Wal-mart Stores in my area (Phoenix, AZ) Stock both T-120 Memorex or Sony 3pack Tapes and strangely Memorex 90min Standard audio cassettes and 2 pack 20min microcassettes next to CD and DVD recordables
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Oldest Extant Off-Air VHS/Beta Tape You Have
- Thread starter Stanislav
- Start date
Three more tapes found at an estate sale today.
TAPE 1: The Man Who Saw Tomorrow (1981) taped from HBO sometime in early 1983 with a few promos afterward, including one for the network's premiere of Star Wars!
TAPE 2: Starts with some home video footage of a couples dance competition taped sometime in the early '90s; partially taped over broadcast of Great Performances taped from WVIZ in November 1991 with promos afterward, followed by the first few minutes of European Journal; partially taped over recording of Bob Hope's 1990 Christmas Show (NBC special) taped from WKYC on 12/15/1990 with commercials and first couple minutes of Channel 3 News at 11 with Kim Brattain; partially taped over recording of Night of 100 Stars III (NBC special) taped from WKYC on 5/21/1990 with commercials and start of Channel 3 News at 11 with Leon Bibb and Jill Beach
TAPE 3: More home video of another dance competition, date stamp on screen reads "Sep. 4 '90"; Torvill and Dean (Thames Video documentary) copied from rental tape; tape ends with a few minutes of a Movie 5 presentation of Something Wild (1986) taped from WEWS circa 1990 with a few commercials
TAPE 1: The Man Who Saw Tomorrow (1981) taped from HBO sometime in early 1983 with a few promos afterward, including one for the network's premiere of Star Wars!
TAPE 2: Starts with some home video footage of a couples dance competition taped sometime in the early '90s; partially taped over broadcast of Great Performances taped from WVIZ in November 1991 with promos afterward, followed by the first few minutes of European Journal; partially taped over recording of Bob Hope's 1990 Christmas Show (NBC special) taped from WKYC on 12/15/1990 with commercials and first couple minutes of Channel 3 News at 11 with Kim Brattain; partially taped over recording of Night of 100 Stars III (NBC special) taped from WKYC on 5/21/1990 with commercials and start of Channel 3 News at 11 with Leon Bibb and Jill Beach
TAPE 3: More home video of another dance competition, date stamp on screen reads "Sep. 4 '90"; Torvill and Dean (Thames Video documentary) copied from rental tape; tape ends with a few minutes of a Movie 5 presentation of Something Wild (1986) taped from WEWS circa 1990 with a few commercials
I just found Star Wars at an estate sale in Yakima today. Unfortunately, it was copied from the rental tape. But it was a VINTAGE RCA VK-250. As for the sale, it had 50 years+ worth of goodies. Three keepers found so far, plus some miscellaneous home movie footage of college hockey games and a visit to a ranch in Cody, WY that I will be converting off to YT in the near future.
Tape 1 - The Hanford Story and a Dr. Carl Sagan seminar on nuclear weapons taped off YCTV (Yakima Community Television) in the summer of 1985 with a bulletin board segment in between the shows; partial broadcast of "Police Woman: Centerfold" (1983) taped off KNDO/NBC 7/5/1985 with commercials; unknown taped-over erotic drama movie in SP mode follows, with some woman in bleached blonde hair and a mohawk! I can't remember her name at the moment.
Tape 2 - The Yakima Centennial Parade, taped off KIMA-29 on 6/8/1985 with commercials. Hosts were Stu Seibel and Verna Messer, and the parade celebrated 100 years of Yakima history. Definitely a keepsake! This is also my oldest footage yet from KIMA.
Tape 3 - "The Big Chill" (1983) and "Splash" (1984) taped off unknown pay-TV channels; partial broadcast of NewsCenter 23, full episodes of The Tonight Show and Late Night with David Letterman, and 1:30AM sign-off sequence taped off KNDO/NBC 9/12-13/1984 with commercials. This is now my oldest Yakima news footage, and oldest sign-off from this market. No announcement, just the national anthem, and a KNDO/KNDU bumper with the studio-to-transmitter links listed before the carrier was cut.
Yesterday I was at another estate sale, and found one tape. On the unlabeled tape, I found...
- Most of an episode of The Young and The Restless and partial rerun of Inside Edition taped off KIMA/CBS in October 2007 with commercials, and most of an episode of Chuck taped off KNDO/NBC 9/24/2007 with commercials. Tape begins with a huge jumble of previous recordings, including Jeopardy!, Wheel of Fortune, a commercial for Bi-Mart and a CBS soap (probably Y&R).
Still going through finds from a previous sale which include the 1-15-1995 ABC/KAPP airing of Driving Miss Daisy, with commercials.
Tape 1 - The Hanford Story and a Dr. Carl Sagan seminar on nuclear weapons taped off YCTV (Yakima Community Television) in the summer of 1985 with a bulletin board segment in between the shows; partial broadcast of "Police Woman: Centerfold" (1983) taped off KNDO/NBC 7/5/1985 with commercials; unknown taped-over erotic drama movie in SP mode follows, with some woman in bleached blonde hair and a mohawk! I can't remember her name at the moment.
Tape 2 - The Yakima Centennial Parade, taped off KIMA-29 on 6/8/1985 with commercials. Hosts were Stu Seibel and Verna Messer, and the parade celebrated 100 years of Yakima history. Definitely a keepsake! This is also my oldest footage yet from KIMA.
Tape 3 - "The Big Chill" (1983) and "Splash" (1984) taped off unknown pay-TV channels; partial broadcast of NewsCenter 23, full episodes of The Tonight Show and Late Night with David Letterman, and 1:30AM sign-off sequence taped off KNDO/NBC 9/12-13/1984 with commercials. This is now my oldest Yakima news footage, and oldest sign-off from this market. No announcement, just the national anthem, and a KNDO/KNDU bumper with the studio-to-transmitter links listed before the carrier was cut.
Yesterday I was at another estate sale, and found one tape. On the unlabeled tape, I found...
- Most of an episode of The Young and The Restless and partial rerun of Inside Edition taped off KIMA/CBS in October 2007 with commercials, and most of an episode of Chuck taped off KNDO/NBC 9/24/2007 with commercials. Tape begins with a huge jumble of previous recordings, including Jeopardy!, Wheel of Fortune, a commercial for Bi-Mart and a CBS soap (probably Y&R).
Still going through finds from a previous sale which include the 1-15-1995 ABC/KAPP airing of Driving Miss Daisy, with commercials.
My tape of The Man Who Saw Tomorrow on HBO was an RCA VK 250 as well. I actually have another one of those brands as well, that one containing the NBC special Super Night of Rock N Roll on WKYC and the syndicated special Rock Rolls On on WOR Superstation, both with commercials taped in 1984. The one I got today played back surprisingly well, aside from the picture being a little shaky, which sometimes happens with recordings in SLP mode.
I've had the misfortune of finding erotic movies on some of the tapes I've picked up over the years, obviously never knowing such content would be on them until I played them back. Doesn't happen often, but when I do find such, it's usually stuff that's taped off of Cinemax, HBO and the like in the late night hours (Real Sex, Erotic Confessions, etc.) I always end up throwing that stuff out. More recently, though, at a garage sale, I bought a tape containing a Request 2 Pay-Per-View recording of The Prince of Tides that ended with a few minutes of promos, and then all of a sudden, the owner's cable receiver flipped over to the Spice Channel during a couple minutes of promos on that network before the next movie on that channel started, which was when the tape went blank and reverted to an older recording of an episode of Another World. Ironically, there were also some Fox Kids cartoons on that tape as well after the Another World episode. I ended up throwing that one out too.
I have a partial recording of Splash taped from KBHK in San Francisco in 1994. Believe it or not, the tape was found at a local flea market in Portage County, Ohio. Interesting how uncommon it seems to be to find out-of-market content on some of these tapes I find locally.
Speaking of Splash, on a YouTube video I found once, I found out the Disney Channel had aired that movie at some point and the network showed a parental advisory before it started. You don't see that every day!
I've had the misfortune of finding erotic movies on some of the tapes I've picked up over the years, obviously never knowing such content would be on them until I played them back. Doesn't happen often, but when I do find such, it's usually stuff that's taped off of Cinemax, HBO and the like in the late night hours (Real Sex, Erotic Confessions, etc.) I always end up throwing that stuff out. More recently, though, at a garage sale, I bought a tape containing a Request 2 Pay-Per-View recording of The Prince of Tides that ended with a few minutes of promos, and then all of a sudden, the owner's cable receiver flipped over to the Spice Channel during a couple minutes of promos on that network before the next movie on that channel started, which was when the tape went blank and reverted to an older recording of an episode of Another World. Ironically, there were also some Fox Kids cartoons on that tape as well after the Another World episode. I ended up throwing that one out too.
I have a partial recording of Splash taped from KBHK in San Francisco in 1994. Believe it or not, the tape was found at a local flea market in Portage County, Ohio. Interesting how uncommon it seems to be to find out-of-market content on some of these tapes I find locally.
Speaking of Splash, on a YouTube video I found once, I found out the Disney Channel had aired that movie at some point and the network showed a parental advisory before it started. You don't see that every day!
Three tapes found at an estate sale in Medina earlier today. Not the greatest finds this time. One tape contained the PBS documentary Sonja Henie: Queen of the Ice taped from WVIZ on 8/31/1995. Second tape contained a Nightline special edition on the late Frank Sinatra's 80th birthday taped on 12/8/1995. This one was broken, as the picture froze when I tried to play it back. Unknown if it was taped from WEWS in Cleveland or WAKC in Akron or whether any commercials were on it. Third tape contained NBC's 1995 airing of The Sound of Music (1965) taped from WKYC on 12/22/1995. Some commercial breaks were included, but others were cut out. A year ago, in the Brownwood, Texas lot I bought off of eBay, I found another tape of this airing of this same movie taped from KXAS in Dallas, but after converting the first two commercial breaks from it, that tape froze when I hit play. This new one plays back fine throughout the movie though.
There were more tapes at the estate sale that I didn't pick up, both prerecorded and home-recorded. One tape label read "Dog Training" (how-to show on cable or PBS, maybe?), two other tapes had Gone with the Wind (1939) divided into two parts, three had the Civil War miniseries on PBS, a few were unlabeled. Several Betamax tapes were also spotted there.
There were more tapes at the estate sale that I didn't pick up, both prerecorded and home-recorded. One tape label read "Dog Training" (how-to show on cable or PBS, maybe?), two other tapes had Gone with the Wind (1939) divided into two parts, three had the Civil War miniseries on PBS, a few were unlabeled. Several Betamax tapes were also spotted there.
I'd grab the unlabeled ones for you...and those Beta tapes! My Sony SL-HF300 is still working well.
These were found at another estate sale in Yakima yesterday. Two of them were unlabeled, Tape 2 was one of those. The other seemed to be erased.
Tape 1 - "The Specialist" (1994) taped off unknown pay-TV channel, partial recording of "Hard to Kill" (1990), "Dispara" (1993-en espanol) and part of "Massacre River" (1949) taped off Cinemax in the early morning hours of 10/9/1995 with promos in between the first two films
Tape 2 - So far, I've found an episode of Days of Our Lives taped off KNDO/NBC in May 2007 with commercials. I've only checked the first hour (in LP mode), I suspect the other three hours also have DOOL, but need to check.
Tape 3 - 1987 Indy 500 taped off KTVK-3 Phoenix/ABC 5/28/1987, minus most commercials...video quality isn't that great either.
Tape 4 - "A Better Way to Die" (2000) taped off HBO in October 2000 with promos afterwards; also includes some TV-MA show afterwards (Real Sex I think?) - might not keep this one after digitizing the promos.
I'm considering buying some tapes from this lot:
http://seattle.craigslist.org/est/zip/5866068809.html
Still 3,000 Betas/VHS left! I got an email back saying that they have a variety of programming, and the father usually left the VCR running without pausing commercials. Lots of Seattle TV gold in this lot potentially!
These were found at another estate sale in Yakima yesterday. Two of them were unlabeled, Tape 2 was one of those. The other seemed to be erased.
Tape 1 - "The Specialist" (1994) taped off unknown pay-TV channel, partial recording of "Hard to Kill" (1990), "Dispara" (1993-en espanol) and part of "Massacre River" (1949) taped off Cinemax in the early morning hours of 10/9/1995 with promos in between the first two films
Tape 2 - So far, I've found an episode of Days of Our Lives taped off KNDO/NBC in May 2007 with commercials. I've only checked the first hour (in LP mode), I suspect the other three hours also have DOOL, but need to check.
Tape 3 - 1987 Indy 500 taped off KTVK-3 Phoenix/ABC 5/28/1987, minus most commercials...video quality isn't that great either.
Tape 4 - "A Better Way to Die" (2000) taped off HBO in October 2000 with promos afterwards; also includes some TV-MA show afterwards (Real Sex I think?) - might not keep this one after digitizing the promos.
I'm considering buying some tapes from this lot:
http://seattle.craigslist.org/est/zip/5866068809.html
Still 3,000 Betas/VHS left! I got an email back saying that they have a variety of programming, and the father usually left the VCR running without pausing commercials. Lots of Seattle TV gold in this lot potentially!
Six tapes found at an estate sale in Selah, WA. Nothing local in the mix, but did find some very interesting items. Includes my first-ever Canadian TV footage on a VHS tape!
Tape 1 - "Three Men and a Horse" (1936) taped off CBC North on 10/19/1989 with promos, PSAs, and weather bulletin/sign-off sequence. This is my first ever content from Canada. CBC North is the satellite feed for Yukon/Northwest Territories, which used to be on the Anik C-Band satellite free-to-air. This is unlike having a local CBC affiliate (like CBUT Vancouver). Also on the tape - "Munster Go Home" (1966) taped off TBS on Halloween 1989 with commercials, and "Alleghany Uprising" (1939) taped off TBS 6/8/1990 with commercials
Tape 2 - 3-hour aircheck of CNN from 1/4/1989 - Moneyline, CNN Sports Tonight, NewsNight, Crossfire and NewsNight Update, all with commercials
Tape 3 - "The Desert Rats" and partial broadcast of AMC Salutes Missouri taped off AMC in August 1990 with promos; "All the President's Men" (1976) and partial broadcast of A&E Behind the Scenes taped off A&E 9/8/1990 with commercials
Tape 4 - 6 episodes of The Rockford Files taped off A&E in late 1992 with commercials
Tape 5 - "The Doctor Takes a Wife" (1940) and "Desk Set" (1957) taped off unknown channels, no commercials; "Nine Days a Queen" (1936) taped off The Nostalgia Channel in May 1988, with lots of filler programming afterwards, including a segment called StarClips. This is the current Youtoo TV, after about five or six different name changes. At this time, they aired classic movies, many were public domain.
Tape 6 - "Waterloo Bridge" (1940) taped off TBS 8/31/1990 with commercials; "The Purple Rose of Cairo" (1985) taped off KSTW-11/Tacoma 9/2/1990 with commercials; "The Rains of Ranchipur" (1955) taped off AMC in September 1990 w/ Bob Dorian's introduction segment
Tape 1 - "Three Men and a Horse" (1936) taped off CBC North on 10/19/1989 with promos, PSAs, and weather bulletin/sign-off sequence. This is my first ever content from Canada. CBC North is the satellite feed for Yukon/Northwest Territories, which used to be on the Anik C-Band satellite free-to-air. This is unlike having a local CBC affiliate (like CBUT Vancouver). Also on the tape - "Munster Go Home" (1966) taped off TBS on Halloween 1989 with commercials, and "Alleghany Uprising" (1939) taped off TBS 6/8/1990 with commercials
Tape 2 - 3-hour aircheck of CNN from 1/4/1989 - Moneyline, CNN Sports Tonight, NewsNight, Crossfire and NewsNight Update, all with commercials
Tape 3 - "The Desert Rats" and partial broadcast of AMC Salutes Missouri taped off AMC in August 1990 with promos; "All the President's Men" (1976) and partial broadcast of A&E Behind the Scenes taped off A&E 9/8/1990 with commercials
Tape 4 - 6 episodes of The Rockford Files taped off A&E in late 1992 with commercials
Tape 5 - "The Doctor Takes a Wife" (1940) and "Desk Set" (1957) taped off unknown channels, no commercials; "Nine Days a Queen" (1936) taped off The Nostalgia Channel in May 1988, with lots of filler programming afterwards, including a segment called StarClips. This is the current Youtoo TV, after about five or six different name changes. At this time, they aired classic movies, many were public domain.
Tape 6 - "Waterloo Bridge" (1940) taped off TBS 8/31/1990 with commercials; "The Purple Rose of Cairo" (1985) taped off KSTW-11/Tacoma 9/2/1990 with commercials; "The Rains of Ranchipur" (1955) taped off AMC in September 1990 w/ Bob Dorian's introduction segment
Six tapes found at an estate sale in Selah, WA. Nothing local in the mix, but did find some very interesting items. Includes my first-ever Canadian TV footage on a VHS tape!
Tape 1 - "Three Men and a Horse" (1936) taped off CBC North on 10/19/1989 with promos, PSAs, and weather bulletin/sign-off sequence. This is my first ever content from Canada. CBC North is the satellite feed for Yukon/Northwest Territories, which used to be on the Anik C-Band satellite free-to-air. This is unlike having a local CBC affiliate (like CBUT Vancouver). Also on the tape - "Munster Go Home" (1966) taped off TBS on Halloween 1989 with commercials, and "Alleghany Uprising" (1939) taped off TBS 6/8/1990 with commercials
Tape 2 - 3-hour aircheck of CNN from 1/4/1989 - Moneyline, CNN Sports Tonight, NewsNight, Crossfire and NewsNight Update, all with commercials
Tape 3 - "The Desert Rats" and partial broadcast of AMC Salutes Missouri taped off AMC in August 1990 with promos; "All the President's Men" (1976) and partial broadcast of A&E Behind the Scenes taped off A&E 9/8/1990 with commercials
Tape 4 - 6 episodes of The Rockford Files taped off A&E in late 1992 with commercials
Tape 5 - "The Doctor Takes a Wife" (1940) and "Desk Set" (1957) taped off unknown channels, no commercials; "Nine Days a Queen" (1936) taped off The Nostalgia Channel in May 1988, with lots of filler programming afterwards, including a segment called StarClips. This is the current Youtoo TV, after about five or six different name changes. At this time, they aired classic movies, many were public domain.
Tape 6 - "Waterloo Bridge" (1940) taped off TBS 8/31/1990 with commercials; "The Purple Rose of Cairo" (1985) taped off KSTW-11/Tacoma 9/2/1990 with commercials; "The Rains of Ranchipur" (1955) taped off AMC in September 1990 w/ Bob Dorian's introduction segment
I had heard of the Nostalgia Channel, but never had any idea of what kind of programming was on it, or had even seen any YouTube videos of it. Interesting find.
For the first couple of years I studied at Bowling Green State University, Time Warner Cable carried CBET in Windsor, in addition to all the Toledo stations, WKBD in Detroit and WUAB in Cleveland. TWC dropped CBET and WKBD in the spring of 2009, and later dropped WUAB in the spring of 2011. I know I had watched a little bit of CBET when it was available to me, but not all that much. I do remember my Canadian Studies professor showing us a CBC documentary about the history of Canada that she recorded from CBET though when I took that class sophomore year.
In the days of OTA analog TV, there were times when our TV antenna was able to pick up CFPL in London, Ontario, during its days as BBS and when it was branded "The New PL."
For many years, the local cable system in Jacksonville carried not only the local PBS affiliate, but also the Gainesville PBS affiliate as well.
When the Gainesville PBS affiliate (WUFT-5) would sign off for the evening, you could sometimes see some programming from WPTV-5 (NBC) in West Palm Beach for awhile. I wish I had recorded this! (I recall seeing this in 1987).
Also, back when Broadcasting magazine used to issue their Yearbooks, I remember that WESH-2 (NBC) out of Orlando somehow had penetration into Hamilton County, FL (reaching about 5 percent of households in that county, IIRC) even though WESH's transmitter was 147 miles from the Hamilton County seat of Jasper. For that matter, the Jacksonville NBC affiliate at that time (WJKS-17) was much closer to Hamilton County. Not sure how WESH was able to reach those households in Hamilton!
When the Gainesville PBS affiliate (WUFT-5) would sign off for the evening, you could sometimes see some programming from WPTV-5 (NBC) in West Palm Beach for awhile. I wish I had recorded this! (I recall seeing this in 1987).
Also, back when Broadcasting magazine used to issue their Yearbooks, I remember that WESH-2 (NBC) out of Orlando somehow had penetration into Hamilton County, FL (reaching about 5 percent of households in that county, IIRC) even though WESH's transmitter was 147 miles from the Hamilton County seat of Jasper. For that matter, the Jacksonville NBC affiliate at that time (WJKS-17) was much closer to Hamilton County. Not sure how WESH was able to reach those households in Hamilton!
I haven't updated this thread in a long time, since I've been so busy going through tapes. I received 25 tapes from Kirkland, WA (craigslist) a while back, and I'm getting another 25 soon. Here's just a partial list of what I've found so far.Tape 1 - "Wilson" (1944) taped off FXM: Movies from Fox on 9/6/1995; partial broadcast of "Red River" (1948) taped off TNT 6/28/1994 with commercials; "Hard Times" (1975) and partial episode of The Rounders taped off TNT 6/30/1994 with commercials (early morning)
Tape 2 - "The Victors" (1962) taped off Cinemax in October 1996; "Wabash Avenue" (1950) taped off FXM: Movies from Fox in October 1996; "The Savage" taped off TNT 9/12/1995 with commercials
Tape 3 - "You Only Live Twice" (1967) and "The Russia House" (1990) taped off TBS 5/9-10/1996 with commercials; episode of The Twilight Zone taped off Sci-Fi Channel in May 1996 with commercials
Tape 4 - "Breakthrough" (1950) taped off WTBS-17 6/27/1984 with commercials
Tape 5 - "Hollow Triumph" (1948) taped off A&E 5/21/1996 with commercials (late night broadcast); "Bonzo Goes to College" (1952) and "The Great Imposter" (1961) taped off AMC 5/21/1996, the latter includes Nick Clooney's intro/conclusion segments; syndicated rerun of Seinfeld taped off KIRO-7 (UPN) 5/28/1996 with commercials; "Deadly Invasion: The Killer Bee Nightmare" taped off KCPQ/Fox 5/28/1996 with commercials. I have part of this TV-movie taped off Fox Family 6/1999 as well.
Tape 6 - "The Tuskagee Airmen" taped off HBO in August 1995; "Crimes of the Heart" (1986) and "Steel Magnolias" (1989) taped off Showtime in August 1995; "Total Recall" (1990) taped off The Movie Channel in August 1995; partial broadcast of "Hold Back the Dawn" (1941) taped off AMC in August 1995 with most of an intershow afterwards included
Tape 7 - "Boys Town" (1938) copied from rental tape; "Tribes" (1970) taped off FXM: Movies from Fox in October 1995 with a partial intershow before the movie; "Scarlet Street" (1945) and partial broadcast of A&E Classroom taped off A&E 10/20/1995 with commercials (late night broadcast)
Tape 8 - "Cattle King" (1963) taped off TNT 9/22/1994 with commercials; "Soldier of Fortune" (1955) and "The Lost Weekend" (1945) taped off AMC 9/27/1994 with promos and Bob Dorian segments
Tape 9 - "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (1951), "Lucky Jordan" (1942) and "China" (1943) taped off AMC 9/3/1994 with promos and Bob Dorian segments; "Lassie Come Home" (1943) and partial broadcast of The Story of Lassie taped off KCTS-9/PBS Seattle Labor Day 1994 with promos
Also found was the 1995 Mariners-Yankees AL Division game, taped off KOMO w/ commercials - one of the Mariners' few bright spots. I'm currently going through a lot of holiday stuff on my YT channel from previous lots.
I have also struggled with a Beta VCR that quit working. My Sony SL-HF300, which I have had since 2011, stopped working. Audio is good, but the video is what I can call "distorted static." Cleaning the heads several times didn't work, so I suspect an internal problem or a bad belt. I have sent it to Mr. Betamax in South Carolina for repairs - http://www.mrbetamax.com/
This comes as I just received a lot of 54 Betamax tapes, sent from Seattle proper, but all recorded from Denver TV. While fiddling around with my Beta to try to get a picture, I found out one tape had a Saturday late movie (maybe Silver Streak? I can't remember now) taped off KMGH-7 in the mid 1980s w/ commercials (when they were CBS). Another had a 1997 episode of Siskel & Ebert, also off KMGH (after joining ABC) with commercials. Rest of the tapes show a mix of movies on the labels, some vintage PBS programming (vintage Nova, Wall $treet Week, and Sneak Previews), which would have been from KRMA-6, and some unlabeled tapes (Siskel & Ebert? The seller told me a lot of the tapes had Siskel & Ebert episodes). Not all of them were L-750s however. There were many L-500s and even a few L-250s (which are short tapes, practically equal to the T-30 VHS length).
Tape 2 - "The Victors" (1962) taped off Cinemax in October 1996; "Wabash Avenue" (1950) taped off FXM: Movies from Fox in October 1996; "The Savage" taped off TNT 9/12/1995 with commercials
Tape 3 - "You Only Live Twice" (1967) and "The Russia House" (1990) taped off TBS 5/9-10/1996 with commercials; episode of The Twilight Zone taped off Sci-Fi Channel in May 1996 with commercials
Tape 4 - "Breakthrough" (1950) taped off WTBS-17 6/27/1984 with commercials
Tape 5 - "Hollow Triumph" (1948) taped off A&E 5/21/1996 with commercials (late night broadcast); "Bonzo Goes to College" (1952) and "The Great Imposter" (1961) taped off AMC 5/21/1996, the latter includes Nick Clooney's intro/conclusion segments; syndicated rerun of Seinfeld taped off KIRO-7 (UPN) 5/28/1996 with commercials; "Deadly Invasion: The Killer Bee Nightmare" taped off KCPQ/Fox 5/28/1996 with commercials. I have part of this TV-movie taped off Fox Family 6/1999 as well.
Tape 6 - "The Tuskagee Airmen" taped off HBO in August 1995; "Crimes of the Heart" (1986) and "Steel Magnolias" (1989) taped off Showtime in August 1995; "Total Recall" (1990) taped off The Movie Channel in August 1995; partial broadcast of "Hold Back the Dawn" (1941) taped off AMC in August 1995 with most of an intershow afterwards included
Tape 7 - "Boys Town" (1938) copied from rental tape; "Tribes" (1970) taped off FXM: Movies from Fox in October 1995 with a partial intershow before the movie; "Scarlet Street" (1945) and partial broadcast of A&E Classroom taped off A&E 10/20/1995 with commercials (late night broadcast)
Tape 8 - "Cattle King" (1963) taped off TNT 9/22/1994 with commercials; "Soldier of Fortune" (1955) and "The Lost Weekend" (1945) taped off AMC 9/27/1994 with promos and Bob Dorian segments
Tape 9 - "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (1951), "Lucky Jordan" (1942) and "China" (1943) taped off AMC 9/3/1994 with promos and Bob Dorian segments; "Lassie Come Home" (1943) and partial broadcast of The Story of Lassie taped off KCTS-9/PBS Seattle Labor Day 1994 with promos
Also found was the 1995 Mariners-Yankees AL Division game, taped off KOMO w/ commercials - one of the Mariners' few bright spots. I'm currently going through a lot of holiday stuff on my YT channel from previous lots.
I have also struggled with a Beta VCR that quit working. My Sony SL-HF300, which I have had since 2011, stopped working. Audio is good, but the video is what I can call "distorted static." Cleaning the heads several times didn't work, so I suspect an internal problem or a bad belt. I have sent it to Mr. Betamax in South Carolina for repairs - http://www.mrbetamax.com/
This comes as I just received a lot of 54 Betamax tapes, sent from Seattle proper, but all recorded from Denver TV. While fiddling around with my Beta to try to get a picture, I found out one tape had a Saturday late movie (maybe Silver Streak? I can't remember now) taped off KMGH-7 in the mid 1980s w/ commercials (when they were CBS). Another had a 1997 episode of Siskel & Ebert, also off KMGH (after joining ABC) with commercials. Rest of the tapes show a mix of movies on the labels, some vintage PBS programming (vintage Nova, Wall $treet Week, and Sneak Previews), which would have been from KRMA-6, and some unlabeled tapes (Siskel & Ebert? The seller told me a lot of the tapes had Siskel & Ebert episodes). Not all of them were L-750s however. There were many L-500s and even a few L-250s (which are short tapes, practically equal to the T-30 VHS length).
Latest thing I've found was one tape at an estate sale last month, containing the PBS special Condition Critical: The American Health Care Forum hosted by Phil Donahue taped from WVIZ in 1992 with a short partial promo block afterward.
Now that the snow's falling, garage sale and estate sale season is definitely over for the year. There are a few indoor flea markets here in the Northeast Ohio area that I've been to and had success finding tapes at before, but some are farther away from me than others.
Maybe I should try eBay again. Do I try the Brownwood seller again despite the items not matching the picture in the last lot I ordered?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/LOT-OF-48-U...265714?hash=item3ad5372b32:g:vOIAAOSwJ7RYVJcX
Or do I try a different location? This one from New Jersey seems like it could be a pretty decent lot, even though I know the photo is a stock photo.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/60-PC-ASSOR...b6a8713&pid=100033&rk=6&rkt=8&sd=252685265714
Now that the snow's falling, garage sale and estate sale season is definitely over for the year. There are a few indoor flea markets here in the Northeast Ohio area that I've been to and had success finding tapes at before, but some are farther away from me than others.
Maybe I should try eBay again. Do I try the Brownwood seller again despite the items not matching the picture in the last lot I ordered?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/LOT-OF-48-U...265714?hash=item3ad5372b32:g:vOIAAOSwJ7RYVJcX
Or do I try a different location? This one from New Jersey seems like it could be a pretty decent lot, even though I know the photo is a stock photo.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/60-PC-ASSOR...b6a8713&pid=100033&rk=6&rkt=8&sd=252685265714
The NJ lot looks like there are too many newer tapes (post 2000). Notice all of the post-2003 TDK boxes, and many of them are even newer. If you want older (and rarer, small-town recordings) go back to Brownwood. Some of them look like they came from the mid 1980s. I still have some Brownwood stuff to go through from the December 2015 lot.
Important notice:
My VHSgoodiesWA channel, 1,800+ subscribers strong, will freeze after 12/31/2016. The channel will continue to operate (thankfully, 6,000+ videos and ZERO Copyright Strikes!) but new videos will be posted on a new account. The new account is called "VHSgoodiesWA3". Link here to subscribe. Videos begin 1/1/17: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFiT_g6NLYQojQ5ttOAMp3w
I have a huge Beta lot to go through early next month. Denver content, some may even be pre-1980. Lots of fun coming up for the new year. The new channel will have the commercial breaks and miscellaneous.
My VHSgoodiesWA channel, 1,800+ subscribers strong, will freeze after 12/31/2016. The channel will continue to operate (thankfully, 6,000+ videos and ZERO Copyright Strikes!) but new videos will be posted on a new account. The new account is called "VHSgoodiesWA3". Link here to subscribe. Videos begin 1/1/17: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFiT_g6NLYQojQ5ttOAMp3w
I have a huge Beta lot to go through early next month. Denver content, some may even be pre-1980. Lots of fun coming up for the new year. The new channel will have the commercial breaks and miscellaneous.
Important notice:
My VHSgoodiesWA channel, 1,800+ subscribers strong, will freeze after 12/31/2016. The channel will continue to operate (thankfully, 6,000+ videos and ZERO Copyright Strikes!) but new videos will be posted on a new account. The new account is called "VHSgoodiesWA3". Link here to subscribe. Videos begin 1/1/17: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFiT_g6NLYQojQ5ttOAMp3w
I have a huge Beta lot to go through early next month. Denver content, some may even be pre-1980. Lots of fun coming up for the new year. The new channel will have the commercial breaks and miscellaneous.
I have a VHS lot of my own to start the new year off with as well. I just purchased a 50-tape lot from Holden, Missouri, from the same seller you bought from several months ago. Knowing what you've found from Holden, these should be pretty interesting to see. The listing itself said most of the tapes have commercials on them.
You're going to get a lot of pay-TV stuff, lots of promos from HBO, Showtime, Cinemax and most likely The Movie Channel. Probably quite a few movies from network TV premieres...so Kansas City stations. Maybe some TBS and early TNT stuff, you'll probably find more from Viewer's Choice and Request PPV as well. And of course, the occasional C-Band anomaly.
Well, I got my Holden lot today, and mine was pretty disappointing compared to the tapes you got from that seller. There were a lot of pay TV movies, as I expected, but most of the tapes didn't even have any promo blocks in between movies. Even smaller amount of commercial TV content found. I found one tape that had the network premiere of Lionheart (1990) on NBC in 1993, but most commercials were paused out except for a WDAF news teaser at the end of the movie. A lot of movies on these tapes were also copied from rentals. A couple of times, after a copied movie, the recorder would have hit the stop button on the other VCR playing back the rental tape and a few seconds of an unknown program or commercial would pop up before that recording stopped (one tape had a few seconds of an NFL game on NBC with John Madden announcing, another tape had a few seconds of a KFC Chicken Littles commercial). Overall, the recordings seem to range from the late '80s to the mid '90s.
Right now I'm looking at one tape that has the movie Warlock (1959) taped from KZKC, which included the opening, in which the announcer mentions the film would be shown with few commercial interruptions. Still have more tapes to go to, but unfortunately, I have a feeling those will probably be duds as well. Kind of a shame, especially since the listing mentioned most of the tapes have commercials on them from their shows/movies, plus what you've found in those two lots last year from that same seller.
Right now I'm looking at one tape that has the movie Warlock (1959) taped from KZKC, which included the opening, in which the announcer mentions the film would be shown with few commercial interruptions. Still have more tapes to go to, but unfortunately, I have a feeling those will probably be duds as well. Kind of a shame, especially since the listing mentioned most of the tapes have commercials on them from their shows/movies, plus what you've found in those two lots last year from that same seller.
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Sure won't be buying any more from Holden then. Guess the good tapes are gone (or were bought by me, then sent to DVD). So the seller is lying to his customers. When I got my Holden tapes, only 5 or 6 were duds out of 50, and even then were off pay-TV without promos. Nothing copied from rental tapes. Another tape got wrapped around in the VCR, which had "Cape Fear" on it, I think. That too went into the garbage.
I just got my Beta VCR back from repairs in South Carolina. Finally able to go through some of those Denver Betas in great quality! Some finds made:
- "An Unmarried Woman" (1978) taped off KBTV-9/ABC 8/30/1981 with commercials. KBTV is now KUSA/NBC. This was taped on a TDK L-750.
- Siskel & Ebert and ABC World News Sunday taped off KUSA/ABC 10/25/1992 with commercials. Glad to have the ABC newscast, but a bit of a disappointment because the tape is a vintage Sony L-250, with previous programming taped dating back to 1979. The L-250 is practically the same tape length as a T-30 VHS, so a short tape.
- Ebert & Roeper taped off KMGH-7 12/9/2000 with commercials - an older Maxell taped over with post-2000 content
- "Das Boot" (1981) taped off KWGN-2 in December 1988 with commercials, on a Sony L-750 Dynamicron.
- And now my oldest videotape found thus far - "The Apprenticeship of Dudley Kravitz" (1974) taped off KBTV/ABC 7/27/1980 with commercials! This was taped on a Zenith L-750.
Based on the labels, I could be seeing some early 1980 or late 1979 content once I get through them all. It will be a long process, but it'll happen.
I also received a 2nd VHS lot from Kirkland WA, 25 more tapes full of goodies. More pay-TV movies than the last lot, but still finding loads of AMC movies from the mid-late '90s, "Midnight Lace" off A&E in 1994 w/ commercials, scattered movies from TNT, TBS, USA and Lifetime, plus "Southern Comfort" (1981) taped off KTZZ-22 Seattle in 1994 with commercials! This was shortly before KTZZ became Seattle's WB affiliate.
I just got my Beta VCR back from repairs in South Carolina. Finally able to go through some of those Denver Betas in great quality! Some finds made:
- "An Unmarried Woman" (1978) taped off KBTV-9/ABC 8/30/1981 with commercials. KBTV is now KUSA/NBC. This was taped on a TDK L-750.
- Siskel & Ebert and ABC World News Sunday taped off KUSA/ABC 10/25/1992 with commercials. Glad to have the ABC newscast, but a bit of a disappointment because the tape is a vintage Sony L-250, with previous programming taped dating back to 1979. The L-250 is practically the same tape length as a T-30 VHS, so a short tape.
- Ebert & Roeper taped off KMGH-7 12/9/2000 with commercials - an older Maxell taped over with post-2000 content
- "Das Boot" (1981) taped off KWGN-2 in December 1988 with commercials, on a Sony L-750 Dynamicron.
- And now my oldest videotape found thus far - "The Apprenticeship of Dudley Kravitz" (1974) taped off KBTV/ABC 7/27/1980 with commercials! This was taped on a Zenith L-750.
Based on the labels, I could be seeing some early 1980 or late 1979 content once I get through them all. It will be a long process, but it'll happen.
I also received a 2nd VHS lot from Kirkland WA, 25 more tapes full of goodies. More pay-TV movies than the last lot, but still finding loads of AMC movies from the mid-late '90s, "Midnight Lace" off A&E in 1994 w/ commercials, scattered movies from TNT, TBS, USA and Lifetime, plus "Southern Comfort" (1981) taped off KTZZ-22 Seattle in 1994 with commercials! This was shortly before KTZZ became Seattle's WB affiliate.
One interesting thing I did find last night, though, was that during a premium cable showing of Return of the Fly (1959), the movie was interrupted at one point by an emergency alert message from the local cable company, stating that a tornado warning was in effect for Buchanan County, Missouri (where St. Joseph is). I know that these days in the digital age, especially with digital cable, it's not uncommon for cable broadcasts to be interrupted with weather alerts, Amber Alerts, Emergency Alert System tests, etc., but didn't know that was possible back in the early '90s when that was likely taped! Local stations, yes, but cable? Had no idea.
My recording of Warlock has the KZKC movie opening (I'm guessing around 1989 or so), but the ads were paused out, even though it was shown with limited commercial interruption to begin with. That tape was also kind of a pain to play back because of the clunking sounds my VCR made while fast-forwarding.
What looks to be the newest tape in this lot (TDK tape without a case) appears to have Hannibal (2001) and Bless the Child (2000). Haven't gotten to that one yet. My mom has a retail VHS copy of Hannibal.
My recording of Warlock has the KZKC movie opening (I'm guessing around 1989 or so), but the ads were paused out, even though it was shown with limited commercial interruption to begin with. That tape was also kind of a pain to play back because of the clunking sounds my VCR made while fast-forwarding.
What looks to be the newest tape in this lot (TDK tape without a case) appears to have Hannibal (2001) and Bless the Child (2000). Haven't gotten to that one yet. My mom has a retail VHS copy of Hannibal.
Odd that the tape originated from St. Joseph. The tapes I received were definitely from a distant part of the Kansas City metro, as a 1987 KZKC copy of "The Robe" looked like crap with loads of static at times (over-the-air reception). But oddly one of the tapes had a partial 1990 Another World episode taped off KYTV-3 Springfield (expected WDAF-4 instead).