Does anyone still have VHS tapes?

[mrmpa]

If so what are they of, and why do you still have them?

I have a friend who is a "Dark Shadows" fanatic. She has the entire series on VHS. She also has the entire series on DVD. When I ask her why she has kept the VHS series, her answer is, "it might be worth something."

[pinboy3niner]

1. Casablanca, Lawrence of Arabia, A Fish Called Wanda, Platoon, Fight Club

And a few more, packed up in a box in the closet. The VHS tapes may be worth something--a trip to the dumpster.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

2. I have some, but they are destined for the trash bin.

That reminds me: I still have to throw out those old eight-track tapes.

[raccoon]

20. Same here. nt

[hobbit709]

3. All the home movie ones I converted to digital a long time ago.

Anything else I got the DVD.

[A Little Weird]

4. Yes

A variety of VHS. I had a dual VHS/DVD that just recently gave up the ghost. Even though I never watched them I kept them around because I still had a way to play them if I wanted to. So now that I have no reason to keep them, I'm looking for the best way to dispose of the tapes. Do any of you know if they can be recycled??

[mrmpa]

5. I don't know how to recycle them, other than............

donate them to a thrift store. I see people buying them when I'm at one of these stores. You can also have them converted to DVD, there's a lot of people who did the conversions.

[A Little Weird]

6. I doubt they're even worth donating

I just hate sending stuff like that to the landfill.

[femmocrat]

7. I have most of the old Disney cartoon movies.

Still in their cellophane wrappers! I was saving them to watch with my granddaughter.

I also have a lot of tapes of the kids when they were growing up, graduations, etc. Can't really part with those.

[fizzgig]

13. i have a bunch of disney tapes at my dad's

i have a dvd/vhs combo and keep forgetting to bring them home with me.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

17. Don't forget to save a vcr too.

My boyfriend buys all the Disney movies too. Plus Star Wars etc. He's since upgraded everything to DVDs. The little girl downstairs currently has his whole collection.

I never saw the value in buying a movie to keep. He bought me the Godfather and complains I've never taken it out of the case. Movies like that are only meant to be watched when you run across them while flipping channels. I say "ooooh The godfather is on" and he says

[femmocrat]

23. We still have a working VCR.

I use it for my exercise tapes! Remember those? LOL

[sarge43]

8. Raiders of the Lost Ark, Burn's Civil War, Victory at Sea

and...wait for it... Star Wars: A New Hope, the original theater release before Lucas started messing with it, still in its wrapper.

Bunch of others.

[Codeine]

26. Collectors will probably pay handsomely for that Star Wars tape. nt

[Lydia Leftcoast]

9. Yes, back when Bravo was a foreign film channel

I recorded a lot of movies.

I also have some movies and TV that have never made it to DVD, at least not as far as I know. I bought them when a video (VHS) store was closing down.

[LiberalElite]

10. It might be worth something, or

it might be deteriorated and useless.

[frogmarch]

11. 50+ MST3K episodes

including early ones with Joel.

[Number9Dream]

22. We still laugh at our MST3K tapes

Could get three episodes per tape. Also have 50+ episodes... Joel's and Mike's.

Also have a variety of other stuff. There's a repair shop near me who fixes VCR's, cassette players, etc.

Can't even give tapes away.

[DinahMoeHum]

12. Queen: Freddie Mercury Tribute concert of April 20, 1992

From what I've read, the DVD version is missing performances from a number of the artists on the VHS version.

Same situation with the U2 - Rattle and Hum documentary.

[fizzgig]

14. a bunch of disney movies and jurassic park

i also have some green day performances i taped in 94 (i think).

[mainstreetonce]

15. LOST

All but the last season

[ohnoyoudidnt]

16. My grandma has about 200 of them.

They are various movies saved up over the years before DVDs became popular.They still work so no real reason to replace them.

[area51]

18. Yes, and I'm a Dark Shadows fan.

[Recursion]

19. Yeah, I do electronica installation pieces with them occasionally

You can get some great visual effects with scratched heads on an old VCR.

[TuxedoKat]

21. Yes

I would like to know where to get rid of them to recycle them. Don't want to just throw them away and I'm sure thrift stores don't want them.

[TexasBushwhacker]

24. For those of you who want to get rid of them

I was getting rid of a lot of stuff a few years ago. I didn't want to both with a garage sale so I listed everything on Freecycle.

https://www.freecycle.org

I had about 60 VHS of my mother's. Lots of classics. I was in Austin at the time and a film student at UT was THRILLED to get them. She said she and her film student buddies had watching parties for pleasure and education.

So if your local university has a film program their might be some students who are interested.

[Codeine]

25. Last time I moved I binned my pile.

I never had all that many, but I did toss Ken Burns' Civil War and a boxed set of Kubrick films along with all my Python stuff. I assumed I'd replace it with DVDs but then BluRays appeared so I hesitated, and in that window of hesitation streaming replaced everything.

[Avalux]

27. I have every Disney movie on VHS from when my daughters were young.

They are in bins in my garage. I have no idea what to do with them. Why have I even kept them?

(I said the same thing about vinyl years ago).

[mahatmakanejeeves]

28. Yes. I bought three more last Saturday

at a yard sale. They were in the three-for-a-dollar range. They were movies I didn't have and that the library won't have either. For that kind of money, why not?

I try to avoid adding any to the collection, but there I was and there they were, so....

As for getting rid of them, put them out at the end of your sidewalk some sunny day with a "Free - Gratis - Help yourself" sign next to them. They'll disappear. A church across the street from me has a rummage sale every August. I get rid of lots of stuff that way. I put up a notice on Craigslist inviting rummage sale attendees to mosey across the street and see if I have something for free that they might like.

The library won't take them, or any thrift stores, or the aforementioned church either. Craigslist and Freecycle are your friends.

I just watched "To Kill a Mockingbird" on VHS. I got it the same way I get rid of mine - someone left it out to be hauled away. It is the widescreen version of the film (yes, on VHS), though it's not really wide. My idea of widescreen is "No Country for Old Men." I watched that last weekend, on DVD.

[Digit]

29. I have most of the X-Files on tape but watch it on Netflix instead

I still have the old VHS machine as well and was gathering all the old family tapes to get them converted.

I had inherited the VHS when a family member passed although my machine was a Sony Beta Hi-Fi which I still have.
Unbelievable, huh. Same story as above....getting family movies from that format converted but wanted to check in which order to appear, etc.

[Bucky]

30. All of Hill Street Blues, recorded in the early 90s when in reruns

[mrmpa]

31. That is cool...........eom

[surrealAmerican]

32. I just transferred the lot of them to mpeg format.

They're my own artwork from the 80's mostly.

[RogueTrooper]

35. What sort of art?

[surrealAmerican]

39. video art ...

... computer graphics, and some installation work

[pressbox69]

33. Exact same thinf with a friend of mine.

Do you think it's a DS thing?

[dr.strangelove]

34. I have hundreds, and we watch them often

I have never been one to care much for the miracle of high def. If its HD, great, if not, it really does not impact my enjoyment of a good film or television program. We have lots of disney films that my children now enjoy. I have a good collection of films that I enjoy and watch often. I have lots of series taped from over the years that I enjoy. While they will never be worth anything in terms of an investment, they are worth a lot to me. I get a lot of hours of enjoyment out of them. We cut the cord some time ago and between the tapes, a broadcast antenna and netflix, I don't spend much on viewing entertainment.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

42. I watch TV over the air (OTA).

I was given a widescreen/flat screen TV for Christmas a day near the end of 2015. Before that, I was watching a 19" TV that I snatched from a trash pile. The Sony's cord had been snipped off by the copper scavengers, so I had to repair that. I did so in November 2014, and the Sony went into service.

The widescreen TV came from a trash pile too. I was with the person who gave it to me when he found it.

On a 19" screen, VHS (probably Beta too, but I haven't thought to try) looks fine. On a big screen TV, tapes just can't cut it. I don't have an S-VHS VCR, but I don't think that even it could compare to DVDs. I do not have a Blu-ray player, so although I can get OTA in 1080i, I still have standard definition for any input from an external device.

I was watching one of the tapes I got last weekend, "Ronin," before heading to the computer. It was an official video; i.e., it was not recorded off HBO. Still the colors are washed out, and it is fuzzy. On a 19" set, these flaws would not be apparent.

The 19" Sony has a glorious picture, and stereo sound is not bad either. It is a late enough TV set that few improvements were made to CRT TVs in the following years.

The day after I got my widescreen TV set up, a neighbor threw out a CRT with about a 27" screen, including the remote. The date of manufacture was March 2006, IIRC, which means that it had a digital tuner, per FCC mandate. The neighbor had just got a flat screen TV for {some unspecified holiday} too. Had I not just acquired my flat screen TV, I would have gone down there with a hand truck and retrieved it.

[RogueTrooper]

36. Star Wars

No episode 4. No "New Hope"; but no VCR either

I got worried about George's penchant for changing a cherished childhood experience.

The rest of my tapes I put in my parents' garage but they have long been given to charity.

[KamaAina]

37. The Smithsonian?

[OriginalGeek]

38. My wife has a pretty large collection of Disney movies on VHS

I think some are still unopened. I have about 30 live bootleg Page & Plant concerts from their 1995 and 1998 tours. Quality is excellent - even better than some of my audio-only soundboard shows.

[hunter]

40. I bought an old high-end VCR at the thrift store for ten bucks.

Whatever digital magic our LCD HDTV performs on this obsolete analog input makes the tapes look better than they ever did on our old bulky CRT television.

But I'm still reminded of the time my kid put toast in the VCR slot, back in the days a VCR was a considerable investment for us. This was our second VCR, a replacement for one that was stolen by someone who broke into our house, a crime so great the police came out to take a report, examine our pried-open window, and ask a few neighbors if they'd seen anything. Our renter's insurance paid for a replacement.

I don't have any "valuable" electronics anymore. By the time I adopt any new technology it's already being sold in thrift stores or I find it in dumpsters or on the curb, requiring only minimal repairs.

[Populist_Prole]

41. Yeah, lots

Though I seldom use it, I still keep my VCR as an input as there are a few old movies and other programs that are as of yet unavailable on DVD/BR.

While the best of them can't hold a candle to DVD for image quality, some have held up surprisingly well after such a long time; showing no fade since new. Others seemed to turn to mush in less than 5 years. I have no problem keeping them, other than the fact they're so big and bulky and take up storage space.

[bikebloke]

43. A couple

Taped off local broadcast my father sent me eons ago. That's the only reason I've kept them and the player.

[MH1]

44. Monty Python and the Holy Grail

of course. (I think I have that on DVD around here somewhere too.)

And a few Robin Williams movies, that I will probably never be able to bring myself to watch again. I was a big fan of his and devastated by his death. I should probably give the movies away.

[worstexever]

45. We have them because my husband will never throw anything away

We don't have a VCR and since we bought a new smart TV last Black Friday our DVD player isn't compatible with the TV. We have to stream videos if we want to watch them.