Favourite obsolete home video format?

How come you always start threads asking for opinions or details but you never answer your own? It's easy. Just say something like, "My favorite was Beta. What is yours?

And my favorite was Beta. I still have some tapes kicking around in storage. The machine too.

I think DVD's are the greatest format ever, and will never be surpassed.

I have a soft spot in my heart for VHS, I grew up with them, but DVDs are superior.

The reason DVDs are superior to Blu-Ray and HD 4K is because of the format. You could take a regular Television from the 1990s with AUX or Cable and hook up a DVD player to it. That was so convenient. You didn't need a NEW TV, and a NEW DVI, or HDMI, or Component cable. Just use your regular TV with regular cables. It was better picture quality than VHS and made life easier. That is why DVDs thrived so fast and put VHS out of business QUICKLY. 

However, notice Blu-Rays weren't selling nearly as well as DVDs when they were introduced, so much so that they sell Blu-Ray/DVD combo packs even today. They just can't get rid of DVDs.

One thing I preferred VHS over DVD was not having to sit through the Trailers at the beginning. Some DVDs force you to watch them. Also, I hate when DVDs skip. 

CD-V intrigues me. Movies split into two discs is inconvenient, however, how is the film quality? 

You're right. VCD is what I meant.

VHS, definately. I still think it's the best home video format. I know that everytime you watch a VHS tape it gets a little bit more worn out, but it can take years for that to happen. With a DVD, sure you can play it as many times as you want, but everytime you take it out, you have to be careful not to drop or scratch it. And when you have little kids in the family, it's near impossible to avoid scratches on a DVD. If a DVD gets scratched, there's no guarantee that it will play (and different DVD players have different results). With a VHS, if part of the tape gets damaged, all you have to do is cut out the small damaged portion, reattach the two ends back together with scotch tape, and voila, it works as good as new, albeit with like two seconds missing that you're not going to care about.

Believe it or not, I have had a DVD player eat up a DVD before. The disk literally shattered inside the player. The difference between an eaten-up DVD and an eaten-up VHS? Two big differences:

1. Cleaning up the player. With a VHS stuck in the VCR, all you have to do is unplug it (to prevent electrocution), and stick a butter knife into the VCR to lift the tape over the rollers, so you can slide it out. With a DVD that was eaten up by a DVD player, you actually have to take the dang thing apart and physically remove all the pieces. It would probably be easier to buy a whole new DVD player at that point.

2. Fixing the movie. Like I said, eaten-up VHS? Easily fixed. Eaten-up DVD? That thing is never gonna play again.

Plus, all VHS tapes work in all VCRs. But there are different kinds of DVD's. You can't imagine how many times I've tried to play a DVD. In my player, only to realize that the disk is a DVD+R, while my player will only play DVD-R. And I can't always figure out what kind of DVD player I'm getting. Whether it's a DVD+R player, a DVD-R player, or a player that plays both formats, and it's frustrating. I know most DVDs use the DVD-R format, but I have come across a few DVD+Rs before, believe me.

And about quality? Well, quite frankly, in most cases, I don't care about the quality. I can't even tell the difference unless I watch the two different qualities side-by-side. Yes, there's the occasional static, but I don't care. I grew up with that stuff. I like the humming noise the VHS makes. I like occasional static. Without it, it feels like something is missing. And, I hate to say it, but I think VHS has better sound quality, but that's a story for another day.

No, I think VHS is, and always will be, the best way to watch a movie at home.

A couple of obscure and forgotten ones...


Capacitance Electronic Disc


Video High Density


D-VHS

True, but SVCD could render picture quality almost equal to DVD. However, they could only hold about 45 minutes of video....

Betamax MUCH better pic quality than VHS