TM
Weirdly, the only "blank" tape I recall us having contained a Nick. Jr broadcast of the Angelina Ballerina episode, "Arthur the Butterfly", as we'd been a Sky Digital house from literally day one; (my family's been with Sky since the early 90's, even before Sky Multi Channels existed), and I remember the tape sleeve it was stored in very fondly, which Sky introduced in 2001:
This is the E180, which I know came in three sleeve designs using different Sky logos since they were first manufactured in 1998. The tape itself has been long gone for over a decade, (I believe the house went through a massive clear-out during 2006-07).
However, recently, I started my blank tape collecting spree with two tapes containing the UK broadcasts of the 1992 and 1994 Academy Awards; the former from The Movie Channel, the latter a joint broadcast between UK Living and UK Gold: (I plan to upload the advert breaks from both tapes once I find a decent capture card).
One more thing: are they any other sites where I can buy recorded tapes from besides eBay?
This is the E180, which I know came in three sleeve designs using different Sky logos since they were first manufactured in 1998. The tape itself has been long gone for over a decade, (I believe the house went through a massive clear-out during 2006-07).
However, recently, I started my blank tape collecting spree with two tapes containing the UK broadcasts of the 1992 and 1994 Academy Awards; the former from The Movie Channel, the latter a joint broadcast between UK Living and UK Gold: (I plan to upload the advert breaks from both tapes once I find a decent capture card).
One more thing: are they any other sites where I can buy recorded tapes from besides eBay?
Last edited by ToasterMan on 31 March 2020 2:01pm - 3 times in total
NL
I’ve never used craigslist but it might be a thought.
Weirdly, the only "blank" tape I recall us having contained a Nick. Jr broadcast of the Angelina Ballerina episode, "Arthur the Butterfly", as we'd been a Sky Digital house from literally day one; (my family's been with Sky since the early 90's, even before Sky Multi Channels existed), and I remember the tape sleeve it was stored in very fondly; (circa 2001-02):
This is the E180, which I know came in three sleeve designs using different Sky logos since they were first manufactured in 1997. The tape itself has been long gone for over a decade, (I believe the house went through a massive clear-out during 2006-07).
However, recently, I started my blank tape collecting spree with two tapes containing the UK broadcasts of the 1992 and 1994 Academy Awards; the former from The Movie Channel, the later a joint broadcast between UK Living and UK Gold: (I plan to upload the advert breaks from both tapes once I find a decent capture card).
One more thing: are they any other sites where I can buy recorded tapes from besides eBay?
This is the E180, which I know came in three sleeve designs using different Sky logos since they were first manufactured in 1997. The tape itself has been long gone for over a decade, (I believe the house went through a massive clear-out during 2006-07).
However, recently, I started my blank tape collecting spree with two tapes containing the UK broadcasts of the 1992 and 1994 Academy Awards; the former from The Movie Channel, the later a joint broadcast between UK Living and UK Gold: (I plan to upload the advert breaks from both tapes once I find a decent capture card).
One more thing: are they any other sites where I can buy recorded tapes from besides eBay?
I’ve never used craigslist but it might be a thought.
NJ
These days "renting items" is called "on finance", and you don't own it until you pay the last instalment. So bad luck if you buy a car on finance, make the last payment and then drive into a tree.
Back in the past there were various companies that rented things (you could rent phones from BT for example, they'd just put the charge on your bill) and the likes of Radio Rentals, but these days that's the domain of the likes of Brighthouse, who would eventually charge you £2k for something you could buy outright for £450.
Neil Jones
Founding member
That’s ridiculous. You could buy a cleanser for a few quid and it’s yours. Can’t imagine getting many rental fees from that.
These days "renting items" is called "on finance", and you don't own it until you pay the last instalment. So bad luck if you buy a car on finance, make the last payment and then drive into a tree.
Back in the past there were various companies that rented things (you could rent phones from BT for example, they'd just put the charge on your bill) and the likes of Radio Rentals, but these days that's the domain of the likes of Brighthouse, who would eventually charge you £2k for something you could buy outright for £450.
NL
We did rent our tv and vcr from Radio Rentals for years and only bought our first setup in 1996 from Curry’s.
As I said in a previous post they didn’t ask us for a penny during the miners strike and as someone who lived through that it was (for my parents) one of the few bright spots.
With reference to the cleaner I would have thought it would have been easier and cheaper in the (very) long run to buy one but that’s just my opinion.
Don’t know if anyone knows this but Brighthouse has gone into administration today.
As I said in a previous post they didn’t ask us for a penny during the miners strike and as someone who lived through that it was (for my parents) one of the few bright spots.
With reference to the cleaner I would have thought it would have been easier and cheaper in the (very) long run to buy one but that’s just my opinion.
Don’t know if anyone knows this but Brighthouse has gone into administration today.
NJ
The logos on the tapes are just branding licence agreements, they don't actually imply any further "quality" than TDK. I dare say they were just tools to shift stock.
On occasion you'd see things like this:
(image originally posted by Whataday here )
Craigslist, Gumtree, Freecycle, charity shops, skips outside houses that have or are being cleared, I dare say Amazon Marketplace as well might be another option.
Neil Jones
Founding member
Weirdly, the only "blank" tape I recall us having contained a Nick. Jr broadcast of the Angelina Ballerina episode, "Arthur the Butterfly", as we'd been a Sky Digital house from literally day one; (my family's been with Sky since the early 90's, even before Sky Multi Channels existed), and I remember the tape sleeve it was stored in very fondly; (circa 2001-02):
This is the E180, which I know came in three sleeve designs using different Sky logos since they were first manufactured in 1997. The tape itself has been long gone for over a decade, (I believe the house went through a massive clear-out during 2006-07).
This is the E180, which I know came in three sleeve designs using different Sky logos since they were first manufactured in 1997. The tape itself has been long gone for over a decade, (I believe the house went through a massive clear-out during 2006-07).
The logos on the tapes are just branding licence agreements, they don't actually imply any further "quality" than TDK. I dare say they were just tools to shift stock.
On occasion you'd see things like this:
(image originally posted by Whataday here )
Quote:
However, recently, I started my blank tape collecting spree with two tapes containing the UK broadcasts of the 1992 and 1994 Academy Awards; the former from The Movie Channel, the later a joint broadcast between UK Living and UK Gold: (I plan to upload the advert breaks from both tapes once I find a decent capture card).
One more thing: are they any other sites where I can buy recorded tapes from besides eBay?
One more thing: are they any other sites where I can buy recorded tapes from besides eBay?
Craigslist, Gumtree, Freecycle, charity shops, skips outside houses that have or are being cleared, I dare say Amazon Marketplace as well might be another option.
NJ
Neil Jones
Founding member
The local Facebook groups might be good, if you can get your request heard over people who use these groups as virtual Neighbourhood Watch hubs. "Somebody drew their curtains at dusk, they're obviously up to something, be aware", or similar silliness.
BH
BillyH
Founding member
I bought a
huge
box of home-recorded tapes from a boot sale in 2006, and got as far as uploading half of the content to the MHP PP though in very low quality due to the ancient computer I had at the time. Earliest tape was from 1983 and had lots of early Channel 4 on it, newest just a dull night of ITV programmes from 2004 - depressingly the first few minutes of that tape were from mid-80s BBC2, the rest only recently taped over!
Lots of them were just recordings of films from their TV premiere dates, but in cases where the tape was left running afterwards there were some good presentation finds - an odd BBC1 closedown from 1985 where the faint sounds of Slade and Scritti Polliti could be heard under the blank screen, a BBC2 close from 1998 featuring one of the last times the clock was used at closedown, and an entire night of overnight Thames from early 1989, early on into 24 hour broadcasting. Those 0898 commercials are legendary in their cheapness!
What struck me was the difference in quality from those early 1980s tapes compared to the results I was getting from those still available in shops at the time. By 2006 I was using a brand called ‘Mr Video’ which looked awful on playback, constant noise and jittery picture. In contrast that Scotch tape from 1983 looked so good (and weighed noticeably heavier) that at times it was hard to believe I was watching a video at all.
Lots of them were just recordings of films from their TV premiere dates, but in cases where the tape was left running afterwards there were some good presentation finds - an odd BBC1 closedown from 1985 where the faint sounds of Slade and Scritti Polliti could be heard under the blank screen, a BBC2 close from 1998 featuring one of the last times the clock was used at closedown, and an entire night of overnight Thames from early 1989, early on into 24 hour broadcasting. Those 0898 commercials are legendary in their cheapness!
What struck me was the difference in quality from those early 1980s tapes compared to the results I was getting from those still available in shops at the time. By 2006 I was using a brand called ‘Mr Video’ which looked awful on playback, constant noise and jittery picture. In contrast that Scotch tape from 1983 looked so good (and weighed noticeably heavier) that at times it was hard to believe I was watching a video at all.
JA
That reminds me of when I got a box of tapes from my late aunt. One of them began with several seconds of 80s Pages From Ceefax, I thought I'd found something interesting... then the rest of the tape had been taped over by some quite boring documentries recorded from UK Horizons circa 1999. I could have screamed!
Also doesn't help that I went through most of her tapes in the mid-00s and there was quite a lot of interesting stuff on them. But when she moved house in 2007 about half of her tapes ended up in the skip, and it rained heavily the day before I got to her house and could have retrieved them, so they were ruined. And typically it was mostly the tapes with interesting content on that went in the skip. So bye bye to 80s ITN bulletins and loads of 80s & 90s Central continuity, some early Studio A CBBC continuity and a 1989 Channel 4 Closedown complete with ETP-1, and the tapes she kept were mostly dull historical documentries taped off UK Horizons and The Discovery Channel in the late 90s and early 00s... (and most of those tapes dated back to the 80s, so would have had older content on them at one time)
newest just a dull night of ITV programmes from 2004 - depressingly the first few minutes of that tape were from mid-80s BBC2, the rest only recently taped over!
That reminds me of when I got a box of tapes from my late aunt. One of them began with several seconds of 80s Pages From Ceefax, I thought I'd found something interesting... then the rest of the tape had been taped over by some quite boring documentries recorded from UK Horizons circa 1999. I could have screamed!
Also doesn't help that I went through most of her tapes in the mid-00s and there was quite a lot of interesting stuff on them. But when she moved house in 2007 about half of her tapes ended up in the skip, and it rained heavily the day before I got to her house and could have retrieved them, so they were ruined. And typically it was mostly the tapes with interesting content on that went in the skip. So bye bye to 80s ITN bulletins and loads of 80s & 90s Central continuity, some early Studio A CBBC continuity and a 1989 Channel 4 Closedown complete with ETP-1, and the tapes she kept were mostly dull historical documentries taped off UK Horizons and The Discovery Channel in the late 90s and early 00s... (and most of those tapes dated back to the 80s, so would have had older content on them at one time)
NW
We once bought a pack of these Sky branded VHS tapes, and they were not very good. They couldn’t handle long play greatly either. They felt quite cheap. I’m not sure who made them though.
The BBC branded tapes on the other hand were generally far more reliable.
I’ll put this out there. Those chunky Memorex tapes you got in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s were the most reliable. Those tapes were very hard to break.
Weirdly, the only "blank" tape I recall us having contained a Nick. Jr broadcast of the Angelina Ballerina episode, "Arthur the Butterfly", as we'd been a Sky Digital house from literally day one; (my family's been with Sky since the early 90's, even before Sky Multi Channels existed), and I remember the tape sleeve it was stored in very fondly, which Sky introduced in 2001:
This is the E180, which I know came in three sleeve designs using different Sky logos since they were first manufactured in 1997. The tape itself has been long gone for over a decade, (I believe the house went through a massive clear-out during 2006-07).
However, recently, I started my blank tape collecting spree with two tapes containing the UK broadcasts of the 1992 and 1994 Academy Awards; the former from The Movie Channel, the later a joint broadcast between UK Living and UK Gold: (I plan to upload the advert breaks from both tapes once I find a decent capture card).
One more thing: are they any other sites where I can buy recorded tapes from besides eBay?
This is the E180, which I know came in three sleeve designs using different Sky logos since they were first manufactured in 1997. The tape itself has been long gone for over a decade, (I believe the house went through a massive clear-out during 2006-07).
However, recently, I started my blank tape collecting spree with two tapes containing the UK broadcasts of the 1992 and 1994 Academy Awards; the former from The Movie Channel, the later a joint broadcast between UK Living and UK Gold: (I plan to upload the advert breaks from both tapes once I find a decent capture card).
One more thing: are they any other sites where I can buy recorded tapes from besides eBay?
We once bought a pack of these Sky branded VHS tapes, and they were not very good. They couldn’t handle long play greatly either. They felt quite cheap. I’m not sure who made them though.
The BBC branded tapes on the other hand were generally far more reliable.
I’ll put this out there. Those chunky Memorex tapes you got in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s were the most reliable. Those tapes were very hard to break.
RO
We bought those sky and bbc cassettes. Thankfully they didn't get chewed up in the machine, unlike the aforementioned jvc cassettes from Woolworths.