Trying to find VHS blanks from late 70s, 80s?

[Obsolete Collector]

As someone who's interested in lost media, I've been hunting down VHS blanks to perhaps find older shows or commercials that might not circulate, or do so in poor quality (with a little bit of success ). But I don't want to keep coming across just X-Files episodes or movie recordings. I want to at least have a chance of finding something like Mindreaders, the 1982 Macy's Day Parade, Pinwheel... you (might) get the idea.

So what I want to know is what are some things I should look out for when going through blanks? A particular length, brand, or certain tapes with spools (or looks in general) that are out of the ordinary? And lastly, are there certain things on boxes I should look out for in particular (beside dates)?

And to address a few questions I'll (maybe) get...
1. I don't always have time to check dates on boxes (if there even is any). I go out late and usually am left with less than an hour to go through two stores.
2. I'm no expert on VHS, or any format for that matter. I just know enough not to have my VCR and tapes in the mess most people think about when they usually think of VHS.
3. I'm no hoarder. So if I somehow manage to find something like Mindreaders footage, I'll be sure to share it. Everyone loves Mindreaders, right guys? Guys?

Sorry if this was lengthy, I just like to cross my t's and dot my i's. But I appreciate any help at all!

[Dude111]

I hear ya buddy...I am also looking for some things I cant find on official VHS media as its been ruined!!!

1) The goonies - 1985 -- On the official Warner bros. tape the movie is DIGITIALLY PROCESSED and looks like crap..... I want the original movie I saw on analogue cable in the 80s!! (Thats not digitally processed)

2) Back to the future 2 and 3 - Both ruined on thier official MCA tapes (I found the first one recorded from HBO on 4/1/87 (analogue cable) and its goregous! (Found it at salvation army))

I would love finding some sesame street stuff from analogue cable...... (Or analogue TV even)


Kepe looking my friend,dont give up!!

[Eric-Jan]

Most movies shown on cable networks or broadcasters, where made shorter, so the commercials fit in...
a lot of movies floating around where bad duplicates too, nowadays movies are re-mastered from their master, and look better than before, in their whole glorious aspect ratio ! yeah, it's not like it used to be

[lordsmurf]

This thread really isn't about blanks, but "blanks" that you find on auction sites, with recorded content already on them ... content sought by TV/movie collectors, hoping for a rare find.

Find blanks is a weird tapes.
But finding "blanks" is interesting indeed...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Obsolete Collector

As someone who's interested in lost media, I've been hunting down VHS blanks to perhaps find older shows or commercials that might not circulate, or do so in poor quality (with a little bit of success). But I don't want to keep coming across just X-Files episodes or movie recordings. I want to at least have a chance of finding something like Mindreaders, the 1982 Macy's Day Parade, Pinwheel... you (might) get the idea.

I get the idea.

I know a lot of collectors, and getting them to give up their tapes is not a typical task. You're more likely to get a set of tapes from an estate sale than from another collector. I think most of the best "blank tape" eBay auctions, filled with unreleased TV shows and WOC old cartoons. Most of what I see now is old recordings from HBO, or taped episodes/re-runs of Friends. For a colletor to give you, or even loan you a tape, there must be a lot of trust built over time.

Worse yet, a lot of people would re-use tape, so what you do find is a horrible source tape. It's the TV collectors that tended to record a tape once, sometimes even SP, and never use the tape again. I re-used a tape once at the very beginning of my collecting days, and never did again after seeing how badly the tape degraded. Same for copying tapes, and discarding originals, once and never again.

Quote:

So what I want to know is what are some things I should look out for when going through blanks? A particular length, brand, or certain tapes with spools (or looks in general) that are out of the ordinary? And lastly, are there certain things on boxes I should look out for in particular (beside dates)?

Yes.

All of them. List of contents helps, but the most tell-tale can sometimes be the tape case brandings. But, of course, you run into the issue of an 80s brand/marking tape having been re-used multiple times, and it actually now has 90s content. Since I have a lot of 80s and 90s VHS blanks, I know what to look for. (Perhaps I should create that archive of tape brands/cases media after all! )

Realize that many times a "blank tape" auction is as I said earlier: from an estate sale. It's almost enver the collector, usually not even the person that recorded tapes. You have no idea what it is, nor even a vague idea of what the person liked (ie, "my grandpa was really into Disney shows in the 80s, and these were his tapes" almost never happens).

Most of my acquisitions have been offline, from people I knew in person in some way. Everything from ex-girlfriends raiding the now-unused family VHS collection, to fellow collectors leaving the hobby.

Quote:

And to address a few questions I'll (maybe) get...
1. I don't always have time to check dates on boxes (if there even is any). I go out late and usually am left with less than an hour to go through two stores.

Stores?

Quote:

2. I'm no expert on VHS, or any format for that matter. I just know enough not to have my VCR and tapes in the mess most people think about when they usually think of VHS.

You'll honestly need to be. To be able to pick out what you want, you'll have to know what to look for. Amusingly, for that specific want, it's almost like American Pickers (the TV show), but for old video tapes, with the exception of also picking online. But you'll need to pick offline too.

If you really want to learn, I can teach you what I know via the guide(s) I've always considered writing, but it would also entail that you actively help me create it. So if you're up for it, I can feed some raw data (photos of tapes especially) that you can both transcribe to text, create a spread sheet, and then adjust the photo for presentation. I can then go in an add the review commentaries. Are you up for it?

Quote:

3. I'm no hoarder. So if I somehow manage to find something like Mindreaders footage, I'll be sure to share it. Everyone loves Mindreaders, right guys? Guys?

And please, share a high quality copy in a place where fellow TV show collectors dwell (tvpast.org, sitcomsonline.com), not some crap version uploaded and butchered by Youtube.

Quote:

Sorry if this was lengthy, I just like to cross my t's and dot my i's. But I appreciate any help at all!

For a fellow collector, any time.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dude111

2) Back to the future 2 and 3 - Both ruined on thier official MCA tapes (I found the first one recorded from HBO on 4/1/87 (analogue cable) and its goregous! (Found it at salvation army))
I would love finding some sesame street stuff from analogue cable...... (Or analogue TV even)!

I may have some leads for you on this. PM me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eric-Jan

nowadays movies are re-mastered from their master, and look better than before, in their whole glorious aspect ratio !

Not really.

A lot of broadcast stuff is now butchered even more than it was in the 80s/90s. Now stuff is censored even more, cut even more for more commercials, aspects distorted, pictures cropped badly, etc. Very few things are now truly re-mastered, and that is usually contained to B&W shows and movies. There have been a lot of studio restorations of this oldest content in the past 10-15 years. And channels like Starz and TCM are showing these improved versions, instead of re-using their tattered old broadcast copies.

For example: http://cinelicious.tv/news/post-maga...th-valley-days

The reason I even got into video was because I'm a serious collector of cartoons and TV shows, and what you say simply is not true, with some exceptions. At best, most things are restored solely for DVD and Blu-ray.

As another example, Warner Brothers is still using old broadcast masters for Boomerang syndication for some of its cartoons, while the better versions have been put to disc for the Warner Archives. (Note: Boomerang network operated by Turner, owned by Time Warner, which also owns Warner Bros.)

Even first-run shows broadcasted now have banner ads on screen during the show, cuts for re-runs, missing end credits, etc.

[Eric-Jan]

Yes, i guess all sorts of things can be done to the original material, to suit it's purpose, i already saw through the expression "blank tapes" too only home movies transfered to VHS would be of interest
Maybe one should "hunt" for U-Matic tapes and buy a U-Matic recorder/player, to come accross some rare recordings, like promo's of all sorts or local studio recordings, U-Matic was pretty long lived system for years, when i see some of it on youtube.

[Dude111]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lordsmurf

I may have some leads for you on this. PM me.

Just wanted to update this..... I finally found BTTF 2 and 3 a few months ago and the video is goregous like watchig them on analogue TV...

They are both rental copies and I figure they did this to get people hooked on how beautiful these movies are who rented them and then they went out and bought them and got crap! (Flattend out/contrasted down video)

So many movies on VHS have been ruined especially by US companies......... Its really very sad......

[Eric-Jan]

And LaserVision/Laserdisc ? also a different story ? the video was still analog on these disc, only sound became digital on LaserDiscs, maybe also shorter versions of movie to fit on double sided discs, or some exeptions on double discs double sided.

I believe DVD movies where double layered most of the time or also double sided added to that, for tv series boxes.
I remember also, there where differend releases for rental and retail versions for VHS and DVD, i noticed this, where part of a scene was deleted, for retail version, so a rental place that had a sell-out of old stock tapes was an opportunity...
And it's offcourse your own prefference how you want to remember something.
I doo miss those old cartoons, they where fun, creative in many ways, sometimes also surrealistic, most animations now are too close to reality for me

[cbehr91]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eric-Jan

Maybe one should "hunt" for U-Matic tapes and buy a U-Matic recorder/player, to come accross some rare recordings, like promo's of all sorts or local studio recordings, U-Matic was pretty long lived system for years, when i see some of it on youtube.

I work at a TV station and can attest we still have rooms full of U-matic tapes (known in the industry as 3/4"). Beginning in 1977 and until around 1991 we used them for Electronic News Gathering (both field recording and playback during newscasts). The problem is finding a player that works. In a professional setting anything 3/4" really should have been digitized 20 years ago.

One more 3/4 related tidbit: Supposedly most if not all of the dailies from Apocalypse Now still exist on 3/4".

FYI: The oldest VHS recording in The Oddity Archive, a YouTube channel I'm sure is popular among many on this forum is from 1979. You'd be hard pressed to find anything on VHS older than that, especially pre-recorded movies. It seems many early videophiles preferred Beta over VHS in the early years.

[Dude111]

I have found stuff from 1977 at salvation army (A magnetic video release but it was only part 2 of a movie) ... Its finding pre-recorded movies THAT HAVE BEEN TAKEN CARE OF that is not easy..

Right now the earliest pre-recorded movie I have is a 1978 Meda release.... (ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 - 1976)

That movie was destroyed quite early... Even the 1981 Media release of it looked horrid!! (Took me awhile to get an early enough copy that was the original movie)

[Eric-Jan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cbehr91

I work at a TV station and can attest we still have rooms full of U-matic tapes (known in the industry as 3/4"). Beginning in 1977 and until around 1991 we used them for Electronic News Gathering (both field recording and playback during newscasts). The problem is finding a player that works. In a professional setting anything 3/4" really should have been digitized 20 years ago.

One more 3/4 related tidbit: Supposedly most if not all of the dailies from Apocalypse Now still exist on 3/4".

FYI: The oldest VHS recording in The Oddity Archive, a YouTube channel I'm sure is popular among many on this forum is from 1979. You'd be hard pressed to find anything on VHS older than that, especially pre-recorded movies. It seems many early videophiles preferred Beta over VHS in the early years.

Nice ! would love to see capture's of that 3/4 material !

I hope it's not on Scotch/3M tape, the few i have in VHS of that brand are smelly and have lots of drop-outs, i suspect some of my pre-recorded vhs tapes are also of the 3M brand due to their quality

[latreche34]

Man if you live where I live you will be hauling tons of them home every week, Unfortunately I have no use for them so I see them sit there in milk crates at the Rasputin store side for few days before the garbage truck comes along and haul them away, VHS tapes, audio cassettes, reel to reel, records, CD's DVD's you name it. Every time I see a load there I feel like someone has passed away or moved on with his life.

[Eric-Jan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by latreche34

Man if you live where I live you will be hauling tons of them home every week, Unfortunately I have no use for them so I see them sit there in milk crates at the Rasputin store side for few days before the garbage truck comes along and haul them away, VHS tapes, audio cassettes, reel to reel, records, CD's DVD's you name it. Every time I see a load there I feel like someone has passed away or moved on with his life.

Strange neighbourhood ..... maybe Rod Serling is haunting you

[Dude111]

I would love to see what was recorded from analogue cable latreche34 or even OTA TV!

I have 2 movies that Im pretty sure were recorded OTA .. Not even cable TV! (So much noise in the video)

I have Quick change (1990) and ET (1982) .. Both were recorded off a local channel in in my area and both are goregous!! (Regardless of the noise)

Quick change recorded in 1996 and ET in 1991 (Both from the same channel -- I believe both are OTA (I didnt know anyone who ever had that noisy of a cable TV signal))

[latreche34]

Any CLD collectors?

[Dude111]

Does CLD mean VIDEODISC?? (CED)

I wanna get a player.... I have 1 CED movie but I cant find a good player! (Most are for repair of other units)

[Eric-Jan]

CED is on vinyl i believe... (very vulnerable discs/system)
As for laserdiscs, there are 2 formatsin general, LaserVision and the later LaserDisc, You may want both, only you must study the "thing" about the audio part, some discs may not be compatible on certain players, (audio) between PAL and NTSC, but some players can be modified to play all types,
Pioneer and Philips where 2 major brands, i guess Magnavox in the US ?

[Dude111]

Yup CED is a record basically played @ 450rpm NTSC and 500rpm PAL (I think those 2 values are right)

[Eric-Jan]

If you want to play all TV systems discs, Pioneer did make players that play both NTSC and PAL, you should check if such a player also plays the sound for both LaserVision and LaserDiscs.... in PAL and NTSC, The video on all these formats is still analog, only the newer discs have digital sound, like i said, if they don't do all sound types, certain models can be modified to do so.

Australia had PAL when they where analog, Japan NTSC France and Russia SECAM, Europe PAL.