Obscurities on VHS tapes

[Jawscvmcdia]

On some VHS tapes I had, I remember such weird things like a DTMF dialling tone at the start, test-cards or a white screen at the end. Does anyone else remember any weird experiences like this?

Topic

[genericnerdyusername]

I had a video of Billy Elliot which had some weird conversation going on in the background in the soundtrack throughout the film. Never have had that one explained to me, and I’m not one to work it out on my own.

[JamesTC]

Yep, on many BBC videos it would have a dialing tone at the start making a little tune.
Other obscurities on VHS? Well there was that weird pirate who made pirate videos using coal and a hot branding iron. They had that weird trailer were the guy got sold a pirate version of Trainspotting and the guy says he can’t understand the film and the pirate video seller uses the excuse that they are all Scottish and it is meant to be like that.

Good ol’ VHS.

[Jawscvmcdia]

This confused me, watch till the end of the video. That moaning sound at the end, what was that?

[Mr-Stabby]

>Other obscurities on VHS? Well there was that weird pirate who made pirate videos using coal and a hot branding iron.

Interestingly they still use that one on some DVDs. The UK DVDs of ‘House’ have that one at the end, even with the really old VHS titles in it. Bizarre.

I think the most obscure VHS oddity i’ve come across is buying an original series of Star Trek VHS tape set and discovering at the end of the three episodes that were on the tape an ENTIRE episode of Bagpuss. Explain that one away, ha. It was a brand new tape from a shop too, sealed and everything.

[p2p_productions]

A few shows that I’ve recorded onto VHS over the years have somehow retained a partial Pg.888/subtitle track. Never thought that was possible, either.

[Carlito]

Had Ghostbusters I and II on the same tape, and I seem to recall there was some kind of Looney Toons cartoon seperating the two features. Wasn’t advertised on the box, wasn’t relevant in any way to the movies… just bizarre.

[p2p_productions]

I remember, my Ghostbusters II VHS had a bonus Real Ghostbusters episode at the beginning, too.

[Nick R]

> A few shows that I?ve recorded onto VHS over the years have somehow retained a partial Pg.888/subtitle track. Never thought that was possible, either.

I thought only S-VHS tapes could retain teletext information? That was how the last few days of Digitiser were recovered.

[pfm]

> I had a video of Billy Elliot which had some weird conversation going on in the background in the soundtrack throughout the film. Never have had that one explained to me, and I?m not one to work it out on my own.

Aliens.

> This confused me, watch till the end of the video. That moaning sound at the end, what was that?

Aliens.

> I remember, my Ghostbusters II VHS had a bonus Real Ghostbusters episode at the beginning, too.

Fuck yes! Great cartoon. Real Ghostbusters was better than Ghostbusters II (apart from Janosh(sp lol) and when they start arguing with each other due to the slime, I used to love that as a kid when they go into the restaurant)

Btw I didn’t think this place could go as far as to discussing tones at the end of VHS videos. Actually that’s probably to do with the fact that it’s someone other than John bringing it up. It’s just not right.

[Pete Part Three]

My Ghost Busters/ Ghostbusters II tape had an old B+W episode of Batman in the middle.

[p2p_productions]

>I thought only S-VHS tapes could retain teletext information?

I know! Never could explain it until now. All I can say for sure is that the tapes were definitely not S-VHS. But according to that page, at least some of the Teletext signal can be retained, so thanks for posting!

“…unfortunately most domestic VHS recorders do not keep this information. You lose picture resolution when recording on VHS, including almost all of the Teletext signal. By all means have a go at viewing it, but you probably won’t get much more than the Teletext or Ceefax logo at the top of the screen. “

[Carlito]

> My Ghost Busters/ Ghostbusters II tape had an old B+W episode of Batman in the middle.

I stand corrected, so did mine. Definitely had a tape with a random cartoon inserted in the middle, can’t have been Ghostbusters though now you mention that.

[pfm]

I also had that double Ghostbusters video with Batman. I always used to speed through the Batman episode!

[JamesTC]

I think I had that video but I don’t know if it had a cartoon in the middle, might go and check if I still have it.

[ChrisM]

Ghostbusters was the last collection* I bought. (DVD not VHS though. ;) ) Not that great on extras overall, but the 2 Real Ghostbusters episodes included went a long way to compensate that. The guy providing the voice for Bill Murray’s character was poor though. I could see what he was going for, but it didn’t work.

*I typed ‘box-set’ originally, but looking at it, you couldn’t really class it as that being 2 disks in standard sized case.

[p2p_productions]

If memory serves, this was the episode featured on my old GB II VHS.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgZZIGv_XuY&fmt=18

[Carlito]

> The guy providing the voice for Bill Murray?s character was poor though.

That would probably be Lorenzo Music, a.k.a. the voice of Garfield in the cartoons. In a twist, Murray would later take on the voice of Garfield in the movies.

[Ben Paddon]

I have Volume 1 of The Real Ghostbusters on DVD. The pilot is rubbish, but the majority of the rest of the show seems to hold up really well. I like it.

[Pete Part Three]

>That would probably be Lorenzo Music, a.k.a. the voice of Garfield in the cartoons. In a twist, Murray would later take on the voice of Garfield in the movies.

The late, great Lorenzo Music was only the voice for the first two seasons. The second of the two eps on that DVD is from later in the show is when he had been replaced by Dave Coulier. I’d hope it’s the later one that Chris didn’t lile.

[PhilPagett]

> My Ghost Busters/ Ghostbusters II tape had an old B+W episode of Batman in the middle.

I had this as well. Got me hooked on B&W serials, did that. Ended up buying that Batman and Robin boxset.

[Andrew]

When I bought Speed on VHS, also included on the tape was a documentary, trailer and music video. Which, at the time, seemed a rare and impressive thing to be doing…

[p2p_productions]

>When I bought Speed on VHS, also included on the tape was a documentary, trailer and music video. Which, at the time, seemed a rare and impressive thing to be doing?

Funnily enough, they did something similar with Ghostbusters. For some reason, just as DVDs started to become popular, they re-released the VHS of the first film with almost all of the DVD extras tacked onto the end – including a doc that was only available with the two-disc boxset, released a few years later.

[Carlito]

I keep meaning to buy the Ghostbusters box set, it being my favourite film and all… but as I already have them both it’s never been an urgency. Maybe I’ll wait until the 3rd movie is released, there’s bound to be a trilogy boxset then.

[pfm]

Who else thinks the arms coming out of the chair and grabbing Dana is one of the scariest scenes ever? My mum always used to freak out at that but, as always, when you’re 9 not much phases you. The best bit is the chair going through the doorway and the door slamming. It leaves you with the horror of not knowing what happens to her behind there!

Btw the best line has to be ‘is this true?’ ‘yes, it’s true, this man has no dick.’

[Pete Part Three]

>I keep meaning to buy the Ghostbusters box set, it being my favourite film and all? but as I already have them both it?s never been an urgency

Keep it that way. Unless you want the two random episodes of the cartoon (which has since been treated to a DVD release), there’s more extras on the two single discs.

>Who else thinks the arms coming out of the chair and grabbing Dana is one of the scariest scenes ever?

That’s one of the best aspects of the film; the scary bits are directed as if they belong in a horror movie. Nowadays the intention would probably be to squeeze every last drop of humour out of them.

It’s only really Murray who’s taking this piss. Everyone else is playing it pretty straight.

>Btw the best line has to be ?is this true?? ?yes, it?s true, this man has no dick.

Nah.

(Plays random notes on piano) “They hate this”.

[p2p_productions]

>Who else thinks the arms coming out of the chair and grabbing Dana is one of the scariest scenes ever?
&
>That?s one of the best aspects of the film; the scary bits are directed as if they belong in a horror movie. Nowadays the intention would probably be to squeeze every last drop of humour out of them.

Totally agree. I remember once trying to convince one of my old Film Studies tutors how at it’s heart, Ghostbusters was really a Horror film. The only difference is that it just happens to be funnier than many other films of the genre.

The sequel is distinctly less Horror, and as a result is just not as unique or engaging to watch. Saying that, I always thought the ‘new’ concepts in GB II were great: Mood Slime, Slime Blowers, the River of Slime, etc. Vigo was great too, IMO.

Must say, I’m looking forward to the upcoming Video Game. And GB III, of course. Heard they might be filming as soon as the end of this year.

[Dave]

I love italics

[Pete Part Three]

Get Firefox. ’tis good.

[pfm]

I hope they’re going with the Hell idea that Aykroyd has had for years. It always sounded good to me. I think it was just one or two of them that were gonna get pulled into Hell originally but now it would be best if it was all of the old Ghostbusters and the new team have to save them, and humanity.

I would open it with the old Ghostbusters doing one last job, it going pretty wrong and them resigning themselves to the fact that they need to hand the reins over to a younger team. If they want Eliza Dushku then maybe make her Venkman’s daughter (they can easily explain away why he has a daughter her age when he didn’t have any kids in GB2, she just turned up on his doorstep at 12-years-old or something). Dana’s son Oscar would also be in it, played by Chris Pine, for instance. He’s always hated the Ghostbusters, especially Venkman who he’s pissed at for being a dick to his mom over the years. Of course, when Peter gets sucked into Hell he is first to step up to the plate to save him and the others.

Winston also has a hot daughter, played by Zoe Saldana, and Zachary Quinto plays Spengler jr. Oh, and if Steve Carrell isn’t in it it’ll be a fucking miracle.

[Somebody]

> I had a video of Billy Elliot which had some weird conversation going on in the background in the soundtrack throughout the film. Never have had that one explained to me, and I?m not one to work it out on my own.

Most likely? The manufacturer probably reused a tape without properly erasing it or somesuch (that happened in the days of VHS – if there was an overrun, or a batch of tapes was found to have not recorded properly for reasons other than the tapes themselves being faulty, they would just bung them back in the queue to be recorded over).

> I think the most obscure VHS oddity i?ve come across is buying an original series of Star Trek VHS tape set and discovering at the end of the three episodes that were on the tape an ENTIRE episode of Bagpuss. Explain that one away, ha. It was a brand new tape from a shop too, sealed and everything.

I suppose it would be the same thing again, with a Bagpuss tape being reused for Trek. I mean, there is really no legitimate reason why there would be a Bagpuss ep on a Trek tape, is there? Someone would sue someone else if it was intentional!

> That was how the last few days of Digitiser were recovered.

PS: Geocities is being killed off, so they may need to be rerecovered soon…

[Nakrophile]

VHS is the only way to watch some films.

[Dave]

>VHS is the only way to watch some films.

Those not out on DVD?

[Nakrophile]

No, films such as 80s action and blaxspoitation. Although I suppose shit DVD transfers are also acceptable.

I tell you, I remember watching Road House at a friend’s house a while ago on DVD and it looked great. I thought to myself, “what the fuck is this shit,” and had to watch my VHS copy as son as I got home to erase the memory.

[Pete Part Three]

Yes, inferior picture quality is brilliant.

[Nakrophile]

If the film is some sort of exploitation piece then yes it most definitely is.

[Author]

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