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Always seemed like the rewind function on a VCR broke first or it would eat tapes when you rewound the fast way(stop VCR then hit rewind)
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Quoted: I think the thing that annoys me the most about people under a certain age is the assumption that the public used to be credulous and informationally handicapped because they didn't have an internet to look things up on. The bigger problem today is people that can't figure out anything without the internet. View Quote Woe unto them when the lights go out for good and they can’t google survival skills. |
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My dad had one that was shaped like a car and the headlights came on when in use. Thought it was cool as a kid.
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The motor was a constant velocity motor, in order to keep the movie timed steadily past the head. In order to rewind, an entire set of gears had to be lifted in place, which was a mechanical transition of some complexity, and a likely time for things to go wrong. Then there was a much greater load on the motor. Which again, was a pretty delicate construction, made more for running steady at a constant velocity than simple motor stuff.
Heads are the pickups that the tape slid across, that read the magnetic information. A head cleaner was necessary because over time, magnetic ferrite particles shed from the surface of mylar tape, and deposit on surfaces. This damaged tapes. |
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I remember trying to download videos even when DVDs were around as being a pain. You’d start the download and pray that the file name was legit. Even at only 1mbps it felt like it was lightning fast compared to dial up. I was amazed when I moved to a big city (for WV) years later and had access to 20mbps. View Quote |
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Wow- almost forgot about those-- now I am feeling old. Remember when a sales manager for a company I represented bought one of the first VCR's--thought he was rich. https://www.AR15.Com/media/mediaFiles/157453/IMG_3849-570789.JPG View Quote I remember him programming the time and telling me to "pay attention how this works! I'm not going to be every time this needs to be done!" Guess who doesn't know how to turn on his new TV? |
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God bless the 80s.
Dire Straits - Money For Nothing music video (Good quality, all countries) We even had Minecraft VCR mods back then. |
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you would rewind a tape while watching another one, very useful. I used to have one
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Quoted: I think the thing that annoys me the most about people under a certain age is the assumption that the public used to be credulous and informationally handicapped because they didn't have an internet to look things up on. The bigger problem today is people that can't figure out anything without the internet. View Quote |
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Yeah, so let's say you're watching two movies back to back. Without the rewinder, you have to either rewind and wait, or not rewind. With the dedicated rewinder, you win at life, getting to watch the next movie AND rewind the first AT THE SAME TIME... And you minimize wear and tear on your VCR.
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Hard to believe how much I enjoyed that dinosaur technology.
I’m a late adopter with everything, so I remember how pissed I was when DVDs supplanted VHS at the video stores. Each week it would spread and swallow another shelf or wall of tapes. |
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Never had one, always used the VCR to rewind. Never experienced bad juju. Was I an anomaly?
Were VCR failures due to consistent use of the rewind function really a thing? |
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We had two rewinders at least, and an utter crapton of VHS tapes.
This was my favorite rewinder: Attached File |
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Quoted: Yeah, I do remember them being faster. View Quote |
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Remember when a sales manager for a company I represented bought one of the first VCR's--thought he was rich. https://www.AR15.Com/media/mediaFiles/157453/IMG_3849-570789.JPG View Quote That one person who didn't pitch in on the VCR? That was my uncle who thought it was a stupid idea, and to outdo what everyone spent on the VCR he bought my grandparents a new bed. |
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They tended to extend the life of your expensive vhs or Betamax player (yes, the early vhs and Beta players were expensive), rather than using the player to go through the rewinding process when a cheap rewinder could do it. If you ever used a vhs or Betamax player back then, they weren't cheap and like the old cassette and 8 Track players, after a couple years of usage, it wasn't uncommon for the machines to eat up the tapes when they started to go bad. I never understood how the vhs players beat out the Sony Betamax units. Because the Betamax tape cassettes were a lot smaller, more compact than vhs tapes.
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Pencil or pen, duct tape, and your power drill.
Sure, you got a little tape stretch... |
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God bless the 80s. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAD6Obi7Cag We even had Minecraft VCR mods back then. View Quote |
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So you could put in a new movie while you rewind the one you just watched. Fucking binge that shit. Watch Willow. Eject Willow. Put Willow in rewinder. Insert Army of Darkness. Watch Army of Darkness. Eject Army of Darkness. Put Army of Darkness in rewinder. Insert Predator. Watch Predator. Eject Predator. Put Predator in rewinder. Insert Princess Bride. Watch Princess Bride. Eject Princess Bride. Put Princess Bride in rewinder. Insert Spaceballs. Watch Spaceballs. View Quote |
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They damaged tapes because they wouldn't slow down as they got to the end of the tape. I repaired a few taped that had been damaged by those while working at Blockbuster.
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The lyrics for that song will get your Facebook account locked. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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God bless the 80s. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAD6Obi7Cag We even had Minecraft VCR mods back then. |
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I doubt the video would be an issue. But, I can attest that trying to make a point to a millennial that the androgynous look he was commenting on among some young people was hardly a new thing, by quoting that song, will get you locked. The mere word, “faggot,” in any context, triggers their bots. I guess that explains the popularity of replacing an a with a @ and what not.
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I remember the rewinder being significantly faster than any VCR.
I kind of miss those days |
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Finish watching a movie and want to watch another one?
Just pop out the one you finished, stick it in the rewinder, and pop the next movie into the VCR. |
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Video rental places in our area would charge you extra if you didn't rewind the tapes. Back then a new top movie on VHS would cost you up to $100.00 if you wanted to buy it.
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When DVD's first came out they had the please rewind sticker on them.
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I think it's quite obvious OP has never used a VCR, VHS tape, or a tape rewinder.
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My mom called Nintendo games tapes. It was always fun being 9 or 10 and getting to rent one.
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I remember when all the adults in my family but one pitched in $50 or $100 to get my grandparents their first VCR. It was a big deal at the time to have one-most people knew of someone who owned one, but when they wanted to watch a movie at home they paid an extra $10 or $20 to rent a VCR with the movie. That one person who didn't pitch in on the VCR? That was my uncle who thought it was a stupid idea, and to outdo what everyone spent on the VCR he bought my grandparents a new bed. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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Remember when a sales manager for a company I represented bought one of the first VCR's--thought he was rich. https://www.AR15.Com/media/mediaFiles/157453/IMG_3849-570789.JPG That one person who didn't pitch in on the VCR? That was my uncle who thought it was a stupid idea, and to outdo what everyone spent on the VCR he bought my grandparents a new bed. |
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I worked at Blockbuster in a small town at the turn of the century. Every weekend we'd have a line of at least 30 people for a couple hours, each family had no less than four movies -- shit adds up.
Come Monday our return box would be piled high. We had to manually check all those movies before scanning them in -- check title on cassette to the case and make sure they were rewound. I'd say half were not. So we hand a bank of 6 or so rewinders and we'd burn through at least one a month. It was a fun job at times but some people were just rude fucks. |
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I think the thing that annoys me the most about people under a certain age is the assumption that the public used to be credulous and informationally handicapped because they didn't have an internet to look things up on. The bigger problem today is people that can't figure out anything without the internet. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/29/VHS_tape_rewinder.jpg/1200px-VHS_tape_rewinder.jpg I never thought about it at the time, but were these things just bullshit products sold to a credulous public that couldn't yet look things up on the internet, and realize they were pointless? LOL!! How old are you again? Wait!! Am I in a fucking troll thread? Damn-it! I am aren't I??? In the case this isn't a troll thread and OP is a "special needs adult". Less wear and tear on you VHS (drive motor, belts, heads), faster and the video store charged you a FEE if you brought back tapes unrewound. The bigger problem today is people that can't figure out anything without the internet. |
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I never understood how the vhs players beat out the Sony Betamax units. Because the Betamax tape cassettes were a lot smaller, more compact than vhs tapes. View Quote 1) Sony owned Beta and wouldn't license it to other companies, or maybe just wanted too much. VHS was a joint development by several of Sony's competitors and they were able to make more units and make them more cheaply. 2) The tapes had lower capacity at best quality recording. When pre-recorded studio movies became popular to own and rent, the standard-length movies would not fit on one tape at the desired quality. Most movies required 2 tapes. Only the very longest of movies required more than 1 VHS tape at the best quality setting (about 2 hours per tape). Rob |
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We had one. I liked it because you can put the next VCR tape into the player and get started with the next movie right away while the rewinder is taking care of business on its own.
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Wow- almost forgot about those-- now I am feeling old. Remember when a sales manager for a company I represented bought one of the first VCR's--thought he was rich. https://www.AR15.Com/media/mediaFiles/157453/IMG_3849-570789.JPG View Quote Those were the days my friends...... |
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Never owned one. Back in the mid 80's the mom and pop video rental place locally would put the tapes into one and rewind it as you checked out to makre sure it was the right tape and that it had been rewound.
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What about the "head cleaner" tapes? What about "dual heads"? WTF was a VCR head anyway? God I hated VCRs. View Quote |
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There is something ironic about rewinding time to make a useless point about an obsolete item, which we call useless because it rewinds.
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It was a major undertaking to rewind your tapes before you returned them if you decided to have a movie party on the weekend and they charged a good chunk of change if you didn't rewind them, so you could get them rewound and watch another movie at the same time.
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Quoted: I got my first player/recorder from Montgomery/Wards for $895 and felt like the deal was so good it was like stealing. And it had an analog tuner like an old TV set. Then the hunt was on for some good Pornographic tapes and another VCR to copy the tapes to pass on to friends. The blank tapes that I bought then were $18 each. And yes I had a rewinder. Those were the days my friends...... View Quote Funny thing. When I finally got rid of my last two vcrs a few years ago I just bagged them and left them at the curb with the rest of the garbage. Not worth anything, anymore. |
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This. And they were faster View Quote If you rented movies almost every weekend, it could come in handy too. Keep in mind that there was no digital, streaming or online film watching services. You had VHS, Beta max, or Laser disc if you were fancy. |
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Agreed. The ability to google anything at almost any given time has resulted in a population where a lasting knowledge of facts isn’t overly important or desired because those facts are easily accessed at a moments notice. Woe unto them when the lights go out for good and they can't google survival skills. View Quote I used to carry a ton of peoples phone numbers around in my head. I only looked up a phone number in the phone book if it was someplace I didn't call often |
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It was a way to be able to watch porn non-stop with just two tapes. Just cycle them and you can jerk off for hours without pause.
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Yep, we had a reminder. My dad had strict rules about using the vcr to rewind. VCRs were expensive back in the day, the rewinder was comparatively cheap. We used to go to Blockbuster video on Fridays if we didn't see anything on HBO we wanted to watch. Movie night with my parents was pretty good times. Thanks for the trip down memory lane op.
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