37 replies to this topic

[S K Y F A L L]

I mean how long does one hold on too such treasures? I'm throwing out DN-TWINE, GE THE IAN FLEMMING STORY and SPYMAKER. I already have them all but 3 on DVD or BR anyway, don't know why I've held on to them so long. The last of my VHS and might as well get rid of the VHS player.

 

I'd like to give them a Bond like send off...

 

[Call Billy Bob]

Throw them off a cliff with a Union Jack parachute?

[AMC Hornet]

Give them a Steve Coogan sendoff and douse them in Sunny D.

[billy007]

Donate them to a library.

[Bryce (003)]

'Tis a sad moment when you have to let go of the "tape' - It's the way of tech. Went there myself in 2011.

 

Transferred my entire library.

 

Then went to doing cassettes and vinyl (which are STILL maintained) on hard drive.

 

Tech is hard to accept.

[Simon]

At the risk of showing myself to be completely out of touch, has DVD sell through effectively also been abandoned in the face of d/l and streaming?

 

I only ask as I was expecting there to have been by now Special Editions for both QoS and Sf.  Extras, bits and pieces.  I was lead to believe there had already been a talk track completed by Marc Forster, for example.

 

Anyway, good luck to the chap's VHS send off.  Chucking them over the snowy edge with a parachute sounds fitting enough.

[When In Egypt]

I sold my very large VHS collection in 1999 to buy a widescreen TV and a DVD player, and immediately started collecting DVDs from scratch.

 

Then, in 2008, I sold my very large DVD collection to buy a plasma TV and blu-ray player, and immediately started collecting blu-rays from scratch.

 

I now have more blu-rays than I ever had VHS or DVD, and I sure as hell ain't getting rid of this lot!  I'll be buying blu-rays until the announcement comes that no more blu-rays will ever be produced again.

[Bryce (003)]

Bought my first DVD player and retired my LD player in 1996. At the time, DN, FRWL, GF and TB were the only Bond I could find. When I bought the DVD player, the store was offering a two-for-one deal on what they had available. My first DVD purchase (as they had no Bond) were Bullit and Apocalypse Now. Still have them.

 

Low tech still rules and I've been making a quite (off the $ books) lucrative business of converting peoples VHS, LD, Vinyl, Cassette and Hi-8 to media files. Some are amazed when they see that my AV room. Clean, pristine and functioning hi-8 camcorder, turntable, VHS and SVHS decks and LD player and DVDR all with monitors and ready to go. I keep a laptop just for those to rip anything to DVD or CD or a stick or SD card. About 25 years ago, I took on the task of having all my Dad's super eight movies transferred to VHS and will soon be going onto the computer as either QT or WMV docs. My Dad was a camera guy going back to the 40's. Ten's of thousands pics. He was just on the verge of embracing digital before he passed. I like to think he'd appreciate that I'm still maintaining the old ways. To quote Kincaid from SF "Sometimes the old ways are the best."

[S K Y F A L L]

I almost forgot several of my VHSs are warn out anyway, mostly the Connery ones.

[Turn]

Although VHS is a relic these days, I have many fond memories. Such as my first player, actually a Beta, and taping the horribly edited-for-TV Bond films off the ABC

network. And just about everything that came on at the time.

 

Then way back in 1987 when the Bonds on the old CBS/Fox label became available for a bargain price of $19.95 each. Looking back now, it was probably tied into the big 25th anniversary celebration of the time. No bonus features, no booklets, no widescreen, just a box, and an uncut film with what seemed like a good picture and presentation at the time.

 

Then came the digitally remastered, then widescreen presentations and all that, giving way to what we have now and whatever the next step is. Still good stuff to look back on. 

[AMC Hornet]

Next? Could there be anything better still to come?

 

(I think I said that back in '89 too)

[Bryce (003)]

For whatever reason, I still keep my VHS Bond. It is a handsome set. As the years and tech have gone on, I still appreciate what I've held on to. One of these days, my first run SW toys are going to afford me a nice retirement package.

[larrythefatcat]

I've decided to only hold on to the first release DVDs of the Bond films (pre-"Special Edition") that are THX-branded (except for 'Goldeneye' which was given a THX-approved release on LD, but the logo doesn't appear on the DVD... *shrug*). That means the only Bond movies I have on DVD are 'Dr. No', 'From Russia With Love', 'Goldfinger', 'The Spy Who Loved Me', 'Moonraker' (unfortunately unplayable due to a well-known manufacturing defect that was common to some LaserDisc manufacturers and affects practically ALL copies of this release) and 'Goldeneye'.

 

I've been contemplating picking up the original (read: first) brushed-metal-covered "Special Edition" release of 'Tomorrow Never Dies', but I haven't felt motivated enough to hunt down a copy since it's EXACTLY the same as the later orange-covered "Special Edition" release.

 

In terms of more outdated technology, I have a few of the (official, non-bootleg) Hong Kong Video CDs (released by ERA) with burned-in Chinese subtitles and they're around VHS quality (and progressive at 24 [23.976] frames-per-second, which is a slight advantage over the VHS) while the two movies ('Thunderball' and 'Moonraker') I have from Hong Kong distributor Deltamac are pixellated (and at a stutter-inducing 30 [29.97] frames-per-second) which makes them slightly hard to watch, especially now that I have the Blu-ray discs. Even though the ERA discs are officially licensed by MGM/UA, I find it interesting to point out that there is a still from 'Licence to Kill' on the back of 'For Your Eyes Only' and (more interestingly due to the film's unofficial nature) a still from 'Never Say Never Again' on the back cover of 'You Only Live Twice' and that all of the releases (GF, YOLT, OHMSS, TSWLM, FYEO, TND) except for 'Goldeneye' (which is letterboxed at its original 2.35:1 ratio) are cropped to 4:3.

 

Going even further back into the annals of home video history, I remember a time when I was going to be some kind of retro-obsessed hipster and hunt down all of the CED/SelectaVision discs of DN-AVTAK, but now that I know how that technology works (they're basically movies on vinyl discs played with an electrical-signal-reading needle) I would only buy them for the cover art and would NEVER play them.

 

WHEW... I didn't think I was going to end up getting into that much detail!

Edited by larrythefatcat, 22 October 2014 - 05:28 PM.

[Krest]

Don't throw them! There is something kind nostalgic to them, even though you'll never watch them when you need your Bond-fix.  I've still got my Silver 25th Anniversary Set.  They still remind me of Christmas present wish lists as a kid!!

 

http://www.007homevi..._uk_silver.html

[freemo]

11 years ago I either threw my Bond VHSs away or put them in a box under the stairs. Can't remember which.

[S K Y F A L L]

I guess I don't have much storage space because every now and then when I seem to clean an area I come across this milk crate of 007 VHSs and just move it somewhere else. Xmas supplies under the stairs btw.

[New Digs]

Have so many memories if buying Bond on VHS. My favourite collection is the silver 25th Anniversary. The widescreen releases were amazing for their time. However, while I enjoyed collecting them, I don't miss the limitations of the format: PAL speedup; cropping; edited versions with missing scenes and overall poor picture quality compared with high definition formats of today.

[AMC Hornet]

I started collecting the Gold-topped MGM tapes in '89 ("The Connery/Moore Classics"). The others trickled in from CBS/Fox.

 

AVTAK - the last one I bought - was also the first to get mangled by my VHS machine. That was in 2004 - the year I broke down and bought the UE DVDs.

 

Two years ago, my son gave me a BR player for Christmas. I said "Dammit, now I'll have to get all the Bonds on BluRay." Then I opened his other present. What a fine, understanding lad.

 

Since he kept borrowing my UEs after his own BR broke down, I let him keep them.

 

I still have the MGM tapes - in a box with a lot of other VHS movies I've subsequently replaced. I missed my chance to sell them when they could have fetched $1 each, but I figure I'll hold onto them in case my BR machine craps out and I have a yearning to watch 007 before I replace it (which would probably be right away, since I can't watch BRs on my laptop).

[ggl]

I still have them.

 

I don't know why...

[Blofelds Cat]

I've not only kept my original 007 video's, I've also been buying as many international editions as I can find to publish on my website. Unlike DVD's and Blu-ray, the VHS releases from the majority of world territories utilised local sleeve design/key-art to varying degrees. My personal collection also includes sleeves from other formats: LaserDisc, CED, VHD, Video8, VCD/CDi, UMD, DIVX, DVD and Blu-ray (the latter two formats being visually boring in comparison to the pre-digital format sleevery). I'm not so much interested in the media itself, just the sleeves/packaging.

 

The foregoing aside, there was something 'magical' about VHS/Betamax when the home-video scene first got going (back in the day when a brand-new 'big-box' Warner Home Video black-sleeve Bond film would set one back AU$80). To actually own a packaged copy of one or more Bond films, to watch anytime, was quite the novelty. In these modern times, where consumer video is cheap and ubiquitous, there's not the same thrill in actually owning your own private copy of a favourite film.

 

I hope that the 4k thing takes off in 2016 following the promised late 2015 release of a 4k disc format; and that we see the 007 catalogue re-issued in true home 'cinema' resolution.

[Professor Pi]

When I threw out/recycled/sold most of my VHS tapes in an anti-hording mission, I made one exception:  I would keep all things related to Bond.  Tapes, DVDs, LDs, Blurays, books, vinyl, CDs, and video games are organized in a nice display on a "Bond bookshelf," as if in a museum.  Most of the video games I don't even have the consoles for anymore (Atari 5200, Nintendo 64, PS2, Wii.)  The last time I watched the Bond series through an entire medium was the single disc DVDs (didn't even watch all the Ultimate Editions before buying the Blurays and am only about 1/3 of the way through that!)  One day when I get a big enough house I'll have a Bond room displaying all the movie posters and with a bar serving martinis.  But until then it's stored safely away.

 

However, Bond himself would chuck all that tech in a heartbeat, usually in an explosive fashion!

[FlemingBond]

i've still got mine, but the way they're tucked away under my entertainment center i don't even see or think about them much.

[S K Y F A L L]

Maybe I should have got some fire works, gasoline and given them a graceful send off.

[AMC Hornet]

A New Orleans Dixie/Jazz funeral?

[sharpshooter]

I still have all 20 of my Bond VHS copies. Haven't watched any of them since at least 2002, but alas, they're still in my collection. 

[Bryce (003)]

Maybe I should have got some fire works, gasoline and given them a graceful send off.

 

Viking style. Find a river and set them all ablaze and drink a martini as they burn. Just a notion.

[thecasinoroyale]

I remember doing this, giving them to a charity shop. Such a sad moment - but paved the way for the DVDs and Blu-ray to follow.

 

RIP VHS.

[AMC Hornet]

RIP is what my VHS player did to AVTAK.

 

Bleedin' mangled it.

[Con Seannery]

Ditch the tapes, but for the love of christ keep the sleeves. ESPECIALLY if you have these...

 

http://www.007collec...romo-prints.jpg

[S K Y F A L L]

No I have the newer editions. I bought them separately so their not in the boxsets however they are in plastic cases so their in great condition besides several of the vhs being warn out.