VHS vs. DVD

[Mercutio]

I was thinking of buying a bunch of movies on half.com, amazon Z-shops, etc.

I could get them on VHS, for about $1-$7, or on dvd for about $8-$20. It seems everything is at least twice as much on dvd, often more (Think $.94 vs. $8.49 kind of thing :eek: ).

Currently, at home, I could easily play VHS tapes--I'm thus inclined to buy the movies at $1 a piece.

Except starting in the fall I will be in college with a laptop. For four years.

Is there reasonable equipment to play VHS's through a computer? (I don't want a TV&VCR)

Or are VHS's quickly becoming so useless that I'm needlessly holding back from technology? :p


I just don't want to pay so much more!

[Farimir Captain of Gondor]

If I were you, I'd spend the xtra money and get the DVDs. I've never heard of a computer that could play VHS. I think VHS is going the way of the 8track and the cassete tape. I can't even recall the last time I saw an 8track and with people being able to burn movies and songs on CDs, DVRs, whatever you call 'em, I think it won't be long before the tape and VHS disappear as well.

[Elfhelm]

I do have a contraption, called the Neuros Recorder 2, that lets me play my old tapes and record them as digital video files on a Compact Flash card. I can set it for low res that works on my iPod video, or hi res to watch on the TV. In theory I can make a DVD from the files, or a VCD.

So now I am looking at my nearly complete Doctor Who collection that I taped in the 80's and asking myself if it would be fun to convert them all. But I also have to ask myself if it's worth it.

For instance, the complete Key to Time series, one of the finest Doctor Who sequences ever, can be bought for a hundred dollars US. It would take me more than 20 hours to convert the ones I have on tape. So is it worth $5 an hour to me to just buy the darn DVD. On top of that, I admit that I used the longplay (six hours a tape) setting. So no matter what I do, I will never match the resolution of the DVDs.

Then there's Surround Sound. I found with the Deep Space Nine DVDs that I could never match the quality on any VHS tape ever, simply because they remastered the sound for 5.1 Surround, and my system can play it.

So you get what you pay for, in this case.

I have stopped buying tapes. Everything has to be on DVD now.

[Spock]

Gadz, I envy you. The Key to Time is one of my 'wish list' for a long time now. There's always something else that comes up.

I too say go for the dvd. While I have a huge VHS collection, it's getting very hard to find VHS even in rental stores. At least the dvd can be played on computer and that is a plus you can't put a dollar value on when your stuck in the dorm. :)