What to do with collection of VHS Trek tapes??
- Thread starter Kevin G. Chapman
- Start date
If that’s true it’s only because the snow obscures the flaws in the outdated graphics.
Colour desaturation is yet another problem those of us in PAL TV land have to deal with during the conversion process from American NTSC. In most cases the technical bods are on it and perform the correct grading to retain the original colour range, but for whatever reason, the PAL DVDs of TNG fell under the radar, hence the PAL VHS tapes are actually superior at least in terms of colour.
Yet another reason I kinda wish CBS would do what they already did with TOS-Remastered and issue new DVDs using SD versions of the Remastered TNG prints. Sadly it doesn't look likely to happen.
Yet another reason I kinda wish CBS would do what they already did with TOS-Remastered and issue new DVDs using SD versions of the Remastered TNG prints. Sadly it doesn't look likely to happen.
Ahahahaha!
Yeah, no. Plus, new vinyl costs twice as much for half the runtime of a CD.
I made fun of David Mack for making Capt. Georgiou a vinyl nerd in his Discovery novel. As someone who was a major vinyl collector in the ‘70’s, when I had to squirt new records with vinyl preservative before the first play, then instantly recorded them to high-end cassettes for everyday listening (because every play of a vinyl record caused a noticeable degradation of quality) I gotta say that this contention that vinyl is superior to CD is simply nonsensical. Upgrading my music to CD was unbelievably thrilling. You can’t imagine what it was like the first time I listened to Pet Sounds on CD. No scratches, no pops, no needle hiss (and I had an awesome B&O turntable). Just Brian Wilson’s brilliant music.
No, that’s not true at all. The issue with B5 on DVD is that the CGI wasn’t rendered at a very high definition, so it looks bad in comparison to the live-action footage, which was rescanned at high def. The CGI is only a small percentage of each episode. The rest looks pretty damn good on DVD.
I didn't say it's superior, I said it wasn't strictly inferior.
Hmmmm can't say I noticed when I saw seasons one and two but then TNG has never looked that good anyway! It's always looked a bit blurry or colours fizzy compared to TOS which was beautifully coloured images! Thanks, Lance! 
JB
JB
B5's CGI was never that good, but I saw all five seasons plus Crusade and the movies on DVD and never found them that bad! Better than watching it on Sci-Fi or Channel 4 I'm sure!
JB
JB
But vinyl IS strictly inferior to digital, assuming you’re not comparing them to low-def .mp3’s or something like that. Vinyl records aren’t superior to CD’s, they aren’t as good as CD’s; they’re inferior. And every single time you play your vinyl, it gets worse. So, if you have a favorite album that you’ve played 500 times, it is now a scratchy mess. But I have CD’s that I’ve played as many times, and they still sound amazing. I still have (and listen to) the first CD I ever bought (Roxy Music’s Avalon, from 1982). It still sounds great.
AFAIK, there’s no difference, unless it’s an artifact of transferring the content to a different TV standard. In which you’d see a degradation in quality.
It’s not like vinyl records, where there are multiple factors (master tape generation, disc cutting, quality of the vinyl, care in packaging, etc. etc.) that can make, say, a Japanese pressing significantly superior to a pressing from Argentina. DVD content doesn’t have those variables from region to region.
That is a matter of opinion, many people prefer the analog sound. Yeah, of course it's inferior in terms of durability, but the sound is clean, especially the higher quality vinyl they produce today.
"Strictly inferior" means inarguably inferior in every single metric. The sound quality issue is debatable.
One more thing I remember from my old VHS tapes. There were these promos for some other TNG related thing, where Wil Wheaton said "We could be attacked by the five assed monkey people, and it's okay for us!"
I'm personally convinced that the whole snob-appeal issue with vinyl is that a $2000 turntable is going to sound significantly better than an $80 turntable, whereas once you reach the price point where there's a digital filter stage, a $2000 CD player is NOT going to sound significantly better than a $125 CD player. (It might, however, copy better to CD-R or MP3, but so would a desktop computer; the CD-R machine on my stereo system is primarily for off-air recording and convenience copying of my vinyl).
And any deficiencies in quality of CDs being produced today is most likely an artifact of (a) optimization for MP3-ripping, or (b) copy-protection. Or (c) the CDs were derived FROM MP3s. Or (d) it's deliberate, perhaps as a way to sell vinyl.
That said, it's quite true that the CD is a compromise format: it was designed to get 74 minutes of recording time onto a single compact piece of plastic, to be read with an infrared laser diode, in an era where processing power was much more expensive, visible-light long-duty-cycle laser diodes were nonexistent, and video discs had frequent problems with delamination, leading to rapid degradation*. (And there may be some factual basis for the urban legend that the European and Japanese engineers were specifically aiming for enough recording time for Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.)
Personally, as one who refuses to own a hardware MP3 player, or to buy MP3s (and I rarely download free ones unless that's the only option), I find more than a little bit of hypocrisy in anybody who buys into the whole vinyl hype, yet regularly listens to (and rips that vinyl to) MP3s.
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* As to video disc delamination, I used to know a guy who had direct experience with it, and I personally experienced something similar when my first DVD of Airplane! cracked, causing it to rapidly degrade to the point of being unplayable; I was on vacation at the time, and quickly found a B&N that had a new copy in stock.
And any deficiencies in quality of CDs being produced today is most likely an artifact of (a) optimization for MP3-ripping, or (b) copy-protection. Or (c) the CDs were derived FROM MP3s. Or (d) it's deliberate, perhaps as a way to sell vinyl.
That said, it's quite true that the CD is a compromise format: it was designed to get 74 minutes of recording time onto a single compact piece of plastic, to be read with an infrared laser diode, in an era where processing power was much more expensive, visible-light long-duty-cycle laser diodes were nonexistent, and video discs had frequent problems with delamination, leading to rapid degradation*. (And there may be some factual basis for the urban legend that the European and Japanese engineers were specifically aiming for enough recording time for Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.)
Personally, as one who refuses to own a hardware MP3 player, or to buy MP3s (and I rarely download free ones unless that's the only option), I find more than a little bit of hypocrisy in anybody who buys into the whole vinyl hype, yet regularly listens to (and rips that vinyl to) MP3s.
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* As to video disc delamination, I used to know a guy who had direct experience with it, and I personally experienced something similar when my first DVD of Airplane! cracked, causing it to rapidly degrade to the point of being unplayable; I was on vacation at the time, and quickly found a B&N that had a new copy in stock.
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Reading this thread reminded me of when I was buying Deep Space Nine on VHS from Columbia House. I started that prior to the DVD release. It thought I was getting a great deal, getting 2 episodes for the low, low price of $19.95 (at the time the single episode tapes were on sale for $12.95). Then DVD's started and DS9 was released on DVD. Needless to say I ended my VHS with season 5 and bought season 6 and 7 on DVD. When I cancelled the Columbia House rep asked why and I told her I could get an entire season on DVD for less than $100. Well, she didn't even try to talk me into staying on, I mean, what could she say.
What disgusted me is I eventually bought the first 5 seasons on DVD and ended up selling all my DS9 VHS tapes for $15. And it took me about 2 or 3 years to finally sell them. Hundreds of dollars I spent on them and I could only get $15 for all 5 seasons. When the guy bought them I was just like 'get them out of my sight'.
However, I did keep my VHS collection of the original series that I started buying back in the 80's when they first started coming out. I'll never sell those. They probably aren't worth anything but still. I also have the first 6 movies on VHS that I'll never get rid of. I got the 1st edition releases of all of them (I got the first 3 movies as a birthday gift at a time when TMP was still $39.95 to get on VHS). Those are keepers too.
Really when you think about it Star Trek was a pioneer in home video. At the time the original series was first released on VHS no one really thought about releasing TV shows on home video.
What disgusted me is I eventually bought the first 5 seasons on DVD and ended up selling all my DS9 VHS tapes for $15. And it took me about 2 or 3 years to finally sell them. Hundreds of dollars I spent on them and I could only get $15 for all 5 seasons. When the guy bought them I was just like 'get them out of my sight'.
However, I did keep my VHS collection of the original series that I started buying back in the 80's when they first started coming out. I'll never sell those. They probably aren't worth anything but still. I also have the first 6 movies on VHS that I'll never get rid of. I got the 1st edition releases of all of them (I got the first 3 movies as a birthday gift at a time when TMP was still $39.95 to get on VHS). Those are keepers too.
Really when you think about it Star Trek was a pioneer in home video. At the time the original series was first released on VHS no one really thought about releasing TV shows on home video.
I'm still hoping to someday get that complete set of the 6 movies that has the Enterprise on the side. I have a couple of them, but still no complete Enterprise yet.
It really was.
Prior to DVD, most TV shows were lucky to get a 'best of...' videotape release, sitcoms, dramas, it didn't matter, no one dared to even try releasing a complete TV show on videotape, season by season. Paramount were very committed, to every Star Trek show being commercially available to the consumer, at a time when other TV shows simply weren't. The age of DVD obviously made it more economical for studios to release complete seasons of TV shows, but Trek was certainly a pioneer.
I know what you're talking about. Some time ago I saw a complete box set of those at a used CD/video store (including the box).
My Star Trek VI VHS is from that set. If I'm not mistaken that's how that movie was released on VHS from the getgo. But my first 5 films are the original 1st release versions that had their own boxes.
Yeah. Paramount was generally pretty smart with Star Trek. They saw there was a definite market there. I first became a Trekkie just before TVH came out and the video rental department at my local Pathmark Supermarket had about 10 or 15 episodes of the 2nd season available for rent and that's how I first started watching the original series. I rented everyone one they had available. I remember having difficulty renting Catspaw, an episode they had in their catalogue but for some reason it was not available. I don't know if someone forgot to return it, I remember one time seeing it on the shelf for rent finally and I took the box up and found out someone accidently put the box on the shelf and they didn't have it for rent. I was really bummed. But my patience eventually was rewarded because eventually it was finally returned. I always have a soft spot for Catspaw to this day because it was one I was determined to see.
I also remember setting my VCR back in the late 80's for Star Trek when WPIX-NY used to show it at midnight. I saw a lot of episodes that way. I lived in the Philly market and none of the TV stations from Philly showed it at the time but luckily my cable operator carried WPIX. I was slowly building up my VHS collection from episodes I bought and got as gifts, and supplemented with the ones I taped from TV. It was nice to see the uncut versions on the videos. Several minutes had to be cut from the TV airings for commercials.
Same kind of experience here
The one I had the hardest trouble finding though was The Trouble With Tribbles, which was annoying because of I kept reading how it was the best episode and all that 
I think I'd probably seen the DS9 sequel and read David Gerrold's script book long before I ever tracked down the tape, lol 
That period where DVD was starting to replace VHS for home sales was painful - I was in the process of buying Babylon 5 and Xena seasons on VHS. It was about $150 per season. IIRC. Bigass sets with two eps per tape. Each season took up at least a foot of shelf space. I'd gotten all but S3 of B5, and I'd gotten the first two seasons of Xena, when it became obvious that things were swicthing over to DVD. Of course I already had ST:TOS in its entirety as well, bought one tape at a time at $15 each.
I passed the Trek tapes on to a friend who couldn't afford to buy them, and was happy to have them. Nobody wanted seasons of B5 or Xena, and I ended up throwing them away. Lotta money down the drain there.
I passed the Trek tapes on to a friend who couldn't afford to buy them, and was happy to have them. Nobody wanted seasons of B5 or Xena, and I ended up throwing them away. Lotta money down the drain there.
Whilst on the subject of B5, Mojo is planning to create an HD version of the Season 3 titles:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/b5-season-3-credits-hd-redux-stretch-goal-1500
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/b5-season-3-credits-hd-redux-stretch-goal-1500
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