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R.I.P. VHS
- Thread starter JamesMike
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Awwh, floods of nostalgia. Good memories. Remember when you'd pause it and it would do that weird shakey pause? Where you'd rewind straight after watching a film so you would be able to watch it from the start next time you'd pop it in?
When I was about eight or nine, my aunt gifted me her newly-purchased VHS of The Phantom Menace. I guess it hurt her to watch. After all, she saw Star Wars when it was first released in '77. How much must Jar Jar Binks have been a punch in the stomach?
Regardless, I watched it all the time. Not as good as the originals, of course — thankfully, I had enough cognitive thought back then to appreciate the difference — but boy, did I wear that tape right down.
The only copies of the original trilogy were tapes that my best friend's parents recorded for us from Sky (yep, Sky even existed back then. They were still pretty posh to have it, though). My aunt wouldn't let us have her official copies. She loved them too much
When I was about eight or nine, my aunt gifted me her newly-purchased VHS of The Phantom Menace. I guess it hurt her to watch. After all, she saw Star Wars when it was first released in '77. How much must Jar Jar Binks have been a punch in the stomach?
Regardless, I watched it all the time. Not as good as the originals, of course — thankfully, I had enough cognitive thought back then to appreciate the difference — but boy, did I wear that tape right down.
The only copies of the original trilogy were tapes that my best friend's parents recorded for us from Sky (yep, Sky even existed back then. They were still pretty posh to have it, though). My aunt wouldn't let us have her official copies. She loved them too much
It is the JVC HM-DT100U.
This VCR is, as far as I know, the only VCR with a built-in tuner sold in the USA that records everything that ATSC can offer, including 720p, 1080i, and even Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound. Of course this requires digital VHS tapes (D-VHS). Although you could also use SuperVHS tapes too, there would be a very short recording time in comparison. It has both analog and digital HD outputs, including optical surround and HDMI--incredibly rare on a VCR in 2005. AFAIK, only two VCRs had actual 5.1 surround output signals even though many more had surround-capable connectors.
Like most D-VHS players, it has Firewire in/out. This was an interesting feature and in fact I used it on the D-VHS I did have back in the day, the much cheaper JVC HM-30000U. You could hook it up to other digital tuners to make recordings from them--not just OTA either, but also some satellite tuners and I think even certain cable tuners. You could hook it up to a PC and copy tape recordings to MPEG2 files, hence offloading perfect digital copies to a spacious hard drive to free up tapes. Or, bizarrely, you could do the reverse (copy MPEG2 stream files from the PC to tape). You could hook it up to digital camcorders to make perfect digital copies either way, etc. etc.
It is also a very premium VCR that has JVC's best technology for picture quality. I can't remember all the features any more, but it has the best motors, tracking correction, frame correction, etc. It does 480p up-scaling for standard VHS tapes, similar to how "progressive scan" DVD players improved the picture for digital TVs. It even has calibration controls for tweaking various aspects of the picture, something I've never heard of on any VCR.
All of that is fairly unique, but by far the coolest feature was the digital archive navigation. The metadata for all of your recordings was kept in onboard memory on the VCR, with indexing on each tape. This is a bit hard to explain, but the VCR kept track of every show you recorded, including which tape it was on and where it was on that tape. So you could see your whole recorded library in a digital guide, kind of like a DVR. The tapes were numbered, so you would know which tape it was on. You could insert that tape, and the VCR would use a high-speed motor to fast forward to the exact point where the show would be and start it. Gone were the days of trying to write every show on the little label, or trying to keep track of which shows were on which tapes. Gone were the days of FF/RW manually to find where the show was on the tape.
It also bucked the trend of VCRs in the later years being made very flimsy and cheap. It was solidly built and made from good materials and good techniques. They had to--it cost $1500 in 2005, a time when people had stopped buying VCRs and were switching to DVDs and DVRs.
I have to admit that I hesitated to answer you in a thread where people have nostalgia for VCRs. These only come up on Ebay a couple of times a year and there are often just 1 or 2 bidders--and so I feared that I'd be adding additional bidders that would compete with me. But honestly, at this point I've given up on buying one and now only monitor them to marvel at how they've held their price. I have sold my D-VHS player and all of my last remaining D-Theater titles and D-VHS tapes. As neat and unique as it is, I'm simply not going to get back into VHS at this point.
I hope this was a good read for some people.
It is the JVC HM-DT100U.
View attachment 644006
This VCR is, as far as I know, the only VCR with a built-in tuner sold in the USA that records everything that ATSC can offer, including 720p, 1080i, and even Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound. Of course this requires digital VHS tapes (D-VHS). Although you could also use SuperVHS tapes too, there would be a very short recording time in comparison. It has both analog and digital HD outputs, including optical surround and HDMI--incredibly rare on a VCR in 2005. AFAIK, only two VCRs had actual 5.1 surround output signals even though many more had surround-capable connectors.
Like most D-VHS players, it has Firewire in/out. This was an interesting feature and in fact I used it on the D-VHS I did have back in the day, the much cheaper JVC HM-30000U. You could hook it up to other digital tuners to make recordings from them--not just OTA either, but also some satellite tuners and I think even certain cable tuners. You could hook it up to a PC and copy tape recordings to MPEG2 files, hence offloading perfect digital copies to a spacious hard drive to free up tapes. Or, bizarrely, you could do the reverse (copy MPEG2 stream files from the PC to tape). You could hook it up to digital camcorders to make perfect digital copies either way, etc. etc.
It is also a very premium VCR that has JVC's best technology for picture quality. I can't remember all the features any more, but it has the best motors, tracking correction, frame correction, etc. It does 480p up-scaling for standard VHS tapes, similar to how "progressive scan" DVD players improved the picture for digital TVs. It even has calibration controls for tweaking various aspects of the picture, something I've never heard of on any VCR.
All of that is fairly unique, but by far the coolest feature was the digital archive navigation. The metadata for all of your recordings was kept in onboard memory on the VCR, with indexing on each tape. This is a bit hard to explain, but the VCR kept track of every show you recorded, including which tape it was on and where it was on that tape. So you could see your whole recorded library in a digital guide, kind of like a DVR. The tapes were numbered, so you would know which tape it was on. You could insert that tape, and the VCR would use a high-speed motor to fast forward to the exact point where the show would be and start it. Gone were the days of trying to write every show on the little label, or trying to keep track of which shows were on which tapes. Gone were the days of FF/RW manually to find where the show was on the tape.
It also bucked the trend of VCRs in the later years being made very flimsy and cheap. It was solidly built and made from good materials and good techniques. They had to--it cost $1500 in 2005, a time when people had stopped buying VCRs and were switching to DVDs and DVRs.
I have to admit that I hesitated to answer you in a thread where people have nostalgia for VCRs. These only come up on Ebay a couple of times a year and there are often just 1 or 2 bidders--and so I feared that I'd be adding additional bidders that would compete with me. But honestly, at this point I've given up on buying one and now only monitor them to marvel at how they've held their price. I have sold my D-VHS player and all of my last remaining D-Theater titles and D-VHS tapes. As neat and unique as it is, I'm simply not going to get back into VHS at this point.
I hope this was a good read for some people.
Thanks for the reply! This is indeed a very impressive bridge between VCRs and the all-digital tech that replaced them. I wonder what the long-term quality of tapes, even digital recordings, is, though. My oldest VHS tapes are from the early 80s, and they still retain their quality (or as much as they had then). I also have audio tapes from the 60s that seem OK.
You obviously never listened to those audio tapes in the car. That used to kill mine.
This topic rekindled my interest in old TVs.
Check the Vintage Television and Video (and VCRs) area of the UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum – an amazingly active community.
Library didn't have it, and since the libraries here in town are all run by the same entity and have linked inventories, it was a bust.
I'm better off spending the money to buy one instead.. which may not be a bad idea, as I have some other tapes to go through, full of 80s cartoons. While I have most of them in a box set, or are available to be streamed, as boring and annoying as they were back then, there's a nostalgic demand for the commercials now, especially up on youtube. I could easily get those off, making for another project.
BL.
Heck, let me check for a box for this Sony we have, maybe you could just cover shipping[?] I hate to ship it in a non-original box, but I am the worst pack rat when it comes to saving things, so it's possible I might have it
True. My earliest audio recordings are 50 years old reel-to-reel tapes. A few years ago, I digitized many of them using a tape recorder that I bought on eBay. The audio quality was about the same as I remembered it. I didn't start using cassettes until a few years later. I eventually made many music compilations for driving. Those tapes took a beating from constant playing, rewinding, and heat exposure.
My wife was watching a VHS tape today while quilting. She has this little 14-inch TV with a built-in tape player that she refuses to part with.
I used to watch taped movies on a Hitachi VCR while hand-stitching bindings on quilts. Then one night a tape failed to eject... by then I was mostly watching movies on a laptop so that VCR still sits up there on a bookshelf wondering why life is passing it by. I dust it every week, keep forgetting to take it to the annual e-waste event at the landfill. Maybe I could get that tape out of there and watch a few old VHS tapes one more time, then take the whole lot and the device to the ewaste-recyle. First I'd have to see if the one remaining TV in the house even still works, if not then that goes to the recycling pile as well. All this is long overdue! My heirs would doubtless thank MacRumors for making this thread.
She refuses to part with it! Hell, she's no longer satisfied with the VHS player; now she wants cable attached to it.
She refuses to part with it! Hell, she's no longer satisfied with the VHS player; now she wants cable attached to it.
Oh dear. Translation: simulatenous option for VHS on the one TV and a nice DVR+newTV next to it. New entertainment console to hold everything sturdily enough to dismiss potential the Ring of Fire damage.
Should only run you about the cost of your next laptop. What price household harmony.
Meanwhile I rounded up all the commercial and homebrew tapes I could find. I never got as far as seeing if I could get the stuck tape out of the Hitachi though, much less drag a 13" TV out of a closet upstairs to see if it still works. Bottom line everything but the TV seems much much closer to the back door now..
Oh dear. Translation: simulatenous option for VHS on the one TV and a nice DVR+newTV next to it. New entertainment console to hold everything sturdily enough to dismiss potential the Ring of Fire damage.
Should only run you about the cost of your next laptop. What price household harmony.
Meanwhile I rounded up all the commercial and homebrew tapes I could find. I never got as far as seeing if I could get the stuck tape out of the Hitachi though, much less drag a 13" TV out of a closet upstairs to see if it still works. Bottom line everything but the TV seems much much closer to the back door now..
I offered to buy her a new 55" LCD with Blu-Ray and Internet. Nope. She doesn't want a new 55" LCD with Blu-Ray and Internet. She wants her 30-year-old 14" CRT and built-in VHS player and nothing else! It's even worse: she has an identical spare in storage in case this one dies!
Oh dear. Translation: simulatenous option for VHS on the one TV and a nice DVR+newTV next to it. New entertainment console to hold everything sturdily enough to dismiss potential the Ring of Fire damage.
Should only run you about the cost of your next laptop. What price household harmony.
Meanwhile I rounded up all the commercial and homebrew tapes I could find. I never got as far as seeing if I could get the stuck tape out of the Hitachi though, much less drag a 13" TV out of a closet upstairs to see if it still works. Bottom line everything but the TV seems much much closer to the back door now..
If you give me the model number of your Hitachi I might be to able help you get the tape,a friend taught me a lot about VHS tape machines.
Well you will laugh over this one: It is not a Hitachi. I guess the Hitachi caught an early flight to the next level... so okay, it's a Zenith, a VRA423.
It says across the face of the tape input slot speak-ez voice directed operating system
tbh I don't remember squat about this machine. Whatever I last said to it, it took offense.
You know, I may still have my old VHS deck buried somewhere in the attic at my parent's house. I should consider digging around for it, see if I can get it working.