Heya!!! While I am a newcommer to the VHD format, I find it very cool and vaporwave-esque in a certain way. I have a somewhat small collection of VHD titles... some play great others skip, crackle and f**k up quite badly.......BUT... I've discovered a silver lining to this....

The more I play a disc, the better the playback and the less f**k ups happen. I had a disc that was so bad it was horrendous.... Side 1 has almost nothing wrong anymore....

Has anyone notice this as well?

Yeah I noticed the same thing too after like 3 or 4 plays one disc that had mild skipping played almost perfectly. Even playing one that skipped really bad for the second time it was a little better. I should test it out some more.

Playing a record cleans out the groove. This is the exact same phenomenon.

So the general lesson is:
Don't only collect them, play them.
I like that.

A Stradivarius doesn’t sound like a Stradivarius unless it’s regularly played. A mint condition never played Stradivarius (which people do have) doesn’t even sound correct.

Same is true of video games, cars, VHD, almost everything. You cannot have your cake and eat it too. If you use it the thing will wear out but if you never use it it’s already garbage.

There is no remainder in the mathematics of infinity, as they say. You can’t beat the laws of thermodynamics.

I'm with you...except for video games? Maybe carts that never have voltage pass through them will deteriorate faster (..?) but games on disc it wouldn't matter.

I think Zeta moreso means that actually using the system is good for it. Which, I would agree. My mom would always say nothing was worse for a sewing machine than if it sat unused.

My point is that “All creature will die and all the things will be broken. That's the law of samurai." It’s not use it or lose it…it’s use it now or nobody will ever use it because it WILL be gone some day.

Do you want your Sega Saturn to obviously die while you’re playing it or silently by itself in the box it was being stored in? It’s going to die either way.

Live now. That is my message.

With Stradivari specifically…the character of the finished wood seals itself away from lack of playing. The instrument has to be kept exercised to be able to make the most full sound. Electronics are somewhat like that. Discharged caps seem to fail sooner than ones that get used, for example. Also the hard grease that gums up certain LD players…it wouldn’t happen if it got played every day.

Got more discs and this trick does work. Though I am confused that when fast forwarding the video gets distorted but playing in regular speed is perfectly fine. Maybe the stylus just needs replacing and luckily I have an extra one.

Update even watching them makes the fast forward cleaner.

Just started watching my first VHD disc, The Third Man, and its going to improve the more I play this edition.

That’s a good one for repeat viewing for sure. It welcomes analysis.

My VHD copy of A Bridge Too Far has no skips whatsoever on only its first viewing.

Man I think that is actually the most quotable movie of my youth. More than the Arnie flicks, Aliens, or Robocop.

"We haven't the proper facilities to take you all prisoner! Sorry!"

The Thing (1982) skipped half an hour into it's first side, but will be getting better the more I view it. The cropping adds to the claustrophobia of the film, and it's become one of my favorite editions of the film.

Do you see flying white dots during playback, especially visible on a black background?