Any value in VHS videos?

[Lyris]

Where do you work, Roddie? I guess it's indie/arthouse movies being played from Digibeta?

[Roddie]

I work in a theatre that has two cinema screens. We get sent more films on Digibeta than you would think.

The first time we had The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was for a festival ahead of its release date. It was on two tapes so required a ninja style swap halfway through!

[sj33]

Only recently have I acquired a widescreen CRT TV for watching widescreen films on, prior to this it pissed me off that instead of zooming in on the film to fill the screen (cutting off stuff at the sides), some films had the original theatrical perspective, resulting in shrinkage of the image. I don't mind the sides being cut off!

This is a bit of a grey area, since purists would want to see the entire image, cropping is considered almost sacreligious by some (myself included).

Thankfully, we're no longer in the era where we have to chose between letterboxing and pan-and-scan.

[Lyris]

I work in a theatre that has two cinema screens. We get sent more films on Digibeta than you would think.

The first time we had The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was for a festival ahead of its release date. It was on two tapes so required a ninja style swap halfway through!

It probably looked better than the print I saw!

I love using DigiBeta as a source for DVD authoring. DVD can reach 97% of the same quality if it's done right!

[anephric]

I had a fair few LDs that got warped from side pressure from leaning against each other. Similarly, I had more than a few discs (Batman Returns, Falling Down) that exhibited crosstalk no matter how freshly calibrated the pickup in my player. Dropouts were fun - selling discs second-hand and being made to swear on the lives of my prospective first-born that there were NO DROPOUTS and that they'd come back to get me if there were.

Laserdisc scratches were kerazy - not like locking up on DVD, it'd play through them but a bright white scratch would lazily saunter from one side of the image to the other - my Criterion Blade Runner used to have one that I'd dread as soon as the end of the film was approaching because it went straight through Rutger Hauer's face when he's doing Attack Ships on Fire.

For a while I was tempted to buy back an LD player, but thought better of it. If I had a bigger house I'd have a room for indulgences like that. I still really want to buy a SelectaVision player.

[QualityChimp]

I have a selection of Laserdiscs for sale. All discs are in excellent condition. Some are unopened.

Eastern Condors (Sammo Hung)
Wheels On Meals (Jackie Chan)
Enter The Dragon Special Edition (2 discs)
Mr. Nice Guy (Jackie Chan)
Rumble In The Bronx (Jackie Chan)
Supercop (Jackie Chan)
Jackie Chan's First Strike
Rush Hour
Young Master (Jackie Chan)

All them sweet Kung-Fu flicks and you're never in the Kung-Fu thread? F'shame, CMcK!

[CMcK]

I know. Can't beat a good Kung Fu film for sheer entertainment.