I'm a young'un so my oldest VHS tape is A View to a Kill from 1985...

Personal R2R I made of a Band I was in "Five of a Kind". A few practice Tapes done on BASF Tape in 1963! Surprisingly still sounds pretty good for what it was:)

I have VHS tapes from about 1980. Things taped off of TV. I used to have many, but through moves I dwindled it down to about 5 or 6. Lots of lame things from when I was a kid, but fun to see clips of old commercials, which look so ancient! The white parts of the tape are yellow! Quality tapes though that still play.

How I wish I could just make a road trip! Do you recall the model #?

Opcom...stay tuned. I will venture up and see what it really is. Gotta check up there anyway for suspected squirrel habitation.

Definitely!

I went ahead and got the VTR out - it has some issues and I posted about my repair effort in a different topic.

Did you have time to take a peek at it?

I have a new oldest VHS tape! I found a copy of Catch-22 dated 1979 at a thrift store today. My first pre-1980 tape!

Excellent http://www.videokarma.org/images/icons/icon7.gif

1979 is it magnetic video or Meda??

Beautiful analogue glory on your copy my friend!!

I have no idea, but it's made in USA which is definitely a rare sight on a VHS tape.

Ya I have noticed ya dont really find anything really GOOD at thrift stores.....

The best OFFICIAL pre-recorded VHS tape I found (so far) was a 1981 'MCA VIDEOCASETTE' release of THE ISLAND (1980) .. That was the first release of it and its beautiful!!

The 2nd best official was finding the first ON GOLDEN POND (1981) release '20th century fox' - 1982

My oldest videotape to date is a reel of Memorex tape, EIAJ-1, recorded sometime in 1970, in b/w. It does in fact play properly too! It is an episode of David Frost hosting a discussion on Northern Ireland, recorded from KVOS-12 Bellingham WA. I obtained this tape in a lot of old equipment from our local school district.

Not video.but I do have a wire reel to reel audio recording of new years celebration in 1949.It was recorded in a 1908 house I used to own.I bought a wire recorder/ player a few years ago but have to tune it up before archiving the recording with modern tech.a few cassette tapes from new years, ( iirc ) 1970 and up.recorded by the previous owner of the house that moved into the house in 1911.

The oldest video tapes I have are several Magenetic Video Betamax tapes I found at a junk shop (literal) about 14 years ago. I believe these were among the first movies ever released on tape for home consumption. The copyright date on them is 1977. The Hello Dolly one is still in its shrink wrap though it's ripped in several places.

The oldest recordable video tapes I have are a Zenith Betamax cassette and Panasonic VHS cassette whose sleeve graphics suggest very early 80s to me, though I'm not sure when they were made. Still cool though.

And the oldest audio tapes I have are two Memorex recordable 8-track cartridges that are still in their shrink wrap with Musicland price tags.

Not tape but I have a wire reel audio recording with new years celebrations in 1946 recorded by the owner of a 1908 house I used to own. RonL

I've got Zenith's first Betamax deck, that tape would go good with it.

It would! That's neat you have an early Beta. I have a Sanyo VCR4500 so not the earliest but still up there in age.

Those Zenith and Panasonic tapes are definitely late 70s-early 80s, based on my experience with tape stock that old. By 1979-1981 Beta had many more blank tape brands than VHS, I've only found 3 pre 1982 VHS brands released in America, that Panasonic one in the photo, RCA VK250 and VK125, and TDK Super Avilyn. I have some stuff recorded in 1979 from the RCA and TDK brands, and 1982 for that Panasonic one.


[QUOTE=technoman9;3239661]

The oldest recordable video tapes I have are a Zenith Betamax cassette and Panasonic VHS cassette whose sleeve graphics suggest very early 80s to me, though I'm not sure when they were made. Still cool though.

I've got pretty near their first, it's a behemoth. The Zenith "Video Director".

Doesn't work, it does thread tapes but refuses to play them.

https://i.imgur.com/BVTEdki.jpg

I had one of those. I think they get bad caps on servo speed control circuit mine had a weird issue where it would only play at BIII speed no matter what the tape was recorded at.
It fell and I had to glue the cabinet.... Still worked after that. I had the Sony version working so I ended up selling or donating mine.

Wow it must be goregous!!!!!!

Im glad she is staying happy and playing good for ya buddy!