We're having a resurgence of obsolete formats!

[DuncanS]

This was on the email from Rhino I've just had! Ignoring the band I don't get it, VHS!!!!

 

[Beefalo]

This was on the email from Rhino I've just had! Ignoring the band I don't get it, VHS!!!!
View attachment 51378

What do you mean obsolete.
My favorite video collection

 

[dr. simple]

Nostalgia is a powerful intoxicant.

 

[Sonik Wiz]

This was on the email from Rhino I've just had! Ignoring the band I don't get it, VHS!!!!
View attachment 51378

At first I thought you were joking esp since I couldn't find it on the Rhino site. But after googling sure enough there it is:

https://store.rhino.com/take-on-me-vhs.html
I love the song & music video but it's about $5.00 per minute to watch this. Hmmmm. I would more likely pay for a new Blu-Ray release in surround for that price.

Edit: And yes I do have two functioning high end S-VHS machines. In my closet.

 

[4-earredwonder]

This was on the email from Rhino I've just had! Ignoring the band I don't get it, VHS!!!!
View attachment 51378

Hell, Dunc, I'm still driving a Model T Ford with a built in Edison Cylinder

 

[Ranasakawa]

VHS, cassette format is something I am glad has been replaced with CDs/DVDs etc.
Why the hell someone would actually go to the trouble to manufacture a version of this technology again is baffling

 

[Circular Vibes]

Hell, Dunc, I'm still driving a Model T Ford with a built in Edison Cylinder

HEY! This is a surround forum, you need the polyphonic reproducer for that fully acousitc surround feeling.

 

[Circular Vibes]

I just read the ad for the A-Ha video. Does the PAL system still even exist today? I would have thought it was outmoded in a dirgital TV age. No NTSC version so I have to be out on this one. Besides it is only one song, too much work to drag out a machine and hook it up and then put it away. No mention of DD or DTS soundtrack either.

 

[4-earredwonder]

I just read the ad for the A-Ha video. Does the PAL system still even exist today? I would have thought it was outmoded in a dirgital TV age. No NTSC version so I have to be out on this one. Besides it is only one song, too much work to drag out a machine and hook it up and then put it away. No mention of DD or DTS soundtrack either.

Rhino can do a silly AHA album in VHS but they can't give us a Doobie Brothers BD~A boxset! What's with that????? Misplaced Priorities.

 

[jimfisheye]

Rhino can do a silly AHA album in VHS but they can't give us a Doobie Brothers BD~A boxset! What's with that????? Misplaced Priorities.

That's the part that makes me crazy! I would appreciate the gimmicky collectors editions a lot more if the DVDA/bluray/FLAC with the surround mix was matter of course right there. I'd probably even get into the spirit and silliness and buy a few!
I just learned about the Tefifon down a Youtube rabbit hole the other day.

 

[Soundfield]

The thing that really amazed me was the idea that there was still a functioning VHS duplicating facility somewhere. Although, as the release is limited to 300 units, I guess it might have been done with a couple of domestic machines in someone's bedroom!

 

[Circular Vibes]

Somehow I do not think even Dr. Rhino would pay some guy with 300 video tapes in his bedroom. That just sounds creepy. I find it even more amazing that there are either blank shells stockpiled somewhere or someone is still able to find a working mould. I'd have thought Warners, like all other manufacturers, would have long sent that machinery to the great scrap bin in the sky.

 

[artwwweb]

There are a lot of young people for whom these old formats are just a gimmick. I read only today that 21% of vinyl purchasers in the UK don't possess a record player. The recent resurgence in cassettes must be driven even more by people buying just for novelty and not to play.

Aha became famous because of the video to Take On Me. It is one of the most iconic videos of the 80s, in the UK at least. And videos in general are an icon of the 80s. So a VHS does seem like a valid piece of memorabilia. (And PAL because they are European.)

I must admit I have quite a few picture discs I've never played. And don't forget that in a world of downlands and streaming, a lot of people think it's strange that we (QQers) still like to buy such old fashioned things as DVDs and BDs

 

[artwwweb]

Hell, Dunc, I'm still driving a Model T Ford with a built in Edison Cylinder

Amazingly, a steampunk band released a cylinder about 10 years ago. Tech Know: A journey into sound

 

[Jim the Oldbie]

Somehow I do not think even Dr. Rhino would pay some guy with 300 video tapes in his bedroom. That just sounds creepy....

Pfft. That was a medium-sized porn collection in the '80s. I remember that BIG box in the closet...

Oh, my computer is on. Bummer.

 

[MidiMagic]

The thing I hate in the music and video industry is forced obsolescence. They want to make you buy the same titles again by making the old versions unplayable.

There are some wackos who have to have the latest in technology and throw out their old stuff because it is old technology. They are like the ones who throw out last year's music because it is old. But I want to keep ALL of the recordings I have, not just the newest.

I have records as old as 1908. I need the ability to play all recordings, not just the latest stuff. We do not need any more new formats. And I already have to have way too many players.

These are all of the formats that I know exist.
* means I have recordings
** means I have recordings, but no working player
# means also in matrix quadraphonic (at least 6 matrix systems)

- Cylinder records (at least 6 different kinds)
- Vertically recorded large groove records (at least 6 speeds)*
- Laterally recorded large groove records (at least 6 speeds)*
- Diagonally recorded large groove records*
- Laterally recorded (mono) microgroove records (4 speeds)*
- Stereo microgroove records (4 speeds)* #
- CD-4 records**
- UD4 records
- 1/4" reel half-track mono tape (3 speeds)**
- 1/4" reel quarter-track stereo recordings (3 speeds)** #
- 1/4" reel quadraphonic recordings
- 4-track large RCA cassette
- 4-track stereo cartridge**
- 8-track stereo cartridge**
- 8-track quadraphonic cartridge
- 2-track mono cassette*
- 4-track stereo cassette* #
- 2-track Playtape
- 4-track Elcaset
- Mono reel video
- Mono U-Matic VCR
- Mono Betamax VCR**
- Mono VHS**
- Stereo VHS** #
- VHS audio
- Selectavision
- Magnavision
- Stereo CD* #
- Other stereo digital discs
- SACD
- DVD* #
- DVDA
- Blu-Ray
- mp3* #

There are others I didn't list, plus a myriad of computer formats.

 

[JonUrban]

DAT-MD-DCC-(S-VHS)-VHS HiFi-MVI-DualDisc........

 

[Quad Linda]

Much of this is fuelled by novelty and/or nostalgia.

I'd rather buy something OOP on on an old format than not have it at all.

We still have old tech equipment set up and functioning. Yet, it nearly never is used. There is way too much stuff to convert everything. Thousands of songs stored in our computers. Nearly all of it duplicates physical media. Barely makes a dent in the collection.

We have 6 VHS machines, between those I bought and those I inherited from my Dad. He had a Panasonic that is a VHS/DVD burner. All the rest are JVC. There is a 7th, a Sony Betamax. Currently only 3 VHS machines are connected.

There are 22 of those formats you listed that I can play today.

Plus:
Video CD
DVD-RAM
DivX (I have no discs, but have a player that will play them. Likely too far deteriorated.)

There are a few that we don't own and you or Jon didn't list:
HD DVD
Tefi
Wire recorders
3M Revere audio tape cartridge (early 60's)
Chips (album on IC)

 

[J. PUPSTER]

Don't forget the latest shenanigans - MQA ugh!
*And the beat goes on...

 

[dr. simple]

DAT-MD-DCC-(S-VHS)-VHS HiFi-MVI-DualDisc........

And I still display it proudly! (Although it really just makes the Oppo easier to reach.)