With the popularity of streaming video, Presto, Netflix etc. Video libraries are closing down.
First it was Beta that bit the dust. Next V.H.S. titles were removed from the shelves in favour of D.V.D.'s.

Now our local Video library has closed down. We joined another, a couple of kilometers away, and one week later, we get a S.M.S. from the new library saying that they are going to close down.

With what is being shown on TV being absolute crap, we watch a lot of D.V.D.'s. Fortunately our council library has a large selection of D.V.D.'s, and D.V.D.'s can be bought cheaply at local markets.

By the way, I still use VHS for time shifting, and then just cue through the ads.

Wayne.

Beta never bit the dust , or at least it would not have if Sony didn't get too greedy with licencing terms for the format - I still have more than 200 Betamax tapes that I am yet to find a way of converting to a digital file. There's restored and refurbished Beta machines (Sony, Sanyo and Toshiba) available on Ebay but they are just a tad out of my price range for something I will most likely only use to copy material and then throw on the next council clean-up pile.

What I do hope though, is that I can get hold of a Betamax VCR before the oxide on the tapes finally does disintegrate. Fortunately the tapes are in a good storage location, in their boxes and kept in metal drawers - similar to old library catalogue drawers.

Most of the large chains of video libraries plus, I would say, all of the smaller independent ones are gone now. Civic and Blockbuster have still got stores but yep, their days are definitely numbered.

With regard to the replacement for VCRs, I've never bothered signing up to Netflix, Stan or Presto and don't even have Foxtel or Optus pay TV. Going by my own tastes in programming, with the exception of being able to watch footy in winter and cricket in summer, most of what is on every TV service on the planet is crap.

Over the years I've been fortunate to have been able to acquire the box sets of many of the programmes I watched as a kid. Mash, Prisoner, The Dukes of Hazzard, Knight Rider, The Bill and The A Team and Get Smart to name some.

but they are just a tad out of my price range for something I will most likely only use to copy material and then throw on the next council clean-up pile.

If Betamax machines are still attracting interest, then you could buy, convert your tape library and re-sell the machine.

I have a large library of DVDs -- many US region. I was concerned that Blu-Ray would dry up the supply of multi-region DVD players, but so far, so good. They are still widely available for $30.

To be honest I don't think the sales of those machines are big. The two most frequent sellers often post the same pictures in their sales and claim they are of the machine being sold so resale value wouldn't be high.

Years ago, before the Net became mainstream I remember Betamax machines going for less than $100 in the Trading Postand often they'd get relegated to the Bargains Bazaar column with a price limit of $20.

Here's a VIC guy who refurbishes them:

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/181848354414

He's one of the chaps I spoke about. I think the other is called Betacord, naming himself after Sanyo's models. He's over in the West. They are both expensive though and to make matters worse, I need a stereo machine, such as the Sony C40, which is what I recorded most of the stuff I have on.

Many of the tapes have western movies and I've been able to get many of them on disc but some aren't released and probably never will be. One I need is Last Ride of the Dalton Gang with Jack Palance.

"Beatheaven's" eBay ad that I linked to says: Rowville, Victoria, Australia, and $10 extra postage to WA.

Stereo could be more expensive, I guess.

Here's your DVD:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Last-Ride-Dalton-Gang/dp/B0000EMYMI

... if you have one of these:

http://www.thegoodguys.com.au/gva-dvd-player-multi-zone-hdr-7500t

I hacked my DVD player to play all six regions so that is no problem. The price for a new disc may be though. I will have a hard look later and see if I can beat $73.00. The last disc I bought off Amazon was Backlash (Richard Widmark and Harry Morgan) and it was about $20 though it was about the same price at JB HiFi about two weeks after it was delivered. I bought that copy too, just in case my disc player eventually carks it and the replacement would only play Region 4 discs.

The original discussion of video formats brings me to the wars that have taken place between competing manufacturers. The first battle was between Betamax and VHS, with the Philips V2000 format being in a distant third place, closely followed by Super Betamax and Super VHS. Then along came the camera war between Video8 and VHSC. Then along came LaserDisc which was squashed by DVD some years later. Then along came HD-DVD and Bluray. A lot of money was wasted and a lot of useless machinery ended up dumped on council cleanup piles and rubbish tips.

The current battle between MP4 and OGV won't amount much to wasted money and further damage to the planet as the common denominator, the humble computer, can support both formats with the correct software installed however what it does prove is that the lessons of the past have not been learned. It is also inconvenient for webmasters that host video files on their sites because most web browsers natively support MP4 but one (apparently) only supports OGV for political reasons so both video formats have to be hosted. Again, lessons not learned which means some battles have been won or lost but the war started around 1972 continues to this day.

With rare movies, I have taken the risk of buying 2nd hand DVDs from USA and so far no problem. The sellers with 100% feedback usually go the extra mile to ensure that their descriptions of disc condition are accurate and reliable.

It's probably worth the risk in that case as minor marks should not block the ability of the laser to read the disc. It's incredible how they work and indeed incredible that the discs and the players can be made so cheaply when things like the width of the tracks on the disc and the ability of such tiny stepper motors keep in line with them are considered.

Error tolerance and correction with recorded media these days is a fine art.

Thinking about recorded DVDs, I have to say that the few I have had real problems with were brand new ones.

If you look around you can find some excellent S-VHS machines for archiving old movies: I thought S-VHS would eliminate the unfortunate re-encoding of separate Chroma & Luma on tape to composite video -- then feed the S-VHS component signal into my Plextor Convertex unit for digital authoring. Results were good.

Who knows if the studios mastered VHS releases using a component video stream into custom master machine for a video quality edge?

I have made a good transfer of "On our Selection"(Aus 1920 silent) (filmed in Baulkham Hills) with Majestic Theatre pipe organ accompaniment.