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Oldest Extant Off-Air VHS/Beta Tape You Have

danderson4411 said:
here is one VHS tape from 1992 all taped off satellite dish
college football game between USC and San deigo State with Steve Zabriskie and Lynn Swann on the call
a rerun of China Beach from Lifetime "With a Little Help From My Friends"
a movie(cant remember name of movie)
the football game was a backhaul feed so no commercials on that but the China Beach episode and the movie have commercials was SLP
Click to expand...

The football game was broadcast regionally on ABC at 3:30 PM ET, on September 5th.

Back in 1999, I was dating a girl whose father had a Betamax, and a large collection of tapes. The only one I remember watching was local coverage from WOR in NY of Game 1 of the 1979 SC Finals.
 
A pretty good VHS update here. Received ten tapes from a seller in Vancouver, WA (about 120 miles from here). Many of the commercial breaks are being posted to my YouTube channel, VHSgoodiesWA.

There were two duds. One tape had a retail tape inside it (M*A*S*H Columbia House) and another tape was completely BLANK.
Now for the rest...
Tape 3 - "The Quiet Man" taped off Superstation WTBS 3/17/1987 with commercials, "Daughter of Rosie O'Grady" taped off Superstation WTBS in the early morning hours of 3/18/1987 with commercials, episodes of Dumbo's Circus, Welcome to Pooh Corner and the 1950s Mickey Mouse Club taped off the Disney Channel sometime in 1987 with promos/bumpers in between shows, back when the Disney Channel was REALLY GOOD! Laser T-120 VHS.
Tape 4 - "Home Alone" and "Internal Affairs" taped off HBO in 1992 with a long promo break between the two movies (about 10 minutes long), and a Bill Clinton town hall/election speech taped off unknown channel in 1992. Kodak T-120.
Tape 5 - Syndicated rerun of "Seinfeld" taped off KTLA-5 in Feb 1998 minus ads, first-run episode of "Seinfeld" taped off NBC in Feb 1998 minus ads (probably KNBC ch 4), also includes some figure skating, Jay Leno interviews and an episode of California's Gold with Huell Howser (probably off KCET TV). Haven't looked at the rest of it, not seeing a lot of luck in finding full commercial breaks. Memorex T-120 tape.
Tape 6 - "Lone Star" (1952, with Clark Gable) taped off TNT 2/1/1991 with commercials. Maxell EX-120 tape.
Tape 7 - "The Last Outpost" (with later President Ronald Reagan) taped off TNT in 1989 or 1990 with commercials, also includes "Wyoming Renegades" with Phil Carey and "Odongo" with Macdonald Carey, probably taped off TNT but I need to check this tape further. Memorex HS120 tape.
Tape 8 - "Nowhere to Run" with Jean-Claude VanDamme (already have it on a retail VHS, good action flick by the way) and "White Men Can't Jump" with Wesley Snipes taped off an unknown channel (haven't checked this tape out further for commercials/promos/etc), also includes some workout show at the end of the tape (all it said was "AB WORKOUT" - no word if this is Denise Austin, Body by Jake, a Jane Fonda video...) Mid 90s Scotch EG+ tape.
Tape 9 - NOTHING for the first 20 minutes, then cuts in with "Mutiny on the Bounty" [1935] with Clark Gable and Charles Laughton, unknown source minus ads. SP mode so it looks like the movie isn't going to make it all the way. Early-mid 80s RCA T-120.
Tape 10 - Episodes of Law & Order: SVU and The West Wing taped off KGW-8/NBC Portland OR in 2003 with commercials. The West Wing is actually widescreen letterbox format! Haven't checked the rest of the tape. Sony V T-160.

-crainbebo
 
More found.
Tape 9 was NOT "Mutiny on the Bounty", but it was close - "The Beachcombers" (1938) ALSO starring Charles Laughton. The movie is the only program on the tape, and it was copied from a rental VHS as there is a few minutes of black screen after the movie...oops, someone forgot to rewind the tape! The tape goes blank after the black screen portion.
Tape 8 features Nowhere to Run and White Men Can't Jump off an unknown premium cable channel (as shown by the white subscription bars on both left/right of the screen), a few minutes of a ventriloquist show taped off VH1, the Ab Workout was one of those Getting Fit shows that aired on ESPN back in the 90s (but minus commercials). The tape goes blank after that with about 30 min remaining on the cassette.
Tape 10 - After Law & Order SVU and The West Wing, the tape features the lats few minutes of an episode of Without a Trace, taped off KOIN-6/CBS 10/16/2003 with one commercial break, and the last 80 or so minutes of "Primal Fear" with Richard Gere copied from a Paramount rental VHS (as shown by the Macrovision effect, dark to bright and quickly back to dark with lines through the screen). Believe the white screen of death is also found on here after the movie, but I didn't check...all I know is that the time counter kept moving after 20 minutes of finishing the credits. OOPS!! Yet again, the original owner most likely forgot to rewind the rental!
Tape 6 has the last hour or so of "Black Beauty" (1971) taped from the Family Channel on 2/1/1991 as well, with ads. SP mode, so the movie is incomplete.
Tape 5 - Found an episode of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno taped on 2/26/1998 with ads, from KNBC-4 Los Angeles. Guests are Michelle Kwan and Richard Dreyfuss.
 
Haven't updated my VHS finds on here in a while, so this one will be a bit lengthy. Here's SOME of what I've found within the last couple of months, mostly at garage sales.

TAPE 1: Shadows in the Sun (2005) taped from ABC Family on 11/13/2005 with commercials; last couple minutes of a broadcast of Hannity & Colmes and first ten minutes of On the Record with Greta Van Susteren taped from Fox News Channel in October 2005, a few commercials before the final segment of H&C; episode of Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting, taped from WVIZ in October 2005, recording starts with a few promos before the show; partial episode of Gilmore Girls taped from WBNX on 10/25/2005 with commercials; the rest of the tape is various late-night programming from WBNX in October 2005--one partial and one full episode of Girlfriends, two episodes of The Parkers, episode of Becker, episode of Cheers, and partial episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, all with commercials

TAPE 2: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) taped from AMC on 2/23/2003 with commercials, digital cable box switches over to the Weather Channel's Evening Edition during two of the breaks

TAPE 3: Night of 100 Stars II (ABC special) taped from WEWS on 3/10/1985 minus commercials; 11th Annual People's Choice Awards taped from WJKW (now WJW) on 3/12/1985 minus commercials

TAPE 4: 63rd Annual Academy Awards taped from WEWS on 3/25/1991 minus commercials; The Magic of David Copperfield XIV taped from WJW on 3/31/1992 with commercials; partially taped over episode of All My Children taped from WEWS in February 1992 with commercials; partially taped over episode of General Hospital taped from WEWS in February 1992 with commercials

TAPE 5: Dragnet (1987) taped from WEWS (Movie 5) in May 1992 with commercials and first few minutes of News Channel 5 at 11:00 (Liz Claman and Tonya Strong at the anchor desk)--strange that WEWS showed this in prime time instead of ABC programming that evening

TAPE 6: Final NBC broadcast of Late Night with David Letterman taped from WKYC on 6/25/1993 with commercials; Tracey Takes on New York (1993) taped from HBO on 10/9/1993 with a few promos shown afterward; 60 Minutes: 25 Years taped from WJW on 11/14/1993 with commercials; partially taped over episode of All My Children taped from WEWS in April 1993 with commercials

TAPE 7: Forrest Gump (1994) taped from unknown pay TV channel circa 1995; Sinatra: 80 Years My Way (ABC special) taped from WEWS on 12/14/1995, all but one commercial break cut out

TAPE 8: About 2 1/2 hours of news coverage from President George W. Bush's inauguration, taped from ABC (WEWS), NBC (WKYC) and CNN on 1/20/2001; a couple miscellaneous clips from CBS News Sunday Morning from 1/21/2001 taped from WOIO; partial episode of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and first 11 minutes of a broadcast of 20/20 taped from WEWS on 4/13/2001 with commercials

TAPE 9: Beaches (1988) taped from the Movie Channel circa 1990

TAPE 10: Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) taped from SuperStation TBS in October 1988 with commercials

TAPE 11: Mr. Holland's Opus (1995) taped from Viewer's Choice Pay-Per-View on 8/25/1996, after the movie, the cable box flips to Cox Cable's Pay-Per-View preview channel for about seven minutes before the recording stops

TAPE 12: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945), Ronco Food Dehydrator infomercial, and partial broadcast of the Pro Bowlers Tour, taped from WEWS on 4/18/1992 with commercials

TAPE 13: Partial NFL on NBC broadcast of Cleveland Browns vs. Houston Oilers taped from WKYC on 10/29/1989 with commercials; partial presentation of Terms of Endearment (1983) taped from WKYC on 11/16/1986 with commercials--the latter is taped in SP speed, and since the movie is longer than two hours, that recording is incomplete

TAPE 14: Survivor episode taped from WOIO on 4/28/2005 with commercials; first half of a special two-hour episode of So You Think You Can Dance taped from WJW on 8/24/2005 with commercials--both recordings are in SP speed, so that's why SYTYCD is incomplete

TAPE 15: First hour of the 1990 Michigan 400 taped from WJW on 6/24/1990 with commercials; partial episode of Rescue 911 and first 10-15 minutes of Crocodile Dundee II (1988) taped from WJW on 5/14/1991 with commercials

TAPE 16: About five hours of footage from the Promise Keepers' "Stand in the Gap" gathering on 10/4/1997 copied from a retail tape (the original tape obviously had to have been made in SLP speed); partial episodes of The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful taped from WOIO on 7/24/1996 with commercials

TAPE 17: Vibes (1988) and The Great Outdoors (1988) copied from retail tapes; tape ends with a few minutes of footage from Brunswick School Access Channel 20's community bulletin board on the Brunswick, Ohio division of Cablevision (now Time Warner Cable), including a clip of radio broadcast from WLTF Lite Rock 106 1/2 (now WHLK 106.5 The Lake), recorded on 1/12/1989--my guess is that video was fed through the second VCR used to copy the two movies

TAPE 18: All three parts of Napoleon and Josephine: A Love Story (ABC miniseries) taped from WEWS on November 10, 11 and 12, 1987 with commercials; tape ends with about ten minutes of a prior recording of an episode of Santa Barbara taped from WKYC in August 1987 with a few commercials
 
While digging through some boxes in the basement, I found four (one hour) Betamax tapes. They contain the 1976 NBC broadcast of Gone With The Wind.
I had one of the first Betamax recorders. $1350 (plus tax) in 1976.
 
Cool! Must have been the old Sony K-60 tapes, which were around until around 1979 or 1980 replaced by the L-500/L-750 speeds.
I found some rare content at the end of the tape with Home Alone/Internal Affairs. The Bill Clinton town hall was a local presentation of KATU-2 Portland (ABC), taped sometime in Sept or Oct 1992. After the brief clip, there's a bunch of partial KATU and KPTV-12 newscasts from early October 1992, with commercials (some breaks are partial). Some of the newscasts are fine, but a couple partial newscasts have very low audio, hmm...
The clips go on for about an hour, then the tape goes blank to the end.
My tape with The Last Outpost (and other movies) was taped from TNT on 12/21/1991.

-crainbebo
 
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More garage sale VHS finds from this past weekend!

TAPE 1: Most of A Walton Thanksgiving Reunion (CBS made-for-TV movie) taped from WJW on 11/21/1993 with commercials; partial episode of Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World taped from the Discovery Channel in May 1993 with a few commercials; partial episode of Home Improvement on WEWS with commercials leading into Grace Under Fire, then a couple minutes of spontaneous cable box channel surfing (Cablevision in Brunswick, Ohio) until finally landing on CNN for the last 25 minutes of Larry King Live (with guest William Shatner) and first three minutes of CNN World News with Linden Soles and Susan Rook with commercials, then flips over to WUAB for about seven minutes of The Ten O'clock News with Jack Marschall and Barbara Soranno Meek (filling in for Romona Robinson), then flips back to WEWS for a partial episode of Moon Over Miami with a few commercials, all these were recorded on 10/27/1993; partially taped over episode of the miniseries How the West Was Lost and special documentary called East African Wilderness taped from the Discovery Channel in May 1993 with commercials

TAPE 2: Road House (1989) taped from unknown pay TV channel

TAPE 3: Bill Moyers: Sports for Sale (PBS special) taped from WNEO/WEAO sometime in 1991, the NightView program lineup bumper shows this was not the original broadcast; partial broadcast of the PBS documentary Land of the Eagle taped from WNEO/WEAO circa 1991

TAPE 4: Last few minutes of an episode of Family Feud with the late Ray Combs (just the Fast Money round and closing), episodes of The Cosby Show, A Different World, Cheers, and Grand, taped from WKYC on 4/5/1990 with commercials; episode of Knots Landing taped from WJW on 4/5/1990 with commercials; small part of Three Amigos (1986) copied from rental tape, after the end credits is a Dick Feagler commentary segment from a broadcast of WKYC Channel 3 News circa August 1989, likely being fed from the second VCR used to copy the movie

TAPE 5: End credits of an episode of Night Court and special documentary Untold Stories: The Search for Amelia Earhart taped from WUAB in April 1992 with commercials; partially taped over episode of The Wonder Years, full episodes of Roseanne, Coach, Thirtysomething, and most of a broadcast of TV5 Eyewitness News at 11 with Ted Henry and Wilma Smith taped from WEWS on 2/27/1990 with commercials; partially taped over broadcast of TV5 Eyewitness News at 11 taped from WEWS on 2/20/1990 (just part of the late Nev Chandler's sports report and the final segment) with a few commercials

TAPE 6: Going My Way (1944), episode of Reflections on the Silver Screen with the late Dorothy Lamour being interviewed, Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1944), and part of Situation Hopeless...But Not Serious (1965) taped from AMC on March 5-6, 1996 with promos in between the programs

TAPE 7: Secondhand Lions (2003) taped from TBS in May 2008 with commercials, at a couple points in the movie, the Armstrong Digital Cable box flips to a different channel for a few seconds, once on Nick at Nite during George Lopez, the other time on ESPN during a Major League Baseball game
 
My sophomore year of high school was 1976-1977, the year I took American literature class. We had a black-and-white TV in the classroom. The teacher (Sister Victoria-yes, I went to a Catholic girls' high school) showed a videotape over several days of the TV movie "F. Scott Fitzgerald and 'The Last of the Belles'." The movie had originally aired in 1974. The next year I absolutely fell in love with actor Richard Hatch (I know, too much information!) and over the years I've attempted to collect a lot of his movies. Probably 20 years ago I wrote to my high school and asked what the format was that was used, and if the school still had the video sitting around. The response was that it was probably a plain old videocassette, and no, the school didn't have it any more.
I knew it couldn't be a VCR tape, but I didn't know what it might have been until I read this thread. I've never heard of U-matic, but I suspect that it was probably that.
Oh, I did eventually find "Belles" on videotape in a catalog.
 
Went to three garage sales, and found only one home-recorded VHS, all taped over.
Should have had "The Sandlot," but actually had an episode of My Name is Earl and an episode of The Office taped from KNDO-23 in January 2006 with commercials, recorded in LP mode; also included part of the 2006 Rose Bowl, taped from KAPP-TV on New Years' Day 2006 with commercials. Recorded in SP mode, so it is incomplete (only 1st and 2nd quarters are included).

-crainbebo
 
More stuff I found at garage sales within the last few weeks.

TAPE 1: Both parts of The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw (NBC miniseries) taped from WKYC in Cleveland on November 3 and 4, 1991--only two partial commercial breaks are found on the tape, both from part one

TAPE 2: Final episode of Walker Texas Ranger taped from WOIO in Cleveland on 5/19/2001 minus commercials

TAPE 3: Four episodes of Dog the Bounty Hunter (including Dog and Beth's wedding and the death of his daughter) and partial episode of Gene Simmons Family Jewels taped from A&E on 8/8/2006 with commercials

TAPE 4: Paula Deen's Wedding (Food Network special) and episode of Emeril Live with guest Paula Deen taped from Food Network in February 2005 with commercials

TAPE 5: Fletch (1985) taped from Showtime sometime in 1986; partial movie presentation of Trading Places (1983) and first 15 minutes of Channel 3 News at 11:00 (Tom Sweeney and Connie Dieken at the anchor desk) taped from WKYC on 10/5/1986 with commercials

TAPE 6: Starts with a few minutes of an episode of Oprah on WEWS in Cleveland, then cuts to broadcasts of Live on Five (Roy Weissinger and Wilma Smith) and News Channel 5 at 6:00 (Ted Henry and Lorna Barrett) from 2/11/1993 with commercials, 6:00 newscast is missing the final segment; some footage of the 1986 FIFA World Cup Final taped from WKYC on 6/29/1986 with commercials

TAPE 7: Partial episode of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe taped from unidentified channel sometime in the late 1980s minus commercials; last 30 minutes of an episode of Jenny Jones ("You Have the World's Worst Hair and I've Gotta Make You Over!") and first few minutes of an episode of Montel Williams (violent sibling rivalries) taped from WWOR in Secaucus in May 1997 with commercials; partially taped-over broadcast of WWF Prime Time Wrestling taped from USA circa 1987 (judging by a commercial for WWF action figures, the only ad from the program found on the tape); episode of Luz Clarita (Mexican telenovela from the Televisa network broadcast on Univision) taped from WXTV in Paterson sometime in 1997 with commercials

TAPE 8: Krush Groove (1985), Night of the Creeps (1986) and The Fly (1986) taped from HBO circa 1987

TAPE 9: Smattering of sitcoms from the 1992-1993 season (recorded between November 1992 and February 1993)--episode of In Living Color taped from WNYW in New York City, two episodes of Seinfeld taped from WNBC in New York City, three episodes of The Simpsons taped from WNYW ("Marge vs. the Monorail," "Selma's Choice," and "Duffless"), and two episodes of Cheers taped from WNBC, tape ends with two skits from a broadcast of Saturday Night Live taped from WNBC--commercials are sporadic/spotty throughout the tape, but are from both WNYW and WNBC
 
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Went to an estate sale (about 20 minutes walking distance from here) and grabbed a total of 8 home-recorded VHS tapes. There were several more as well.

Tape 1 - "The Wizard of Oz" (1939) taped from CBS/KIMA-29 Yakima on March 19th, 1989 with commercials; also includes three episodes of Lap Quilting with George Bonesteel (first one is partial) taped from KYVE-47 Yakima circa 1987, including most of a TV Worth Watching/Public TV promo (This is my oldest Yakima footage so far!)
Tape 2 - "The Ten Commandments" (1956) taped from ABC (KAPP?) around 1989 minus ads
Tape 3 - A dud! First seven minutes of pre-race footage from the Talladega 500 (taped in July 1987 off CBS), and the rest of the tape was blank. A real shame. Must have been erased by the owner.
Tape 4 - Several hours of CBS Winter Olympics footage from Lilliehammer, Norway, taped 2/23/1994 from KIMA-29 Yakima with commercials
Tape 5 - Several hours of CBS Winter Olympics footage from Lilliehammer, Norway, taped 2/25/1994 from KIMA-29 Yakima with commercials
Tape 6 - 1988 Daytona 500, taped from KIMA-29 Yakima on 2/14/1988 with commercials
Tape 7 - A few hours of CBS News coverage from 2/23/1991 taped off KIMA-29 - the beginning of the ground war in the Persian Gulf, with Dan Rather reporting from Saudi Arabia; includes some commercial breaks.
Tape 8 - 1991 Indianapolis 500, taped from KAPP-35 Yakima on 5/26/1991 with commercials. Might be another dud however, as the audio goes in and out quite often (as if someone was stuck on the volume control). The first commercial break seemed to have video, but zero audio. Probably not a technical problem at KAPP or at the ABC network.

Also found but didn't pick up - Two tapes with Ken Burns' "The Civil War" (1991), "Meet Me in St. Louis" (1944) with Judy Garland, "White Fang" (1991) with Ethan Hawke, "Top Gun" (1986) with Tom Cruise, already have an original retail Paramount HV tape of that movie; "Driving Miss Daisy" (1989) with Jessica Tandy (already have a Warner Home Video copy of that movie), and a bunch that were unlabeled - some looked unused, others were stopped about a minute in.
 
crainbebo said:
Went to an estate sale (about 20 minutes walking distance from here) and grabbed a total of 8 home-recorded VHS tapes. There were several more as well.

Tape 1 - "The Wizard of Oz" (1939) taped from CBS/KIMA-29 Yakima on March 19th, 1989 with commercials; also includes three episodes of Lap Quilting with George Bonesteel (first one is partial) taped from KYVE-47 Yakima circa 1987, including most of a TV Worth Watching/Public TV promo (This is my oldest Yakima footage so far!)
Tape 2 - "The Ten Commandments" (1956) taped from ABC (KAPP?) around 1989 minus ads
Tape 3 - A dud! First seven minutes of pre-race footage from the Talladega 500 (taped in July 1987 off CBS), and the rest of the tape was blank. A real shame. Must have been erased by the owner.
Tape 4 - Several hours of CBS Winter Olympics footage from Lilliehammer, Norway, taped 2/23/1994 from KIMA-29 Yakima with commercials
Tape 5 - Several hours of CBS Winter Olympics footage from Lilliehammer, Norway, taped 2/25/1994 from KIMA-29 Yakima with commercials
Tape 6 - 1988 Daytona 500, taped from KIMA-29 Yakima on 2/14/1988 with commercials
Tape 7 - A few hours of CBS News coverage from 2/23/1991 taped off KIMA-29 - the beginning of the ground war in the Persian Gulf, with Dan Rather reporting from Saudi Arabia; includes some commercial breaks.
Tape 8 - 1991 Indianapolis 500, taped from KAPP-35 Yakima on 5/26/1991 with commercials. Might be another dud however, as the audio goes in and out quite often (as if someone was stuck on the volume control). The first commercial break seemed to have video, but zero audio. Probably not a technical problem at KAPP or at the ABC network.

Also found but didn't pick up - Two tapes with Ken Burns' "The Civil War" (1991), "Meet Me in St. Louis" (1944) with Judy Garland, "White Fang" (1991) with Ethan Hawke, "Top Gun" (1986) with Tom Cruise, already have an original retail Paramount HV tape of that movie; "Driving Miss Daisy" (1989) with Jessica Tandy (already have a Warner Home Video copy of that movie), and a bunch that were unlabeled - some looked unused, others were stopped about a minute in.
Click to expand...

I have a tape of the 1987 Talladega 500 taped from WJW in Cleveland, no commercials. Also two tapes (each two hours long) of miscellaneous Gulf War news footage from January 1991 from ABC, NBC, CBS and CNN (although the CNN footage was simulcast on then-independent WUAB in Cleveland). I also have a tape with six hours of the Civil War miniseries. And I have a different CBS broadcast of The Wizard of Oz, this one being from 2/20/1990, also including a special half-hour documentary on the making of the film that aired afterward. No ads on that one though.
 
Seemed like my JVC VCR was having some audio problems. Tested my Indy 500 1991 tape in the trusty 1992 Mitsubishi HS-U36. Worked perfectly with good video/audio.
Also found, on tape 6 after the Daytona 500: Taped-over partial broadcast of the 1987 Indianapolis 500, taped 5/24/1987 from KAPP-35 with commercials. This is now my oldest footage yet for the Yakima TV stations.
When it comes to tapes that are minus ads: I don't plan to keep them. Unless it's something EXTREMELY rare - like my tape which has the premiere of the 1988 short-lived Fox TV series "The Dirty Dozen", and a tape which has over a dozen Street Smarts episodes from 2003, I don't keep the movies and TV shows that are minus ads. Commercials left on the tapes obviously add to the YouTube video count for me, but they also become really good time capsules as well. Because there were no DVRs and Hoppers in 1986 (just trusty VHS/Betamax), we all had to "suffer" through the commercials (some owners paused the tape, others let it run).
The Wizard of Oz was likely shown because 1989 was the 50th anniversary of that film.

And a typo - George Bonesteel should be "GEORGIA". KYVE had two translators as seen in the legal ID - channel 69 Ellensburg, and channel 18 Wenatchee. This was years before KCTS would buy channel 47. At times, KYVE wasn't on the air until 8 or 9 in the morning and signed off between 11P-12AM every night.
 
1987's Indy 500 was on time, unlike 1986 which was delayed 6 days due to rain and bad conditions. ABC did air it live, but blacked it out in the Indianapolis area.
 
Went to two estate sales, and 4 yard sales. Only one blank tape out of all of those sales!

Tape 1 - "Braveheart" (1995), America Undercover and "Final Analysis" (1992), all taped from HBO on the evening of September 28th into September 29th, 1996 with a short promo break after Braveheart, and a much longer promo break after America Undercover (which includes HBO Entertainment News segments).
The rest of the VHS tapes I saw at the sales were retail cassettes. One of the estate sales had a few retail tapes of Christmas shows and western movies; and one of the yard sales had a few common action movies in addition to the recorded Braveheart cassette.
 
Went to a bunch of yard/estate sales again this weekend, coming out with three blank tapes. Probably some of my best finds of the year.

Tape 1 - Episode of "Our World" with Linda Ellerbee about the Berlin Airlift, taped from KAPP/ABC on 1/1/1987 minus ads; "The Great American Mystery Cars" (syndicated special) taped off KIMA-29 in July 1986 with commercials (many PSAs); brief snippet of an unknown soap opera; part of "Crime of Innocence" (1985) taped from KNDO/NBC in May 1987 with a few commercial breaks; We the People 200 Constitution Parade from Philadelphia; taped off KIMA/CBS on 9/17/1987 with a few commercial breaks, more towards the end; episodes of The Young & The Restless and High Rollers taped off KIMA-TV 9/17/1987 with ads.
(The episode of Y&R is my first ever soap opera episode found on a blank VHS tape. High Rollers is rare as the revival with Wink Martindale lasted only one season. The whole episode is on this cassette. The Great American Mystery Cars was hosted by Adam West and is extremely rare to find!)

Tape 2 - Ultimate Manilow (CBS Barry Manilow concert) taped from KIMA/CBS on 5/18/2002 with ads. The rest of the T-120 tape is blank.

Tape 3 - Garfield: His 9 Lives taped from KIMA/CBS on 11/22/1988 with ads; partial episode of Scarecrow & Mrs. King taped off KIMA in Feb 1987 with a few ads; A Charlie Brown Christmas and Frosty the Snowman taped off KIMA/CBS on 12/12/1986 with ads; "Swiss Family Robinson"/Disney Sunday Movie taped off KAPP-35 Yakima (ABC) 12/07/1986 with ads, tape concludes with about five minutes of that night's ABC News Weekend Report with Tom Jarriel
(The tape went blank after the Weekend Report segment. If only the tape went on for another hour or so, I would've been able to see the 700 Club and sign-off.)

All of these tapes came from one particular yard sale. Went to 3 estate sales with no luck. Went to a moving sale with no luck either. Did also pick up a couple of rare rental movies at another sale. Excellent finds!
 
crainbebo said:
Went to a bunch of yard/estate sales again this weekend, coming out with three blank tapes. Probably some of my best finds of the year.

Tape 1 - Episode of "Our World" with Linda Ellerbee about the Berlin Airlift, taped from KAPP/ABC on 1/1/1987 minus ads; "The Great American Mystery Cars" (syndicated special) taped off KIMA-29 in July 1986 with commercials (many PSAs); brief snippet of an unknown soap opera; part of "Crime of Innocence" (1985) taped from KNDO/NBC in May 1987 with a few commercial breaks; We the People 200 Constitution Parade from Philadelphia; taped off KIMA/CBS on 9/17/1987 with a few commercial breaks, more towards the end; episodes of The Young & The Restless and High Rollers taped off KIMA-TV 9/17/1987 with ads.
(The episode of Y&R is my first ever soap opera episode found on a blank VHS tape. High Rollers is rare as the revival with Wink Martindale lasted only one season. The whole episode is on this cassette. The Great American Mystery Cars was hosted by Adam West and is extremely rare to find!)

Tape 2 - Ultimate Manilow (CBS Barry Manilow concert) taped from KIMA/CBS on 5/18/2002 with ads. The rest of the T-120 tape is blank.

Tape 3 - Garfield: His 9 Lives taped from KIMA/CBS on 11/22/1988 with ads; partial episode of Scarecrow & Mrs. King taped off KIMA in Feb 1987 with a few ads; A Charlie Brown Christmas and Frosty the Snowman taped off KIMA/CBS on 12/12/1986 with ads; "Swiss Family Robinson"/Disney Sunday Movie taped off KAPP-35 Yakima (ABC) 12/07/1986 with ads, tape concludes with about five minutes of that night's ABC News Weekend Report with Tom Jarriel
(The tape went blank after the Weekend Report segment. If only the tape went on for another hour or so, I would've been able to see the 700 Club and sign-off.)

All of these tapes came from one particular yard sale. Went to 3 estate sales with no luck. Went to a moving sale with no luck either. Did also pick up a couple of rare rental movies at another sale. Excellent finds!
Click to expand...

I'm kind of surprised that Y&R episode is the only soap opera you've found on any of these tapes. I've managed to find several tapes with soap opera episodes on them over the last few years I've been collecting these tapes, even though the labels have never specifically had such titles on them.

I have one broadcast of ABC News Weekend Report with Jack Smith from 3/10/1991 on WEWS with commercials, found among several other late night programs on the station on that particular tape.
 
A question for the board:

There are a few VHS tapes, some dating back to the early 1980's, which I need to dub to DVDs.

I've had bad luck with the Toshiba brand VHS/DVD recorders. One of them, admittedly, did provide pretty decent picture and sound quality when playing back tapes from the 1980's, but others were more finicky about playing back older tapes (picture/sound quality not as good).

The bigger issue, though, was that the recorders would just break down after awhile. Either the VHS players would shut down when I was scanning through tapes, or a machine would literally lock up for some reason, which happened to me tonight.

The question: What would be a better and more reliable brand of VHS/DVD recorders to get? I do have to use them a lot, but it would be nice to get something that would a) play back even older tapes very well and b) wouldn't have to be replaced after a year.

Thanks!
 
Try the Magnavox ZV427MG9. Reviews look good on Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/Magnavox-ZV42...p-Conversion/dp/B008Q60VZ4/ref=zg_bs_886258_4

You could also use those small Honestech or Roxio VHS to DVD boxes. I use the Honestech 5.0 to pull commercials off of my tapes, and post the breaks to YouTube. My oldest home-recorded tape is from April 1983 (a TDK T-120 with "On the Town" Gene Kelly, taped off WFLD Chicago) and it plays just as well 32+ years later, as it would have in the 1980s. My oldest retail/rental tape is a 1st-generation copy of "The Longest Yard", a Paramount Home Video 1979 release. Still runs well, but some VCRs have a rolling picture on that tape, probably due to the age (36 years). I also have a tape of "Alien" from 1980 (1st-generation Magnetic Video release) but it has never had a rolling picture.
 


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