About 200 VHS tapes of stuff recorded off the TV between late 80s - early 2000s

[Replies From View]

This stuff was recorded mostly by my Dad for him to watch or rewatch, but all he really ended up doing was amassing loads of tapes that have pointlessly been taking up room in my parents' house ever since.  Probably mostly documentaries, operas and films, with ephemera in between (although for many years my Dad was scrupulous about editing the adverts out by pressing pause whenever the title card came up, I'm sure some will have slipped through).

I'm someone who can't bear to just throw stuff away, and I'm hoping there are people out there who might be interested in taking these tapes off my parents, digitising their contents and uploading anything interesting for the world to share.  It's just clear that whoever does that would need to have the resources to do it (no one in my family does), and the time and passion to get it done.  And if nobody wants them my Dad will just chuck them out, and that will be that.  Landfill.

Does anyone here have an interest in archiving this kind of stuff, or know someone who does?  My parents live in Bath, and if someone could collect them in person that would make it even easier, but we can sort that out.  Please PM me if you don't want to discuss it here.

[Depressed Beyond Tables]

You should definitely catalogue all this stuff online. People will thank you.

[Replies From View]

You should definitely catalogue all this stuff online. People will thank you.

I'd like to gift them to somebody who can and will!

[Depressed Beyond Tables]

Don't give them to someone who will just videoplus over them.

[DrGreggles]

I'm in a similar boat. Must have a similar number of old VHS tapes in storage.
There must be some gold in there somewhere!

[Brundle-Fly]

It's pretty simple to do, Replies. Even a technophobe like me can manage.


Get yourself one of these. ( Although, fuck me, I didn't pay that for mine) There must be cheaper ones about.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Elgato-Video-Capture-Digitise-iPad/dp/B00293CDG0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1533581210&sr=8-1&keywords=elgato+video+capture+device

Access to a VCR. You can pick up a good one for £25 at most Cash Converters. And Hey Presto, you're away!

I'm gradually trawling through all mine and parents old tapes; some dating back to 1978. You have to be a bit ruthless though because you end up not binning anything. "Oh look, there's an advert with a baby-faced Gillian Taylforth" Or "I must keep the last ten minutes of this episode of The Really Wild Show when Chris Packham had bleach blond hair."

Check if its's on YouTube. Yes it is. Bin.

It is fascinating but on the whole a grindingly dull pursuit.

[Depressed Beyond Tables]

Pro tip life hack: Search the electronics section of the dump for old but perfectly working vhs players.

[Phil_A]

I'd certainly be interested in any early Channel 4 in there. Unfortunately I live nowhere near Bath so collection would not really be practical. Maybe you could post me one tape at a time? Might take a few decades to do the whole lot, but I'm sure it'd be worth it in the end...

[Small Man Big Horse]

I know in the US on the myspleen torrent site that a lot of people pay good money for VHS collections like yours and then spend ages carefully transferring them and making the content available via the site. I'm not a member of the UK torrent site of a similar nature, but I imagine people on there might be very interested, and then you can spend the money on cocaine and prostitutes (for your parents, not yourself, obviously).

[lgpmachine]

There's a guy on Twitter who does this (@CuriousUKTelly), I think he usually collects the tapes too.  I can ask him if you want?  He's always on the lookout for old VHS tapes in case there's anything worth saving on them.

[Replies From View]

There's a guy on Twitter who does this (@CuriousUKTelly), I think he usually collects the tapes too.  I can ask him if you want?  He's always on the lookout for old VHS tapes in case there's anything worth saving on them.

Yes please!

[Sebastian Cobb]

Imagine if it turned out he'd managed to capture a wiped copy of Rentaghost or something.

[Depressed Beyond Tables]

Imagine it was your dad banging.

[Replies From View]

Imagine if it turned out he'd managed to capture a wiped copy of Rentaghost or something.

I don't know whether he recorded anything that is no longer existing in the BBC archives - he only started recording stuff from the late 80s onwards - but I know from a recent glance that there's a tape of Victoria Wood's Jackanory, when she read Matilda.  That hardly turns up anything when you search for it online.  And I'm sure there would be lots of obscure things if you're interested in opera, including a live performance in which one of the cast stumbled on a step, and was subsequently 'fixed' for all repeats.  Things like that.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Interestingly (or not) I was talking to someone about BBC's archives. They've done a conservative estimate and they don't reckon there's enough serviceable tape heads to digitise everything they have and Sony recently bought one of the only places that reconditions the heads.

[Malcy]

I moved twice recently and the old VHS tapes appeared in a box. The few words written on them take me back and I know there is great stuff on there that isn't available online anywhere. On my list of things to do after converting the audio cassettes full of Tim Westwood shows and stuff like that. I've seen people requesting stuff I know i have in music forums but I can't say I have them because I'm incredibly lazy about doing it!

[Sebastian Cobb]

I skipped mine a couple of moves back. I couldn't see anything I couldn't have downloaded, apart from a breezeblock set I recorded on a nicam vcr via the freeview box.

[lgpmachine]

Yes please!

Just asked him so I'll let you know the outcome.

[Replies From View]

Just asked him so I'll let you know the outcome.

Thank you!

[lgpmachine]

He's just replied, unfortunately he doesn't have room for that many at the moment so said he'll have to pass.  Looks like it might be the landfill after all I'm afraid.

[Mr_Simnock]

I'm someone who can't bear to just throw stuff away, and I'm hoping there are people out there who might be interested in taking these tapes off my parents, digitising their contents and uploading anything interesting for the world to share.  It's just clear that whoever does that would need to have the resources to do it (no one in my family does), and the time and passion to get it done.  And if nobody wants them my Dad will just chuck them out, and that will be that.  Landfill.

200 tapes is about a couple big plastic storage containers, I have plenty of them. I could potentially take them off your hands. Biniput has equipment to take stuff from VHS and pop in online, he did that with an incredibly rare Kate Bush VHS a couple years back to great effect. All depends how far I would have to travel to pick them up.

[Delete Delete Delete]

Raises Hand sheepishly. I litrally have a segment called the Dad tapes. I could even arrange a drop off to Phil as he isn't that far from my neck of the woods. Whats the time frame for pick up?

[Replies From View]

200 tapes is about a couple big plastic storage containers, I have plenty of them. I could potentially take them off your hands. Biniput has equipment to take stuff from VHS and pop in online, he did that with an incredibly rare Kate Bush VHS a couple years back to great effect. All depends how far I would have to travel to pick them up.

Where would you be travelling from?

[Replies From View]

Sorry - an update - my Dad has messaged me to say it's actually more like 400 tapes!

[Delete Delete Delete]

I hope there labeled. If you wanted to thin them down, you could possibly safley junk anything that were hollywood films.

[Replies From View]

I hope there labeled. If you wanted to thin them down, you could possibly safley junk anything that were hollywood films.

Unfortunately most of them aren't labelled.  But I also don't think my Dad was recording a lot of Hollywood films.

[Twit 2]

No one wants digitised dad content, don't listen to them. Dig a big hole and put all the tapes in. Leave it open, do all your shits in it, plus anything else that will go in. Eventually cover it with the soil and get on your lives.

[Mr_Simnock]

Where would you be travelling from?

Lancashire

[Twed]

Creaming myself at the prospect of all of those 80s-2000s ad breaks being uploaded to YouTube.

I hope you get these into the hands of a decent archivist. Sounds like people above are hooking you up. YouTube shows there's definitely a lot of good homes for these tapes.

[mothman]

Perhaps seek out some of the more prolific (obviously uk-based) archivists on YouTube and post them comments to ask if they'd be interested?