Who remembers what a VHS is?

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Yes, I remember what a VHS is. Every since my old TV with a built-in VCR died last year, I don't use VHSs anymore. Only DVD and Blu-ray now.

One of these days, people are going to say, 'What is a VHS?'

I think some already do! There's some young kids today who don't know what rabbit ear TV aerials are.

I haven't used a VCR in several years. I prefer DVD mediums to watch movies, and I don't record anything on TV these days (that's what we mostly used the VCR for). Mum wants to get hers reconnected and tuned in on her TV so she can watch some of her old linedance videos.

I remember VHS. I have a VHS player at home that I have a bunch of stuff connected to like my DVD player, Nintendo Wii and DVD player. I do admit that I like DVDS and Blu-ray a lot better. You don't have to rewind them.

Vastly superior quality; impossible to wear out and quality doesn't degrade over time; anamorphic widescreen capability (very few VHS tapes were in the correct widescreen aspect ratio, most were in pan and scan); often cheaper; smaller; easier to purchase online; multiple extras, audio tracks and easy to access subtitles; no need to rewind...



What machine are you using? They don't get stuck in mine.

The reason that your DVDs scratch so easily is because you don't take care of them. LDs were the same - you know about those, right?

It's also worth noting that VCDs were used instead of VHS tapes in many Asian countries. I've had them; the quality was awful. Probably worse than VHS, to be honest.



If you know your timecode that you want to rewind to, you can simply put that into the DVD player and it will immediately start playing from that point.

Also, bear in mind that VHS tapes degrade particularly so when you rewind and fast-forward.



Unless the VHS tapes he gave you contain valuable material (in which case, digitise them) is it really worth keeping it?

A multiregion BD player would be excellent, especially with a good sound system and a large screen.

Bear in mind that you won't see the benefit of BD discs unless you have a large screen.

I have a player and a few VHS videos. I can also remember the old betamax videos as well which were superseded by VHS some time in the late 1980s.

Considering the tech we have today I find it hard to believe that what we used to use was so big and clunky.

I know. Just look at records. They were much bigger in size than CDs.

Much bigger, yet the tech needed to play it was simpler.

Yes I remember VHS and I don't miss them either. The more you played them, the more they seemed to deteriorate in picture quality. There was also the chance of a tape jam as well, then it was goodbye to that tape unless you knew how to fix it. One thing I did like was being able just to fast forward passed the ads and get right to the movie. I can do that now on the PC with the use of media player classic with my dvds, but its still annoying having no choice but to watch these things on regular players.

Does anyone remember laser disc? I never had a player but remember someone who did and they were pretty cool. They were like a vinyl sized dvd with similar quality as well. Some movies required multiple discs and turning if you didn't have a dual sided player.

My family had one of these in the early 1980s. Movies on vinyl records



Of course everybody remembers what VHS is. This thread should be about this video format. By the way we owned several different "Star Trek" videos on this including the first movie. I wish I'd saved them now cause they'd probably be collectors items at least to a trekker.

Last edited by Venger on 16 Sep 2012, 2:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I would expect it from kids to not know what a VHS is. But from a young adult and an adult, that would surprise me.

I still have VHS tapes and some from my childhood. I got rid of the few when I got the movie on DVD. More I have I got from Goodwill and other places. but most of the movies I have are DVDs. We still have a VCR but only from my adulthood. None of the VCR's from my childhood work so my parents got rid of them in my teens.

I have only seen one beta tapes and I thought it was a small VHS tape then. I also remember the 8 tracks because my mom had them and she played them when I was little. I remember records, my special ed teacher brought in some and a record player and played them and I remember seeing some fake record players made by Fisher Price. I also remember laser discs because my parents had one.


With DVDs, they have extra footage on them like deleted scenes or behind the scenes and audio commentary and they are a lot smaller than laser discs.

My vehicle has both a CD player and a cassette player. It's a 1999 car is why. I still have all my cassette tapes from childhood and have bought some at second hand stores. Only bad thing about it is, the player would sometimes eat the tape or how music just disappear from it so it's all silent when you play the tape as if the volume is turned down. I am not sure what causes songs to magically erase from the tape.


I can remember back in 2005 or so, they quit making VHS tapes and then stores were getting rid of them because one day they be there and then the next thing you know, they are gone. People at work were making a fuss about it complaining. I told them they can just buy them on DVD and they complained how much money that cost to replace them all. I told them they can do it over time. At least they still make VCRs. My husband and I got a DVD/VCR combo for over $200 bucks in 2008.

My husband and I played records in our new house. He got one of those record players/CD player/radio combo and it looks like an antique and he played one of my parents records they had kept over the years, even long after their record player broke. It was my first time ever playing records and I was amazed how even small scratches can interfere with the music play. At least with CDs, small scratches doesn't interfere with the music playing. My husband thought it maybe needed a new needle but there were records that played well and didn't skip a beat so I know it's just the records.

I was a "late adopter" of CDs and DVDs. I had a cd burner on my computer back in 1999, but i much preferred recording off the radio with casette tapes. Same goes for TV/Movies.

I finally stopped casettes entirely in 2005, I never really had a large DVD collection, i rent from Redbox now and then or watch online.

I still have lots of vhs tapes.

I mentioned this before, but I still walk around with a Sony Discman. I dunno, I just like having something with substance in my pocket. I don't care that it can only carry 17-20 tracks max on one disc, I don't need a hundred songs when I'm taking a 40-minute walk.

Also, I think I mentioned this before, but I recently had to explain to a co-worker who is 6 years younger than I am, what a Super NES is. The first console he played was an N64.