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VCR's in general

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  • frame
    replied
    Re: VCR's in general

    Originally posted by Snakeystew View Post
    Maybe it's just me, but I don't really see that much difference between video and dvd - and yes, I have a massive television. Of course my older videos are suffering from some wear and tear, but in general the quality doesn't really seem any worse than dvd.

    Guess I'm the only one
    i dont realy notice the difference also,some tapes can get worn a bit , but every dvd player ive had lets me down and that ruins the film, electrics in my town are very old and lights flicker as soon as the 1st drop of rain falls which may contribute to dvd,ps2 etc breaking down in my house

    Leave a comment:


  • john
    replied
    Re: VCR's in general

    I got my first VCR in 1987 just after I had started work from leaving school. They were very expensive then as well and what I did I borrowed the money from my Dad who wasn't bothered about things like that, and I used to pay him back so much each week until it was paid off. I think it cost me about £370.00, because of course then they were still in their early days really, it was a front loader by Sanyo. From what I remember about it, there was some kind of fault and we had to keep taking it back to the shop for repair.

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  • Danny
    replied
    Re: VCR's in general

    There seemed to be a load of 'urban myths' about gangs of robbers following video tape rental vans about and noting whose houses they went to --- a few days later you would go for a night out and come back to find your VCR had been stolen

    Anyone ever heard of anybody actually being targeted this way?

    Leave a comment:


  • suzannewozere2
    replied
    Re: VCR's in general

    What about laser discs?

    Leave a comment:


  • Ian D
    replied
    Re: VCR's in general

    I distinctly remember the very first piece of video footage I ever saw. It was Tommy Smith's headed goal for Liverpool in the 1977 European Cup Final. I was 17 at the time.

    I went with my friend and his dad to buy a video recorder on that particular day. We lived in Chesterfield and the only place to buy one was in Sheffield - several miles away.

    The shop 'we' bought it from was several terraced houses knocked through to create one big store. Can't remember its name but it was a real Aladdin's Cave of electronics and attracted enthusiastics (geeks as they are known today) from miles around.

    I was astounded by this VCR - a Philips VR2020 (you could record on both sides of the tape) - and thought the concept of being able to record TV programmes was even better than sliced bread.

    Just over a year later I started my very first job - working a similar shop! A brilliant job for a 17 year old lad who loved TV and music!

    The first video recorder I sold was a Sony C7 (Betamax) for £998 (not sure why the price ended in 8). It was so heavy I could hardly lift it! It had big 'piano keys' for buttoms with a three-days one event timer. The tapes were called L250 and recorded for just an hour - for £9.95 each! Anybody wanting to buy one went on a waiting list! The picture quality was absolutely superb - much better than the subsequent VHS models we sold from Ferguson, Hitachi and JVC.

    VHS won the format war (in the UK at least) because most people rented video recorders in those days. Radio Rentals was the biggest 'renter' owned by Thorn. As Thorn also owned the Ferguson brand (which was the only one on offer) Sony's Betamax format lost out big time.

    It is interesting to note that professional broadcasters continued to use Betamax for many years and I firmly believe it was a far better format.

    Happy, happy days!


    Ian D
    Last edited by Heather74; 16-12-2008, 11:42.

    Leave a comment:


  • absinthe_boy
    replied
    Re: VCR's in general

    Originally posted by Tomo View Post
    I've got a Sanyo VTC 5000 Betacord - it's proper boss. Got a Duran Duran Beta tape as well, the qaulity is so much better than VHS. Not bad considering it came out 20 years ago, and the tape itself came out in '83!
    My uncle gave me one of those when he finally realised Beta was a mistake. Still got it, and it still works! Oddly enough I work in a school, and found a VTC5000 under a bench in the staffroom last year....got it going with a bit of TLC so they are reliable machines.

    I remember trying to persuade my dad to buy a VCR back in 1979 but he wanted to wait out the format war. By '84 it was clear VHS was the way to go and we got a Ferguson 3V35 from Rumbalows (first and ONLY purchase from them)...very nice machine, front loader with infrared remote...built like a tank and worked for around 10 years. I remember lugging it down the road to a mate's house to copy videos using his dad's Panasonic top loader.

    I remember the manager at Rumbalows trying to fob us off with Beta machines, because they just couldn't shift them. But we were set on VHS. Later that day we joined a video library and they had about 3/4 of their shelf space devoted to VHS, vindicating our decision.

    As for watching VHS now, in the DVD age...I do so as rarely as possible. From the late 80's onwards I was searching for something better, I got a Laserdisc machine for my 17th birthday (1990) and at least for playing films that was pretty good. The picture and even sound quality of VHS is pretty dire...Betamax was actually better....but it was more expensive, and when people were choosing their first ever video device, price mattered.

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  • yelever
    replied
    Re: VCR's in general

    First vcr I had was in 1989. Got it for 40 quid of a mate and was made by Solovox or something like that, front loader as wel. Remeber asking my Dad to go into Woolworths and buy Elm Street 2 on tape as was only 15 lol.

    Leave a comment:


  • barry21
    replied
    Re: VCR's in general

    i briefly had a vcr back in 1994 ish, it was a top loader. i can't remember what make it was. I remember i was looking after it for a friend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Leave a comment:


  • Guest's Avatar
    Guest replied
    Re: VCR's in general

    One of the early titles we rented out was Phantasm
    I love that film! Even the tv trailer for it when the film was in the cinema was enough to scare small children!

    Saw it on video way back in 82/83 and it scared the living something out of me!

    A cult classic ......... BOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Did anyone plug a microphone into one of those old VCRs and do their own soundtrack to a recorded programme?
    Back in the early eighties my brothers and I re-dubbed a couple of scenes from the war film "Where Eagles Dare" using a microphone! To this day I can't watch it without thinking of Clint Eastwood as 'Frank Spencer' and Richard Burton as 'Tommy Cooper'!

    I wish I had kept it!

    Leave a comment:


  • Wil
    replied
    Re: VCR's in general

    One of the early titles we rented out was Phantasm (you know - silver balls flying around with blades coming out of them). At the time we also had the school's b&w video camera so we stuck sellotape over the tab holes on the casette and, disguised with a rubber Adolf Hitler mask, did our own movie review on what was left of the tape after the film ended and then took it back to the shop.

    I always wondered if anyone accidentally left the film going after the end credits and got an unexpected surprise.

    Did anyone plug a microphone into one of those old VCRs and do their own soundtrack to a recorded programme? I remember me and some mates doing that to an old Tomorrow People episode.

    Leave a comment:


  • soapy
    replied
    Re: VCR's in general

    My local video shop was called Square Wheels for some bizarre reason. The first film i ever saw on video was Enter the Dragon but in 1983 we had our very own video and to celebrate we went out and rented the recently released 'The Thing.' I remember spending hour upon hour in our local shop browsing the films and planning which ones to watch next. Nowadays i don't think i ever go to the DVD store.

    Leave a comment:


  • Guest's Avatar
    Guest replied
    Re: VCR's in general

    There's a video shop near me with the best name in the world: Planet of the Tapes!
    Going back many years the following video shops have come and gone in my local area:

    Fast Forward
    Rewind
    Videodrome
    Flickers
    Family Video (How could anyone think that was a cool name for a vid shop!)
    Filmarama
    The Flicks

    and my favourite......

    The Video Shop! Straight to the point with that one!

    Oh and who could forget my local spar shop (now a furniture place). They had a video section with tapes dating back to the dawn of the video age! They would stock a recent title every decade!

    Leave a comment:


  • Mulletino
    replied
    Re: VCR's in general

    Originally posted by Snakeystew View Post
    Maybe it's just me, but I don't really see that much difference between video and dvd - and yes, I have a massive television.
    It really depends upon what cables you are using and the quality of the video processor in the display (if HDTV as it will need to scale the picture to suit its native resolution). If just using composite the difference won't be as apparent as if you're using composite/RGB/HDMI. Even on S-video you should notice a difference. But, I digress from the fuzzy stuff we like here!

    Going round friends houses for birthday parties to watch films on the video! I remember watching Jason and the Argonauts on video for one birthday (I'd also seen it at the cinema previously though). Then we'd go round mate's houses just to watch films, I remember going to watch the Exorcist and various other scary films round one friend's house, don't know how we got away with it really!
    We were late into the VCR clan as our first one came from a friend who'd upgraded theirs. It was pretty old, big diving board buttons, top loading and a remote on a cable with one button which paused the thing. The first film we got on it was Zulu. It was such an exciting event getting our own VCR!

    Do you also remember the fact that films took forever to be released on video? I used to love Martial Arts films so would often get them out at the local video shop. There was a point then that you could go into the shop and would have pretty much seen nearly every film they had! Can't do that now with blockbuster! One of our local ones also rented out Atari VCS games, then later they all cottoned on with Sega and Nintendo games.
    There's a video shop near me with the best name in the world: Planet of the Tapes! How good is that? They even still have a few tapes in there.

    Another video anecdote: Round the same guy's house where we watched Excorcist (in the UK), we watched a horror spoof called "Wacko". I could remember lots about the film many years later but not the name (I thought it was called "wierd"). It was about a pumpkin headed lawnmower killer and was a very early spoof of horror films. I'd spoken of it about 20 years later with a mate who'd never seen it, but he decided to buy it for me on my next birthday. He had real trouble getting it as apparently it had never been released in the UK and had been deleted years previously in the USA. So he eventually tracked down a single copy from a seller in America and bought it for me. Then, two years later I was in a cheapo shop in Woking while waiting for the watch repairer to fix my wife's watch and was standing at the counter buying something, only to look to my left and notice a DVD amongst all the rest (in a bookshelf arrangement) with a familiar look to it. It was the only singular film there, all the rest were multiple copies of the same rubbish. Anyway, it was Wacko!!
    So I bought it for 1.99 and it sits proudly next to the rare(ish) VHS copy I also now have.

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  • jason h
    replied
    Re: VCR's in general

    They're so lucky.

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  • stevef
    replied
    Re: VCR's in general

    Originally posted by jason h View Post
    Our model came with a special light on it called 'DEW'. I think this was some kind of warning light but it never came on and I always want it to, just once.
    That was when there was condensation inside the player, if the light came on you had to leave it sitting for a couple of hours until the 'dew' had evaporated. Then it was fine to play again. Found this out when someone gave me a VCR coz they thought it was broken.

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