R.i.p. Vhs

[kryptosmaster]

Guess it's time to upgrade my 8-track and Atari 2600.

Rich

[vulcan2074]

I had a pretty extensive Collection of VHS up until about Five years ago. I ended up givng them to my mom and sister. My family still has a ton of VHS. I'm now all about the DVD. I love that they don't take up as much space as the VHS did
Sammy

[Dave Mc]

Home burned DVD's are a totally different animal than factory pressed DVD's. Home burned DVD's can start having problems after about 5 years. It is highly recommended that after about 4 years, you make a copy of a burned DVD or CD and toss the other. Nice thing about it if you do it, you'll always have good quality. VHS degrades the moment you put it on a shelf and get's worse as time passes. If you duplicate it, you lose quality, something that isn't true with duplication of a DVD.

Another thing true of burned DVD's are that there is a 87% capatibility ratio on them. Meaning just over 1 in 10 wont play on a particular player for whatever reason, so while the DVD might be good, you might not be able to play it and have to play it on another machine or in a computer.

[HardyGirl]

For archiving, one of the things VHS tape has over DVD is they CAN be repaired if there's a problem (including an eaten tape).
At least to the extent where everything isn't lost.

On the other hand if your DVD goes or there's a problem, the player, computer or burner wont even read it.

Also, DVD-R's degrade over time.
I have a few DVD-R's made about 5 years ago and some wont even play anymore - or they skip or freeze
VHS tapes (home burned ones) last 20+ years.

DVD is great ....... but it's not THAT great.

VHS had a lot of good qualities DVD don't have

Amen, and pass the biscuits! What FEW DVDs I have, get played in this PC. I hate that they freeze. One little scratch and it's over. One VCR will play store bought and homemade tapes. DVD players are too discriminating w/ homemade DVD-Rs and even some store boughts. I have tapes from the 80s that still play great. I love taping stuff off of TV. I'm stocking up, and I will continue to buy store bought VHS wherever I can find them.

[cjefferys]

Home burned DVD's are a totally different animal than factory pressed DVD's. Home burned DVD's can start having problems after about 5 years. It is highly recommended that after about 4 years, you make a copy of a burned DVD or CD and toss the other. Nice thing about it if you do it, you'll always have good quality. VHS degrades the moment you put it on a shelf and get's worse as time passes. If you duplicate it, you lose quality, something that isn't true with duplication of a DVD.

Another thing true of burned DVD's are that there is a 87% capatibility ratio on them. Meaning just over 1 in 10 wont play on a particular player for whatever reason, so while the DVD might be good, you might not be able to play it and have to play it on another machine or in a computer.

Good info and advice. Burned DVD-Rs use ink to store data. It is this ink that eventually breaks down and makes data unreadable. Along with backing discs up every few years, try to use better brands, that use more stable ink. For your absolutely irreplaceable stuff, Taiyo Yudens are considered the best, and can be purchased online for a reasonable price. Factory pressed DVDs do not use ink to store data, but rather microscopic pits that are read by laser. These do not degrade like ink on DVD-Rs do. The only time you have to worry about degrading factory DVDs is in the case of some defectively made dual layer or double sided discs, where the glue holding the layer together unexpectedly deteriorates, casing the layers to separate, let air in, which can end up contaminating data (similar to "laser rot" with laserdiscs). It's not common, but there have been a few older titles that have had this happen.

[mego73]

I saw this story a couple months ago. I find it hard to believe there will be a complete stop of production of VHS blanks. Tapes still turn over well at the Walmart and Target I go to.

[tay666]

Disc rot can actually affect all typs of discs.
CD and DVD
Store bought and home burned.
And one of the fatal flaws with any disc is that a scratch can kill it.
One scratch and you won't be able to read it all.
Sure, it's not that common, but it does happen.

So, while discs my be technically less 'fragile' than tape.
The way tapes are made makes them much more handling friendly.

Which is why I still only have casette players in my car, no CD player.
CDs would be toast in under a month with me.
Tossed on the seat, under the seat, thrown loose in the glove compartment, etc.

Discs have the advantage of no generation loss, or quality loss.
Plus they are a lot more convenient when it comes to finding a particular section you want. No FF or RR to worry about etc.

Right now, for me, quality isn't really an issue. I don't have HD, I don't have a big screen TV, and as I get older, my eyesight isn't what it used to be anyway. So I am perfectly happy watching either/or.

[Mikey]

Did anyone ever try buying and using them DVD condoms ?

I was thinking about it, but they're so expensive and I dunno if all players will read the DVD's with them on them.

... and for double-sided DVD's they're worthless

[ctc]

>Disc rot can actually affect all typs of discs.

Yeah, and the polyurethane they make 'em out of can yellow, defusing the laser and ruining the disk.

>And one of the fatal flaws with any disc is that a scratch can kill it.

This can happen fairly soon too; depending on how your disks are recorded. MOST start at the center and record outward, which places the initializing strings at the centerof the disk. These last longer since it's usually the outer edge of a disk that gets damaged first. But some recoreders start at the outer edge, which means the chances of your lead-in being damaged (and thusly the ENTIRE disk being unreadable) increases.

Don C.

[VintageMike]

I have TONS of VHS tapes mostly from when I used to record wrestling religioulsy. While I've lost a couple of tapes over the years they've held up remarkably. well. I have stuff from the mid-eighties that still plays perfectly. When i do the transfers I expect to have one box of tapes left of the things I absolutely don't want to lose if the DVD's go bad. I also expect as I'm going through them I'll find stuff I'll never watch again and not bother with the transfer.

[Mikey]

Anybody remember digital VHS ?

What the hell was that all about ?

[ctc]

>While I've lost a couple of tapes over the years they've held up remarkably. well.

Yeah. VHS wore out if you played them a lot. Most decent brands didn't degrade so much if you just stored them. The boggest problem is the players: they were made SUPER-cheap the last few years and when they die, they're dead. It's all cheapie printed circuits; nothing repairable.

....and the WORST part of transfering stuff to disk is that eventually DVDs are gonna be obsolete....

Don C.

[VintageMike]

>

....and the WORST part of transfering stuff to disk is that eventually DVDs are gonna be obsolete....

Don C.

I'm not worried about that. My wanting to transfer is entirely space related. I don't really care that DVDs are "better" than VHS tapes. It's just a nice opportunity to consolidate many boxes into hopefully just a few.
As long as I have functioning DVD player I'll be good.

[cjefferys]

Anybody remember digital VHS ?

What the hell was that all about ?

That format will probably mostly be remembered for providing a high definition stopgap until Blu-ray and HD DVD showed up. High definition videos of some Hollywood films were available on the format from 2002-04 under the marketing name "D-Theater". The quality was mostly as good as Blu-ray/HD DVD, but these had the same disadvantages of other tape formats, so when Blu-ray and HD DVD arrived shortly after, this format was relagated to being mostly a blip in HD history.

[JPkempo]

Best thing for videos is to capture them into a computer save copys on more than one drive in case of crash. You can then burn on DVD or what ever the next format will be.