VCRs that will last forever

[dr.ido]

I was actually going through some of my old tapes last night and I was actually suprised at how good a picture VHS can do. Of course Laserdiscs (when in decent condition) and DVDs (except for those shitty cheapo DVDs made from VHS masters and then overly compressed) provide a better picture, but if like me you haven't actually watched a VHS tape for a while you may be surprised.

The other benefit of course is movies on VHS are now dirt cheap. Around here you can regularly pick up large boxes of VHS tapes (usually a mix of original and home recorded tapes) for a couple of bucks. Heh, if the tapes are old enough even the ads can be entertaining.

I usually pick up at least a couple of decent movies each week that have been left in the VCRs that come across my bench. There are usually a few DVDs stuck in players as well, but most of those aren't worth watching (those stay on the bench for testing).

Most of my VHS decks are relatively new (90s), I don't even remember the last time I saw an old tank come through. I do have a big old Umatic machine around here somewhere that I will get around to checking out one of these days.