VHS train tapes?

[bob turner]

Should I dump them or find a train nut kid with a functioning cassette player?

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Depends on what they are and whether you have any interest or value them in any way - could get those you might actually look at converted to onto a DVD.

Take the rest to OSW and put them on a table "Free" and walk away.

[bob turner]

Is that something that is commercially available at a viable price? A lot of them are now available from Pentrex and others in DVD format. I can simply buy the new format and dump the inoperative VCR player.

But good plan - I really should get the Decathlon out and make a run to OSW. I love the drive, but not on a holiday weekend.

[HONDO74]

Several years back I had a combo VHS DVD player and recorder. I converted quite a few of my model train related VHS tapes to DVD until it stopped working. None of what I had was available on DVD. The transfer was good except the quality was no better than the original VHS tape.

I have had several 8mm movies we took years ago converted by a local outfit that does conversions. That was expensive. The outfit will do home made VHS tapes but not commercial made tapes.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Is that something that is commercially available at a viable price?

Costco does VHS, slides, and 8 mm film

[E7]

Should I dump them or find a train nut kid with a functioning cassette player?

Either find that kid or give them to Goodwill or the like. Unless there is something you gotta have and can't find on DVD fageddabout it.

Tape is a CRAP format compared to what is out there now.

How many 8 tracks do you have?

The ONLY way I would consider having one copied to disc is if there was something on it I REALLY wanted to preserve.

Record to CD sound can be improved a bit. Probably not so much video to disc.

The only things I have had put on disc were NOT available in a digital format other than that instance of DVD sound to CD.

Probably way more than you wanted to know.

Rich

[NJPiney]

A kid???????????? VHS?????????? Might do better at a nursing home. Most kids would look at a VHS tape the way I look at a chert arrowhead I picked up in a plowed field.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

A kid???????????? VHS?????????? Might do better at a nursing home. Most kids would look at a VHS tape the way I look at a chert arrowhead I picked up in a plowed field.

Good point!

[bob turner]

Kinda what I was thinking. Bite the bullet; get all my SP and UP train tapes on DVD.

I am having lousy luck with music CDs - almost worse than records when it starts to skip. My favorite Emmylou disc has a bad spot on my favorite song. I probably need better players.

Thanks. Trash can it is.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Kinda what I was thinking. Bite the bullet; get all my SP and UP train tapes on DVD.

There you go!

I am having lousy luck with music CDs - almost worse than records when it starts to skip. My favorite Emmylou disc has a bad spot on my favorite song. I probably need better players.

Try cleaning it. I have a Greg Lake Band Live CD that skipped terribly and wouldn't even play the one song; just wiped it clean a few times with a moist tissue and no problems playing since then.

[bob turner]

I wish that worked. I even have an official CD cleaning kit.

[De Bruin]

I still watch a lot of my VHS media, both music and railroads, specifically the material I cannot locate or has not been reissued on DVD or available as file on the net. I don't care, I just want to listen to it or look at and it still works fine.
CD's do go bad but I still still prefer them to any wave file, they're typically easy and cheap to replace via the internet.
I still have a sizable load of vinyl too, mostly stuff that has not been re-issued on CD or is in decent enough shape for me to want to keep it as it typically has better/fuller aural quality then cd's. I took care of my vinyl for the most part back then.

I have found that if your CD skips at a certain point in the play program, the culprit is often a clear plastic fragment, flash or "feather" from the edge of the disk or the gem case that attaches itself to the play surface, likewise the offending particle can be an organic/dust fragment(aka air booger) a not uncommon issue with skipping vinyl as well.

If you examine the surface around the approximate play area of disk where the error occurs you can usually find it and pick it off with your fingernail or a toothpick without damaging the play surface, and voila, if in examination though you find your cd surface is actually scratched obviously you're most likely hosed.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

I still have a sizable load of vinyl too, mostly stuff that has not been re-issued on CD or is in decent enough shape for me to want to keep it as it typically has better/fuller aural quality then cd's. I took care of my vinyl for the most part back then.

I have lot of vinyl as well, but I did convert a lot of it to mp3. I was a little harder on some than other, but then some I played a lot and have replaced those available with CD's, usually remastered and with quite a bit more music on them than the original vinyl.

[rogruth]

A kid???????????? VHS?????????? Might do better at a nursing home. Most kids would look at a VHS tape the way I look at a chert arrowhead I picked up in a plowed field.

Good point!

YES!

[E7]

A kid???????????? VHS?????????? Might do better at a nursing home. Most kids would look at a VHS tape the way I look at a chert arrowhead I picked up in a plowed field.

Good point!

YES!

All well and good, but this was Mr. Turner's statement:

Should I dump them or find a train nut kid with a functioning cassette player?

And most kids is NOT ALL KIDS.