Do You Like to Watch Bad Movies......

[Archivist]

I have scads of VHS tapes but I haven't touched them for at least six or seven years.  I watch everything on DVD now, although I'm planning to slowly transfer all of the tapes into a DVD HDD recorder, output them into DVD's, then rip those DVD's to an external harddrive.  A bit of a long path, but I'll have DVD and HDD backups, and I'll be able to watch with impunity!

I do sometimes think nostalgically of the VHS days.

Mind you, a friend once asked me to copy some VHS tapes for him.  One of them was an ex-rental that was so dirty it messed up the head of the VHS recorder!  It took about three cleans before the playback was clear again.  When I get my VHS transfer project going I will have to stock up on the head cleaning equipment.  That is something I do NOT remember fondly about VHS.

[The Gravekeeper]

DVD both because the video quality is generally better and because I haven't had a VCR since my parents' finally decided to die after about 5 years of being temperamental.

And yes, I miss the video rental glory days. I go to the cult movie rental place in my home city because, unlike Netflix, I can chat with the owner about movies and ask him to pick out some I've never heard of that I'll probably like. Okay, Netflix can sort of do that, but Netflix can't disregard something based on personal taste and painfully low quality. You need a human somewhere along the line to make decisions based on something that subjective.

[voltron]

Like others have said, VHS tapes come with a lot of nostalgia, but the quality of DVDs and other s**t like extras, trailers, etc., is cool. I don't think one is better than the other. Does anyone here think Blu-ray will last?

[claws]

I got rid off my VCRs and VHS collection in the late 1990s when I made the switch to DVD. The tapes took up way too much space anyway.
I loved watching bad movies on VHS as much as I love watching bad movies on DVD now. But I would never purchase another VCR and start collecting tapes again.
On a somewhat similar note, and I'm probably in the minority here, but I feel the same way about vinyl. I was so glad when the CD was introduced so I could enjoy my favorite music without pops, hiss and whatever abnormalities.

[Archivist]

Space, yes.  I have about three times as many DVD's as I do VHS tapes.  But the tapes take up more room than the DVD's.

Something I miss about VHS was the trailers.  I always liked seeing the trailers, as they were usually of the same genre as the feature.  It created a kind of cultural snapshot for the time that the film was made, as you could see some of the other movies that were released around the same time.  I loved hiring something like Cyborg Cop and seeing five trailers for similarly trashy scifi actioners, or a bad Don 'The Dragon' Wilson movie that previewed another three of his B-grade kickboxing stunners.

For quite a few years they didn't put trailers on DVD's, and I missed that a lot.  I felt that the DVD release without trailers kind of left the movie adrift, with no context to give it 'weight', if that makes sense.

[Olivia Bauer]

It's not the quality of the film that counts. Even on Blu-Ray a s**tty film can still be funny. I've seen HD files of Ed Wood's Plan 9 From Outer Space, is it any less stupid and poorly shot because it doesn't have any film grain? No, not really.

[Criswell]

It's not the quality of the film that counts. Even on Blu-Ray a s**tty film can still be funny. I've seen HD files of Ed Wood's Plan 9 From Outer Space, is it any less stupid and poorly shot because it doesn't have any film grain? No, not really.

Actually on most older films in HD the Restoration people try to leave the grain structure of the movie intact. Containing film grain or not has nothing to do with HD.

[Olivia Bauer]

It's not the quality of the film that counts. Even on Blu-Ray a s**tty film can still be funny. I've seen HD files of Ed Wood's Plan 9 From Outer Space, is it any less stupid and poorly shot because it doesn't have any film grain? No, not really.

Actually on most older films in HD the Restoration people try to leave the grain structure of the movie intact. Containing film grain or not has nothing to do with HD.

I was fishing my head for examples.

[tracy]

I'll take either one since a truly fun bad movie is what I'm really looking for. Of course the extra material on some of the DVDs is interesting as well.

[Hammock Rider]

I perfer the picture quality of DVD's but I find Vhs tapes more fun!

 This sums it up for me.

[JPickettIII]

I know that this is most likely a really dumb question, but I just gotta ask it.

For me, I personally approve of both formats. With DVD's, the quality is better and the special features, even if just a trailer, are pretty awesome. With VHS, I find that especially with older movies from the 80's, the grainy quality gives the film a warm nostalgic charm that makes one reminisce of the old video rental glory days.

Which do you like?

Not a dumb question.  You hit the nail on the head for me.  DVDs provide better quality, but the will always be a special place in my heart for VHS tapes.   

Later,

John

[JaseSF]

I prefer watching stuff on DVD...better picture quality, more options, extras, etc... but at the same time, I still have a ton of stuff recorded on VHS as well like Horror host shows, movie with introductions from different people, old wrestling, etc.. Blu-Rays as I understand have an even better shelf life than DVDs and the newer ones are supposed to be better equipped to deal with handler use.

[ShlockHorrorQueen]

My trusty vhs player decided to quit working so right now my only option is dvd, which I generally prefer although I too have a soft spot for the nostalgia of the vhs. Same reason why now in the age of iPods and music downloads I´m on a hunt for a cassette player and some nice 80´s hair metal albums as cassettes.

And I´m new here so HI! why I´ve never found this place before I don´t know!