Any "Tape Heads" or "Spinners?" (VHS or Laserdisc Collectors?)
 

Since I don't have the funds at the moment to afford my dream Laserdisc Player — the European Model, the Pioneer CLD-D925... double-sided play, good "bones" and, in specific, NTSC and PAL Region Coding which is precisely what I'm looking for in my player... — I'm going for a lower end, but equally recommended model of the Pioneer CLD-D704. (Which only plays NTSC coding, but for the moment it will do...) Either way I'm hoping to start digging into Laserdisc and become an official "Spinner."

As for a "Tape Head." Most definitely. I own a Samsung SV-5000W Worldwide VHS Format VCR. Plays all Region-Coding VHS', (at the moment on Amazon anyway), the rarity of this product has caused this system to scale the heights of over a grand now... dang! Anyway, I own quite a few tapes in my collection, but to keep my player "clean" I try not to tax it's system to much in "play" as well as the fact I own a VHS Rewinder as a side-system so I don't have to tax the main system itself further as a result.

As for my "Tape" Collection thus far:


Anyway, right now my expenditures are going more towards other entertainments, (mainly my CRT TV for Retro Gaming, TV Stand, Etc. ... but mainly due to the fact a Laserdisc System hasn't arrived on eBay that I'm willing to invest in... but when that day comes...) ...

I'll post here further to discuss Retro Movie Formats ... Anyone else do something similar?

Re: Any "Tape Heads" or "Spinners?" (VHS or Laserdisc Collectors?)
 

I don't collect, but I still have two VHS players in my wardrobe and some tapes too (some concert recordings, old Italian barbarian films, and maybe something else like Aliens special edition). I just don't have the heart to get rid of them.

My current TV does not have RCA jacks, and while I'm aware that adapters exist I took that as a sign that it's time to retire the VCR. So I've been converting my tapes that are irreplaceable to digital (like the time my next door neighbors were on Dance Fever. TC from Magnum PI gave them a score of 89 :) ). And posting my old tapes on Ebay. I've been surprised at the interest they've attracted, even the stuff that was just taped from TV.

So if you've recently placed a bid on a Lon Chaney VHS, that might've been mine.

I used to be heavily into VHS about 12 years ago. Used it as a primary recording medium. Here in Australia we've got the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation). Back then they used to run old American and British b-grade movies as station filler through the middle of the night. Once I cottoned onto this it became rather an obsession. Used to set a 4 hour tape going to capture as much as I could during the night, then re-record to DVD-R during the day, the reason for that being simply to save space.

Some of those old tapes recorded hundreds of films before obvious signs of wear caused them to be retired. It was all great fun and thoroughly worth it. Went through about 2 dvd recorders and 3 VHS players in the process, rewinding mechanisms mostly the first thing to fail. Ran the obligatory cleaning tape with fluid through once a month. Why did I use VHS to record? Because if there was ever a glitch for any reason the tape would fail gracefully and just bring on a bit of static, which was far nicer than an ugly freeze frame you might get with digital. Back then HD and all that jazz wasn't a factor. I was just happy watching movies on the old 4:3 family box. Still am, although it's 16:9 now.

Before that the family had quite a collection, maybe a hundred or so proprietary VHS tapes of movies and documentaries for regular viewing. Still got 'em, though most have been transferred to DVD. And before that ( - wait for it - ) BETA! Vastly superior quality to VHS. Sony Betamax was great gear - professionals used to use it. I still have the original player/recorder my dad had from the '80s. And. It. Still. Works!

But eventually I just got tired of it all. I've still got about 30 or so films on VHS that need transferring to a better format but don't really have the serviceable gear - essentially burned out everything I had. That as well as the fact that all those hundreds, maybe thousands of DVD-Rs I have all need to be converted to mp4. An achievable but nevertheless tedious task. I really need to get on with that though, some of them are going cactus over time. Can still view most of them though, and that's the main thing.

For me the technology is interesting from a nostalgic point of view, but it's more about managing and preserving a rather large collection of recordings as best as possible for the longevity and practicality of viewing. Additionally for what it's worth I do think there's something rather quaint about an older and somewhat imperfect recording. It has the literal character of another time and place perhaps, especially if you happen to have recorded it yourself.

Re: Any "Tape Heads" or "Spinners?" (VHS or Laserdisc Collectors?)
 

I personally have more VHS movies than DVDs, and at this point I won't ever get rid of them even tho the only thing that we have that will play them is a 13" combo TV. For me it is primarily the commercials/trailers that air at the beginning. I remember reading an article once about how there's a whole piece of our history lost forever because we didn't properly preserve tape medium. I agree with that wholeheartedly.

I still have the tape that I used to record Pokemon episodes on when I was at soccer camp. I'd have a meltdown if that wasn't setup to record before I left the house. It was a different time, we were different people, and it was good.

Re: Any "Tape Heads" or "Spinners?" (VHS or Laserdisc Collectors?)
 

I got a stack of DBZ episodes I recorded from the very early 2000s when it aired afternoons on Cartoon Network, and a closet hanging rack of commercial flicks. Maybe half of those were bought used from a local mom-n-pop rental store. A rare few still have the plastic wrapping. I think that includes Willy Wonka, but I'm sure it was an anniversary print and not an original. Hrm.... I'm curious now what else there is. I know I have some Star Wars, I think Dune, and the TMNTs' first movie. I think I have the set of TMNTs from the Burger King Kid's Club. Yeah, I had to Google it.

I wouldn't call anything I have part of a collection. Just stuff I kept from my teens/colleges days. Gosh, I'm curious now...

I have the original Star Wars collection and the Indiana Jones movies. The boxes have taken a beating but the tapes are still good, which is a miracle in itself as I watched those movies hundreds of times.

Same with the TMNT movies.

I still have a few working VCRs, and hundreds of VHS tapes, but I rarely watch them. Most of the tapes have movies and TV shows that I recorded over the years, a lot of which has not been released on DVD. I started converting them to DVD-Rs a while back, but I have so many tapes that I might never finish.

I'll always remember the announcer, (who seemed to have a Texas 'twang to his voice since as I recall Funimation Studios was located in Texas at the time):


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsSUjlZyxg0

You've said some amazing things here in your above post, but this catches my eye the most. I mentioned this in another post on this site when it came to my VHS transfer of Suicide Commandos... but there's really something to be said about watching an obscure work or title, especially of one which never got an "official" DVD/Blu-Ray release... and watching said title in a legitimate, albeit "lower quality" transfer like VHS. It has a "feel" and "charm" that is impossible to describe. Same thing goes with my Midnite Spare VHS... truth be told, both films are more or less "narratively and structurally" crude. But considering they're an interesting document within the Ozploitation and Macaroni Combat film histories, I find them worth having on hand as reference to a time and place as well. There are some VHS titles which never transferred over into the Laserdisc, DVD, Blu-Ray, and Digital Eras... and further still there are still many Laserdisc titles which had "perks and special features" which never transferred into the DVD, Blu-Ray, and Digital Eras too... I find owning a variety of titles on different formats seems to buffer all your cinematic needs and wants. Just food for thought. Loved reading your personal history and experiences in all this!

Yeah thanks. I've had a few duplicates over the years and there's definitely a difference in the experience. Like stuff my dad recorded from TV on Beta, with all the signal static everytime a big jet flew over and the '80s advertisements. Then years later you get the DVD of the same movie thinking it'll be a step up, and end up being disappointed. Go figure! You can get attached to idiosyncrasies like that.

There's a particular film I'm interested in seeing in a higher quality version which is now recently out on Blu-Ray - Malenka/Fangs of The Living Dead (1969), very nice quality from all the screenshots. Aside from the fact I don't have Blu-Ray and region encoding would be a problem, I've always enjoyed this film as a really trashy looking print that's been getting around for years, basically a cheap bootleg version, copied a million times by everyone. Got several copies of that now. Thing is I wonder if I'd enjoy the nice HD version as much now. Something about the grunge of the cheap version which value adds to the character, I'd probably miss it somewhat. Best thing I guess is to have and enjoy both, choose your flavour depending on the mood.

I almost forgot to post this related video. A true Finnish classic, this one. Is OP a VHS enthusiast of this caliber :D

https://youtu.be/-z4iw8Ppo1o

:D You Finns are all the best.

Re: Any "Tape Heads" or "Spinners?" (VHS or Laserdisc Collectors?)
 

I still have a box full of VHS tapes. And six hundred or so LaserDiscs.

OMG that's great stuff. I immediately fell back into local Montgomery Wards' electronic department where they had two walls of VCRs on display. Ugh I miss seeing that and doting over specs and gadgetry designs.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=jZE-86jZGUQ

Pretty sure I still have this tape somewhere. It was a big deal as a kid. And this is probably why clowns freak the hell out of me.

Omg... I so wish I had this guys "enthusiasm." :D:p

Do you have any rares? One of my VHS "Jewels" is Midnite Spares. Not really "legit" cinema, but more of a place in time for Ozploitation reference. As far as I know it never made a transfer past tape.

Laser discs were huge here in Japan for about 10 minutes in 1988. Now the record stores are lousy with them in the $2 bins. Would gladly hoover up and send them on although they weigh a tonne. Maybe biff em in with the cheapo surface mail

Yeah I collect Laserdiscs, They are actually easier to store than DVD's and it's nice to face them out on the shelfs


https://i.etsystatic.com/25926135/d/....jpg?version=0


https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/i...9tNFQ&usqp=CAU
https://img.discogs.com/9Gk8DHJtdk9P...-3655.jpeg.jpg

https://stuffedgarage.com/beatles-an...isc-set/b1.jpg


https://cdn7.cachefly.net/images/lar...c-EE7788-N.jpg

Re: Any "Tape Heads" or "Spinners?" (VHS or Laserdisc Collectors?)
 

I didn't even know what laserdiscs were...

Reading this thread and learning about all this stuff is very interesting tho

Laserdiscs are definitely cool to collect, you can rewind them, they haven't been altered and you get better sound out of them.


I actually just bought this



https://www.picclickimg.com/d/l400/p...oppola-Box.jpg


Which you can't get on DVD


And if you want to watch the "real" Star Wars...this is the best version


https://external-preview.redd.it/blA...=webp&4821e6e4


https://cdn7.cachefly.net/images/lar...c-NJL11110.jpg





Plus it's pretty cool to be able to face out things like these on your shelf...


https://www.movieforums.com/communit...kkM50kklQj/9k=


https://www.movieforums.com/communit...CZRO6Fy5coQ//Z


https://www.movieforums.com/communit...l5oqKhQhf/2Q==


https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon....BL._SX466_.jpg


https://www.movieforums.com/communit...ylSjBaVKlUCf/Z


https://www.picclickimg.com/d/l400/p...-1980-RARE.jpg

I have a CRT in my room and watching The Running Man on VHS is a total time warp... Its like peanut butter met jelly, its made for each other.

And yes I did finally invest in a Laserdisc player. A Pioneer CLD-D503. Works great but sadly doesn’t play PAL, only NTSC.

Maybe in the States, but the BFI released a beautiful Blu-ray transfer of that film and if you own a multi-region player, (coming from someone who lives in the States and subject to NTSC and A codes), you can play it.

I'm actually hoping to pick up this:

https://www.picclickimg.com/d/l400/p...isc-Disney.jpg

As far as I know Song of the South never transferred, (obviously), to the United States regions, but the Japanese had a Laserdisc version of it and the Europeans had a PAL VHS version of it, (I don't think they had a PAL Laserdisc as LD wasn't a "hot" ticket in Europe, it was more of a Japanese/American thing...), but when people like to bury history: Like Lucas with his original Star Wars trilogy, or the Star Wars: Holiday Special, or, (the way things seem to be heading now), Triumph of the Will or Birth of a Nation... this only further confirms my interest in collecting hard copy.

I decided to “double-dip” my VCR’s… one of them is a multi-region but since those are becoming harder to come by these days they’re also getting more expensive as a result. So, in an attempt to put less “wear” on the unit, I invested in a DVD/VCR combo. The multi-region VCR I’m only using as a means to play PAL/SECAM+ and the DVD/VCR as a means to play NTSC strictly.

Looks like a wise investment and setup, spreading the load across two machines will certainly pay dividends in the long run. Furthermore you're bringing up all this nostalgia for me again, and I love it! :D Always something interesting in this thread. :up:

I'm probably going to have to replace the DVD/VCR combo and opt for another at some point... this model is a bit "jankie" and its already caused me some admitted grief. For one there's no "eject" button on the remote, it has to be done manually, and when you do try to eject it tends to assume you want to rewind the VHS within the unit upon ejection—which any VCR person may tell you is a bit of a problem as when you rewind tapes "in-unit" this is the cause for "most" tape/VCR destruction. I've also had some issues with playback. I had a moment in time the VCR would accept the tape—and then after doing a whole reboot of the unit—it accepted the tape but the audio "clicked." It just had this white noise. I tested the same tape on the other unit—no issue, and then back again and the clicking stopped. The DVD unit works great, but the VCR unfortunately has problems. So, another hundred or so dollars dropped at some point... but this will be after I buy my region-free 4k UHD unit since, (even worse than this), my old unit of my region-free Blu-ray player of some 20 or so years seems to read discs, (then not), and then other times it seems to "eat" the disc... so got to fix that.

Eventually I want to start hitting up other formats like Betamax and HD, yeah they may have lost the war—but out of sheer historical interest they fascinate me.

Sounds familiar. I've had two of these combi machines and to be fair, both gave sterlng service, but they definitely have a service life. The last one I had, the VCR seemingly got screwed a lot earlier than the first one, so I used to do a lot of recording from a standalone VCR to the remaining DVD unit for quite a good period of time (until that also died). For what it's worth that seemingly dead VCR component actually successfully rewound a tape recently which was something of a surprise (an angel gets its wings).:p

Thankyou. I know that sound and I know what I'll be having nightmares about tonight. :D

Seriously though best of luck with the current system. :up:

P.S.
Betamax: Hugely superior to VHS in terms of picture quality. Well worth seeing if you get the chance.

Bah! Really going to have to overhaul some things in my room right now. Not happy—

1. Region-free Blu-ray player is on the fritz and I'm afraid of putting anything in it, (as I've already mentioned). Basically it either has a hard time "reading" the disc... or it goes into this "mode" where it practically eats my films! The only cure is to unplug the damn machine and then plug the thing back in. So, I'm upgrading to a region-free 4K UHD Blu-ray unit... there goes a wad.

2. DVD/VCR Combo, (which I "may" have mentioned), is now "bricked" totally f-en useless now... but truth told when I bought it it was on the "jank" anyway so I'll be like Roman Polanski in The Tenant and "if at first you don't succeed, try, try again." Got to drop another wad on hopefully a better unit as now I'm afraid to put any VHS in my multi-region VCR as I'm trying on to put too much wear on it.

3. Got my Laserdisc player, it works great and I'm really happy with it, except I'm going to be dipping into PAL discs at some point so, (you guessed it), going to try and drop a $1,000+ wad on a multi-region unit and then try to "baby" that along as its old tech too.

But here's my room, and my idea:

https://i.ibb.co/F6xcbxS/IMG-1515.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/QXsS4Tn/IMG-1516.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/tx1c679/IMG-1517.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/4fVVw6K/IMG-1518.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/phH2Zss/IMG-1519.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/7k8KM5S/IMG-1520.jpg

First off, with this big wall behind the televisions and the console, I'm hoping to try and "trick" it out a bit.

On the CRT side, I'm hoping to maybe get two AV switches. One for film, (Betamax, VHS, Laserdisc players), and then another AV Switch for retro gaming, (Old RCA-based consoles like Nintendo, Sega, Playstation, etc.) Find a residence for these players in that "Hub" and wall that remains in relatively "permanent local" as w/ the switches and then BAM! Totes-awesome.

On the Flatscreen side it's been in dire-need of an upgrade... but honestly I haven't found a television that I'm in "love" with. I like the resolution, but for sometime many television went with permanent "motion smoothing" and other "perks" that made things terrible. They did at some time make this "perks" optional, but then some removed headphone jack abilities... and as someone who watches films at night this became cumbersome. Not to mention I eyeball multi-system TV's so... but!

If I find one I like, I plan on mounting that SOB and then using my little "unit" below for more recent gaming consoles.

I'm going to use the rest of my walls for storage, like art supplies, gaming, films, music, on and on.

A lot of people are into streaming, and in some cases it's unavoidable... but I've never been a fan of it. Bottomline, you don't own what you don't own and in the worst case episodes or films can be taken down or "edited" cause "god forbid" "somebody-someone" couldn't handle a differing opinion, got "offended" (dearest me), or something that happened years ago that is repulsive (like the glorification of the KKK in The Birth of a Nation), can't just be seen as "yes this is a thing, it happened." No. Give me hard copy any day.

Also I just began my "Criterion dip" in Laserdisc. Right now I have the King Kong, Casablanca, The Anniversary Edition of Citizen Kane... and I'm hoping to get the initial, (sort of), print of Citizen Kane. I also recently won at auction The 39 Steps and The Lady Vanishes.

Re: Any "Tape Heads" or "Spinners?" (VHS or Laserdisc Collectors?)
 

Nice turntable!

https://i.ibb.co/j81Mm2V/IMG-1532.jpg

Too technologically illiterate to figure out how to "flip" the image the right way... but you get the picture. The Lady Vanishes on Criterion LaserDisc.

https://youtu.be/lh3Y4EKJjJc

First day with my LaserDisc Player: "Love at first play."

Blast from the past, anyone?

Re: Any "Tape Heads" or "Spinners?" (VHS or Laserdisc Collectors?)
 

Ahhh! Blockbuster memories!



I recently bought a DVD of Game 6 written by Don DeLillo. I had high hopes for it. I even tracked down an old Disc player and bought the necessary cables. But I only played the first ten minutes of the film it annoyed me that much. Oh well, maybe my next purchase will be worthwhile.

I was thinking about posting a VHS thread here so the thread was appealing but...


Wow! Can you use a standard DVD player for these laserdiscs??

Re: Any "Tape Heads" or "Spinners?" (VHS or Laserdisc Collectors?)
 

I don't necessarily go out of my way for anything but I have a modest VHS and extremely modest LD collection going. VHS is almost entirely for schlock (unless I find something that's just too weird of a find to pass up) and with LD its just slim pickings when you're not putting the work in lol.

I remember that there were laserdiscs in SLC punk:D certainly not going into my dvd player...

No, you'd ruin both the player and disc. The discs are probably bigger than a DVD player itself. It's literally the same size as a vinyl.

What tapes and discs do you have if you don't mind me asking?

I follow this YouTuber for old retro-tech. He touches on niche audio/visual formats, (among other things), and get "the gears" going as to what format(s) I should be digging into next.

https://www.youtube.com/c/Techmoan

Re: Any "Tape Heads" or "Spinners?" (VHS or Laserdisc Collectors?)
 

i have few classic animated disney movies and 1 french movie on VHS

Damn... I'm looking into HD-VMD... I can't seem to find it on eBay, (both the player and any such films for it)... basically this particular dive is going to take some serious searching... It's a given I want HD-DVD's (player and films) and those are relatively "bread and butter" and easy to come by. But since HD-VMD was such a "third party" late-comer, (arriving on the market when basically the format "war" was basically over between Blu-ray and HD-DVD...) ... this is going to be difficult. But considering HD-VMD has film transfers that are so off-the-wall from what became "industry standard." (In some cases, the "raw" source material of a film was seen in it's "rawest" most "uncut" version since it was deemed my the Studio Systems as a "doomed" format to begin with...) DEFINITELY want to get my hands on this a player and some films... not to mention it's basically a piece of "film history" so I most definitely hope to get my hands on this thing.

The 39 Steps, anyone?

hopefully these pics are legible i don't want to write out a list lol.

https://www.movieforums.com/communit...chmentid=84166 https://www.movieforums.com/communit...chmentid=84167 https://www.movieforums.com/communit...chmentid=84168 https://www.movieforums.com/communit...chmentid=84169 https://www.movieforums.com/communit...chmentid=84170

won't let me post the last pic so i guess i am listing after all. we also have:
The Stomp
The Stunt Man
Sudden Death
Taxi Driver
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Thunder in Paradise
Thunderball
Universal Soldier
Virus
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (which is out of place for some reason)
Warbirds
When a Stranger Calls
The Wicker Man
Xanadu

The LD collection isn't really worth noting outside of Robocop and a couple other criterion releases and couple common faves like Rumble in the Bronx and Land Before Time.

Not kidding here, you have a larger VHS collection than I do! And it sounds like you "may" have more Laserdiscs. As right now I'm "building my bedrock" as it were buying into unit(s) both within-region and multi-region, (which ultimately is costing me a pretty-dime and taking away for "actual" funding of films...) ... BUT, when that dust settles I'm going to "ramp-up" the actually purchasing of discs and tapes, etc. and it'll be a "thing" for sure.

Re: Any "Tape Heads" or "Spinners?" (VHS or Laserdisc Collectors?)
 

yeah i've never been much of a hardware gal personally. all just random thrift store finds but they work at least. the only problem is i haven't had a television in a few years so all this stuff just collecting dust lmao.

Funnily enough I just watched this
...the sound was so bad and they didn't have English subs, so I watched it with Spanish subs, lol.

The 39 Steps is a very important piece of cinema, not only for the director Alfred Hitchcock who really “honed” and "built" his career from this film. Eventually reaching a Golden Age in the 50’s and 60’s… but also for the history of cinema itself. This was the first film to visualize the concept of the “MacGuffin,” (which basically is a “plot device” to “get the ball rolling” but ultimately the device becomes completely irrelevant by the end of the narrative piece. Modern Television's "cold opens" in SNL take a influence from this [albeit radical], or even more blatant is opening premises of shows like The Simpsons that morph into another premise entirely as the show goes on.) Also it is the singular film where Hitchcock begins to refine and come into his own in regards to suspense and visual comedy and landed him a job with producing mogul David O. Selznick in the States, prompting Hitchcock to move to America and further his career here.

I don't think certain plot elements made a whole lot of sense: for example, at the beginning, spies are chasing her so that she can keep military secrets inside of the country, sounds kinda ass-backwards. It would make more sense having the spies chase her for her ends: to keep the secrets from getting out of the country.


But the logical wierdness doesn't even matter, because it was movie that kept me on the edge my seat, so far it's a for sure. I'm definetly going to order a copy with english subtitles so I can understand all the diealogue.

I actually just got this in today!! Someone from my church dropped this, (and other Laserdiscs), on my doorstep today!! I'll post pictures after a bit. :D

https://i.ibb.co/2cT15Yh/IMG-1565.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/MNdj31d/IMG-1566.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/LCKsgN5/IMG-1567.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/8XNyQkD/IMG-1568.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/NKFQkv9/IMG-1569.jpg

Re: Any "Tape Heads" or "Spinners?" (VHS or Laserdisc Collectors?)
 

I have that special edition of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, with discs.

I got rid of my epic video collection about 10 years ago and have mentioned somewhere before it was worse thing I ever done, regret it with all my being. My favourite had to be my double vhs pack of night of the living dead and return of the living dead or The Rollerboys .. damn it hurts to even think about, I’ll never mention this again.

Re: Any "Tape Heads" or "Spinners?" (VHS or Laserdisc Collectors?)
 

do laserdisc players do typical RCA input for TV screens? I've been thinking about getting one because of this thread, haha

yep standard RCA situation

Yes, RCA. Yellow video and two audio Red and White. Plays best, (in my opinion), on original CRT intent... but I'm old school.

Awww. Dude. Sorry to hear that man. But it's never too late! Films never die/go away! I'm sure you can start a-new. :D

Took to watching this tonight, Hunger... kinda surprised that it made it to a Laserdisc transfer... seems more of a VHS vignette kinda deal. It felt like a student film. If your going to cover your bases here, narratively it was "meh," as far as aesthetically and through innovation it had "moments," but they were better covered in the French New Wave, and a technical stand point it didn't pave any new ground. So curious. Curious as to "why" it made this format? And two, since it "did" it certainly adjusts my eyes on the "range" of the Laserdisc format. Very interesting.

It is I used to find all my films at car boots and charity shops.. now all you see is .. Independence Day and Err Braveheart I had obscure movies, you just don’t see them anymore