Am really curious what everyone does in this situation. When a season is released on DVD, what do you do with your VHS tapes? Do you keep them or get rid of them since the official DVD was released.

For instance the 1st season of Golden Girls was just released. Is it worth keeping the taped-off-the-air vhs version of the episodes? Does it depend on whether commercials are included or if its the first run, original station?

Originally posted by lizziandme
Am really curious what everyone does in this situation. When a season is released on DVD, what do you do with your VHS tapes? Do you keep them or get rid of them since the official DVD was released.

For instance the 1st season of Golden Girls was just released. Is it worth keeping the taped-off-the-air vhs version of the episodes? Does it depend on whether commercials are included or if its the first run, original station?



You would only keep the VHS versions of a show that was released on DVD if they were recorded during the show's original run with commercials which woud still make them TRADABLE. Other than that, it's best to just record over them. That's what I had to do when all the seasons of Sanford and Son was released on DVD. I recorded over all my TV LAND versions because they were no longer needed.

It depends on the show and the conditions. In the case of shows where the original music has been replaced (like Dawson's Creek and Roswell), I'm kind of holding on to my original tapes because they are different from the DVD release. For some reason I can't make myself part with any of my original Buffy or Angel tapes, even though I have all of both series on region 2 DVD - for the most part, the commercial DVDs don't include things like the "previously on" or "next week" or "we'll be right back" spots. On the flip side of that, I have no problem getting rid of my complete collection of X-Files off Fox, because the DVDs do tend to collect that stuff.

Any shows I recorded prior to 2000 (which means anything I recorded between 1978 and 2000), I'm also holding on to the tapes. I haven't removed commercials from my tapes since the early 1980s, so I've got all sorts of interesting commercials buried in my collection. (Since I started recording to DVD-R, I have started removing commercials since I can do it with precision without losing quality - but there are times I want to hold on to them!) I have this ridiculous idea of compiling all the Wendy's commercials featuring Dave Thomas at some point - probably when I'm 92, since I never even have the time to watch all my stuff let alone search through it for specific commercials. :> I'm also a chronic collector, and I have a hard time parting with stuff.

If I recorded something from a secondary source like TV Land or TNT or FX and a commercial release has come out, I'm inclined to dump the old tapes because they are original sources and may not match the original broadcast anyway. But most of my stuff is original broadcast, so I hold on to it for the moment.

It also might be good to keep the tapes if you want to compare them with the official releases and see exactly what scenes/music are edited out for syndication.