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IntenseMagic

IntenseMagic

Some grannies cuss a lot. I'm some grannies.
Pollywog
Joined
Feb 28, 2012
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According to my calendar of silly little holidays, today is VCR Day! I'm going to date myself a little here. I got my first VCR in the mid-80's when I was in college. It even had a remote, only it was attached by a long cord :giggle. We didn't have cable in our dorm, so we rented lots of movies! I still have bunch of VHS tapes, mostly Disney movies from when my older kids were little. I also have a bunch of home movies on VHS and the smaller VHS-C that I need to get converted to digital. I'm not sure my youngest has ever seen a VCR, unless it was at school or something. It's been a lot of years since we had one.
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Do any of you still have VHS tapes or a VCR? Do you younger ones even remember them? :giggle
 
My mother got rid of theirs before they're most recent house move. I remember having one as a child I guess I was about 10. A lady coming round once a fortnight with the boot of her car filled with videos that we could rent. Video lady day was always exciting.
 
I have a few VCR tapes that I just can't part with. They're things we recorded of some of the kids' events. I also have a lot of the smaller tapes (the ones that came out later). I keep saying that I'm going to get them all converted to CD's. That's on my Bucket List. My hubby used to lug that huge video recorder around everywhere. Then we got one of those smaller Camcorders.
 
I first got one in the 80's as well. I used it to tape my soap operas while I worked so I could watch them that night.

As for now, yes, I still have one that works. It is on a shelf in the basement. At one time I had a software that I could convert those VHS tapes myself as long as I had a working VCR to connect to the computer. I found that some of what I wanted to convert wouldn't convert because they had been taped from television. Something in the encoding wouldn't allow it (was all my favorite scenes from the soaps over the years that I had compiled into a tape). Personal recordings worked most of the time. I finally gave up and had the personal VHS tapes digitized. Later I had the smaller VHS-C camcorder and I still have 3 of those that need to be digitized.

During my whole house purge, I got rid of a lot of VHS tapes of movies and stuff that had been taped off of the TV by my parents and myself over the years. Also got rid of the movies and workout videos I had purchased over the years. Hadn't watched them in years so why keep them.

One of the ones I had digitized was a video my mother had put together in the early 80's of old family photos. We called it "Reminiscing... The Way We Were" and it was about her side of the family. It was made from slides and photos that my grandparents had taken of their siblings/families over the years. Mom had given copies to family members one Christmas but with the changing technology, nobody could even watch it if they wanted to. After I had it digitized, I burned CD's of it and gave the family members a copy for Christmas along with a printout that I had found during the cleaning out of Mom's desk that listed who the people were in each slide/photo on the disk. There were a few tears that day.
 
We still have a DVD/VCR combo, but it's not even hooked up right now as everything we do is streaming. We no longer own VHS movies other than home movies. We still have DVDs but never watch them. Hubby did get some of the videos of Olivia's babyhood onto a DVD, but it was time consuming. I think I'll have to remind him that we need to digitize them for sure.

I don't miss VHS tapes. The poor quality, the rewinding, the twisting of the film. I do remember, fondly, going to a local video rental place and how much fun that was to get there early enough on a Friday to get the best releases for the week. LOL
 
I remember when it started to arrive here in Brazil, it was a product very expensive and most people would buy from the US when someone visited...it was not cheap here, it took years before the middle class could afford (as my family) .
I had it in the early 90s, and it was so cool, I used to record lots of video clips from MTV! mine doesn't exist anymore, I think I still have some tapes, that I wanted to copy to DVD...
 
Last summer when I cleaned out "junk" rooms I tried to get rid of a bunch of VHS tapes but the fam would not let me. So of the 60+, I ended up having to store away 40 or more. sigh. Somewhere we have a VHS player that still works I think.

You know, I think DH said our DVD storage area, which is overflowing, still has VHS tapes in there. I should dig them out so all the DVDs fit.
 
Angela Toucan said:
My mother got rid of theirs before they're most recent house move. I remember having one as a child I guess I was about 10. A lady coming round once a fortnight with the boot of her car filled with videos that we could rent. Video lady day was always exciting.
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How neat that someone would come around with tapes to rent out of the car!
 
Cherylndesigns said:
I have a few VCR tapes that I just can't part with. They're things we recorded of some of the kids' events. I also have a lot of the smaller tapes (the ones that came out later). I keep saying that I'm going to get them all converted to CD's. That's on my Bucket List. My hubby used to lug that huge video recorder around everywhere. Then we got one of those smaller Camcorders.
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I have a hard time parting with the Disney tapes for some reason. And yes, my bucket list as well. I have so many that need to be done.
 
HavaDrPepper said:
I first got one in the 80's as well. I used it to tape my soap operas while I worked so I could watch them that night.

As for now, yes, I still have one that works. It is on a shelf in the basement. At one time I had a software that I could convert those VHS tapes myself as long as I had a working VCR to connect to the computer. I found that some of what I wanted to convert wouldn't convert because they had been taped from television. Something in the encoding wouldn't allow it (was all my favorite scenes from the soaps over the years that I had compiled into a tape). Personal recordings worked most of the time. I finally gave up and had the personal VHS tapes digitized. Later I had the smaller VHS-C camcorder and I still have 3 of those that need to be digitized.

During my whole house purge, I got rid of a lot of VHS tapes of movies and stuff that had been taped off of the TV by my parents and myself over the years. Also got rid of the movies and workout videos I had purchased over the years. Hadn't watched them in years so why keep them.

One of the ones I had digitized was a video my mother had put together in the early 80's of old family photos. We called it "Reminiscing... The Way We Were" and it was about her side of the family. It was made from slides and photos that my grandparents had taken of their siblings/families over the years. Mom had given copies to family members one Christmas but with the changing technology, nobody could even watch it if they wanted to. After I had it digitized, I burned CD's of it and gave the family members a copy for Christmas along with a printout that I had found during the cleaning out of Mom's desk that listed who the people were in each slide/photo on the disk. There were a few tears that day.
Click to expand...
Interesting that the ones from tv wouldn't convert! I have some VHS-C and some 8mm. My dad was a camera fiend, so he always had whatever the next camcorder invention was. The Reminiscing video sound so lovely!! What a wonderful gift!!!
 
gonewiththewind said:
We still have a DVD/VCR combo, but it's not even hooked up right now as everything we do is streaming. We no longer own VHS movies other than home movies. We still have DVDs but never watch them. Hubby did get some of the videos of Olivia's babyhood onto a DVD, but it was time consuming. I think I'll have to remind him that we need to digitize them for sure.

I don't miss VHS tapes. The poor quality, the rewinding, the twisting of the film. I do remember, fondly, going to a local video rental place and how much fun that was to get there early enough on a Friday to get the best releases for the week. LOL
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I don't really miss them either, especially the ones that would get stuck in the machine lol. But I also fondly remember going to the rental place and trying to get the newest releases!
 
Ferdy said:
I remember when it started to arrive here in Brazil, it was a product very expensive and most people would buy from the US when someone visited...it was not cheap here, it took years before the middle class could afford (as my family) .
I had it in the early 90s, and it was so cool, I used to record lots of video clips from MTV! mine doesn't exist anymore, I think I still have some tapes, that I wanted to copy to DVD...
Click to expand...
Ohhh I recorded lots of MTV as well. I remember trying to get things timed just right lol
 
BevG said:
Last summer when I cleaned out "junk" rooms I tried to get rid of a bunch of VHS tapes but the fam would not let me. So of the 60+, I ended up having to store away 40 or more. sigh. Somewhere we have a VHS player that still works I think.

You know, I think DH said our DVD storage area, which is overflowing, still has VHS tapes in there. I should dig them out so all the DVDs fit.
Click to expand...
I got rid of a bunch at yard sales years ago, but hung on to the Disney ones for some reason. Nostalgia, I guess. Probably the same reason I have 3 cases of cassette tapes lol
 
We still have our last VCR plugged in and hooked up to the TV. It can no longer record but it can still play old VHS on them as I own a few Children's ones that we play when the Grandchildren come to stay over.
 
Oh my gosh! I love this thread. :giggle I remember having VCRs as a kid and especially in college before DVR was a thing. My roommates and I would record our favorite shows so we could watch them together. I think I still have a couple of VHS tapes and I know I have some from an old camcorder, but I don't think we have a VCR to even play them anymore. Can you believe how different it is now to record videos? We can all do it so easily on our phones now and share them online with anyone! I'm SOOOO glad for this advance in technology!
 
Well, I never had a VCR as a child...lord, we barely had a tv in those days! Then in my adult life we finally had some vhs tapes including 'day of movie release' bootlegged videos from the UK available in the rental store in Bahrain. Oh the making sure to get them back on time and not pay a fine!

I still have one VCR player/recorder but it's not hooked up, and yes, why wait to trash it! I do have dh's old cd/dvd portable player and old iMac which still has a cd/dvd slot. I rarely use the former and have yet to use the old iMac as with streaming on the TV there's really no need. I don't think I have any VHS tapes as I never took movies but hated to take some foreign films I'd recorded from the tv on VHS to the little charity shop which still sells them. The quality sucked but I enjoyed them.
 
My in-laws and an aunt of mine still have a VCR and VHS tapes so my kids have seen them and know what they are! I sure do not miss having to watch VHS tapes!
 
We do have a few left in our home, the ones that have home recording in them. But no vhs player to play them on. Really should gave them transferred to another media like dvd
 
A-M said:
We still have our last VCR plugged in and hooked up to the TV. It can no longer record but it can still play old VHS on them as I own a few Children's ones that we play when the Grandchildren come to stay over.
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I do sometimes wish I still had a VCR for some of the old tapes that I have. The grandkids would probably enjoy them :)
 
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