Maybe people have said that VHS is purely nostalgia unlike laser-disc or 16 mm.

In essence VHS was made on magnetic tape and is generally ,with minor exceptions related to film transfers in color and sharpness, inferior to laser disc, DVD, blu-ray and standard recording/download/stream resolutions of today maybe with exception to 8mm.

However what is it that defines the warm, rich, tape quality that makes it more enjoyable as a format beyond worn out analog nostalgia, and the box design and cover art aesthetic?

What are the technicalities or tech specifics that make it unique, distinct and even better than the mentioned formats that draws beyond analog nostalgia and aesthetics.

The only things I remotely like about VHS these days are some of the exclusive big box art that some titles had like these:





And the fact that some titles aren't available on any other format (can't think of any at the moment.)

VHS Hi-Fi is also pretty good. Better than compact cassette sound definitely.

Never owned a real good cassettedeck with Type IV (metal) tapes?

VHS packaging in general was better than DVDs but I'm not a big fan of the US style flimsy cardboard slip cases presumably designed to be more 'green' and help save the planet. I'm very glad this style of packaging was not adopted in the UK as those US slip cases are often in terrible condition today when they turn up on places like Ebay. The big plastic box video tape covers were very cool and nearly always had unique and interesting artwork that was not recreated on subsequent DVD re-issues.

For me though the only reason to still buy VHS tapes today is for music videos or concerts that were not issued on laserdisc and have never been re-issued on DVD. Believe me there are lots out there if you take the trouble to track them down.....I've thousands!!

Love bigbox horror flicks. The only reason i still collect vhs

I remember try to sell some old VHS tapes at Half Price Books and the girl there didn't take them since they didn't come with the cover. But I took them again I think to a different one and they took them.

Clamshell is nice but on some of the Disney's releases the cases get yellowed and kinda nasty looking. I wish all VHS came in plastic cases rather than the cheap slipcover.

Cardboard big boxes were the best. They weren't used for many consumer releases though.

If one was in short need of rope for utilitarian purposes, one could always break into a VHS cassette and use the tape ribbon...........

The only possible advantage to me would be recorded TV broadcasts as I much rather record from TV to a VHS-tape than a DVD-recorder. However, a recorded VHS-tape cannot hold up to a good mpeg2-compression so technically VHS isn't the better way to go in this case.

Big box is pretty cool indeed but I don't find it necessary if the film is available on DVD or Laserdisc.

That's the thing tho. A lot of these VHS releases with the cool big box art aren't on LD or DVD or don't have that big box art on the LD or DVD.

I've seen a bunch of DIRT CHEAP Anime VHS lots on ebay, making them 10 to 25 cents each, unit price, in these lots...tempting, but VHS wears out, so I try to avoid them, unless someone has a lot of MIGHTY ORBOTS or something else we will NEVER EVER see in optic form.

many of the major Japanese mfrs. better grades of 80's era VHS blanks were damned beautiful works of art, YMMV...

we used to have 2 of those maxell gold tapes, my father bought them new back in the day.
all i know is that i copied the home movies to DVD and then tossed them
felt very good about getting rid of them i could never stand VHS ever

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The only true advantage VHS had over other formats IMHO is that they made much better paperweights. Laserdiscs were just too large, DVD/blu-rays are just not heavy enough. VHS,... perfect size and weight.

I agree completely.
These a my small collection.

Front 242, skinny puppy and Laibach..you have my full attention.

Thanks for sharing

Does VHS have any real advantages that hold up today?

No, other than being the only source thus necessary by default.

Elvis

Wow nice industrial collection. . I want to steal that skinny puppy video collection and the throbbing gristle VHS as wll

While advantages of the VHS are little to none compared to modern formats ( which the exception of a minority of worse digital transfers, or parts of transfers, that reflect pixels, bad color or worse picture which aren't as evident or non-existent in the VHS version)

however inferior VHS truly is to ALL formats, the reason of the analog organic feel even though worse than LD organic quality is the main reason beyond the vintage crave and the appealing physicality and artwork found on the format.

Its that same reason that I had in 2001 which made me crave renting VHS even I had mostly moved on and was renting and buying Dvds.

I wouldn't say VHS is inferior to ALL formats. I'd take VHS over Phonovision or PXL-2000

I'd take VHS over CED.