VHS, DVD and Video Shops

[J4CKO]

Was just getting nostalgic, watched Natural Born Killers on Netflix and reminded me of getting it on VHS, Found my Lost Boys video in the loft the other day and cant bring myself to throw it away, purchased in the closing down sale of our local video shop "Movie Master Video" in about 1990, the name resurfaces as "Movie Master Taxis", as the former owner transferred into drivign a taxi, strange name for a Taxi firm !

Remember summer holiday days pedalling up to the video shop at the "Don Autopoint" in Handforth as it was called, a petrol station cum car repairs cum video shop, couple of quid in sweaty palms in anticipation of what delights we could find, would the lad that didnt care about age and certificates be on duty ? would Cobra be out yet, would there be any good horrors where dumb American girls get their knockers out ? we would then stock up on crisps, pop (Cherry Coke had just come out) and sweets/Chocolate then back to my mates house next door as he had a video and his mum had run off with another bloke and dad was never around due to work and womanising, many happy afternoons watching two or three films back to back, then get the films straight back for a bit of a discount as the owner knew us and knew we had them in the day and would bring them back as soon as they had been watched so he could rent them again, we were good customers !

Then there was Blockbusters, where I live now in Wilmslow, seems like two minutes ago being in there looking for a DVD for the evening, tub of Ben and Jerrys and rooting through the Xbox games.


I dont miss traipsing to get a DVD or video, I think the delivery via internet is much, much better, remember the "oh st I havent taken the Video back" dash to the shop, having to park and all that but it is part of our history, like fannying about with the tracking, like getting home for Rambo and realising the box had the fking Goonies in it instead ! 1985 was a good year for films, Weird Science for example, watched that twice, never forget that 928 smoking out of the var park.

[98elise]

I have litterally just dumped our last videos. We dumped the crap ones years ago, but kept the good ones on a box in the loft. Having a bit of a clear out this weekend we just agreed to dump the lot.

[Brigand]

I can remember my parents buying our first VHS player; no idea exactly when it was but it must have been late 80's or early 90's. There was a very small shop that rented videos and also sold a few VHS players. I remember seeing the poster for Die Hard 2 appear in the local Ritz video rental and asking my dad to rent it one weekend, and also regularly renting Megadrive games from there too. Pretty sure they were available for 48hr rentals so it was a case of get it Saturday morning, play all weekend then return after school on Monday.

I was renting DVD's from the local Blockbusters right up until the time they went bust. If I wasn't at the pub or going to the girlfriend's on a Friday night, I'd enjoy going into town, ordering a curry takeaway, and whilst it was cooking go to the supermarket for some beers, then Blockbuster for a 'serious' movie and a 'comedy' movie to watch that night.

Having everything on tap with the likes of Netflix is very useful, but it does take away some of the 'event' of getting a movie to watch for the night.

[wolfracesonic]

I remember my Dad buying a Sony (I think) C5 Betamax player and the first 2 films rented were Death Race 2000, my selection and he chose one of the Dirty Harry films. I invited my school friends round to watch it, (sans parents) we declared it crap part way through and watched the Dirty Harry one instead. Happy days!

[anonymous-user]

my dad used to sell amstrad video and tv combis, always broke.

when my video store shut down it had a sign blaming the internet.

i does miss the saturday night video ritual.

[Loyly]

Mentioning Cherry Coke, I remember when it came in a can like this. Must have been the mid 90's. It tasted better then.

[ChemicalChaos]

As nostalgic as I am about VHS, I've been slowly replacing my collection with the dvd equivalents. It just makes things so much easier, takes up less shelf space, and they won't deteriorate with time.
The only problem is those videos which were niche interest when made, and never got put on DVD (aircraft documentaries etc, before anyone gets the wrong idea!!). When I have some spare money floating around I might get them professionally copied, I gather such services exist.

[crankedup]

Keep your VHS and betemax et al in the loft. I can recall the old vynil records being chucked out, all old hat technology not worth keeping. Oh dear!!!!

[J4CKO]

The Spruce goose said:

my dad used to sell amstrad video and tv combis, always broke.

when my video store shut down it had a sign blaming the internet.

i does miss the saturday night video ritual.

Ah, Amstrad, had one of those, was cheaper and had more features than any of the others, shame it couldnt play tapes without unravelling them !

Sent it back, got a Sanyo that my parents then used for the next 20 years or so.

I got given a Top Loading Ferguson Videostar I think it was by my auntie, this was late eighties, was old then, used it for a week and it broke down, a mate knew a lad who repaired them so for £20 it got repaired, lasted a week and went tits up again, another £20 on it, worked for another week or two then broke again, I launched it from my bedroom window onto the path below, kind of like my own personal Nimrod project and I played David Cameron and the end and smashed fk out of it so it couldnt ever cost me any more, for £40 at the time, plus the time and petrol to drop it off and pick it up I could have got a decent Secondhand unit, as it was I went to Rumbelows in Stockport and signed on the dotted for a Nicam stereo top of the range Mitsubish, over £400 worth ! still have it in the loft, cant bear to tip it.

[750turbo]

crankedup said:

Keep your VHS and betemax et al in the loft. I can recall the old vynil records being chucked out, all old hat technology not worth keeping. Oh dear!!!!

Hahaha! So you think this vinyl thing will be resurrected in the future then?

I doubt it...



Still got all mine - thankfully! Lucky escape there!!!

[ChemicalChaos]

J4CKO said:

I got given a Top Loading Ferguson Videostar I think it was by my auntie, this was late eighties, was old then, used it for a week and it broke down, a mate knew a lad who repaired them so for £20 it got repaired, lasted a week and went tits up again, another £20 on it, worked for another week or two then broke again, I launched it from my bedroom window onto the path below, kind of like my own personal Nimrod project and I played David Cameron and the end and smashed fk out of it so it couldnt ever cost me any more, for £40 at the time, plus the time and petrol to drop it off and pick it up I could have got a decent Secondhand unit, as it was I went to Rumbelows in Stockport and signed on the dotted for a Nicam stereo top of the range Mitsubish, over £400 worth ! still have it in the loft, cant bear to tip it.

The quality of VHS units definitely went down in the last few years of the formats life. We had a super Panasonic one in 1996 that worked beautifully and in really good picture quality for 10 years, until it got donated to an old folks home when we replaced it with a "combi" dvd and VHS unit. That unit and the cheapo Argos one I ended up buying a few years later for something were both utterly dire in terms of picture quality and the weight/fit and finish/feel of the unit.

[Shakermaker]

I used to love cycling along to our local shop in the late 90s/early 00s to rent videos, and later, DVDs.

Capital Video was the one I used to frequent, in the parade of shops. The best bit was that, as a 13 year old boy, you could have a glance up at the top shelf stuff when Mrs Patel who ran it wasn't looking as she also ran the Indian restaurant next door with her husband and she was forever taking orders or shouting at the delivery drivers, as the two were linked through the back. So a quick browse at the 18 selection was enough for a bit of fun.

After that closed down they just expanded the Indian restaurant, and we had to change to a new place.

I think the last time I rented a DVD was 2011, from Blockbuster in town which closed down and became a trendy bike shop.

[Morningside]

ChemicalChaos said:

As nostalgic as I am about VHS, I've been slowly replacing my collection with the dvd equivalents. It just makes things so much easier, takes up less shelf space, and they won't deteriorate with time.
The only problem is those videos which were niche interest when made, and never got put on DVD (aircraft documentaries etc, before anyone gets the wrong idea!!). When I have some spare money floating around I might get them professionally copied, I gather such services exist.

Don't be too sure about about.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disc_rot

There was something special about placing your newly rented video into the poorly made JVC top loader with its almost archaic 'piano keys' controls. Later on have that special remote that was tethered via a long wire.

Then we all settled down to way Zombie Creeping Flesh. It almost seemed wrong and dirty to view these early Zombie films and like someone was watching. As the titles wobbled up the screen with that dreadful white noise static bar as you tackled the tracking control. Glitch followed glitch as the poor quality tape lost even more magnetic content to the rotating head.

Then finally there was that fear and heart pounding worry of ejecting the tape and finding all the contents still wrapped around the innards and trying to stuff it all back into the tape before returning it back to the store ready for the next punter.

[Mr Snrub]

750turbo said:

crankedup said:

Keep your VHS and betemax et al in the loft. I can recall the old vynil records being chucked out, all old hat technology not worth keeping. Oh dear!!!!

Hahaha! So you think this vinyl thing will be resurrected in the future then?

I doubt it...



Still got all mine - thankfully! Lucky escape there!!!

The difference is vinyl (one of those words which never looks like it's spelt correctly) does have advantages in sound quality over CDs and MP3s, hence why there's a market. VHS was one of those things that became obsolete overnight when DVDs arrived because the new format was a much higher picture quality, cheaper, easier to store, access, manufacture, more reliable and could be stuffed full of special features. So there's no reason it will ever make a comeback.

[crankedup]

Mr Snrub said:

750turbo said:

crankedup said:

Keep your VHS and betemax et al in the loft. I can recall the old vynil records being chucked out, all old hat technology not worth keeping. Oh dear!!!!

Hahaha! So you think this vinyl thing will be resurrected in the future then?

I doubt it...



Still got all mine - thankfully! Lucky escape there!!!

The difference is vinyl (one of those words which never looks like it's spelt correctly) does have advantages in sound quality over CDs and MP3s, hence why there's a market. VHS was one of those things that became obsolete overnight when DVDs arrived because the new format was a much higher picture quality, cheaper, easier to store, access, manufacture, more reliable and could be stuffed full of special features. So there's no reason it will ever make a comeback.

Your right, I was a little tongue in cheek tbh. Having said that some of the old digital stuff is now collectible, remember the early digital wrist watches. But yeah, you really wouldn't want betamax and vhs stuff clogging your loft. Then again some of the early radio and televisions are now collectible ?

[RizzoTheRat]

I've got a couple of big boxes of audio tapes in the loft, but the only tape player we now have is the crappy little radio cassette the Mrs keeps in the kitchen.

I've still got my old VHS player in the loft, but how long will TV's continue to have SCART sockets? I think the only non HDMI thing plugged in to ours is the Wii.

Mind you has anyone watched anything from VHS recently? VHS over PAL is apparently equivalent to 335x576 pixels, so about half the resolution of standard definition TV. I bet that looks st on a big telly.

[anonymous-user]

Loyly said:

Mentioning Cherry Coke, I remember when it came in a can like this. Must have been the mid 90's. It tasted better then.

Oh my god, that picture is nostalgic!!!

[ChemicalChaos]

RizzoTheRat said:

I've got a couple of big boxes of audio tapes in the loft, but the only tape player we now have is the crappy little radio cassette the Mrs keeps in the kitchen.

I've still got my old VHS player in the loft, but how long will TV's continue to have SCART sockets? I think the only non HDMI thing plugged in to ours is the Wii.

Mind you has anyone watched anything from VHS recently? VHS over PAL is apparently equivalent to 335x576 pixels, so about half the resolution of standard definition TV. I bet that looks st on a big telly.

Anything analogue running via scart looks awful on a modern HD tv, because the pixels don't divide up properly (who's idea was it to move to HD format without making it a multiple of analogue 576?). Be it a VHS or a vintage console like the PS2, your eyes hurt about about 2 minutes.
Luckily DVDs in 640x480 dont seem to be affected despite also not diving cleanly - perhaps due to modern equipment (ie an HDMI dvd player) automatically upscaling them.

[DoctorX]

Lots of nostalgia here. I remember all the small independent video rental shops who weren't very bothered about the certification - the first video me and my 11year old mates hired was The Exorcist. Also, they only had one copy of most films and the feeling of elation when the film you'd been trying to rent finally appeared on the shelf without that little red tag which signified it was on loan.

VideoPlus codes, Nicam stereo (always played through the crappy single speaker of whatever rented TV we had, but still it was good for boasting about to your mates), Amstrad remotes which you did the programming on before transmitting to the recorder, we had them all at some point.

[J4CKO]

There is something nostalgic about watching a VHS video on a CRT tv, for about 30 seconds, wouldnt swap it for 1080P though, that slur as the recording starts, Simon Bates telling you not to pirate, dynamic changes in pitch and the sound dropping out, trailers, watching a recording that was the wrong channel, started late or finished early either cos the programme ran over or the tap ran out, tapes with "DENISE'S DIRTY DANCING - DONT COPY OVER", buying blank tapes, those video cases shaped like books, buying vieo cabinets for Argos to proudly display your CHuck Norris collection.

As for Vinyl, meh, people rattle on about it but really it is a pain in the arse, it sounds alright but then so does a decent CD player or lossless MP3, Novelty for those who dont remember it and nostalgia for those that do, bit of fun but realistically its "resurgence" is a flash in the pan, its over if they are selling them in Sainsburys, it is no longer cool or edgy in that case.