Oldest Extant Off-Air VHS/Beta Tape You Have

[semoochie]

I just now discovered this thread and am not going to read through 35 pages but the idea of selling copyrighted material is a major no-no! We're talking "organized crime/prison sentence" here!

 

[CTListener]

I just now discovered this thread and am not going to read through 35 pages but the idea of selling copyrighted material is a major no-no! We're talking "organized crime/prison sentence" here!

So will the copyright police start going undercover at Goodwill shops and nailing the often-disabled employees? I can understand going after people selling pirated tapes/discs at flea markets, but going after thrift shops? Can't see it.

 

[Mediafrog+]

I just now discovered this thread and am not going to read through 35 pages but the idea of selling copyrighted material is a major no-no! We're talking "organized crime/prison sentence" here!

Copyright holders would have to prove actual financial damage from such sales, which would be impossible. The amount of such sales is microscopic, and has no measureable effect on "legitimate" video sales.

Same way used book stores resell copyrighted material without royalties going to the authors and publishers.

You would have to give books, as well as audio and video recordings, the same status as software--that you don't actually own it, but are buying a "license" for one person to use it, with no right of resale. Institute such a law, and sales of new media would plunge.

 

[crainbebo]

More tapes from another estate sale.

Tape 3 - "Eddie Macon's Run" and "Never Say Never Again" both taped from Showtime around 1984-1985, former has a schedule bumper; "Hooper" (1978) taped from unknown pay TV channel
Tape 4 - first 20 minutes of "The Thorn Birds" taped from ABC around 1993, "Forever Amber" (1947) taped from AMC around 1993-1994 with Bob Dorian's intro before the movie
Tape 5 - NOVA episode on Parkinson's Disease, taped in 1986 off unknown PBS station (likely KAKM); Nature "Alyeska: The Great Land" taped from unknown PBS station in 1986 (likely KAKM), end of "There Must Be A Pony" taped off KIMO-13 Anchorage, AK (ABC Sunday Movie) on 10/5/1986 with a few ads, many local ads and a legal ID with "Never As Good as the First Time" Sade in the background; first 20 minutes "The Girl in the Empty Grave" (with Andy Griffith) taped off KIMO the same evening with lots of local ads; very end of the FIFA World Cup 1986 (Argentina vs West Germany) taped off KTUU-2 (NBC) with ads; part of "Raggedy Man" taped off unknown Anchorage station in 1985 with ads. Maybe KTBY?
Tape 6 - BLANK! Was supposed to have "Children of the Dust", a 1995 CBS miniseries. Obviously, killed with the bulk eraser.
Tape 7 - Part 2 of "Children of the Dust," which survived. Taped off CBS/KIMA-29 in 1995 with ads.
Tape 8 - Parts 2 and 3 of "The Thorn Birds," taped off KAPP-35/ABC Yakima in 1993 with ads.

 

[Mediafrog+]

I've been curious when reading this thread: Do Betamax tapes ever show up at these vendors? I imagine there are a surprising number of Beta machines still in operation.

 

[Scott2013]

I've been curious when reading this thread: Do Betamax tapes ever show up at these vendors? I imagine there are a surprising number of Beta machines still in operation.

I rarely spot Betamax tapes at flea markets or garage sales. Every now and then I'll spot someone selling Betas, but even so, I never buy them because I don't have a Betamax VCR.

 

[Scott2013]

More tapes from another estate sale.

Tape 3 - "Eddie Macon's Run" and "Never Say Never Again" both taped from Showtime around 1984-1985, former has a schedule bumper; "Hooper" (1978) taped from unknown pay TV channel
Tape 4 - first 20 minutes of "The Thorn Birds" taped from ABC around 1993, "Forever Amber" (1947) taped from AMC around 1993-1994 with Bob Dorian's intro before the movie
Tape 5 - NOVA episode on Parkinson's Disease, taped in 1986 off unknown PBS station (likely KAKM); Nature "Alyeska: The Great Land" taped from unknown PBS station in 1986 (likely KAKM), end of "There Must Be A Pony" taped off KIMO-13 Anchorage, AK (ABC Sunday Movie) on 10/5/1986 with a few ads, many local ads and a legal ID with "Never As Good as the First Time" Sade in the background; first 20 minutes "The Girl in the Empty Grave" (with Andy Griffith) taped off KIMO the same evening with lots of local ads; very end of the FIFA World Cup 1986 (Argentina vs West Germany) taped off KTUU-2 (NBC) with ads; part of "Raggedy Man" taped off unknown Anchorage station in 1985 with ads. Maybe KTBY?
Tape 6 - BLANK! Was supposed to have "Children of the Dust", a 1995 CBS miniseries. Obviously, killed with the bulk eraser.
Tape 7 - Part 2 of "Children of the Dust," which survived. Taped off CBS/KIMA-29 in 1995 with ads.
Tape 8 - Parts 2 and 3 of "The Thorn Birds," taped off KAPP-35/ABC Yakima in 1993 with ads.

I have the first three parts of The Thorn Birds on a six-hour tape, recorded from WOIO in Cleveland in July 1989. Includes the commercials too.

 

[semoochie]

Copyright holders would have to prove actual financial damage from such sales, which would be impossible. The amount of such sales is microscopic, and has no measureable effect on "legitimate" video sales.

Same way used book stores resell copyrighted material without royalties going to the authors and publishers.

You would have to give books, as well as audio and video recordings, the same status as software--that you don't actually own it, but are buying a "license" for one person to use it, with no right of resale. Institute such a law, and sales of new media would plunge.

That would fall under "right of first sale". In this case, there was no sale. People recorded copyrighted material, under the concept of "fair use" and later gave it away. There is no crime, up to this point. It's when someone actually sells copyrighted material, without that right being transferred that they run into trouble.

 

[Scott2013]

Found several more tapes a few weeks back, one at a flea market and a few at an antique store.

TAPE 1: Virtuosity (1995) taped from unknown pay TV channel circa 2001; last 40 minutes of part one of Haven (CBS miniseries) taped from WOIO on 2/11/2001 with commercials; first 30 minutes or so of part two of Haven taped from WOIO on 2/14/2001 with commercials--Virtuosity was taped in SLP speed, and the footage of Haven was taped in SP speed, so that's why both parts of the miniseries are incomplete on the tape

TAPE 2: Part one of Baseball (Ken Burns PBS miniseries) taped from WVIZ on 9/18/1994; part of an unknown black-and-white movie (last 60 minutes or so) taped from WNEO/WEAO sometime in 1994, recording ends with a PBS image promo with Ken Burns and a schedule bumper that lasted about two minutes, odd; Abbott and Costello in Hollywood (1945) copied from rental tape with MGM/UA Home Video logo at the end

TAPE 3: Wings and the Woman (1942) taped from WUAB in summer 1983 with commercials; episode of The Jack Benny Program taped from WCLQ (now WQHS) in summer 1983 with commercials; The Benny Goodman Story (1956) taped from WCLQ in summer 1983 minus commercials

TAPE 4: Hogan's Heroes pilot episode rerun taped from WBNX in June 1994 minus commercials; end credits of an episode of Family Matters and full episodes of Happy Days and The Andy Griffith Show taped from WOIO in June 1994 with commercials, including a spot announcing the station's upcoming network switch from Fox to CBS; another episode of Happy Days taped from WOIO in June 1994 minus commercials; another episode of The Andy Griffith Show taped from WOIO in June 1994 minus most commercials; two partial episodes of Rush Limbaugh taped from WKYC on September 24 and 25, 1993, first episode minus commercials, second episode with commercials

TAPE 5: Six episodes of The Untouchables taped from WBNX in November 1992 with commercials

 

[crainbebo]

Also wanted to add a tape 9, which has "Nobody's Boy" (anime film from 1982), "The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie" (1981) and "Return of a Man Called Horse," first two unknown channels no ads, third off Showtime with a partial "Hollywood Closeup" segment before the movie; taped around 1984.
Also got tape 10, which has a few hours of "Scarlett" (CBS miniseries from 1994) taped off KIMA-29 Yakima with original commercials, including loads of local Yakima ads.
Vintage Yakima AND Anchorage TV in the same day? I'm impressed!
With tapes as early as 1984 at the estate sale, did I find any Betamax tapes? Zilch. Zero. Nada. Nope. Not at the rummage sale either. The only time I find Betamax tapes nowadays is on eBay, and they go for OUTRAGEOUS prices. I have seen home-recorded Betas go for $150 on eBay just because of the commercials...and some of those tapes have 20+ bids! No thank you.

-crainbebo

 

[Mediafrog+]

With tapes as early as 1984 at the estate sale, did I find any Betamax tapes? Zilch. Zero. Nada. Nope. Not at the rummage sale either. The only time I find Betamax tapes nowadays is on eBay, and they go for OUTRAGEOUS prices. I have seen home-recorded Betas go for $150 on eBay just because of the commercials...and some of those tapes have 20+ bids! No thank you. -crainbebo

Hmmm. I have a box with several dozen old home Beta tapes I recorded, mostly from the 1980's. I forget what is on a lot of them, but there are movies recorded off of WOR-TV in the 1983-85 time range...plus lots of other local and cable TV channels from 1983 to the early 90's. I still have the old Beta machine stored away, but it needs a lot of coaxing to actually play anything...not sure if I could get it to work again. Never got around to selling it or sending it to the electronic recycler. Perhaps I should look into monetizing those old tapes... I'm sure the promos and commercials would be the most interesting content.

The ultimate holy grail would be finding tapes from one of the "forgotten" early home videotape formats, such as V-Cord, VX, or Akai VK. Of course, those machines are extremely rare these days...perhaps only a handful still in existence.

 

[Scott2013]

Also wanted to add a tape 9, which has "Nobody's Boy" (anime film from 1982), "The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie" (1981) and "Return of a Man Called Horse," first two unknown channels no ads, third off Showtime with a partial "Hollywood Closeup" segment before the movie; taped around 1984.
Also got tape 10, which has a few hours of "Scarlett" (CBS miniseries from 1994) taped off KIMA-29 Yakima with original commercials, including loads of local Yakima ads.
Vintage Yakima AND Anchorage TV in the same day? I'm impressed!
With tapes as early as 1984 at the estate sale, did I find any Betamax tapes? Zilch. Zero. Nada. Nope. Not at the rummage sale either. The only time I find Betamax tapes nowadays is on eBay, and they go for OUTRAGEOUS prices. I have seen home-recorded Betas go for $150 on eBay just because of the commercials...and some of those tapes have 20+ bids! No thank you.

-crainbebo

Scarlett on CBS? One of the first tapes I've bought from a flea market has the last few minutes and few commercials from the last part of that miniseries taped from WTOL on 11/17/1994 at the end of it. Eight-hour tape, so there was a lot of other content on it including a Notre Dame Fighting Irish football game on NBC, some footage of the 1995 Ryder Cup on NBC, part of the movie The Searchers on TNT, part of an unknown John Wayne movie on the Family Channel, and part of the movie Sands of Iwo Jima on TNT.

 

[crainbebo]

All of the parts were on separate Sony V-Series VHS tapes, but I only picked up one as I was looking for even older material. I already had 8 tapes in my hand! I also found a tape that said "Queen" on it - and I should have picked it up. Wonder if it was the Queen miniseries from 1993...if so that would have been taped off KIMA as well, since it was on CBS.
There was also one (newer, late 90s maybe) tape that had a label with nothing printed on it. Don't like those. I can never tell if it's a secret XXX adult show, or a time-shifted soap opera.

Will keep looking in the weeks to come at estate sales and rummage sales!

-crainbebo

 

[Scott2013]

All of the parts were on separate Sony V-Series VHS tapes, but I only picked up one as I was looking for even older material. I already had 8 tapes in my hand! I also found a tape that said "Queen" on it - and I should have picked it up. Wonder if it was the Queen miniseries from 1993...if so that would have been taped off KIMA as well, since it was on CBS.
There was also one (newer, late 90s maybe) tape that had a label with nothing printed on it. Don't like those. I can never tell if it's a secret XXX adult show, or a time-shifted soap opera.

Will keep looking in the weeks to come at estate sales and rummage sales!

-crainbebo

I actually have the last half-hour or so of the Queen miniseries on another tape. Recorded from WCPO in Cincinnati with a few commercials before the end credits.

 

[crainbebo]

14 more tapes came to my door, from Bakersfield, CA. Several ad breaks have been posted to my VHSgoodiesWA YouTube channel. But here's what I have found so far. All of the material dates from 1995-2007.
- Duck Tales: Treasure of the Lost Lamp taped off Disney Channel in 1996
- Star Trek Voyager episode "Flashback" taped off KUZZ-45 (UPN) Bakersfield on 9/11/1996 with ads
- Babylon 5 episode taped off KUZZ minus ads
- 8 Track Flashback (with ABBA) taped off VH1 in October 1995 with ads
- A couple hours of the Big Screen, Big Hits marathon from VH1, taped 10/28/1995. The program was about 5 hours long, and had music videos from various popular movies.
- Several Buffy the Vampire Slayer reruns taped from FX in October 2002 with ads
- Episode of Sabrina the Teenage Witch taped from KUVI-45 (UPN) in May 2002 with ads and promos
- 3 or 4 more Sabrina episodes on various tapes, some KUVI and I believe one from KERO-23 original airing in 1999 (ABC)
- Entertainment Tonight taped from KGET-17 on 5/21/2002 with ads
- Entertainment Tonight taped from KGET-17 on 11/15/2001 with ads
- Entertainment Tonight taped from KGET-17 on 6/25/2001 with ads; both Mary Hart and Bob Goen were off that night
- Several Access Hollywood episodes from 2001-2002 off KGET 17 many with ads
- Most of an episode of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, guest Dennis Quaid, taped from KGET-17 on 12/8/1999 with ads
- Two episodes of Seven Days (a UPN series that lasted three seasons) taped in October 2000 off KUVI-45 with ads
- 2001 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show taped from KERO-23 (haven't checked for ads or not)
- The History of Meatloaf (a concert, not a documentary!!) taped from VH1 in June 1995 minus ads. Obviously, the band is well known for "I Would Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)".
- Gloria Estefan's "Coming Home" concert taped from VH1 6/8/95 with 3 commercial breaks; rest of them paused out.
- Episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series taped from Sci-Fi in Oct 2002 with ads
- a few Charmed reruns taped from TNT in 2002-03 with ads
- Two episodes of Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide taped from Nickelodeon in June/July 2007 with ads
- An episode of Diagnosis: Murder, but not sure if taped from CBS (KBAK-29) or off PAX. Will need to check.
- Episode of Ironside taped from Hallmark in the mid 00s minus ads

Lots more to look through. Stay tuned!

-crainbebo

 

[Scott2013]

More tapes I picked up at the flea market a couple weekends ago.

TAPE 1: Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey (1993) (label read "Homeward Bound 2," so I initially thought it was going to be the second one, I already have a tape of the first one copied from a retail tape) taped from WEWS in Cleveland on 12/23/1995 with commercials and first couple minutes of News Channel 5 at 11:00 (Michael Settonni and Jacqueline McLean at the anchor desk)

TAPE 2: Clueless (1995) taped from TVN (pay-per-view network available only on C-band satellite dishes) circa 1996 with Feature Presentation intro and PG-13 rating bumper

TAPE 3: Executive Suite (1954) taped from Cinemax circa 1994

TAPE 4: Several episodes of All in the Family taped from TV Land sometime in 2000 with commercials, including several "Retromercials"

TAPE 5: Wuthering Heights (1939) taped from AMC in October 1994 with Bob Dorian's opening and closing segments

Also four more tapes of Dark Shadows reruns taped from the Sci-Fi Channel in November and December 1995 with commercials. Each of these tapes also includes one episode of The Twilight Zone, also taped from the Sci-Fi Channel with commercials.

 

[crainbebo]

I discovered some rare finds from previous tapes that I own, that I have never seen before.
On the tape that has "Air Bud" and "The Wind and the Lion" that I bought a couple of months ago, the very end of the tape has about 15 minutes of a 9/25/1997 ESPN broadcast of Baseball Tonight, with two commercial breaks (posted to my YouTube channel already).
Also found on a tape bought in the big April 2014 eBay lot were some cartoons (Popples, Ulysses 31 etc) from the DiC Kideo TV block in 1986, off KBHK-44 SF with lots of kids commercials. What a find! Also found an episode of Star Trek: The Original Series from the same year off KBHK with ads. These were found after an HBO broadcast of Cease Fire, which was taped 1/17/1987.
Finally, on a third tape (one bought two years ago with a Hawaii Slack Key festival and an episode of Murphy Brown) was a partial 1994 episode of First Business taped from USA Network with a few ads.

You just never know what snippets you can find at the ends of home-recorded tapes!

-crainbebo

P.S. - My VCR is very "sick" right now and may need to be taken out of service soon. I have a Panasonic PV-9662 (manufactured July 1999) and just within the last week or so, the player would shut off automatically if I fast forwarded or even let it play a tape. I have heard that the PV-9662 was a cheaply made model however...which surprised me as I thought Panasonic was always a good VCR company. Thinking about getting a replacement VCR soon! I found a good condition Mitsubishi on eBay which I will make an offer on, but for now, the PV-9662 is in the process of possibly getting replaced.

 

[MarioMania]

What's your YouTube Channel Crain? Mine is MarioMania05

 

[bm10k]

his channel is VHSgoodiesWA

 

[CTListener]

P.S. - My VCR is very "sick" right now and may need to be taken out of service soon. I have a Panasonic PV-9662 (manufactured July 1999) and just within the last week or so, the player would shut off automatically if I fast forwarded or even let it play a tape. I have heard that the PV-9662 was a cheaply made model however...which surprised me as I thought Panasonic was always a good VCR company. Thinking about getting a replacement VCR soon! I found a good condition Mitsubishi on eBay which I will make an offer on, but for now, the PV-9662 is in the process of possibly getting replaced.

My first VCR was a rebranded Panasonic (JC Penney) and it was an absolute tank. In service from 1982 to 1990 and retired in perfect working order in favor of a VCR with a WIRELESS remote.