R.I.P. VHS?

[Raffine]

According to this story in the L.A. Times the age of VHS is "officially" over:

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-vhs-tapes22-2008dec22,0,5852342.story

The good news is it looks like you can get a VHS copy of THE MAN WITH THE SCREAMING BRAIN really, really cheap. 

I still have several boxes of VHS tapes, mostly movies that haven't been (and possibly will never will be) released on DVD. I guess I need to transfer the ones I really want to keep, like ISLAND OF THE LOST SOULS, to DVD-R, or something.   

[CheezeFlixz]

I started converting my old VHS to DVD long ago, VHS just looses quality over time and it's bulky. I guess I gave away or tossed a few 100 last year alone. There are a few places that still sale VHS but they are getting to be far and few between, they are going the way of the 8mm movies, vinyl record's, 8-track's and cassette tape's.
Give it time, some day not far off the DVD will be a relic of yesteryear. 

[Raffine]

I recently moved back to Nashville and tossed/gave away probably a 100 or so tapes I had moved around several times over the years. Most of them were movies or programs I had recorded back in the 80s and 90s and had long ago replaced with DVD. About the only nostalgia factor associate with them were some of the commercials, but I decided I'm not that sentimental about some 1988 local store ads from Montgomery, AL.

The ones for A&M Furniture Mart featuring Super Burrhead Jones fightin' the mean ol' Credit Monster were pretty funny though...

[CheezeFlixz]

I had a bunch of VHS tapes recorded from the TV (way wasn't this illegal and DVD's are? anywho) and they had old commercials on them and being in a small town I knew most of the people on them so sometimes I'd burn a copy of the commercial and send it them with the question "What happened? You got old!" All in good fun, most of those on local TV have long since moved on, ironically to Nashville since it's the closest major market.
I think most of our local news is shot with a cell phone camera and micro cassette recorder (they're saving up for a Handicam), court room drawing on done on a etch-a-sketch.

Amy Watson started out here ... she's in Ch. 5 now in Nashville. Few others too, I can't remember now.
http://www.newschannel5.com/Global/story.asp?S=6074239

[Jack]

I still buy VHS tapes occasionally.  There's about a gazillion of them available from the sellers on Amazon.  There's quite a bit of stuff that was never released on DVD, or maybe it's a movie that sounds sort of interesting (but I know it will probably suck) and they want $20 for the DVD or I can get a new VHS copy of it for $2.

I transferred a whole pile of stuff from VHS to DVD+RW, four boxes of tapes under the stairs, plus two or three shelves of them left to work through.  If it's a movie I really like, I'll just buy the DVD, but there's a lot of stuff that isn't worth spending the money on, so I just transfer it from the tape.

[Torgo]

I still occassionally buy some stuff on VHS, mostly really old stuff that hasn't been released on DVD for some reason. I then just transfer it to a DVD-R instead of watching the actual tape.

[Trevor]

I think most of our local news is shot with a cell phone camera and micro cassette recorder (they're saving up for a Handicam), court room drawing on done on a etch-a-sketch.

[BTM]

I still have several boxes of VHS tapes, mostly movies that haven't been (and possibly will never will be) released on DVD. I guess I need to transfer the ones I really want to keep, like ISLAND OF THE LOST SOULS, to DVD-R, or something.   

Out of nutty curiosity, most of you guys who do transfer from VHS to DVD-R, do you use one of those VCR/DVD recorder combo things, or do you using a cable that transfers the image from the TV directly to the computer and record it that way?

Getting something to copy some of my old tapes has been on my "to do" list for awhile, but I haven't had too much money.  Although, I DID recently get a new DVD/CD-ROM recorder drive for my computer, so maybe if there's a cheap way to hook my TV up, I'll try it that way...

Like everyone else, most of the VHS I've got are stuff I've collected before getting a DVD player.  Some of them are things that haven't been released on DVD (movies) and even got a few TV shows that still aren't on DVD.  Others are on DVD, just haven't gotten around to buying them.  Updating my ENTIRE collection would be a LOT of dough..

Course, anyone starting to think maybe all of us watch too much TV to begin with?  :)

[Jack]

For transferring VHS to DVD, I use a Toshiba D-R400 DVD recorder, which I guess has been replaced by the D-R410 ($100 at Amazon).  I've been using it for about a year now and have recorded a huge pile of stuff on it, never had any problems at all.  You'll also need a "Digital Video Stabilizer" available here:  http://www.qualitekindustries.com/noname.html to allow you to copy tapes with copy protection.  I've got the $25 model which works fine. 

[CheezeFlixz]

Out of nutty curiosity, most of you guys who do transfer from VHS to DVD-R, do you use one of those VCR/DVD recorder combo things, or do you using a cable that transfers the image from the TV directly to the computer and record it that way?

I'm using a Panasonic DMR ES45VS so far I've transferred a few 100 VHS tapes and my wife is endlessly converting courtroom VHS tapes to DVD and it still works greats. You can use it as a DVR too, set the timer and go to bed.

[BTM]

I'm using a Panasonic DMR ES45VS so far I've transferred a few 100 VHS tapes and my wife is endlessly converting courtroom VHS tapes to DVD and it still works greats. You can use it as a DVR too, set the timer and go to bed.

Oh cool.

Courtroom tapes?  Is your wife a lawyer?

[CheezeFlixz]

I'm using a Panasonic DMR ES45VS so far I've transferred a few 100 VHS tapes and my wife is endlessly converting courtroom VHS tapes to DVD and it still works greats. You can use it as a DVR too, set the timer and go to bed.

Oh cool.

Courtroom tapes?  Is your wife a lawyer?

Yes ... now you know why I'm grumpy and argue.

[Raffine]

Does anyone every run into 'copy protection' issues when dubbing old VHS to DVD? I know several of the tapes I'd like to tranfer are from Universal/MCA (particularly some Paramount horrors like ISLAND OF LOST SOULS and MURDERS IN THE ZOO that are not likely to see DVD releases due to rights issues), who's tapes were infamous for including some serious copy protection coding.

I remember some folks couldn't even play these tapes on their older VHS players due to copy protection issues.

[CheezeFlixz]

Does anyone every run into 'copy protection' issues when dubbing old VHS to DVD? I know several of the tapes I'd like to tranfer are from Universal/MCA (particularly some Paramount horrors like ISLAND OF LOST SOULS and MURDERS IN THE ZOO that are not likely to see DVD releases due to rights issues), who's tapes were infamous for including some serious copy protection coding.

I remember some folks couldn't even play these tapes on their older VHS players due to copy protection issues.

So far I never have had a problem with Microvison (I think that's what they called it.) Everything I've tried to copy has copied, crappy image and all.

[Torgo]

Does anyone every run into 'copy protection' issues when dubbing old VHS to DVD? I know several of the tapes I'd like to tranfer are from Universal/MCA (particularly some Paramount horrors like ISLAND OF LOST SOULS and MURDERS IN THE ZOO that are not likely to see DVD releases due to rights issues), who's tapes were infamous for including some serious copy protection coding.

I remember some folks couldn't even play these tapes on their older VHS players due to copy protection issues.

The only time I've ran into that was when I tried to transfer my VHS copy of Phantasm 2 to a DVD-R.  But a friend of mine was able to download a copy of it from the Region 2 DVD release of it but he converted it to play on a Region 1 player.