Misremembering VHS or VHS didn't look nearly as bad as people now claim it did

[Gorn Captain]

Did you guys ever have Video 2000 in the US?
Arrived at the same time of VHS and Beta, but much better quality. Didn't last long, though, and I was stuck with a pile of tapes and no new players.

[Werewolf]

I had a SelectaVision player before I got a VHS and remember thinking quality wise I was taking a step down

I find the CED format fascinating. It's pretty cool to think they were able to get both audio and video out of vinyl records.

I've just recently started collecting VHS tapes again, also for the format of the boxes, the artwork, and such.

I totally get that. I regret getting rid of my Thundercats and MOTU VHS collection for the same reason.

[Hedji]

It's not rose colored glasses to say VHS is way below modern HD formats but it was perfectly fine for its time.

It was fine for its time, I agree, but it wasn't the best for its time. Both Beta and Laserdisc offered much better picture quality. I guess everyone's experience is different, but I was always wanting more for my home cinema experience, and found VHS frustrating, even before knowing better technology would be coming.

[Gorn Captain]

I watch a lot of old movies, where the "Full HD" thing doesn't really mean a lot to my anyway, so I still like VHS tapes.
It does make me feel nostalgic, remembering my childhood viewings of those movies, so for me, it's sometimes an emotional bonus (which is priceless).
For me, it's the story that counts, and the visual quality comes second (or third). I don't mind some bumps here and there.

What I like about VHS the most? You press play and the movie starts. No endless menus, no FBI warnings, just play and enjoy! The simpler times.

I've just recently started collecting VHS tapes again, also for the format of the boxes, the artwork, and such. These days, on a BR, you can hardly make out the art anymore, it's so small. I like the bigger VHS boxes, and they make for great autograph material.
I also like the idea of the rental tape, because it's as if you inherited the fond memories of the thousands of people who watched that particular tape. It's like finding a well-loved tattered old teddybear. Definitely not mint, but the history....

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy watching a movie in perfect condition in a state-of-the-art theatre, but I don't mind hopping in my DeLorean and going back in time...

[Werewolf]

I think we're looking back with rose glasses with VHS right now, as with all things of the Ready Player One/Stranger Things persuasion.

I have not watched and have zero interest in either of those shows.

It's not rose colored glasses to say VHS is way below modern HD formats but it was perfectly fine for its time. VCRs were also quite the marvel of engineering for their day. I have a VCR and still use it because I have cartoons on VHS that have never been and never will be released on DVD or Blu-Ray. But if by some miracle Tigersharks gets a DVD release I'll happily upgrade.

[spockoda]

I put music and movies in different categories of an experience. I would much rather have a higher listening experience, as in music, than a higher quality picture image from a movie. I was a little resistant to CD technology until my Dad played me a CD and I heard the obvious difference from the cassettes I was buying at the time and I "went CD" in 1992. When DVD's came around my first question was why does the public need this technology just to watch a movie or television show? However, it grew on me and I liked the idea of having a standard (disc) format for both music and movies. Plus, I don't miss the fast forward and rewind aspect of vhs tapes but I don't think the quality of store bought vhs tapes were all that bad as long as the tape hadn't been used to death and your vcr was in good working order.

[TrekStar]

Comparing VHS tapes to DVD'S is like comparing Cassette tapes to CD's, quality gets better as time goes on.
I'm sure at some point, DVD'S will be a memory and something much better will come out, heck we now have
blu Ray DVD and by 2025 will be talking about something better than that.

I have like 5 shelf loads of store bought VHS movies, mostly John Wayne, but I do know that some movies
and tv shows released on VHS tapes have not been released on dvd's, well at least not yet.

[Hedji]

I for one was soooooo glad when DVDs came along. I was an early adopter of the format, and even purchased several movies before I did a player. I never owned that many pre-recorded VHS tapes; they were a pain in the *** to store, jumping to a specific scene in a movie was time-consuming and would eventually wear out the tape, and the tape would eventually degrade given time.
I'm as nostalgic for VHS tales as I am for 8-tracks.

I completely agree. I think we're looking back with rose glasses with VHS right now, as with all things of the Ready Player One/Stranger Things persuasion. There were a lot of factors that affected your mileage with VHS picture quality. But by and large, I remember being insanely frustrated with the format at the time, and wanting something better. Tracking, anyone? Tape slack, wear, picture degradation, warping, jutter.... VHS was the inferior winner over the format war with Beta.

I couldn't believe my TV set was capable of displaying the colors coming out of it the day I popped in my first DVD (Mars Attacks). It was such a quantum leap in quality. Blu Ray, a notch better. 4K, meh... I'm not sold on it yet. But the difference between DVD quality and functionality versus VHS was enormous.

[cjefferys]

I had a SelectaVision player before I got a VHS and remember thinking quality wise I was taking a step down

SelectaVision (aka RCA's CEDs) was a crappy format, we had one too. It used a needle, discs would wear out and start skipping and the image quality was about par with VHS. Laserdiscs on the other hand were superior in video and audio compared to VHS. But yeah, you had to flip/change discs in most cases when watching a feature film.

[warlock664]

I for one was soooooo glad when DVDs came along. I was an early adopter of the format, and even purchased several movies before I did a player. I never owned that many pre-recorded VHS tapes; they were a pain in the *** to store, jumping to a specific scene in a movie was time-consuming and would eventually wear out the tape, and the tape would eventually degrade given time.
I'm as nostalgic for VHS tales as I am for 8-tracks.

[Mikey]

I had a SelectaVision player before I got a VHS and remember thinking quality wise I was taking a step down

[Iron Mego]

Totally agree, original aspect ratio is very important to me, and it always drove me nuts to have videos that were pan and scanned, shown open matte, or otherwise altered (the only advantage to open matte is for movies that show more nudity that way, eg. "Mischief" ). Just before DVD showed up, some companies finally started releasing films on VHS that were letterboxed and I was thrilled about that (as at the time I couldn't afford a laserdisc player, which was the only way to see films in the correct aspect ratio at the time.

I bought a bunch of letterboxed VHS tapes before switching to DVD. I was glad that DVD had kind of forced that issue. I stopped buying laser discs because they were expensive and bulky. Plus, most of the movies were on two of those big-assed discs! Or you had to flip it over, like a record.

[Klosterheim]

Yes, VHS was fine. I remember thinking how lucky it was to be able to choose what you watched without commercials, and that things were available and not lost to time.

Some streaming video on Amazon looks like they directly copied the videocassette of the movie, so VCR's were better and are better than that.

My VHS Surround Sound Cassette of The Hunt For Red October looked and sounded great on tube television!

Later, Blade Runner Director's Cut was perfect on VHS.

VHS only went bad when they stopped using double tapes, like when they squeezed Fellowship of the Ring onto one cassette, which did not play for me. The Phantom Menace played, though.

I think The Color Purple was the first Widescreen/Letterbox VHS.

(I still remember the shouts of, 'Why did they put black bar lines on this?!'

[Mikey]

I actually liked pan-and-scan much better than letterbox on VHS.

VHS letterbox had too much of a condensed picture --- you think you are seeing more but what you do see is lower quality than pan-and-scan.

A lot of people hated to rewind the tape but I always thought it was part of the event of watching the movie --- like having a ciggy after doing SOMETHING.... that little time is contemplation time thinking about what just happened

[cjefferys]

My problem with VHS, and why I started buying laser discs then DVDs and then Blu-Ray, is more about aspect ratio than quality. Once I discovered that movies were shown, for the most part, in the wrong aspect ratio and were either presented pan and scan or "formatted to fit your TV"--which they still do unfortunately--it drove me crazy. Then of course you get into the open-matte problem, one notable example is Pee-Wee's Big Adventure when you can see the bike chain coming up through the bottom of his bag, which shows MORE of a movie than the director intended. That's when you see stuff like boom mics and tracks.
I cannot and will not jump on the VHS nostalgia bandwagon though. Movies in HD in the correct aspect ratio just make me happy. I remember watching Eraserhead on VHS and not being able to see half of the movie. When I finally saw it on the big screen (and now on my remastered DVD) it was a revelation. I found myself muttering, "Oh, that's what that was!" It's probably not the best example since the movie is really dark anyway, but man what a huge difference!

Totally agree, original aspect ratio is very important to me, and it always drove me nuts to have videos that were pan and scanned, shown open matte, or otherwise altered (the only advantage to open matte is for movies that show more nudity that way, eg. "Mischief" ). Just before DVD showed up, some companies finally started releasing films on VHS that were letterboxed and I was thrilled about that (as at the time I couldn't afford a laserdisc player, which was the only way to see films in the correct aspect ratio at the time.