Were VHS £100 back in the 80s? Page 3

Quote: billwill @ September 13 2013, 5:43 PM BST

I have a Panasonic Super-vhs recorder/player with lots of editing capabilities, which I really need to see if I can get it serviced so that I can transcribe some master tapes that I made. The higher resolution tapes won't play on an ordinary VHS player.

I seem to remember it cost me a LOT of money, but was a business expense as I used it to make tutorial videos for my software.

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PS does anyone want a whole load of VHS tapes sold as blanks, but which just happen to have a lot of off-air recordings of sitcoms of the 1990s.. Mostly SelectTV sitcoms like Birds of a Feather, Love Hurts etc. Dunno what else might have been recorded and they are too long (typically 6 hours) to play them through to find out..

There's probably 20 to 30 tapes.

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I bet you've got some treasures on there

Quote: zooo @ September 13 2013, 6:09 PM BST

15 different versions of Charles and Eddie singing Would I Lie To You.

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I'll pay anything.

There will also be some choice Boyz II Men performances.

Argo's still sell them where I am and some some in tesco's the other day I still have loads of vhs tapes lying around

I'd say definitely not in the 80s, no. Film Videos I mean. Blank tapes for recording took a lot longer to develop if I remember right, which kept Film Video prices very high, I remember them at 60 then 50 in the early 80s. By 82, 83, video recorders were really catching on, in an episode of The Young Ones Sayle kept saying 'Cor, you Got A Video?' I remember from 84ish right up to 90 at least, Film videos in shops were a constant £40 because all the film co.s had agreed not to undercut each other, I believe. Still very expensive indeed, probably around £100 in today's money.

But in late 77 I remember Christmas shopping in Debenhams and film videos were just out, priced £80. Everyone was looking at them and going cor! picking up empty video boxes of The Godfather and one or two others (there weren't many titles out) but I didn't see anyone buying one at that price, it was written in the papers that you could buy a cinema for less money than a video as cinemas were virtually empty, as were the top football stadiums. Strange days, the 70s.

I still can't get my head around this thread. I never would have believed a video tape of any kind could ever have cost more than about £15.

The ones that were £60 were, if I remember correctly, ex-rental copies of new films. Available before the distributors even thought about selling 'new' copies directly.

I remember we used to have a Camcorder that used mini-tapes and we also had the tape player too, which doubled as a recorder for the TV. It's a significant memory because my Mum had recorded some ITV drama of some sorts and about an hour in, a woman gets completely in the buff. I say, someone ended up wearing that tape out.

Quote: zooo @ September 15 2013, 11:43 AM BST

I still can't get my head around this thread. I never would have believed a video tape of any kind could ever have cost more than about £15.

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Technology, innit. Early adopters always pay a premium. The companies are scared they won't make their R&D costs back so they charge as much as they can. It's like DVDs, DVD players, Blu-ray players, and now 3D Blu-ray units. You could pay £100 or above for any of those players at one stage, but now prices start around £20 to £30.

Quote: zooo @ September 15 2013, 11:43 AM BST

I still can't get my head around this thread. I never would have believed a video tape of any kind could ever have cost more than about £15.

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Well, zooo, it's a fairly simple pricing strategy. The players were several hundred pounds, so were somewhat of a luxury product. Due to this, not many people would have been buying the tapes, so the companies selling the tapes had to offset this with high prices.

I agree it makes sense logically. It's just the concept of one video tape with just one film on it costing 80 fecking quid. Seems utterly insane!

Quote: Nil Putters @ September 15 2013, 12:07 PM BST

The ones that were £60 were, if I remember correctly, ex-rental copies of new films. Available before the distributors even thought about selling 'new' copies directly.

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I remember vhs been available for rental first up until around 2000. Usaually about a month or two after it came out as rental that you could then buy it. I think it was around the time they started realeasing movies on both vhs and DVD that they stopped it.

Yes the early days of video recording were great fun. Lots of staying up very late just to record the BBC2 art film of the early hour. Er, I hear.

All film technology was costly before digital came along, I think. TVs themselves were hellishly expensive considering how rubbish they were. In the 70s, several week's wages alone. I knew of many who had rental tellies and put a shilling in the meter to watch their favourite shows.

It does though put into a bit of perspective why the BBC wiped so many shows, they probably had no choice with the cost of tapes, but it still doesn't explain their extremely bad selection of which ones to save or wipe or their perverse decisions such as refusing the likes of Cook to pay for saving some. And then there was the crazy Bob Monkhouse trial at the Old Bailey for 'piracy' which you would've thought was a serial murder trial. Bizarre days indeed!

Quote: reds @ September 15 2013, 12:39 PM BST

I remember vhs been available for rental first up until around 2000.

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I was referring to the early 80s.