Kitsch Magazine: Fall 2015

VHS versus
which is the greatest obsolete viewing experience??
by Yana Makuwa
Price: At their prime, VHSs were a very reasonably priced
product. You could buy a blockbuster film and have it in the
comfort of your home for a mere $15-$20 (Nate’s Dad, 2015).
And now with a particularly good quality and rare first edition
VHS, you have an anthropological artifact worth TENS of
dollars!
Availability: While DVDs may surpass VHS tapes in
availability in stores, the trusty analog antecedent has a leg
up when it comes to availability of content. During the years
when VHS was the only (or most popular) distribution method
for home video, Hollywood produced such gems as the first
Star Wars trilogy and The Shining (which actually did better in
VHS sales and rentals than at the box office). VHS gave people
access to the best of the best in the comfort of their home. And
now it both provides us with a piece of our cultural history, and
holds the repsonbility of being the final format for many great
films that were never transferred (see Listverse.com’s article
“Top 15 Movies You Can’t Find on DVD” for more!).
Video Quality: This may be an instance where one would
expect the VHS to fall short. The image quality that comes from
the process of magnetic tape recording is simply incapable of
the aggressively crisp high definition that we get from our
newest video technology. However, there is something to be
said for the texture and ethereal quality that comes from the
rich grain of an analog video experience. Being able to see
Richard Gere’s pores and eye-wrinkles on a digitally remastered
HD version of Pretty Woman cannot compare to the angelic
glow that the slightly blurred image gives his face on VHS.
The Middle Earth of The Return of The King on DVD practically
shouts fake CGI and set-design when compared with the
dreamlike quality of a distantly magical memory that it has in
The Fellowship of the Ring on VHS (The Lord of the Rings series
straddles the years when DVD overtook VHS, which explains
why I have the first on VHS and the last on DVD).
“Being able to see Richard
Gere’s pores and eye-wrinkles
on a digitally remastered HD
version of Pretty Woman
cannot compare to the angelic
glow that the slightly blurred
”
image gives his face on VHS.
User Interface: The popularization of DVD ruined
and cast into the realm of memory
the true home-video viewing
experience. Watching a VHS tape
is a physical experience with an
incredibly satisfying arc. First,
there’s the gratifying click when
you open the case (or swoosh if
you have the cheaper, cardboard
version). As you slide the tape
into the player the machinery
accepts it like a gift, and whirs
to life to bring you the film you
hand-picked. Where DVDs have
cold and distant digital dings
and jarring bright blue menu
screens, VHSs have warm colors
and comforting static. And at the
end of your movie, when all is said
and done, you get up and hit the
rewind button—a magical moment
of returning everything to the way
it was before. (BONUS: You get to
watch the movie twice! Once going
forward, and then again in reverse!)
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