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Author Topic: Which VHS Player To Buy?  (Read 2331 times)

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Offline persia

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Re: Which VHS Player To Buy?
« Reply #14 on: May 04, 2014, 07:23:35 PM »
I want one of these to go with it!!

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Offline commodorejohn

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Re: Which VHS Player To Buy?
« Reply #15 on: May 04, 2014, 08:54:29 PM »
Quote from: Iggy;763745
And yes, there are a lot of old releases on VHS that aren't available in other formats, but the playback is still pretty shabby and copying those isn't going to improve quality.
Yeah, but shabby is still a hell of a lot better than nothing.

Quote
Personally, I really dig the old TV shows that were shot on film (like the original Star Trek) since higher quality releases are merely a matter of remastering.
No question - but unfortunately, it's not like you can just go back and re-film shows that were shot on video. Again, do you want it in suboptimal quality, or not at all?
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Offline spirantho

Re: Which VHS Player To Buy?
« Reply #16 on: May 04, 2014, 09:24:33 PM »
I've never been a great fan of VHS - though I own a JVC S-VHS recorder which is a pretty good  machine. I've always preferred disk formats like LaserDisc (of course) and the mostly-forgotten CED format. There's some really odd stuff on them which have disappeared into history, and sometimes they're in a purer form (such as the Tom And Jerry cartoons which can't be found uncensored on DVD - on LaserDisc they're original with all politically incorrect jokes included (which are a sign of the time and shouldn't be erased from history), along with the original soundtracks). Not only that, but the instability of the picture, and the lack of digital fringing (unlike DVD) gives them a much more cinema-like feel.

If you want original Star Trek series, I'd say LaserDisc would be your best bet really for the closest to how they were meant to be.

I suddenly want to watch my CED of "The Ninja Mission" - the only Ninja film I've seen where the Ninjas are so awesome in their black clothing, they try to blend into the background... of a snowy scandinavian country.
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Offline Boot_WB

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Re: Which VHS Player To Buy?
« Reply #17 on: May 04, 2014, 09:33:30 PM »
Quote from: commodorejohn;763741
Also, as much as VHS suffers from low quality, DVD isn't that good either. It doesn't progressively degrade over time the way VHS does, but it does inflict craptastic MPEG-2 compression on the picture, and it just gets worse the more footage you try to squeeze onto one disc.


One of the first films I watched on my first ever DVD player was Fellowship of the Ring, and was instantly struck by the crappiness of the black gradient banding (it may even have been a single-disc rental DVD of the cinema release).

It's a long time since I owned a VCR though, and I don't miss them.
I did have a good (Toshiba iirc) one back in the day, but it ended up needing a head replacement and never made it through of surgery... horrible machines to try to service/repair.
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Offline commodorejohn

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Re: Which VHS Player To Buy?
« Reply #18 on: May 04, 2014, 09:44:30 PM »
Quote from: Boot_WB;763762
One of the first films I watched on my first ever DVD player was Fellowship of the Ring, and was instantly struck by the crappiness of the black gradient banding (it may even have been a single-disc rental DVD of the cinema release).
Yeah, that was the first time I noticed it, too - it baffles me that nobody thought this was an issue back then.
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Offline Iggy

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Re: Which VHS Player To Buy?
« Reply #19 on: May 04, 2014, 09:54:09 PM »
Quote from: spirantho;763761
I've never been a great fan of VHS - though I own a JVC S-VHS recorder which is a pretty good  machine. I've always preferred disk formats like LaserDisc (of course) and the mostly-forgotten CED format. There's some really odd stuff on them which have disappeared into history, and sometimes they're in a purer form (such as the Tom And Jerry cartoons which can't be found uncensored on DVD - on LaserDisc they're original with all politically incorrect jokes included (which are a sign of the time and shouldn't be erased from history), along with the original soundtracks). Not only that, but the instability of the picture, and the lack of digital fringing (unlike DVD) gives them a much more cinema-like feel.

If you want original Star Trek series, I'd say LaserDisc would be your best bet really for the closest to how they were meant to be.

I suddenly want to watch my CED of "The Ninja Mission" - the only Ninja film I've seen where the Ninjas are so awesome in their black clothing, they try to blend into the background... of a snowy scandinavian country.

CED videodiscs eh?
Forgotten?
Until now, I'd never heard of them.
I had to look it up.
Interesting mechanics.
Over time does the analog playback degrade?

While I am impressed with Laserdiscs, I'm happy to standardize on DVDs.
I have a Blu-Ray player, but those discs are harder to decrypt, and the higher resolution isn't necessary for some playback devices.
Heck, to occupy myself during periods of delay, I'll often playback video I've converted to lower resolutions on my cell phone.
In fact, no matter what else it might hold, my multimedia folder always has a copy of the Stooge's "Disorder In The Court".
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Offline gertsy

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Re: Which VHS Player To Buy?
« Reply #20 on: May 05, 2014, 09:03:43 AM »
Quote from: Boot_WB;763762
One of the first films I watched on my first ever DVD player was Fellowship of the Ring, and was instantly struck by the crappiness of the black gradient banding (it may even have been a single-disc rental DVD of the cinema release).
...
.


Nup. It was a crap conversion. The scenes in Moria looked over-saturated and it made the effects look mediocre. BluRay theatrical looks great however.

All our home movie VHS stuff is converted to digital and backed up on DVD at high quality. Our commercial VHS movies were downloaded from the internet when our last VHS recorder died. With the Video cassette inserts kept for the DVD case.
 

Offline AAACHIPSET

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Re: Which VHS Player To Buy?
« Reply #21 on: May 05, 2014, 12:28:51 PM »
Stuff  stepanie  in the incinerator??
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Offline Lurch

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Re: Which VHS Player To Buy?
« Reply #22 on: May 05, 2014, 07:20:35 PM »
Quote from: Astral;763725
Who wants to play games at 32 colours, at 640 x 512 resolution, with 4 channel stereo sound, running at 7mhz, with a 1 button joystick, from a slow old floppy disk drive? ;)


At least the games didn't chew their tape or their video quality didn't degrade the more times you played them. Only downside was that floppy disks would fail after awhile, WHDLoad to the rescue. :)
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Offline tone007

Re: Which VHS Player To Buy?
« Reply #23 on: May 05, 2014, 07:24:39 PM »
Quote from: Iggy;763764
CED videodiscs eh?
Forgotten?
Until now, I'd never heard of them.
I had to look it up.
Interesting mechanics.
Over time does the analog playback degrade?


It does, and the original quality is worse than VHS.

I have a large collection of these and a couple of players.
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Offline commodorejohn

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Re: Which VHS Player To Buy?
« Reply #24 on: May 05, 2014, 07:55:01 PM »
I've been running into a lot of CEDs at garage/estate sales lately. I've kinda half-considered grabbing a few (there's a pawn shop an hour or so down the road that has a player,) but if I want nifty analogue home video formats, I've already got a cassette deck and a LD player...
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Offline Boot_WB

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Re: Which VHS Player To Buy?
« Reply #25 on: May 05, 2014, 08:21:18 PM »
Quote from: gertsy;763792
Nup. It was a crap conversion. The scenes in Moria looked over-saturated and it made the effects look mediocre. BluRay theatrical looks great however.

No dispute there, and I wasn't saying that DVD is intrinsically worse than VHS, however that's my lasting impression of DVD (as the bright shiny uncorruptable future that replaced VHS). A little unfair to DVD perhaps given that it was a ~3 hour action movie that really needed to be high bitrate crammed onto a single disc.

Exactly the same pros and cons as digital storage vs Vinyl when it comes down to it: Sacrificing depth and texture for a more stable storage/playback medium.
« Last Edit: May 05, 2014, 08:26:55 PM by Boot_WB »
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Offline Iggy

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Re: Which VHS Player To Buy?
« Reply #26 on: May 05, 2014, 08:24:06 PM »
I think I gave up on "neat" alternate formats with the eight track tape player (I still have a few of those tapes).
They almost suckered me into CD-i with its 68K based processor and its modified OS-9 operating system, but man was the picture quality substandard.

If the picture quality of CED is sub-VHS, its amazing any of the players or discs have survived.

I hope those rare VHS releases all get copied.
I can foresee a day when, even though millions of the players were produced, finding a functional VHS deck may be difficult.
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Offline spirantho

Re: Which VHS Player To Buy?
« Reply #27 on: May 05, 2014, 08:29:18 PM »
CEDs are a better quality format than VHS was at the time. Of course VHS was active until the end of the century, whereas CED technology stopped in about 1985.
At the time, though, CED was definitely ahead with its true stereo sound and better picture to boot.
A CED disk should last longer than a VHS tape because it's stored physically rather than magnetically - but just like with vinyl, you need to be sure they're stored correctly in proper temperature and above all vertically. Many times you'll find they've been stored horizontally and because they're so heavy, the weight of the top of the stack will crush those on the bottom.
I like CED - if you look after the discs, they can give surprisingly good video and audio. Plus, they have character - I've never felt the same about VHS.
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Offline Iggy

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Re: Which VHS Player To Buy?
« Reply #28 on: May 05, 2014, 08:38:37 PM »
Well, anything that doesn't have to be re-winded has my vote.
BTW - Thanks for the info.
I hate when I've missed something.
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Offline XDelusion

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Re: Which VHS Player To Buy?
« Reply #29 from previous page: May 05, 2014, 09:14:27 PM »
Quote from: Iggy;763709
I have a old 4 head VCR I bought several years ago that has never been used (I'd already moved to DVD), but I threw out every VHS tape I have (they really suck).
Funny, I play rentals in the Bluray player, but I don't buy that format.

Can anybody give me a good reason to keep using older video storage devices?


And wouldn't you know, some VHS tapes are actually rising in value. I've had a few that were worth $20 and up. Then those that don't ever cross over to DVD (I.E. The Quest (1986)) I transfer to DVD and sell on Ebay. :)
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