VHS nostalgia... =(

[JTK1]

Fuzzy picture quality, tracking lines, tapes wearing out or getting tangled in the player, having to wait an eternity to fast forward/rewind... I grew up with the format, but there is literally nothing I miss about VHS tapes.

Same here but I do have a few good memories of VHS......

 

[Rarewolf]

One advantage VHS did have, if you changed your mind about getting rid of a recording, you could press stop, and still have most of your recording

I just meant to copy several episodes of a programme recorded daily on the Sky box, then released I was after a few secords I was pressing the yellow button to delete instead of the red one to copy!

 

[Sean Aaron]

I have no intention of going to BluRay and paying DVD prices of 5-10 years ago for a few hundred lines of resolution myself.

The difference between Blu-Ray and DVD is pretty much the same as the difference between DVD and VHS before it. So you upgraded the last go-around for those same "few hundred lines" of resolution. BD also has the benefit of being backwards-compatible with the previous technology so you don't need to re-buy a collection just continue your current one on the new technology. Aside from a couple "must have" movies that's pretty much what I have done.

I had nowhere near as much VHS as I do DVD and much of my DVD collection is PAL which is 576p, so no, it's not really that dramatic a leap to BluRay.

The biggest jump in quality I saw was moving from the States where widescreen TVs were uncommon - and massively expensive since they were HD, to the UK where widescreen TVs were common and not limited to HD. Going from a 4:3 letterboxed image via S-Video to anamorphic widescreen via RGB SCART or component was a massive improvement. The improvement in quality was such that whilst I agree HD video looks good, it's not betterer enough for me to invest in another disc format. Since I have a computer connected to my tv, I'd just as soon jump to downloads if I was really bothered, which I'm not.

 

[The Boy Who Cried Worf]

So are thee any Beta-philes here and when did you finally have to say goodbye to the format? I had mine until the early 00's when it finally died a death of natural causes. Funny thing is I advertised it as broke on e-bay and still got about $50 for it. I remember I used to tape trade, and second or third generation copies made on Beta were often better than 1st gen on VHS.