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Jul. 20th, 2016 06:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
psipsyIn the course of my cleaning up, I reminded myself that I had about 500ish VHS tapes, of which about 100ish were anime tapes that I bought at various conventions. The other 400ish were bought as blanks and I then proceeded to record various things onto them, such as fansubbed anime and various cartoons. At the time, I was largely unaware such consumption would eventually come back to haunt me.
Consider that VHS tapes take up an amazingly large amount of space compared to DVD/BD. When DVDs first started coming out, the space savings was immediately noticeable, and the ThinPaks that came later made the difference even greater (an attribute not lost on retailers). The difference in video quality, and the addition of selectable menus only weighed more in DVD's favor.
And then there are the computer video files. An .avi file from 10 years ago of comparable resolution was sized to fit 3-4 episodes on a standard CD-R, so 175MB to 233MB. For the sake of simplicity, I'll say 250MB per half hour, or 2 hours per 1GB. Recorded at SP speed, a T-120 tape also held 4 episodes. So, 1GB of file space per tape. Remember when I said I had about 500ish video tapes? Assuming an average of 2 hours, that comes out to 500GB. I can get a 500GB hard drive for less than $50. If I throw in a few more pesos I can get a 1TB drive. If I need 4TB, those can be had for well under $200, and it would still cost less than the original MSRP of the entire VHS set of Neon Genesis Evangelion, at $30 per 2-episode tape.
Well, time has not been kind to many of these tapes. For many of them, getting rid of them is the only option left. It's mostly plastic, right? That can be recycled, right? I contacted the county solid waste authority about whether they can be recycled, or tossed, or if they need special handling because of the Mylar tape and the various metals used to give the tape its magnetic magic. It is well known that video tapes were not designed with an environmentally friendly end-of-life in mind.
"We don't have a way of recycling them so just put them with your regular trash." I'd like to point out now that trash in this county goes to an incinerator and not a landfill. And each tape weighs a little under half a pound, or about 200 grams. The outer shell and spools are recyclable plastic, the tape itself is not. While it's nice to know I have the option of simply tossing them, I would prefer to find a reasonable method of recycling them. (A method that doesn't involve driving hundreds of miles or spending substantial money for disposal.)
Sidestory: When I go to throw something into the recycling dumpsters, I'll often look in, usually to make sure that whatever I throw in isn't going to spill right back out, and also for morbid curiosity about what other people consider to be recyclable. One time I looked into the plastic/glass/metal dumpster and found someone (possibly the local adult video store, judging by the titles) threw out a considerable number of VHS tapes.
Anyway.
Then I thought deeper about it. During the 1990s, I mindlessly bought oodles of blank tapes, and mindlessly copied anime onto them, mindlessly recorded weekday and Saturday-morning cartoons onto them, running my VCRs non-stop. For whatever reason, I didn't watch much of it. And now I'm looking to get rid of most of them.
Memories are kinda like that. Think about all the memories and experiences we feel are worth documenting, that are worth saving and making a note of, that are worth sharing with others. Making sure those memories can last. Then think about everything that we remember that we don't save or share, and how that will disappear the instant we pass away. Of the thoughts and memories we generate in a lifetime, only a fraction of the total are going to be preserved, the rest follow us to the grave. Likewise, of the many tapes I've recorded and copied, only a handful will be kept with the chance of ever being watched.
There are a few things I'll miss about VHS. I'll miss the organic mechanical whirring of a tape being loaded. I'll miss the analog feel of the whole experience. I'll miss the cameraderie that came with the adventures in finding new anime and watching it with friends. I remember the novelty of time-shifting, and how I could record something for watching later instead of needing to be at the TV when a show was on. But that's about it. That's the limit of my nostalgia. There's a lot I won't miss. I won't miss the necessity of copying in real-time, I won't miss the "sub vs. dub" wars, I won't miss having to fast-forward or rewind to get to specific episodes, I won't miss how much room they take up. (Guess which takes less room, 500 tapes, or a 500GB hard drive? And guess which is faster and easier to copy?) I won't miss how copying a tape meant some loss of quality, and how for some shows, the picture degraded enough that it was borderline unwatchable. I won't miss how cantankerous VCRs themselves could get. I definitely won't miss how much anime tapes cost.
That said, I suppose some memories are meant to go to the grave.
Consider that VHS tapes take up an amazingly large amount of space compared to DVD/BD. When DVDs first started coming out, the space savings was immediately noticeable, and the ThinPaks that came later made the difference even greater (an attribute not lost on retailers). The difference in video quality, and the addition of selectable menus only weighed more in DVD's favor.
And then there are the computer video files. An .avi file from 10 years ago of comparable resolution was sized to fit 3-4 episodes on a standard CD-R, so 175MB to 233MB. For the sake of simplicity, I'll say 250MB per half hour, or 2 hours per 1GB. Recorded at SP speed, a T-120 tape also held 4 episodes. So, 1GB of file space per tape. Remember when I said I had about 500ish video tapes? Assuming an average of 2 hours, that comes out to 500GB. I can get a 500GB hard drive for less than $50. If I throw in a few more pesos I can get a 1TB drive. If I need 4TB, those can be had for well under $200, and it would still cost less than the original MSRP of the entire VHS set of Neon Genesis Evangelion, at $30 per 2-episode tape.
Well, time has not been kind to many of these tapes. For many of them, getting rid of them is the only option left. It's mostly plastic, right? That can be recycled, right? I contacted the county solid waste authority about whether they can be recycled, or tossed, or if they need special handling because of the Mylar tape and the various metals used to give the tape its magnetic magic. It is well known that video tapes were not designed with an environmentally friendly end-of-life in mind.
"We don't have a way of recycling them so just put them with your regular trash." I'd like to point out now that trash in this county goes to an incinerator and not a landfill. And each tape weighs a little under half a pound, or about 200 grams. The outer shell and spools are recyclable plastic, the tape itself is not. While it's nice to know I have the option of simply tossing them, I would prefer to find a reasonable method of recycling them. (A method that doesn't involve driving hundreds of miles or spending substantial money for disposal.)
Sidestory: When I go to throw something into the recycling dumpsters, I'll often look in, usually to make sure that whatever I throw in isn't going to spill right back out, and also for morbid curiosity about what other people consider to be recyclable. One time I looked into the plastic/glass/metal dumpster and found someone (possibly the local adult video store, judging by the titles) threw out a considerable number of VHS tapes.
Anyway.
Then I thought deeper about it. During the 1990s, I mindlessly bought oodles of blank tapes, and mindlessly copied anime onto them, mindlessly recorded weekday and Saturday-morning cartoons onto them, running my VCRs non-stop. For whatever reason, I didn't watch much of it. And now I'm looking to get rid of most of them.
Memories are kinda like that. Think about all the memories and experiences we feel are worth documenting, that are worth saving and making a note of, that are worth sharing with others. Making sure those memories can last. Then think about everything that we remember that we don't save or share, and how that will disappear the instant we pass away. Of the thoughts and memories we generate in a lifetime, only a fraction of the total are going to be preserved, the rest follow us to the grave. Likewise, of the many tapes I've recorded and copied, only a handful will be kept with the chance of ever being watched.
There are a few things I'll miss about VHS. I'll miss the organic mechanical whirring of a tape being loaded. I'll miss the analog feel of the whole experience. I'll miss the cameraderie that came with the adventures in finding new anime and watching it with friends. I remember the novelty of time-shifting, and how I could record something for watching later instead of needing to be at the TV when a show was on. But that's about it. That's the limit of my nostalgia. There's a lot I won't miss. I won't miss the necessity of copying in real-time, I won't miss the "sub vs. dub" wars, I won't miss having to fast-forward or rewind to get to specific episodes, I won't miss how much room they take up. (Guess which takes less room, 500 tapes, or a 500GB hard drive? And guess which is faster and easier to copy?) I won't miss how copying a tape meant some loss of quality, and how for some shows, the picture degraded enough that it was borderline unwatchable. I won't miss how cantankerous VCRs themselves could get. I definitely won't miss how much anime tapes cost.
That said, I suppose some memories are meant to go to the grave.
