How many VHS/Beta/Laserdisc do you own?

[darkhawk]

I had over 1500 VHS tapes in 1997. Never got into laserdisc, because I didn't like flipping over the disc in the middle of the movie. Only a few had 2 tapes because it was a long movie. With VHS, I could sit through the whole thing. The price and size of laserdiscs also kept me away. In 1997, when I first saw 4 dvds on a display shelf, I was hooked. I had all 4 of them on VHS and started selling them off on ebay. Then, everytime I saw a new dvd title come out, I sold them as well. I'm now down to about 45 VHS tapes. Non of which are available on dvd.

[JCWBobC]

I actually got into laserdiscs because of the price. New release laserdiscs were between $24.95-$34.95 plus I got a 20% employee discount while new release VHS movies were $89.99-$99.99 and eventually went up to $104.99. My laserdisc player, which I still have and works great so far, would flip the disc over automatically so I didn't have to get up unless it was on more than 2 disc and usually it was only the special features on the extra discs.

[Alan Smithee]

Short answer: tons.

I have EVERY title released on the failed CED videodisc format, including the first instore demo disc:


...and these super-rare promo ones:





Been collecting them ever since I found a stereo player at a flea market in 1993 for 15 bucks. There's just a couple other dealer-only discs I don't have yet- 2 were on Ebay last week and some bastard outbid me at the last second! Bet he won't even put them online!

[oldboy87]

Had a decent sized collection of VHS tapes, many of which I gave away when I started replacing them with DVD.
I probably still have around 100 titles on VHS, some are duplicated on DVD, keep em for sentimental reasons mostly.
And my wife has several boxes of VHS titles, most of which we haven't rebought on DVD, although most are now available on disc. And she has boxes and boxes of movies taped off TV.

[GoldenWheels]

Originally Posted by Alan Smithee

I have EVERY title released on the failed CED videodisc format, including the first instore demo disc:

Been collecting them ever since I found a stereo player at a flea market in 1993 for 15 bucks. There's just a couple other dealer-only discs I don't have yet- 2 were on Ebay last week and some bastard outbid me at the last second! Bet he won't even put them online!

I had to go wiki to get the story on these--I had heard the term videodisc before but I never knew how it actually worked. Very weird (and cool).

[dkedvd]

Originally Posted by JCWBobC

VHS movies were $89.99-$99.99 and eventually went up to $104.99. .

Wow. I'm glad I was a kid when those days were around. But damn... My Grandmother had a HUGE VHS collection back in the 80's. She must have spent a fortune.

[dkedvd]

Originally Posted by GoldenWheels

I had to go wiki to get the story on these--I had heard the term videodisc before but I never knew how it actually worked. Very weird (and cool).

Hahaha. Me too. Crazy idea. I bet it would have been huge if the production wasn't pushed back 17 years. Just think... We could have piles of CEDs collecting dust instead of VHS tapes. But reading the Disadvantages of CED iIm glad VHS won out.

[Bishop_99]

82 VHS movies. I never even heard of laserdisc's back then. Never saw them at Blockbuster or any other store I went to. VHS movies were expensive in their initial release but usually like 3 months after I would find them for $20.00.

[dkedvd]

Originally Posted by Bishop_99

I never even heard of laserdisc's back then.

I only knew of them because my middle school / high school used them in class. I remember thinking how weird they looked. I though they were some kind of record size CD. The best part was my teachers could never get them to work correctly. They would want to play a clip but it would always play something else and then they would just end up skipping around the disc for ten minutes trying to find the right part. I never realized at the time that laserdiscs were for home use with movies on them as well. I thought for the longest time that they were some kind of educational format used only in schools (since that was the only place I ever saw them). Everyone I knew back then was still using VHS.

[dkedvd]

Ok we have Beta, VHS, CED, Laserdisc, DVD, Blu-ray, DH-DVD, and I'm sure even a few UMD collectors. But common... Where are all the 8mm collectors? LOL!

[DirkUSA]

I have one LD left. The Alamo.

[Ash Ketchum]

Originally Posted by dkedvd

Ok we have Beta, VHS, CED, Laserdisc, DVD, Blu-ray, DH-DVD, and I'm sure even a few UMD collectors. But common... Where are all the 8mm collectors? LOL!

I have silent 8mm reels of BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN and 20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH, both of which are considerably shortened versions of the features. Once I had a VCR, of course, I simply taped those movies off the air.

[GoldenWheels]

Originally Posted by dkedvd

Hahaha. Me too. Crazy idea. I bet it would have been huge if the production wasn't pushed back 17 years. Just think... We could have piles of CEDs collecting dust instead of VHS tapes. But reading the Disadvantages of CED iIm glad VHS won out.

Yeah it sounds like a fundamentally flawed format...somehow that actually makes it cooler as an anachronistic collector's thing though.

[Libby]

I just have a few VHS left mostly the disney classics and I think a copy of homeward bound

[orangerunner]

Originally Posted by GoldenWheels

I had to go wiki to get the story on these--I had heard the term videodisc before but I never knew how it actually worked. Very weird (and cool).

They were an odd format to be sure. I bought a used one in the mid-eighties when I was twelve for $200 and it came with 50 movies.

It actually used a needle like a record and the picture quality was better than VHS but the damn things skipped like crazy on many of the titles I had.

I suppose the needle eventually wore out the disc because the way it was packaged (a hard plastic sleeve that inserted into the machine) there was no way you could touch or damage the disc itself.

The only plus was the large format artwork on the case sleeve.

[orangerunner]

Originally Posted by dkedvd

Ok we have Beta, VHS, CED, Laserdisc, DVD, Blu-ray, DH-DVD, and I'm sure even a few UMD collectors. But common... Where are all the 8mm collectors? LOL!

Hey don't laugh yet! I also have a Super-8 sound copy of Dirty Mary Crazy Larry. It's an abridged version that runs 18 minutes long and is fully packaged for home use.

I think 20th Century Fox brought out several titles in Super-8 for home use just before VCRs became popular. You can also get Star Wars and, I think, Alien as well.

[clckworang]

I find it interesting as cheap as DVD prices have become how many people still buy VHS tapes. Yes, I absolutely adored my VCR back in the day, but I find it very difficult to watch a VHS tape now. I can hear the tape moving and it just looks more drab. Of course, now that I have an HD television, you now have to content with the letterbox thing, as opposed to enhanced for widescreen TVs. Of course, that's all contingent on being lucky enough to find whatever movie it is in widescreen. Oh, I remember spending a lot of time browsing through the widescreen VHS section at Best Buy ...

[reverie]

Never owned a single laserdisc.. still have somewhere under 100 VHS tapes.. mostly music-related actually (concerts, video compilations).

[clckworang]

Originally Posted by dkedvd

Wow. I'm glad I was a kid when those days were around. But damn... My Grandmother had a HUGE VHS collection back in the 80's. She must have spent a fortune.

It was rental pricing that made VHS titles so expensive when they would first be released. Most titles would have a window of time where they were only supposed to be rented. That's why those titles would have $100 price tags. Once the rental window had ended, those titles would be released priced to sell to households. Of course, many bigger titles would be released priced to own, skipping the rental window. VHS prices, in the format's heyday, were roughly equivalent to DVD pricing, obviously depending on the title and such.

[rw2516]

Originally Posted by Ash Ketchum

I have silent 8mm reels of BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN and 20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH, both of which are considerably shortened versions of the features. Once I had a VCR, of course, I simply taped those movies off the air.

I've got a box of 8mm titles from when I was a kid in the 60s. SON OF FRANKENSTEIN, TARANTULA, RETURN OF DRACULA, HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN, BEAST WITH 5 FINGERS, WAR OF COLOSSAL BEAST, I WAS TEENAGE WEREWOLF, IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE, DISNEY CARTOONS, WOODY WOODPECKER CARTOONS, HORROR OF DRACULA, CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN, CREATURE WALKS AMONG US bunch more can't remember. During the summer we would put sheet on side of garage for screen and have our own drive-in monster movie marathon.

[dkedvd]

Originally Posted by clckworang

I find it interesting as cheap as DVD prices have become how many people still buy VHS tapes.

A lot of it has to do with titles that are not on DVD. VHS is the only (practical) way some titles can be watched today. But for others maybe they just don't care. LOL. Me, I will always buy DVD over VHS. But sometimes I'll see a title on VHS I'm having a hard time finding on DVD (for my standard DVD buying price of $5.00 or less) and pick it up just to have something until I do eventually find it on DVD. 50% of the time I'm paying 25 cents for a VHS tape so I'm not loosing out.

[Alan Smithee]

There's an 8mm videotape format (called Video 8) too, in addition to 8mm film. It's about the size of an audio cassette only a little thicker- they were made primarily for camcorders and you can still get blank tapes of them, but for a few years they put out pre-recorded movies on them. I have a few just for curiosity's sake, but don't currently have anything to play them on. They supposedly have PCM digital sound on them, but I've never seen a machine that could actually play that- the analog tracks on them are in mono.

I've also got about 30 Cartrivision movies- these were the VERY first home video format to have pre-recorded material- came out in 1972, 3 years before the first Betamax, but wasn't on the market too long. Movies put out for rent had a special mechanism so they could only be rewound at the store, so renters could only watch them one time before returning them. I have the remnants of 4 machines too but can't get any of them to work.

Here's the demo video for it (and no, it's not mine)

[Alan Smithee]

And here's the original (copyrighted 1980) instore demo for CED videodiscs:


And a TV commercial:

[Lastdaysofrain]

I own about 1200 LDs, I'd say there's probably 100 that are not on DVD or have commentaries or extras not on DVD that I still watch.

I have about 4000 VHS tapes, mostly in boxes in my basement. I spent about 3 years putting them all on DVD-R.

[dkedvd]

Originally Posted by Alan Smithee

Movies put out for rent had a special mechanism so they could only be rewound at the store, so renters could only watch them one time before returning them.

Wow! What an ass move. And look at that player. It looks like a mini 1940's oven. LOL. With all these other formats that could have been the norm I gotta say... Thank god for VHS. Hahaha!