a couple decades ago some stated that old tape could spontaneously combust so I unwound my pre-recorded late 60s & early 70s reel/reel tapes and put them out w. the trash, keeping cases + empty reels.      Cases are beautiful (Janis Joplin, Dylan, Johnny Rivers to name a few).     Was I too hasty in destroying the tapes?           

Last edited by Kilgore (July 22, 2016 2:44 pm)

grilled.cheese wrote:

As much as I love a discussion of "the good old days of yore" when everything was perfect (which is every thread), I will agree there are advantages of keeping old hardware  in working condition.  I can't think of any off the top of my head, but I'm sure there are some movies / documentaries / TV shows that only exist in VHS format that were never reproduced in DVD or Blu-ray.

Having a functional VHS and VCR also provides for hours of amusement on YouTube.

I'm not sure this is so much about the "good old days" as it is about a company that's stopped making something that frankly I thought had gone the way of the dodo long ago.

If only I had the time to go through all those tapes downstairs. I remember on one of them was a 30 sec. spot for what I think was a soft drink like 7-Up. One of the people in it had a very minor part, appearing for just a few seconds with a single line. He later became very famous in a very different role. His name? Michael Richards aka Seineld's Kramer. If I knew exactly where it was, I'd put that on YouTube. 

But there's another side to this story. For a time, camcorders were the way a lot of people took their home movies when their kids were little, their parents and grandparents were still alive etc. I suspect there are many people sitting on tapes that would mean nothing to the rest of us but would be a treasure trove of irreplaceable memories for them, if only they could play them again. 

RadioActive wrote:

But there's another side to this story. For a time, camcorders were the way a lot of people took their home movies when their kids were little, their parents and grandparents were still alive etc. I suspect there are many people sitting on tapes that would mean nothing to the rest of us but would be a treasure trove of irreplaceable memories for them, if only they could play them again. 

Well over 10 years ago, My wife and I were having a get together at my Wife's Aunt and Uncle's house with his family when the subject of "days gone by" came up.  Turns out that the Uncle had several rolls of Super 8 home movies of his family which he had the presence of mind to have professionally put onto VHS.  It was a gas watching it, seeing much younger versions of the people around me, parts of town that have changed dramatically, and then, footage of a little girl who was about 3 learning to skate.  That little girl would eventually become my wife.  And yes, she can still skate.

I immediately offered to transfer the VHS tape to DVD and even better, provide copies for everyone.  The offer was gladly accepted.

The point is, more often than not, most people have probably forgotten what they have until they stumble across it.  Hopefully when that happens, the analogue media will still be playable or the digital media will be something that is still supported.
 

Peter the K wrote:

RadioActive wrote:

But there's another side to this story. For a time, camcorders were the way a lot of people took their home movies when their kids were little, their parents and grandparents were still alive etc. I suspect there are many people sitting on tapes that would mean nothing to the rest of us but would be a treasure trove of irreplaceable memories for them, if only they could play them again. 

Well over 10 years ago, My wife and I were having a get together at my Wife's Aunt and Uncle's house with his family when the subject of "days gone by" came up.  Turns out that the Uncle had several rolls of Super 8 home movies of his family which he had the presence of mind to have professionally put onto VHS.  It was a gas watching it, seeing much younger versions of the people around me, parts of town that have changed dramatically, and then, footage of a little girl who was about 3 learning to skate.  That little girl would eventually become my wife.  And yes, she can still skate.

I immediately offered to transfer the VHS tape to DVD and even better, provide copies for everyone.  The offer was gladly accepted.

The point is, more often than not, most people have probably forgotten what they have until they stumble across it.  Hopefully when that happens, the analogue media will still be playable or the digital media will be something that is still supported.

Super 8 and film is a lot harder to dub, if only because there are so few projectors left. My late father took tons of 8mm film in the 50s and 60s but I had nothing to show it on. I eventually took them to a place called Howard TV (wonderful people, by the way, run by a group of brothers on Bathurst St.) and for a fee, they converted 10 of those old films to DVD. I gave that to my elderly mother for her birthday one year and she was delighted by it. In fact, she still re-watches them occasionally.

Man, I was a real cute kid. What the hell happened?    

They are the nicest people I've ever dealt with in the consumer electronics world. And just to bring this thread full circle, I can't tell you how many VCRs they repaired for me over the years. I may have helped put some of their kids through college... 

Last edited by RadioActive (July 22, 2016 7:03 pm)