I Heart VHS
I had to work with VHS last week. I very rarely deal with VHS anymore. I only pull them out when I'm looking for something buried in one of my beloved tapes. While few would argue the supremacy of DVDs, there are just some things about VHS that I will always love. Here are my top 5.
1. Unlimited Recordability
I can fill a VHS tape with movies and TV shows, keep it for 10 years, then decide I don't want any of those things anymore and record over the whole tape. If I want to record something that's two minutes long, I don't have to pull out a fresh tape just for that. I can find any tape that has two free minutes on it. If I go to make a dub and there's a hiccup in the process, I don't have to throw the whole tape away. I just rewind and start over. I love VHS for that. Plus, if someone gave you a promotional tape that you had no interest in, you could just put a piece of masking tape over that record-protection tab and use it for Thursday night's very special episode of The Cosby Show. That's much better than those useless AOL discs that serve no purpose. (Seriously. I wouldn't even recommend you use them to try AOL.)
2. Durability
It's hard to kill a VHS tape. If you crush the shell of the tape, it will probably still play. If it doesn't, most (if not all) VHS tapes are held together with screws. You can put the actual tape into a different shell if you need to. While it's not recommended, you can leave tapes in piles on the floor (just watch for that static electricity), stacked on shelves, shoved in boxes, or stashed under the bed. The actual tape is protected inside the shell. If you accidentally drop something on a DVD and it cracks, forget about it. That thing is done. The readable part of a disc is always exposed (even if it's to the inside of a case or disc album) and susceptible to dirt, dust, scratches, or other damage. If one part of a DVD gets damaged, the whole disc, and all the information contained on it, is no longer useful. If the tape inside a VHS cassette breaks, as is prone to happen after time, you can just splice it back together with something as simple as transparent tape. Forget about cockroaches, VHS tapes will survive the nuclear holocaust.
3. Capacity
I can make a two-hour tape hold six hours by using the SLP setting. There will be a slight degradation in quality, but nothing significant (keen-eyed videophiles may disagree, but they're probably not reading this, so I stand by my point.) I have used the SLP setting on my DVD recorder, and the video was so compressed it was practically unwatchable. Figuring out that I'm going to need 3-6 DVDs for every one VHS tape I own has slowed my enthusiasm for converting them.
4. They Always Come With a Case
Spools of DVDs may be convenient, but they're not exactly practical for storage. That's why they sell separate jewel cases. But, if I'm going to need the cases anyway, WHY DON'T THEY JUST SELL THE BLASTED DISCS WITH THE CASES? I hate when I have to make a copy of something for someone and I have to hand them a plain disc (which could be easily scratched and rendered unusable, see point #2) because I don't have any spare cases around.
5. You Can Always Pick Up Where You Left Off
You can start watching something, stop in the middle, take the tape out of the VCR so you can use it for something else, put the tape back in, and it's right where you left it. There may be few advantages to linear recording, but darn if that isn't one of them.
BONUS: I just love them. VHS tapes have character. I love the weight when I hold them in my hand. I love the clicky, springy sound of the reels if you bounce them in and out with your fingers, I love the sound a VCR makes when you first put the tape in, I love the way they sit on shelves like library books and the large, labeled spines that make it easy for me to know exactly what's on the tape, I love their shiny black exteriors, and I love all of the seemingly mundane things that the limitations of linear recording forced me to keep on tape that are now some of my favorite things in my VHS collection. I may backup my tapes, but I can't see ever getting rid of them completely. Each cassette serves as a tiny time capsule, and I love each and every one.
1. Unlimited Recordability
I can fill a VHS tape with movies and TV shows, keep it for 10 years, then decide I don't want any of those things anymore and record over the whole tape. If I want to record something that's two minutes long, I don't have to pull out a fresh tape just for that. I can find any tape that has two free minutes on it. If I go to make a dub and there's a hiccup in the process, I don't have to throw the whole tape away. I just rewind and start over. I love VHS for that. Plus, if someone gave you a promotional tape that you had no interest in, you could just put a piece of masking tape over that record-protection tab and use it for Thursday night's very special episode of The Cosby Show. That's much better than those useless AOL discs that serve no purpose. (Seriously. I wouldn't even recommend you use them to try AOL.)
2. Durability
It's hard to kill a VHS tape. If you crush the shell of the tape, it will probably still play. If it doesn't, most (if not all) VHS tapes are held together with screws. You can put the actual tape into a different shell if you need to. While it's not recommended, you can leave tapes in piles on the floor (just watch for that static electricity), stacked on shelves, shoved in boxes, or stashed under the bed. The actual tape is protected inside the shell. If you accidentally drop something on a DVD and it cracks, forget about it. That thing is done. The readable part of a disc is always exposed (even if it's to the inside of a case or disc album) and susceptible to dirt, dust, scratches, or other damage. If one part of a DVD gets damaged, the whole disc, and all the information contained on it, is no longer useful. If the tape inside a VHS cassette breaks, as is prone to happen after time, you can just splice it back together with something as simple as transparent tape. Forget about cockroaches, VHS tapes will survive the nuclear holocaust.
3. Capacity
I can make a two-hour tape hold six hours by using the SLP setting. There will be a slight degradation in quality, but nothing significant (keen-eyed videophiles may disagree, but they're probably not reading this, so I stand by my point.) I have used the SLP setting on my DVD recorder, and the video was so compressed it was practically unwatchable. Figuring out that I'm going to need 3-6 DVDs for every one VHS tape I own has slowed my enthusiasm for converting them.
4. They Always Come With a Case
Spools of DVDs may be convenient, but they're not exactly practical for storage. That's why they sell separate jewel cases. But, if I'm going to need the cases anyway, WHY DON'T THEY JUST SELL THE BLASTED DISCS WITH THE CASES? I hate when I have to make a copy of something for someone and I have to hand them a plain disc (which could be easily scratched and rendered unusable, see point #2) because I don't have any spare cases around.
5. You Can Always Pick Up Where You Left Off
You can start watching something, stop in the middle, take the tape out of the VCR so you can use it for something else, put the tape back in, and it's right where you left it. There may be few advantages to linear recording, but darn if that isn't one of them.
BONUS: I just love them. VHS tapes have character. I love the weight when I hold them in my hand. I love the clicky, springy sound of the reels if you bounce them in and out with your fingers, I love the sound a VCR makes when you first put the tape in, I love the way they sit on shelves like library books and the large, labeled spines that make it easy for me to know exactly what's on the tape, I love their shiny black exteriors, and I love all of the seemingly mundane things that the limitations of linear recording forced me to keep on tape that are now some of my favorite things in my VHS collection. I may backup my tapes, but I can't see ever getting rid of them completely. Each cassette serves as a tiny time capsule, and I love each and every one.
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