Star Trek on VHS

[Indysolo]

So TOS had partial releases on VHS (2 eps per tape), CED (which was like a video phonograph record), and Laser Disc.

And then it had complete releases on VHS (1 ep per tape), DVD (2 eps per disc), DVD box sets, and Blu-ray box sets.

It had a complete release on Laser Disc as well.

Neil

 

[ZapBrannigan]

So TOS had partial releases on VHS (2 eps per tape), CED (which was like a video phonograph record), and Laser Disc.

And then it had complete releases on VHS (1 ep per tape), DVD (2 eps per disc), DVD box sets, and Blu-ray box sets.

It had a complete release on Laser Disc as well.

Neil

It was possible to buy the entire series five times over. I didn't know that.

The Laser Disc set would be perfectly good-looking today if you can still get a working player, but that will only be harder as the years pass. So you pretty much had to go as far as the first DVD run.

 

[doubleohfive]

7 times, if you include the TOS-Remastered editions on DVD from a few years ago, and then the re-release of same in the new packaging.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

7 times, if you include the TOS-Remastered editions on DVD from a few years ago, and then the re-release of same in the new packaging.

You mean there was a full DVD box set after this orange-case run

and before the TOS-R edition that I bought:

That's news to me.

 

[johnnybear]

I taped about 30 episodes back in 80/81 (mostly season 3 with some 2 and one episode of 1 (Alternative Factor) I kept them for years, probably twenty two before buying the VHS two episodes a tape sets before I was convinced by the wife to go in for DVD and to my horror I found TOS was not available here in the UK but by the end of 2004 the first season had appeared! My old tapes looked terrible though in later years especially on newer equipment! Lines in the middle, ripples going down and a fizzy look that defied sense considering that when I taped them the reception was perfect (or as good as was possible back then!
JB

 

[doubleohfive]

7 times, if you include the TOS-Remastered editions on DVD from a few years ago, and then the re-release of same in the new packaging.

You mean there was a full DVD box set after this orange-case run

and before the TOS-R edition that I bought:

That's news to me.

Yes.

The original release of the series in season sets, released in 2004:

This set had the original visual effects and no remastered effects and were in many ways, the same as the "2-episode-per-disc" release, with the exception that more episodes were placed on each disc.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

I taped about 30 episodes back in 80/81 (mostly season 3 with some 2 and one episode of 1 (Alternative Factor) I kept them for years, probably twenty two before buying the VHS two episodes a tape sets before I was convinced by the wife to go in for DVD and to my horror I found TOS was not available here in the UK but by the end of 2004 the first season had appeared! My old tapes looked terrible though in later years especially on newer equipment! Lines in the middle, ripples going down and a fizzy look that defied sense considering that when I taped them the reception was perfect (or as good as was possible back then!
JB

I think part of that could be age deterioration, but it also sounds like the VCR's heads were not right where they belonged. I remember there was a "tracking" control that could adjust the heads and often clean up a bad playback. Too late now, of course. My aging tapes just got less and less sharp.

The original release of the series in season sets, released in 2004:

This set had the original visual effects and no remastered effects and were in many ways, the same as the "2-episode-per-disc" release, with the exception that more episodes were placed on each disc.

Thanks. I forgot about that set so completely that only the picture brought it back.

 

[Metryq]

The Laser Disc set would be perfectly good-looking today if you can still get a working player

Provided "laser rot" hadn't started to set in. Nothing lasts forever. I wish commercial distribution formats were simply a matter of planned obsolescence, but even the pros have to fight entropy.

 

[johnnybear]

I had the heads replaced in 1983,Zap and the earlier ones that I'd taped looked deeper in colour and more vivid compared to the ones I was recording at the time! But with the problems of the dancing light at the bottom of the screen and tracking problems thank God for DVD! The episodes I kept till only recently and the tapes played on todays equipment look like they were taped in a snowstorm and don't mention the sound....
JB

 

[Dude111]

Starting with VHS, it is incredible how much money I've spent over the years on the various home video releases of TOS.

I have all TOS episodes on VHS from CBS VIDEO LIBRARY which thankfully did MOST OF THEM before 1990 .. They are all 100% analogue and are beautiful.... (Some of the ones done with a print date in 1990 do not look as good (Alot of companies started to compromise thier VHS media in 1990 (No matter what they were transferring)))

I also have all movies (1-5) done before 1990 and I am grateful... Took me awhile to get all 5.. (Paramount '75th anniversary' label) Nothing I can do about 6 but Ill take the other 5 anyday,they are georgeous...

I love VHS,Videodiscs,etc......... The little bit of purity we still have left we can enjoy!!

 

[Forbin]

When my laserdisc player died, I found a place online that sells reconditioned ones. So far that one is still working (I think - haven't played a disc in ages), but we've been slowly replacing every film we have on LD (about 150) with Blu-Ray copies. I'm sure that format will die soon too, at which point I just give up.

 

[P Tom]

I have "Amok Time" on VHS (which I bought from the Star Trek store at Universal Studios), and "Turnabout Intruder" on LD.

 

[The Old Mixer]

When I first started getting into Trek in the mid-80s, a local video outlet had all of Season 1 and all but two or three episodes of Season 2 in the single-episode VHS release. I rented them all once and watched them many, many times.

Around the end of the decade, I seriously considered gradually buying that VHS set....Soooo glad I didn't!

 

[doubleohfive]

I taped about 30 episodes back in 80/81 (mostly season 3 with some 2 and one episode of 1 (Alternative Factor) I kept them for years, probably twenty two before buying the VHS two episodes a tape sets before I was convinced by the wife to go in for DVD and to my horror I found TOS was not available here in the UK but by the end of 2004 the first season had appeared! My old tapes looked terrible though in later years especially on newer equipment! Lines in the middle, ripples going down and a fizzy look that defied sense considering that when I taped them the reception was perfect (or as good as was possible back then!
JB

I think part of that could be age deterioration, but it also sounds like the VCR's heads were not right where they belonged. I remember there was a "tracking" control that could adjust the heads and often clean up a bad playback. Too late now, of course. My aging tapes just got less and less sharp.

The original release of the series in season sets, released in 2004:

This set had the original visual effects and no remastered effects and were in many ways, the same as the "2-episode-per-disc" release, with the exception that more episodes were placed on each disc.

Thanks. I forgot about that set so completely that only the picture brought it back.

How funny -- I had these sets for nine years before finally upgrading to the Blu-Rays last summer. I very likely won't upgrade again for probably just as long.

 

[johnnybear]

I'm not into the BluRay Utopia myself and will keep my DVD sets!
JB

 

[The Old Mixer]

I have that DVD set myself, and am quite happy with it. Though I considered myself more of a TNG fan at the time, I wasn't so eager to invest in their full-season DVD sets when they first came out. When the TOS sets came out, I felt like I had to have them.

 

[The Laughing Vulcan]

I went from the UK Paramount VHS release straight to the CBS Blu-ray release. I didn't get the UK Blu-rays because of naff packaging. Never got around to getting the DVDs, although I miss the original versions of the episodes. With the Blu-rays they cheaped out after Menagerie, and simply downmixed the 7.1 audio for the 'original' mono, and now you have starship rumble, where there never used to be.

I'll probably triple dip if CBS/Paramount actually release the original show as shot back in the sixties.

I upgraded my TNG videos to DVD when they came out, and have no intention of Blu-raying those. I still have my DS9 tapes, and if those go BD I'll bite. As for my Voyager tapes... Landfill beckons.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

When my laserdisc player died, I found a place online that sells reconditioned ones. So far that one is still working (I think - haven't played a disc in ages), but we've been slowly replacing every film we have on LD (about 150) with Blu-Ray copies. I'm sure that format will die soon too, at which point I just give up.

You should probably play the LD machine once in a while to keep it from seizing up or something.

Regarding Blu-ray format obsolescence, I think machines will be available for a long time, because they play CDs and DVDs as well as Blu-ray discs, and taken altogether, a lot of people have large collections they don't want to part with.

By comparison, LD was an only child, and I'm pretty sure fewer people accumulated significant personal collections. Market penetration just wasn't that great before DVD sales took over.

I upgraded my TNG videos to DVD when they came out, and have no intention of Blu-raying those

I just got my first Blu-ray player, and I'm finding that DVDs still look great even though they are not in true HD. They're close enough, especially for programming originally intended for SD TV sets.

 

[EnriqueH]

Well, getting back to Star Trek VHS, I still have my 5 tape Star Trek movie set (Treks 1-5) with each tape forming the Enterprise.

I also have The Cage, 25th Anniversary, Trials & Tribbleations, Trek Bloopers, Shatner's Star Trek Memories, and TNG's "I, Borg" all on VHS.

 

[Trimm]

One of the interesting things about TOS on VHS back when I was very small was seeing the episodes uncut. Some of the syndication cuts could be brutal, and I can remember the first time I saw The Doomsday Machine and remarking, "but that part wasn't on tv!"