I want to get a VHS/DVD recorder combi because there is a lot of VHS I want to transfer onto DVD. I have got some classic football matches, documentaries etc.. that I would like to convert.
I bought a DVD recorder in 2005, with something like that in mind (record from a separate VHS deck onto DVD).
In eight years I've recorded exactly two DVDs, neither of them from VHS (instead from the HDD of the DVD recorder where most of the action happens).
It's easier to just keep the collection of VHS tapes and a player to view them on. Even easier, sometimes, to just buy a DVD version of some movie I'd recorded on VHS, in much better quality and without adverts.
Yep, I have quite a few pre-recorded films and TV shows on VHS too, and two old VCRs to watch them on...mostly stuff that the inventory-holders haven't yet (maybe never will!) flashed onto DVD.
I remember when dvd recorders came out and I'd ask my mum to record something for me, she'd always ask "Now have you put it in the right place in case I record over something else?". I explained on about three occasions that it didn't matter on a dvd disc and that you didn't need to find a blank part of the disc to record on.
Mum just wouldn't believe me! In the end I'd just say "Yes it's in the right place", for a quiet life!
Sad that all these VHS tapes have been abandoned. DVD will go the same way eventually, as the average tv screen resolution increases, and DVD picture quality becomes unacceptable to the masses. I'll probably be dead ot thereabouts by the time that happens, though.
My VCR clonked out a few years ago and have around 40 odd tapes to convert but just havent got round to or been able to afford to get a DVD recorder to get converting. I used to tape stuff all the way up until around 2008, since then I just rely on catch up TV or torrents. Youtube of late has been very good for old TV shows that have never been put onto DVD
I have a few VHS tapes of some films I like, and I've got a VCR to play them on with my box CRT TV.I got that TV as a kid and it still works fine to this day so I see no reason to get rid of it, downside is the screen is not v big.
Don't even record things on DVD now. My local shop had some in stock and I jokingly suggested that such historical things should perhaps be donated to the Geffrey Museum down the road.
I have literally hundreds of them, blank ones with stuff taped from TV alone, containing well over a thousand films (never mind official pre-recorded tapes), and other assorted bits and bobs, taped from the period 1992 to about 2005, when I finally gave in to DVD-R recording. I am trying as best I can to whittle this down to a bare minimum selection to transfer onto digital media. The trouble is I have so many movies from the black-and-white, 'academy ratio' (ie 1.37:1) era, that the PQ on these is not in many cases (given the proliferation of budget labels and so forth) going to be that much worse than on official DVD releases, and I would like to keep as many older titles as possible but do not necessarily think it worth paying to replace them with official DVDs.
Next I have to think about academy ratio films which are in colour, and assess whether the film is meaningful enough to me that the image degradation is worth retaining and transferring the VHS copy to digital. Again, the trouble is that in many cases, these recordings are from the days when a much wider range of films were shown on UK TV than is the case now, and I have many titles which are unlikely to ever see another screening, and if they are on DVD it's a daunting outlay to replace them all. Also, experience has taught me that buying copies of older colour films on DVD is often a gamble, as many are just put out cheaply using inferior elements that in some cases are worse than my VHS copies.
Finally, there those obscurities (of which many, many were shown on terrestrial TV in the 'good old days' when their film libraries were so much more diverse than now) that may not be in their original aspect ratio, and may not have the best colour etc, but are scarce to find on DVD at all and even if they can be, are prohibitively expensive.
I love films. As a teenager, for many years I was watching literally 3 a day, more at weekends, and a significant portion of the remaining tapes are from this period. I have seriously attempted to 'weed out' stuff - I junked a couple of hundred tapes I reckon before moving house a few months ago, as well as another 60 or so in the past couple of weeks. It's just knuckling down to the task now of looking at each title individually, asking myself if I would ever genuinely watch it again and if so, are there superior releases now available and at what cost etc. Daunting stuff!
The kids still watch them. They don't care whether it's VHS, DVD or PVR - they'll just watch whatever content they want on whatever format it's on - I cringe at the quality (though the worst quality by far are two DVDs: The Mister Men and The Flumps). I guess the VCR will go when our youngest child outgrows the "oldest" tapes we have.
Old home movies (and a spare VCR) are kept separately for when I get around to copying them onto PC/DVD.
Grabid Rannies (great name, btw!). I have picked up a few really shocking looking old films and tv series on DVD. Ones that spring to mind are 'Scarlet Street', 'Charade', and the early black white series of Steptoe and Son. I would certainly avoid anything on the Elstree Hill label.
Some of the black and white episodes of Callan look pretty grotty, too, but I can put up with that because it's such a great series. Doubt if that'll ever be released on Blu-ray. Btw, if you happen to stumble across any of the missing episodes of Callan among your VHS recordings, please see about getting them released!
Grabid Rannies (great name, btw!). I have picked up a few really shocking looking old films and tv series on DVD. Ones that spring to mind are 'Scarlet Street', 'Charade', and the early black white series of Steptoe and Son. I would certainly avoid anything on the Elstree Hill label.
Some of the black and white episodes of Callan look pretty grotty, too, but I can put up with that because it's such a great series. Doubt if that'll ever be released on Blu-ray. Btw, if you happen to stumble across any of the missing episodes of Callan among your VHS recordings, please see about getting them released!
Lol, thanks for you post it was nice to read, I would do only I know I don't have any Callan
What I can tell you though is that Charade is available in a near-fantastic version, on Blu-Ray from Park Circus, and that Scarlet Street is available as good as it's ever going to get on PAL format on the Odeon Entertainment 'Best Of Cinema Collection' version. It's amazing how these 'big studio' films somehow sank into the public domain at one point and have henceforth been released ad infinitum in stinking crap versions. I was particularly dismayed with Scarlet Street, having first seen it in a 'good' version on BBC2 in the 90s, to find that their last screening was a horrendously unwatchable public domain affair. I was aghast at how there was no 'quality control' bod saying 'hang on, we just can't do this to the GBP, it ain't right'!! As I say, the above DVD is not 'perfect' in this era of digitally pristine expectation, but it is certainly way, way above average for this title - and for quite a few legitimate studio DVDs of other classic titles, come to that - and if like me you can't be doing with Region 1/NTSC 'judder' when watching a disc, it's the best way to go (having arrived in my postbox a few days ago, BTW )
Yeah, I wasn't wise to the ways of dodgy DVDs back then. I assumed they would be of better quality simply because they were DVDs, which of course is nonsense. Another example is 'The Quiet Man', one of my all time favourites. It has been restored now, but the original DVD version is another absolute shocker.
I always check online for different versions of films and tv series before buying anything now. Sometimes there have been three or more versions of the same film/programme released. 'Hornblower', for example. Released in a muddy looking 4:3 ratio, then in a mix of 14:9 and 16:9, then as a great looking restored 16:9 version.
Our family VCR gave up the ghost some time in the mid 90s and since we were then poor, and I afterwards went through a long period of poverty, I never got another one.
I saved lots of taped stuff - but by the time I'd got round to realising you could transfer it from VHS, they turned out to be all rotted and mouldy when I got them out from the loft etc to look at them. So I had no choice but to throw them all out.
However it was all stuff which I'd outgrown or was already available on DVD, so I wasn't bothered.
My parents both got around to getting new VCRS and they still watch stuff on them sometimes.
One of my friends also has a treasured collection of VCR movies she watches and re watches. I have offered to give her my old DVD player, but she's not interested.
As to home video I used Beta HiFi for recording until I got a Digital Terrestrial PVR.
For films the gap from end of Beta rentals to the DVD era was only 4 or so years. Slightly too short to give me a chance to get Laserdisc. (low on money at that time)
re. VHS to DVD, and DVD to Blu-ray. Most stuff on VHS has been released on DVD, but I really can't see a lot of that making it's way onto Blu-ray. The Blu-ray tv series catalogue looks particularly thin.
Do you think that's the case, or will stuff like Dad's Army and The Rockford Files eventually make it onto Blu?
re. VHS to DVD, and DVD to Blu-ray. Most stuff on VHS has been released on DVD, but I really can't see a lot of that making it's way onto Blu-ray. The Blu-ray tv series catalogue looks particularly thin.
Do you think that's the case, or will stuff like Dad's Army and The Rockford Files eventually make it onto Blu?
There's not much point for old TV stuff, as all Blu-Ray players will play DVDs, and you can't make an old SD show HD!
I only use VHS tapes when I'm reaching out from beyond the grave to wreak my hideous revenge. To be honest, it's getting to be a bit of a problem now people aren't using them as much.
There's not much point for old TV stuff, as all Blu-Ray players will play DVDs, and you can't make an old SD show HD!
Stuff shot on video, no. But if you go back a bit further, then quite a lot of TV shows were shot on film, often 35mm, which can be worthwhile converting to HD.
With Dad's Army, only some of that seemed to be filmed (and probably in 16mm).
But IMDB tells me that Rockford Files was filmed in 35mm, so a HD release is feasible (if the original film still exists, and there is demand).
There's not much point for old TV stuff, as all Blu-Ray players will play DVDs, and you can't make an old SD show HD!
A couple of my favourite tv shows have actually made it onto Blu-ray. 'Robin of Sherwood' and 'Sharpe', but I can't afford to buy them! Most of them haven't made it, though.
Comments
I bought a DVD recorder in 2005, with something like that in mind (record from a separate VHS deck onto DVD).
In eight years I've recorded exactly two DVDs, neither of them from VHS (instead from the HDD of the DVD recorder where most of the action happens).
It's easier to just keep the collection of VHS tapes and a player to view them on. Even easier, sometimes, to just buy a DVD version of some movie I'd recorded on VHS, in much better quality and without adverts.
Same here, don't want to part with any of them.
Mum just wouldn't believe me! In the end I'd just say "Yes it's in the right place", for a quiet life!
Next I have to think about academy ratio films which are in colour, and assess whether the film is meaningful enough to me that the image degradation is worth retaining and transferring the VHS copy to digital. Again, the trouble is that in many cases, these recordings are from the days when a much wider range of films were shown on UK TV than is the case now, and I have many titles which are unlikely to ever see another screening, and if they are on DVD it's a daunting outlay to replace them all. Also, experience has taught me that buying copies of older colour films on DVD is often a gamble, as many are just put out cheaply using inferior elements that in some cases are worse than my VHS copies.
Finally, there those obscurities (of which many, many were shown on terrestrial TV in the 'good old days' when their film libraries were so much more diverse than now) that may not be in their original aspect ratio, and may not have the best colour etc, but are scarce to find on DVD at all and even if they can be, are prohibitively expensive.
I love films. As a teenager, for many years I was watching literally 3 a day, more at weekends, and a significant portion of the remaining tapes are from this period. I have seriously attempted to 'weed out' stuff - I junked a couple of hundred tapes I reckon before moving house a few months ago, as well as another 60 or so in the past couple of weeks. It's just knuckling down to the task now of looking at each title individually, asking myself if I would ever genuinely watch it again and if so, are there superior releases now available and at what cost etc. Daunting stuff!
Old home movies (and a spare VCR) are kept separately for when I get around to copying them onto PC/DVD.
Cheers,
David.
Some of the black and white episodes of Callan look pretty grotty, too, but I can put up with that because it's such a great series. Doubt if that'll ever be released on Blu-ray. Btw, if you happen to stumble across any of the missing episodes of Callan among your VHS recordings, please see about getting them released!
Lol, thanks for you post it was nice to read, I would do only I know I don't have any Callan
What I can tell you though is that Charade is available in a near-fantastic version, on Blu-Ray from Park Circus, and that Scarlet Street is available as good as it's ever going to get on PAL format on the Odeon Entertainment 'Best Of Cinema Collection' version. It's amazing how these 'big studio' films somehow sank into the public domain at one point and have henceforth been released ad infinitum in stinking crap versions. I was particularly dismayed with Scarlet Street, having first seen it in a 'good' version on BBC2 in the 90s, to find that their last screening was a horrendously unwatchable public domain affair. I was aghast at how there was no 'quality control' bod saying 'hang on, we just can't do this to the GBP, it ain't right'!! As I say, the above DVD is not 'perfect' in this era of digitally pristine expectation, but it is certainly way, way above average for this title - and for quite a few legitimate studio DVDs of other classic titles, come to that - and if like me you can't be doing with Region 1/NTSC 'judder' when watching a disc, it's the best way to go (having arrived in my postbox a few days ago, BTW
I always check online for different versions of films and tv series before buying anything now. Sometimes there have been three or more versions of the same film/programme released. 'Hornblower', for example. Released in a muddy looking 4:3 ratio, then in a mix of 14:9 and 16:9, then as a great looking restored 16:9 version.
I saved lots of taped stuff - but by the time I'd got round to realising you could transfer it from VHS, they turned out to be all rotted and mouldy when I got them out from the loft etc to look at them. So I had no choice but to throw them all out.
However it was all stuff which I'd outgrown or was already available on DVD, so I wasn't bothered.
My parents both got around to getting new VCRS and they still watch stuff on them sometimes.
One of my friends also has a treasured collection of VCR movies she watches and re watches. I have offered to give her my old DVD player, but she's not interested.
As to home video I used Beta HiFi for recording until I got a Digital Terrestrial PVR.
For films the gap from end of Beta rentals to the DVD era was only 4 or so years. Slightly too short to give me a chance to get Laserdisc. (low on money at that time)
I still remember renting great films like Terminator, Alien, and the like. And when HiFi came out plugging the VCR into the hifi.
When DVDs were released in 1995, the humble VHS was 19 years old. Of course, next year, the humble DVD will be 19 years old!
Do you think that's the case, or will stuff like Dad's Army and The Rockford Files eventually make it onto Blu?
There's not much point for old TV stuff, as all Blu-Ray players will play DVDs, and you can't make an old SD show HD!
Stuff shot on video, no. But if you go back a bit further, then quite a lot of TV shows were shot on film, often 35mm, which can be worthwhile converting to HD.
With Dad's Army, only some of that seemed to be filmed (and probably in 16mm).
But IMDB tells me that Rockford Files was filmed in 35mm, so a HD release is feasible (if the original film still exists, and there is demand).
A couple of my favourite tv shows have actually made it onto Blu-ray. 'Robin of Sherwood' and 'Sharpe', but I can't afford to buy them! Most of them haven't made it, though.