As a kid, I often recorded stuff from TV and actually paused the recording when commercials came on. rewinded to the point where it started and then started recording again when the commercials were over, so that I had clean recordings. But later there were 2 problems. The first was, when commercial breaks became so long, that after a while our VCR stopped pausing and continued to record. Later the TV stations started to not continue from where they left off before the break, but instead they repeated a few seconds of what came before the break. TV became so annoying. I LOVED watching TV. And now I'm disgusted by TV and can't understand people who still watch it. I cancelled cable YEARS ago and even before that I went 8 years without any TV. In the 80s and early 90s TV was gold. And there was a lot to record on VHS tapes. But other than fond memories of the time I'm not really nostalgic to VHS as it is as inferior to DVD as DVD is to Blu-Ray. Even worse, it only features one language. But it's still interesting how the times change. Back then there was so much good on TV you would not want to miss, nowadays you can watch what you want, when you want and you have much more freedom. There are sometimes weeks where I don't watch anything and sometimes I binge watch a whole weekend. But there's one thing I would love to be able to watch. When my mother died and they cleaned out the old apartment, I took all the Hi-8 tapes from family recordings. I don't know what's on there. It might be a treasure or maybe nothing of interest.
I have: 2 copies of Jurassic Park (one I grew up watching that has long since lost the original cardboard sleeve, one near mint with original cardboard sleeve) one copy of The Lost World: Jurassic Park with the original cardboard sleeve and lenticular panel. (Eventually, I'll own the movies on every commercially available format). Had many, many more before I moved out of my mother's house. Akira, Godzilla vs Monster X, Godzilla 1998, The Fugitive, Austin Powers 1&2, and a couple others I can't remember right now. Had FAR more before we moved out of the house I grew up in (75% of which were shamelessly ripped either from rentals or TV airings. 85% of which were destroyed when our basement flooded and soaked the entertainment stand they were housed in) kissyfur (a Dic Cartoon), a few Popeye shorts including the one where Bluto was Sinbad the Sailor, Problem Child, Homeward Bound, The Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Oliver & Company, Toy Story, Pagemaster, and that's just the ones I can remember off hand. Also countless home movies
I actually bought a VHS of Star Wars a couple weeks back. If I'm right, it should be the original theatrical cut in widescreen (I still haven't tested it yet though). I bought one last year, but it turned out to be fullscreen. I do really enjoy retro tech. Even though DVDs and Blu-Rays are technically more durable and high-quality, something about the analog nature of VHS' are still very satisfying. Same with cassette tapes.
Ah, VHS.....I remember that the greatest thing to young me was once a week when my parents would take me to Blockbuster. Always rented the Transformers ones they had. Also have a crap ton of Thomas the Tank Engine ones somewhere.
A lot of class rooms have a flat screen TV mounted on the wall & have connections below for a DVD player or to a PC. Some still use the cart but it has a flat screen TV and a DVD player instead of a CRT & VCR. Not all schools can afford to update ever classroom. Cheaper to get 1 cart w/TV and move it to whatever class needs it.
The best part about those old cartoon recordings are the old commercials! Even though they took up a good amount of tape, those commercials are telling of the era from whence they came. The cereal commercials, the toys, local amusement parks, fast food, educational spots that we thought were annoying as kids, but are now nostalgic. When you see those old spots and ads, man, they take you back to a simpler time... There's a guy who sells bootleg DVD's at local toy shows and he includes the commercials in his recordings, which is kind of cool... Although, I don't know how he's allowed to sell DVD's at these shows that are CLEARLY violating copyright and trademark laws.
Remember the tape trading craze of the 90s and early 2000s! Before dvd getting a grainy copy of gijoe or transformers with the ads from the 80s broadcast was the only way to get the episode unless it was on vhs! Toonarific, cool stuff trading (now gone I think), retrojunk forums and toon tracker were the big trading sites at the time. Getting that rare episode of Saturday supercade or he-man or rare anime was a huge win! DVD box sets more or less killed tape trading.
You know, I'm not a huge fan of the American Godzilla movie, but I really dig her bowler hat in that picture. LOL
Got rid of all my VHS after I switched to DVD. But I hardly had that big of a collection. I remember when a movie used to retail close to $100 before they became more affordable.
If I had a spare room, I'd try to set up a video store set up. I don't own that many VHS bought tapes but do have a bunch of laser disks and a butt-load of DVDs.
I remember back in 1983, my parents bought a beta video player and it was big and heavy. But six months later we realized that beta was fading out and VHS was taking over. I still have a tote full of VHS movies and one VHS/dvd combo player. About four years ago I saw a VHS/Blu-ray combo player and it was a Panasonic. Never seen another one since.
I rented that "The Quest" VHS way back when. I remember that cover vividly. Years later I couldn't find any info on that movie...turns out that's because its original title was "Frog Dreaming". The room at the church where my boys have scout meetings still has a cart with a huge CRT on it, but it's hooked up to a DVD player. My wife's a teacher and she can personally attest to the fact that many schools cannot afford to replace their CRTs. I do remember that in grade school, everyone celebrated when the teacher rolled the TV/VHS cart into the room. Watching anything was better than listening to lessons and doing work Keep circulating the tapes! It's how MST3K became so popular.
As a kid I loved when the newest Transformers commercials came on, or Action Man, Super Nintendo, etc. I was so pumped when the Mortal Kombat II commercial came between the cartoons.
