exaggeration. I am a bit interested because it really means my collection of old VHS tapes is becoming remarkably redundant. I can't even lend them to people because "oh we don't have our VCR plugged in any more". To be honest, I never watch them anyway either. Nor can I ever see them having the kind of retro chic that vinyl records have (I still have mine).

So it is time to do another pruning of my collection. Last time I did it, about 3 years ago, I got rid of a hundred or so tapes and had no trouble finding people who would take them off my hands. Now I'm not so sure. Does anybody want a bunch of old VHS tapes?

Actually there might not be so many this time. You see I'm having a problem sorting out what to throw out. They all have stuff on them. Last time it was easy - just get rid of all the old Star Trek & B5 tapes. But now it comes down to a case by case deal. Now there are easy ones where I have the piece of video in another format or I know that I'll never want to see it again. At the other end are things that I know I want to see again and can't get anywhere else - these I'll keep for conversion and even watch a few while I'm doing this exercise. But then, in the middle, there are a whole bunch of "I might want to watch these again". That is by far the biggest pile. I need more resolve because I sure need the shelf space.

Comments

[bluetyson.livejournal.com]

We still have videotapes, not really movie collectors at all, us. The only problem is, our VCR has gotten dodgy, so not too watchable. :)

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

Are you going to replace it? It seems like a lot of the "oh we don't have our VCR plugged in any more" crowd are in the same boat - their VCR started to play up and they just didn't bother replacing it.

[bluetyson.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that sounds like us (and all the old B5 and Star Trek tapes the spousal unit has, too).

Replace it? Probably not, I suppose, unless we needed a new dvd player (which currently is the old xbox), and there was a useful combo or something.

Or if someone gives one away. :)

[random-alex.livejournal.com]

We have a combo unit, because I *like* some of myold VHS and, until it becomes easy to tape to DVD, it's easier to tape shows onto VHS for school... oops, did I say that aloud?

Oh, and we just recently bought a record player, and have begun buying real records. Very nice!

[ratfan.livejournal.com]

My VCR refuses to pack it in so I still use it, mostly to record stuff in the remote chance there's anything on. I collect the odd movie from stephen_dedman when he gets the DVD for that one. Perhaps you could list what you're planning to get rid of. I wouldn't mind a copy of Pitch Black for instance; might have to get Stephen the DVD for his birthday to get my hands on that one...

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

"some" is a critical word there and for me too. The prospect of being able to transfer the VHS I still want to keep to a more useful format is imminent which has prompted the sorting.

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

My taped off TV copy of Pitch Black was long ago replaced by a DVD. Most of the stuff I'm looking at here was stuff that was taped off TV, so the stuff I'm getting rid of is really just the equivalent of blank tape. There is another piece of trauma ahead when I do the big clean out of the properly purchased pre-recorded tapes that I have.

[shrydar.livejournal.com]

We have about a hundred tapes of the Stuff We Taped While Living in England.

Ditching the things we could get on DVD was easy. As you say, it's all the case by case things that are hard. In the mean time, they're all degrading, and they weren't that good to begin with as we recorded double speed, and they're fiddly to transfer, slice and compress...

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, I forgot to mention the degrading as one of the drivers for a cleanup and upcoming format change. I have had to throw out a fair few tapes that shed oxide all over the heads. The head cleaner gets a bit of work. Interestingly, it isn't necessarily age related - some of the tapes are > 20 years old and still hold up while newer ones don't.

[ratfan.livejournal.com]

Sympathies there. I got rid of a lot of my recorded tapes when I realised I wasn't going to watch them again, mostly because the quality was awful. Reception at my last place was very bad until they got a proper aerial and a lot of my collection predated that time! B5, Buffy, Battlestar...

All I have now are a few movies, mostly acquired via Stephen! I'm sure I can get his copy of PB but as I said, a birthday bribe will be necessary :-)

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

I have a couple of old but precious tapes from the time before I had a proper arial where you can see the effects of the times where I was fiddling with the position of the indoor arial in order to improve the pretty fuzzy but just watchable picture. But I still want to keep the video because I cannot replace it - all the rest from those times are long gone.