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Oldest Extant Off-Air VHS/Beta Tape You Have

I've never used Myspleen before.

With that, just received 12 Beta tapes from a seller based out of Dunn, NC. Ten were keepers. All came from the Greenville, SC/Asheville, NC market even though Dunn is within the Raleigh DMA. Lots of sports-oriented stuff here, as well as some hard to find CBN footage on one tape. No NASCAR too despite being a popular market for it!

TAPE 1: Part one of two of ABC Wide World of Sports coverage of The Great American Bicycle Race off WLOS on 4/17/1983 with commercials, followed by portions of part 2 from the next week with very few commercials. The race is on YouTube in portions, but its always nice to find a few of those mid-major market ads from this era

TAPE 2: Pat Boone's Old-Fashioned Christmas Special (1984) and a rerun of the In Touch episode Jesus, Price of Piece from 1984 off CBN on 12/22/85 with commercials during the former special and promos in between the In Touch episode, which was commercial-free.

TAPE 3: Most of the NCAA Men's basketball game between UNC and Illinois off WSPA/CBS on 12/20/1986 with most commercials. Missing the opening, halftime, and the closing.

TAPE 4: The last 2 hours and 15 minutes or so of the final round of the U.S. Open (golf) and the first 40 minutes of the Our Kids and the Best of Everything special off WLOS/ABC on 6/21/1987 with ads.

TAPE 5: Lonely Are The Brave (1962), the evening movie off WTBS on 8/1/1987 with commercials, then it cuts to the last 40 minutes of a rerun of Late Night With David Letterman off WFFY/NBC on New Year's early morning 1987 with commercials.

TAPE 6: The In-Laws (1979), a Sunday afternoon movie off WFFY on 7/26/1987 with commercials (sadly, a dreaded back-to-school commercial popped up)

TAPE 7: Instead of two episodes of Moonlighting as stated on the label, this turned out to be some classic NCAA March Madness here, including parts of a couple of hard to find conference tournament games. The tape begins with the last 15 minutes of CBS "The Road To The Final Four" pregame show (begins with a Wheel of Fortune parody), followed by the first few minutes of the Duke vs. Temple East Regional Final Game on 3/26/1988 off WSPA, then it jumps to most of the ACC Men's semifinal game between Maryland (Go Terps!) and UNC, an intermission between the two games, and the first ten minutes (not game time) of the NC State-Duke semifinal off WFYY on 3/12/1988 with commercials, then it jumps again to about an hour's worth of footage from the ACC Men's QUARTERFINAL game between MD and Georgia Tech off WFYY on 3/11/1988 with commercials and a halftime break. Early round conference games from the 1980s are definitely a tough find if they were not televised on a national network.

TAPE 8: Some more great sports content here! Starts with the last 40 minutes of Thursday Night Thunder (alternative auto racing) as well as the first 20 minutes of SportsCenter off ESPN on 8/11/1988 with commercials, then it jumps back for the last hour or so of third round coverage of the (British) Open golf tournament off WLOS/ABC on 7/17/1988 with commercials, then it continues on WLOS with an episode NWA World Wide Wrestling (my oldest find from that federation), a syndicated rerun of the rather short-lived sitcom Carter Country from 1978, as well as about half of an episode of Consumer Cellular Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous (the Sharper Image is featured though!), with the later three shows all pre-empting late afternoon ABC sports network programming of Olympic trials for track and field.

TAPE 9: Starts with around the last ten minutes of the finals of the NCAA swimming competition, followed by 2 1/2 hours of final round coverage of the Masters off WSPA/CBS on 4/14/1991 with commercials, then it jumps with around a five minute news clip off WYFF from March 1991.

TAPE 10: The last two hours of 3rd round coverage of the 1991 US Open golf tournament, the WLOS 6 PM News, and about half of ABC World News Saturday from 6/15/1991 with commercials.

The two duds were a tape that turned out to be a K-60 that was recorded in BI speed that was simply part of a western movie taped off an unknown source (no commercials), and the other a Christmas concert featuring Luciano Pavarotti taped in the late 1980s off of a PBS station (possibly off WRLK in Columbia, SC) with no local promos.
 
Interesting on the finds from a seller in Dunn, that town is less than an hour from me, and quite small. They have a massive 100 mile long yard sale that runs through that area every summer that I always go to. Surprisingly, I've never found a home recorded VHS tape at those sales...yet.

5 years back I found a big sports lot on Ebay from a seller also located in Dunn that turned out to have a lot of late 1970s UNC basketball recordings, as well as Super Bowl XVI and a few other things.
 
A while back I finished inventorying the Betamax tapes I got from Leoti KS. I made one find from Kansas (out of 16), it was the last 15 min. of Vicki! (with the Mama's Family reunion) and about 45 minutes of Donahue taped off KSNC-2 Great Bend on Labor Day 1993 with commercials. That Vicki! episode is up on YouTube already. It was a TDK L-250 at the B-II speed, thus the 1 hour of recording length.
In addition, I found the entire Baby Jessica rescue from KTRK Eyewitness News on 10/16/1987 - also includes Max Headroom and part of 20/20! This was about a month before a Max Headroom impersonator hijacked WGN and WTTW's airwaves in Chicago.

I made a few decent but not very valuable finds at the local Habitat for Humanity Thrift Store in Ellensburg (which almost never stocks blanks) and at the Senior Center Thrift Shop in Ephrata. Both parts of Merlin off KHQ Spokane w/ commercials, a 3/14/90 broadcast of 'Big Jake' off TBS w/ commercials, a 1/1/99 broadcast of 'Conan the Barbarian' off TNT w/ commercials, and about an hour of the Northland Cable TV3 Bulletin Board channel from 1/30/99 following a rental copy of 'Cadence' with Charlie Sheen, with audio provided by KDRM 99.3 Moses Lake.
Have a VHS lot going up today or tomorrow to eBay, and Betamax tapes aren't too far behind.
 
Got a lot of VHS tapes on eBay that had a couple early 1980s Fuji and TDK Super Avilyn tape sleeves in them. Just started viewing them, and the lot appears to be recordings from the Portland, Oregon area. There are about twenty tapes, and I've come across a circa 1997 recording from OPB and a 1988 recording from KPDX so far, the latter being of an airing of the movie "Blood and Sand." Hopefully I get some early 1980s footage.
 
Obviously, I have been extremely busy thus Archive reuploads are slow right now. Maybe 10 videos every 2-3 days.
However, I am taking a road trip over spring break to North Idaho! There are two Goodwill Outlets on the hit list plus an equivalent store run by the Idaho Youth Ranch in Post Falls. Those Goodwill Outlets are Pasco (last visited in June) and Spokane. My tentative route takes me through Moscow (ID...not Russia, no pun intended), down to Lewiston, up through rural areas to St. Maries, and back around to Coeur D'Alene, Post Falls, and Sandpoint. It will be a 2-day (most likely, maybe even 3) trip. I will be going either 4/6-4/8 or 4/7-4/9.

As I keep selling off tapes (26 are going out to Illinois in the morning, 20+ Betas going up before the weekend), I kinda feel glad that there's a lack of estate sales at the moment. It allows me to 'lighten the load' ever-so-slightly.
 
Nearly finished going through the set of around 150 VHS tapes that I came across in Murray, Kentucky. Tape #28 of the set has just yielded for me a few recordings from the CBN cable network from the summer of 1984, which contain a partial episode of the Christian cartoon "The Flying House," a full episode of the Christian cartoon "SuperBook," and an episode of "The 700 Club."
 
pannoni1 said:
That show probably is found deep in WB's vault since it was once a Lorimar-Telepictures production, but I don't see any record of that episode circulating anywhere. A recent find included the short-lived 1980-81 run of Let's Make A Deal produced in Canada. Even if partial, it's still a nice find, given that it has not only never been reran after its run, but it's unlikely to do so anytime soon. It's not technically lost, but it's unlikely many will get to see the show somewhere anytime soon, although the streaming boom does provide some slight hope much like what cable was doing at the time making older game shows suddenly reusable. Only crainbebo has found an episode of it, and that's a nice find because of this!
Click to expand...

You can see it on this websute.

 
Looking for a VHS rewinder. All the tape rewinding I do on my VCR (Magnavox VCR/DVD recorder) seems to be taking a toll on it, i.e. there have been a couple of instances of the unit shutting off by itself after rewinding, but would resume normal operations after turning it off for a few minutes then back on. Which of these do you think I should buy?

Kinyo

Magnavox

Amazon.com: MAGNAVOX M61117 1-Way VHS Rewinder : Electronics

Buy MAGNAVOX M61117 1-Way VHS Rewinder: VCR Rewinders - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases
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I use an old reliable Gemini VHS rewinder, model RW3500, from the early '90s. Thrift store find way back when I first started using YouTube, which was over *7* years ago...that long?!
No new tape finds to share this week. Both estate sales in Yakima had no tapes in the pictures (and one only had retail movies), so I didn't waste precious gas now that it has surged to $4.25+ a gallon. Waiting on my next trip to "the bins" - which comes next month on my big road trip.
 
I managed to find a Gemini rewinder on Amazon that was even cheaper than the ones I linked above, so I went ahead and ordered it and it should be delivered by Wednesday. That said, however, has yours ever snapped the tape off the reels of any of your cassettes when you've used it? I can recall seeing a post on r/VHS on Reddit saying that was often an issue with VHS rewinders.

Anyway, I finally got through all of the tapes I picked up from my last estate sale haul in Medina. Unfortunately, no more Valley of the Dolls episodes were found on any of the other tapes I got from that one, and who knows if any of the loads of other tapes that I didn't pick up from that house had any other episodes on it. I mentioned before that almost all of the episodes of that show are available to view on DailyMotion, but they're all overdubbed in Russian, and the only one not available is the pilot episode.

At any rate, here's the rundown of what I ended up finding:

TAPE 1: Port Charles, One Life to Live and General Hospital taped from WEWS in Cleveland on 4/24/2002 with commercials; Ed, The West Wing, Law & Order and start of Channel 3 News at 11:00 taped from WKYC in Cleveland on 4/24/2002 with commercials; partial episode of America's Funniest Home Videos, All-Star Bloopers and most of 20/20 taped from WEWS on 4/5/2002 with commercials. Sony T-160.

TAPE 2: The Nanny taped from WINK in Fort Myers on 2/20/1995 with commercials; A Whole New Ballgame taped from WWSB in Sarasota on 2/20/1995 with commercials; end of Blossom and part two of A Woman of Independent Means taped from WFLA in Tampa on 2/20/1995 with commercials (already have this taped from WKYC); part two of The Boys of St. Vincent taped from A&E on February 20-21, 1995 with commercials; Walk on the Wild Side taped from the Discovery Channel in February 1995 with commercials; partial episode of Waiting for God taped from WNEO/WEAO in Akron in July 1994 with promos; last few minutes of Newscenter 8 at 11:00 and partial episode of Valley of the Dolls (episode 32) taped from WJW in Cleveland on 7/26/1994 with commercials. BASF T-130.

TAPE 3: NCAA Division II Football Championship taped from ESPN2 on 12/14/1996 with commercials; end of Wayne's World 2 (1993) and start of News Channel 5 at 11:00 taped from WEWS on 11/16/1996 with commercials; Murder One, Turning Point and start of News Channel 5 at 11:00 taped from WEWS on 11/7/1996 with commercials; partial episode of Waiting for God and partial episode of Are You Being Served taped from WNEO/WEAO on 10/29/1996 with promos; partial episode of Wild Discovery taped from the Discovery Channel in April 1996 with commercials; partial broadcast of Judgment Night (1993) taped from USA in November 1995 with commercials; partial episode of One Life to Live taped from WEWS on 11/16/1995 with commercials. Unknown brand T-120.

TAPE 4: One Life to Live and General Hospital taped from WEWS on 5/22/1995 with commercials; The Nanny, Dave's World, The Murphy Brown Special, Chicago Hope and first few minutes of 19 News at 11:00 taped from WOIO in Cleveland on 5/22/1995 with commercials. BASF T-130.

TAPE 5: Jaws (1975) and partial episode of The West Wing taped from Bravo on 8/9/2004 with commercials; partial episode of Forensic Files, Body of Evidence and The Investigators taped from Court TV in July 2004 with commercials; most of Channel 3 News at 11:00 taped from WKYC on 6/23/2004 with commercials; partial episode of Sex and the City taped from HBO in June 2004 with promos. Sony T-120.

TAPE 6: One Life to Live and General Hospital taped from WEWS on 10/22/1996 with commercials; end of Jeopardy, Roseanne, Life's Work, Home Improvement, Spin City, NYPD Blue and start of News Channel 5 at Eleven taped from WEWS on 10/22/1996 with commercials; partial broadcast of 48 Hours and first few minutes of 19 News at 11:00 taped from WOIO on 1/25/1996 with commercials. Unknown brand T-120.

TAPE 7: The Mossman Movie Show (local weekly movie review show hosted by long-time entertainment reporter David Moss) taped from WJW on 8/10/1996 with commercials; Smithsonian: Fantastic Journey (CBS special) taped from WOIO on 8/10/1996 with commercials; Lizards of Oz, Wombats: Bulldozers of the Bush, Justice Files, Fangs, and Daylight Robbery taped from the Discovery Channel on August 10-11, 1996 with commercials; partial episode of Justice Files and partial Perfect Abs infomercial taped from the Discovery Channel in June 1996 with commercials. BASF T-130.

TAPE 8: Walking with Dinosaurs taped from the Discovery Channel on April 16-17, 2000 with commercials, encore presentation follows. RCA T-120.

TAPE 9: Oops! The World's Funniest Outtakes 3 and start of The Simpsons ("Homerpalooza") taped from WJW on 5/19/1996 with commercials; final episode of Murder She Wrote and part one of Ruby Ridge: An American Tragedy (CBS miniseries) taped from WOIO on 5/19/1996 with commercials; Justice Files, Discover Magazine, Discovery Sunday and partial Kenny Kingston Psychic Hotline infomercial taped from the Discovery Channel on May 19-20, 1996 with commercials; partial episode of Voyages taped from A&E in January 1996 with commercials; partial episode of Voyages taped from A&E in September 1995 with commercials. TDK T-160.

TAPE 10: One Life to Live and General Hospital taped from WEWS on 5/21/1996 with commercials; America's Most Wanted: Final Justice taped from WJW on 5/21/1996 with commercials; The World Most Dangerous and part two of Ruby Ridge: An American Tragedy taped from WOIO on 5/21/1996 with commercials; Law & Order taped from A&E on 5/21/1996 with commercials; partial broadcast of Carrie Fisher: The Hollywood Family taped from A&E on 3/24/1996 with commercials; end of an episode of A Touch of Frost and partial episode of Law & Order taped from A&E on 7/12/1995 with commercials. BASF T-160.

TAPE 11: Final episode of Sisters and first few minutes of Channel 3 News at 11 taped from WKYC on 5/4/1996 with commercials; most of NYPD Blue and start of News Channel 5 at 11:00 taped from WEWS on 4/16/1996 with commercials; Law & Order taped from A&E in April 1996 with commercials; most of 48 Hours and first few minutes of 19 News at 11:00 taped from WOIO on 3/28/1996 with commercials; few minutes of a broadcast of News Channel 5 at 11:00 taped from WEWS in January 1996; partial episode of Investigative Reports taped from A&E on 1/6/1996 with commercials; partial broadcast of Bye Bye Birdie (ABC made-for-TV movie) and first few minutes of News Channel 5 at 11:00 taped from WEWS on 12/3/1995 with commercials. BASF T-120.

TAPE 12: America's Most Wanted: Final Justice taped from WJW on 5/27/1996 with commercials; Hostile Advances: The Kerry Ellison Story (made-for-TV movie) and Final Take: Sexual Harassment taped from Lifetime on 5/27/1996 with commercials; Wild Discovery and Planet of Life taped from the Discovery Channel on 5/28/1996 with commercials; Law & Order taped from A&E on 5/28/1996 with commercials; partial episode of Planet of Life taped from the Discovery Channel on 5/20/1996 with commercials; partial Psychic Friends Network infomercial presumably taped from the Discovery Channel sometime in 1996; end of an episode of Law & Order taped from A&E in January 1996 with commercials. TDK T-160.

TAPE 13: American Bandstand's 50th Anniversary Celebration and first couple minutes of 20/20 taped from WEWS on 5/3/2002 with commercials; most of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and first couple minutes of Channel 3 News at 11:00 taped from WKYC on 4/19/2002 with commercials; episode of The FBI Files taped from the Discovery Channel in April 2002 with commercials; another episode of The FBI Files and partial Principal Secret Advanced Skin Care infomercial taped from the Discovery Channel in January 2002 with commercials; partial broadcast of Dateline NBC taped from WKYC on 1/11/2002 with commercials; few minutes of a broadcast of News Channel 5 at 11 taped from WEWS in December 2001. RCA T-120.

TAPE 14: Watergate Plus 30: Shadow of History taped from WVIZ on 7/28/2003 with promos; pilot episode of Peacemakers taped from USA on 7/30/2003 with commercials; two episodes of American Justice taped from A&E on 7/30/2003 with commercials; episode of Monk and partial broadcast of part one of The Last Don II (1998 CBS miniseries) taped from USA in May 2003 with commercials. Sony T-160.
 
Scott2013 said:
I managed to find a Gemini rewinder on Amazon that was even cheaper than the ones I linked above, so I went ahead and ordered it and it should be delivered by Wednesday. That said, however, has yours ever snapped the tape off the reels of any of your cassettes when you've used it? I can recall seeing a post on r/VHS on Reddit saying that was often an issue with VHS rewinders.

Anyway, I finally got through all of the tapes I picked up from my last estate sale haul in Medina. Unfortunately, no more Valley of the Dolls episodes were found on any of the other tapes I got from that one, and who knows if any of the loads of other tapes that I didn't pick up from that house had any other episodes on it. I mentioned before that almost all of the episodes of that show are available to view on DailyMotion, but they're all overdubbed in Russian, and the only one not available is the pilot episode.

At any rate, here's the rundown of what I ended up finding:

TAPE 1: Port Charles, One Life to Live and General Hospital taped from WEWS in Cleveland on 4/24/2002 with commercials; Ed, The West Wing, Law & Order and start of Channel 3 News at 11:00 taped from WKYC in Cleveland on 4/24/2002 with commercials; partial episode of America's Funniest Home Videos, All-Star Bloopers and most of 20/20 taped from WEWS on 4/5/2002 with commercials. Sony T-160.

TAPE 2: The Nanny taped from WINK in Fort Myers on 2/20/1995 with commercials; A Whole New Ballgame taped from WWSB in Sarasota on 2/20/1995 with commercials; end of Blossom and part two of A Woman of Independent Means taped from WFLA in Tampa on 2/20/1995 with commercials (already have this taped from WKYC); part two of The Boys of St. Vincent taped from A&E on February 20-21, 1995 with commercials; Walk on the Wild Side taped from the Discovery Channel in February 1995 with commercials; partial episode of Waiting for God taped from WNEO/WEAO in Akron in July 1994 with promos; last few minutes of Newscenter 8 at 11:00 and partial episode of Valley of the Dolls (episode 32) taped from WJW in Cleveland on 7/26/1994 with commercials. BASF T-130.

TAPE 3: NCAA Division II Football Championship taped from ESPN2 on 12/14/1996 with commercials; end of Wayne's World 2 (1993) and start of News Channel 5 at 11:00 taped from WEWS on 11/16/1996 with commercials; Murder One, Turning Point and start of News Channel 5 at 11:00 taped from WEWS on 11/7/1996 with commercials; partial episode of Waiting for God and partial episode of Are You Being Served taped from WNEO/WEAO on 10/29/1996 with promos; partial episode of Wild Discovery taped from the Discovery Channel in April 1996 with commercials; partial broadcast of Judgment Night (1993) taped from USA in November 1995 with commercials; partial episode of One Life to Live taped from WEWS on 11/16/1995 with commercials. Unknown brand T-120.

TAPE 4: One Life to Live and General Hospital taped from WEWS on 5/22/1995 with commercials; The Nanny, Dave's World, The Murphy Brown Special, Chicago Hope and first few minutes of 19 News at 11:00 taped from WOIO in Cleveland on 5/22/1995 with commercials. BASF T-130.

TAPE 5: Jaws (1975) and partial episode of The West Wing taped from Bravo on 8/9/2004 with commercials; partial episode of Forensic Files, Body of Evidence and The Investigators taped from Court TV in July 2004 with commercials; most of Channel 3 News at 11:00 taped from WKYC on 6/23/2004 with commercials; partial episode of Sex and the City taped from HBO in June 2004 with promos. Sony T-120.

TAPE 6: One Life to Live and General Hospital taped from WEWS on 10/22/1996 with commercials; end of Jeopardy, Roseanne, Life's Work, Home Improvement, Spin City, NYPD Blue and start of News Channel 5 at Eleven taped from WEWS on 10/22/1996 with commercials; partial broadcast of 48 Hours and first few minutes of 19 News at 11:00 taped from WOIO on 1/25/1996 with commercials. Unknown brand T-120.

TAPE 7: The Mossman Movie Show (local weekly movie review show hosted by long-time entertainment reporter David Moss) taped from WJW on 8/10/1996 with commercials; Smithsonian: Fantastic Journey (CBS special) taped from WOIO on 8/10/1996 with commercials; Lizards of Oz, Wombats: Bulldozers of the Bush, Justice Files, Fangs, and Daylight Robbery taped from the Discovery Channel on August 10-11, 1996 with commercials; partial episode of Justice Files and partial Perfect Abs infomercial taped from the Discovery Channel in June 1996 with commercials. BASF T-130.

TAPE 8: Walking with Dinosaurs taped from the Discovery Channel on April 16-17, 2000 with commercials, encore presentation follows. RCA T-120.

TAPE 9: Oops! The World's Funniest Outtakes 3 and start of The Simpsons ("Homerpalooza") taped from WJW on 5/19/1996 with commercials; final episode of Murder She Wrote and part one of Ruby Ridge: An American Tragedy (CBS miniseries) taped from WOIO on 5/19/1996 with commercials; Justice Files, Discover Magazine, Discovery Sunday and partial Kenny Kingston Psychic Hotline infomercial taped from the Discovery Channel on May 19-20, 1996 with commercials; partial episode of Voyages taped from A&E in January 1996 with commercials; partial episode of Voyages taped from A&E in September 1995 with commercials. TDK T-160.

TAPE 10: One Life to Live and General Hospital taped from WEWS on 5/21/1996 with commercials; America's Most Wanted: Final Justice taped from WJW on 5/21/1996 with commercials; The World Most Dangerous and part two of Ruby Ridge: An American Tragedy taped from WOIO on 5/21/1996 with commercials; Law & Order taped from A&E on 5/21/1996 with commercials; partial broadcast of Carrie Fisher: The Hollywood Family taped from A&E on 3/24/1996 with commercials; end of an episode of A Touch of Frost and partial episode of Law & Order taped from A&E on 7/12/1995 with commercials. BASF T-160.

TAPE 11: Final episode of Sisters and first few minutes of Channel 3 News at 11 taped from WKYC on 5/4/1996 with commercials; most of NYPD Blue and start of News Channel 5 at 11:00 taped from WEWS on 4/16/1996 with commercials; Law & Order taped from A&E in April 1996 with commercials; most of 48 Hours and first few minutes of 19 News at 11:00 taped from WOIO on 3/28/1996 with commercials; few minutes of a broadcast of News Channel 5 at 11:00 taped from WEWS in January 1996; partial episode of Investigative Reports taped from A&E on 1/6/1996 with commercials; partial broadcast of Bye Bye Birdie (ABC made-for-TV movie) and first few minutes of News Channel 5 at 11:00 taped from WEWS on 12/3/1995 with commercials. BASF T-120.

TAPE 12: America's Most Wanted: Final Justice taped from WJW on 5/27/1996 with commercials; Hostile Advances: The Kerry Ellison Story (made-for-TV movie) and Final Take: Sexual Harassment taped from Lifetime on 5/27/1996 with commercials; Wild Discovery and Planet of Life taped from the Discovery Channel on 5/28/1996 with commercials; Law & Order taped from A&E on 5/28/1996 with commercials; partial episode of Planet of Life taped from the Discovery Channel on 5/20/1996 with commercials; partial Psychic Friends Network infomercial presumably taped from the Discovery Channel sometime in 1996; end of an episode of Law & Order taped from A&E in January 1996 with commercials. TDK T-160.

TAPE 13: American Bandstand's 50th Anniversary Celebration and first couple minutes of 20/20 taped from WEWS on 5/3/2002 with commercials; most of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and first couple minutes of Channel 3 News at 11:00 taped from WKYC on 4/19/2002 with commercials; episode of The FBI Files taped from the Discovery Channel in April 2002 with commercials; another episode of The FBI Files and partial Principal Secret Advanced Skin Care infomercial taped from the Discovery Channel in January 2002 with commercials; partial broadcast of Dateline NBC taped from WKYC on 1/11/2002 with commercials; few minutes of a broadcast of News Channel 5 at 11 taped from WEWS in December 2001. RCA T-120.

TAPE 14: Watergate Plus 30: Shadow of History taped from WVIZ on 7/28/2003 with promos; pilot episode of Peacemakers taped from USA on 7/30/2003 with commercials; two episodes of American Justice taped from A&E on 7/30/2003 with commercials; episode of Monk and partial broadcast of part one of The Last Don II (1998 CBS miniseries) taped from USA in May 2003 with commercials. Sony T-160.
Click to expand...
I have a Kinyo rewinder that I purchased off of eBay that has snapped tape leaders off of take-up reels before. When I use the rewinder, I make sure to pop the rewinder open when the tape is very nearly at the beginning.
 
Same here! TDK and Kodak cassettes from the '80s are prone to breakage and it has happened at least four times in the past. The leader tape is fragile after 3 1/2 decades.
 
Correct, those rewinders lack a sensor that will automatically stop a tape at the end like a VCR has. Speaking of that, does anyone have a lead on a hand crank VHS rewinder? I've seen them used in older movies and TV shows with video rental stores but I've never seen one in person. I would think they would be very useful for people like us.
 
I must have the worst luck with VCRs because I think my Magnavox ZV427MG9 may be on its last legs. I mentioned earlier that it's had instances of shutting itself off after rewinding or fast forwarding a tape as of late, and that seemed to happen even more today as I was using it. I personally think the culprit may be the motor weakening due to the unit's frequent fast forwarding and rewinding of tapes. I did get the VHS rewinder I ordered from Amazon yesterday, which works very well, but I think the damage to the player has already been done. Admittedly, as of late, I have been finding myself rewinding tapes in playback mode rather than out of playback mode due to the loud groaning sound the VCR will sometimes make when rewinding out of playback, along with not wanting to take the chance of the tape snapping off the spindle on the older stock cassettes dating back to the '80s. (That, of course, was before I got the rewinder.) And for whatever it's worth, I've had the unit since 2013.

I do have a second VCR/DVD recorder combo, a Sony RDR-VX555 I purchased at a garage sale last summer. My only beef with it is it doesn't play back mono-audio recordings as well as the Magnavox, i.e. the audio on the Sony would be much more faint with a little bit of a buzzing or hissing sound in the background. I have yet to dub a tape to a DVD using that one yet.

I saw an eBay listing for a Magnavox ZV427MG9 priced at $80, which is about as cheap as many of these combo units in a functional state get online. No remote with it, but the remote I already have would work with it since it's the same make and model. Still debating whether to consider buying it or not. Tomorrow before I head in for my radio gig, I may hit a couple of thrift stores, along with an estate sale I found, just to see if maybe I can find a combo unit like that one at a better price. Since I no longer have a CRT TV, I would prefer one with an HDMI output for easier connection to my HDTV.
 
I've gone through many VCRs over the years, but surprisingly I have had the most luck with the Sony SLV-N55, a Chinese-made late VCR from the early '00s. Sony made countless units, I've gone through one (the mono audio is shot, HiFi is still OK) and I am using another right now that is still in great shape. I don't bother plugging a VCR into an HDTV or CRT TV of any kind, except as a monitor for my Funai and whatever VCR is converting a tape to DVD. I use CyberLink PowerDirector and pull off clips that way, as WMV.

I also have had great luck with my Quasar mono unit from the early '00s, it plays those tough EP mono tapes in the best audio I've heard for those types of recordings. My Beta unit, a 1984 Sony SL-3030 (mono), is still holding strong after purchasing it for $68 off eBay in 2018 - and after about 100 or more Beta tapes played in it.
 
Mind you, my Magnavox will often play mono recordings in LP or SLP mode in somewhat warbly audio, but I personally would rather have that than the low audio of my Sony. Knowing how cheaply made Magnavox products are compared to Sony, you'd think it would be the other way around. It would make more sense to me to purchase that unit I found on eBay for $80 versus possibly paying $100+ to have my current unit of the same make and model cleaned and lubricated (or whatever else would have to be done) at the local repair shop, which was how much I paid last time I had to take it in (I'm lucky that I actually have a couple of electronics repair shops fairly close to me that still repair VCRs), but of course, if I can find a VHS-to-DVD dual unit in the wild for a lower price, that would obviously be better. We'll see what happens.
 
I received that box of around 50 Beta tapes that RetroCirq described recently. For the most part, a collection of movies taped off various Miami stations (WTVJ, WPLG, WCIX, WPBT, WBFS, WDZL, and WSVN, mostly recorded between July 1989 and March 1990 (mostly Memorex L-750s with a few gold sleeved Sony's.) Nearly all movies contain the commercials on them, ranging from late night movies to daytime/primetime airings on the non-Big 3 stations, as well as some off WPBT (PBS), including the 1989 4th of July Boston Pops special. There were also about a 20 tapes with around half an hour of vintage "Golden Age" cartoons comprising of mostly pre-1949 Looney Tunes (including a couple late 1960s recolored Porky Pig ones), Tom & Jerry, and Woody Woodpecker, recorded off WBFS, complete with commercials that the Xennials/early Millenials like myself and young and heart would have enjoyed. There was even an EBS test on one tape that I don't see anywhere online. There was also a tape recorded in November 1988 (a BASF 750), and my oldest find being a recording of the ABC Sunday Night Movie network TV premiere of Tootsie on September 29, 1985 off WPLG. No cable recordings were found, with a few of the recordings having a noticeable amount of snow on the screen.

I actively follow Dave's Archives' collections, so hopefully, he'll have more interesting content that I didn't find. That said, I really like the "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City" vibe on a lot of the bumpers/ads from this era in addition to those that would please Dorothy, Rose, Blanche, and Sophia. Due to a lot of these tapes recorded in a relatively short time between each others, there's a lot of repeat ads on some of the tapes, so I'll focus on farming out those broadcasts with the fewest skips. Most of my tapes (the 1989-early 1990-recorded ones) had marking labels ranging from around D40 up through about D92, while the 1988-recorded one had a tape label sticker starting with C followed by two other numbers. The 1985 tape just had a regular number written on one side, with the writing for the movies included stacked on top of each other as opposed to being arranged horizontally on the other tapes. The box indicated that it was #7 in a series, so hopefully, there's lots of mid-to late '80s Miami stuff that I missed that will turn up sometime, similar to a strategy I used for a bunch of VHS tapes based out of an eBay seller near Sacramento, where the lower-numbered tapes had the lower numbers. I'd imagine the B's have 1986-1987 stuff on them, with the C's recordings circa 1988, but hopefully they came into the right hands. Look out for some of these tapes (thanks again RetroCirq) in the coming months.

With that said, I've got another lot of ten Beta tapes based out of a seller based in NYC coming either tomorrow or early next week, then I may slow down a bit as I unload my tapes I've recorded over the past several months. Two labels are from early '80s Sony L-750s with SNL written on them, and another has the 1982 Grammy Awards on the side, so hopefully the ads won't be zapped!
 
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