Over the Christmas period, I visited some family friends who were still using a Sony VCR (aproximate representation above). It was linked to a LCD television and appeared to also have a Freeview set-top box hooked up to it, to record from. A cheap DVD player was not too far away either.

But rather than roll my eyes at people clinging onto out-dated technology, I thought it rather quaint that they had inexpensively adapted what hardware that they had to suit their needs, by adding a cheap digi-box. Good for them and all those others out there adapting what faithfully serves them.

Tagged: VHS

... and twenty-eight years ago Shoestring was only on VHS ...

Tagged: Colebox's Scrapbook / VHS / instagram

As you may know, there have been a lot of VHS tapes that have passed through my hands. I have thrown quite a few into the bin over the years which I'm not happy about; it's such a waste! To my knowledge, re-cycling old tapes isn't that widespread yet and Charity Shops aren't keen to take commercial VHS tapes; let alone blank ones. So what could I do about it?

One minor victory, above, is one of a pair of VHS PC speaker stands that I made: two VHS tapes stuck together with with Superglue, making a T shape, and a 'coaster' DVD-R stuck on the top. Rather appropriate for my Video-PC. A bit naff? Maybe, but that's four tapes saved from landfill.

Tagged: VHS

No sooner do I give up on commercial VHS tapes (here) than I come accross several tapes in one go in a Charity Shop: a complete set of (four) Fawlty Towers tapes for £1.50 and three tapes from Last Of The Summer Wine for £1, featuring the original characters: Compo, Clegg and Blamire.

I have seen tapes of Fawlty Towers in charity shops many times but never a full set; also finding tapes of the original Summer Wine has an added poinancy, this month, as the series is coming to an end, after thirty-seven years, at the end of August.

Of course all of these titles are available on DVD but then a stack of classic BBC Video releases for £2.50 is hard to resist and is still a bargain when one has the equipment to make very good transfers to DVD-R.

Tagged: Video Collection / VHS

It has been a year since I bought my last commercial VHS tape. It was from ebay and it was the mini-series "Births, Marriages And Deaths" from 1999. I now feel that it is highly unlikely that I will find any other commercial VHS tapes that would be worth getting; the supply in Charity shops is diminishing and ebay is full of the usual suspects at, quite frankly, silly prices. In addition, everything appears to have been released on DVD now anyway.

I shouldn't complain as I have had a good run over the last few years but it does seem to be the end of an era (but who knows what may turn up).

However, there are still a number of off-air tapes that are making their way to me so the supply of material to capture and convert hasn't dried up yet.

Tagged: Video Collection / VHS

In my Why Do I Record All This Telly? page I said that it was difficult to walk past a Charity Shop without popping in and having a look at the video shelves. That article was written in 2006 (and probably needs up-dating now) and this practice hasn't been as prominent as used to be.

The main problem has been that the supply of rare and interesting VHS tapes seems to have dried up. If I want to collect tapes of Only Fools And Horses, The Fast Show or Absolutely Fabulous, (or any other high profile series) then the tapes are plentiful. But these types of programmes are all out in full-series DVD box sets.

On a cold Saturday in January, while having a few minutes to kill, I called into a large independant charity shop (by that I mean a single outlet rather than a chain such as Oxfam) and I found a huge wall of VHS tapes. It took me a good ten minutes to view the whole lot.

There were some old BBC sport releases, lots of James Bond films, many run of the mill hollywood fare and the afore-mentioned Only Fools And Horses etc. However, within all this there were two finds: Yorkshire TV's Harry's Game for 50 pence and a box set of the whole of the Red Dwarf Re-Mastered series for £3 (not to be confused with the proper original un-touched Red Dwarf series).

At the time of finding tapes I am not always aware that the programme has been released on DVD or not. In the case of the Red Dwarf Re-Mastered box set, I did know that they hadn't been because they were so unpopular but as for the Harry's Game tape I would have to wait until I got home to look this up on-line.

As it happened it has been but this still goes to show that interesting releases are still out there.

However...

Note to self: never rely on my own memory (so how will I remember my note?)... Anyway, on a recent visit to WH Smith I was surprised to find a DVD box set of the Red Dwarf Re-Mastered set.

So it seems that both of my finds have enjoyed DVD releases. However on a more recent foray into the Charity Shops I found a 1990 BBC Video release of Joyce Grenfel Entertains (below). This has been re-packaged for DVD release as the Joyce Grenfel: The BBC Collection but for the collector would be a different release. So, indeed, they are still out there...

Tagged: Video Collection / VHS

Colebox's Telly And Video Stuff
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