最后更新于2024年8月28日（星期三）20:47:47 GMT
The VHS tape was a thing of a magic that is alien in the world of on-dem和 media. 它代表了一种娱乐的承诺. A promise only realized when loading the tape into the player 和 pressing the play button. 每个视频周围都有一种兴奋的气氛, 和 you could never be entirely certain about what the video contained.
I was reminded of the mystique of the VCR just this month when I read about its final demise. Funai Electric, the last major manufacturer of VCR players, shut down production of 去年7月的VCR播放器. 这消息使我有点紧张. 录像机是我童年时代的固定设备.
I shared this sad news with my children Their initial reaction was a glassy eyed stare of incomprehension. My children are all under 10 so the idea of a media that isn’t streaming sounds archaic, 也没有追踪他们. 当然，他们理解玩家的概念. There is a Blu-Ray player collecting dust on the shelf above the TV. For them to consider that there was something before even that neolithic device, 它的祖先使用磁带媒体(不是, 不是胶带，我纠正了它们), 几乎惊天动地.
The VCR player, 和 its media, was so imperfect when compared to modern technology. It was fraught with limitations 和 distribution issues that are no longer a reality in the space of personal media. 它迫使实验和发现.
The biggest limitation of the video cassette compared to modern media is its physical existence. The video rental store always had a finite number of choices dictated by its size 和 inventory.
这种限制是VHS真正神奇的开始. Many beloved films of my youth were only discovered because everything else I wanted to watch was already rented.
If I had a nigh-infinite catalog of choices I never would have rented 巴卡鲁·班扎在第八维度的历险记. 那部电影是疯狂的80年代电影的一部疯狂的杰作. By the time the movie ends, love it or hate it, you are never exactly sure of what you just saw. To this day, I still consider it one of my favorite John Lithgow performances.
I doubt that a small slasher called *Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers *would have intrigued me in the face of much glitzier fare. 移动厕所的场景仍然困扰着我. I was drawn in by a box cover that I feel was one of the best of its genre. Pamela Springsteen st和s front 和 center with a dangerous expression on her face. Jason’s mask, Freddy’s glove, 和 Leatherface’s chainsaw all protruding from her backpack. 这样的电影怎么可能不令人惊叹呢?!?
The allure of great VHS box art was often enough to get into a potential customer’s head 和 guarantee a rental. After all, VHS box art 和 a marketing blurb on the back was all the detail you had. (Un)Fortunately, neither the art or the blurb could be trusted to be accurate. 看或租的每一部电影都是一场赌博.
就像真正的赌博一样，庄家总是赢. 租来的录像带通常会看到底. No one wanted to go back out to the video store in the middle of the night 和 rent another movie. Even if the film was pure trash, you watched it to the end because there was no other option.
音像店只是表面现象. There was an entire network of underground movies that couldn’t be rented or bought. If you wanted to watch one of these gems (actually they were usually trainwrecks) whose existence was only rumored, you had to get your cousin’s friend’s brother to make a tenth-h和 copy of the tape for you. These films had often been copied so many times that the picture was muddied 和 dull, giving them a grimy feel that rivaled even the best grindhouse film. My first introduction to Sam Raimi, 和 my personal hero Bill Campbell, came from one such tape. I can vividly remember the afternoon where I watched the travesty that was Evil Dead 2 – a film I love 和 quote to this day.
After the video store 和 the second h和 film was the “All Night Cable Recording”. Every neighborhood had at least one father who would put a fresh tape in the recorder on a regular basis, 打开有线电视, 让它录完整整6个小时的EP. My friend Tim 和 I would spend hours watching this 坏ly muddled recordings of movies – good, 坏, 或平淡. Each tape was a potential treasure trove of new entertainment.
围绕录像机的神秘并没有以神秘结束. The VHS tape also harbored the potential for mind scarring tragedy. Imagine this scenario: An important event like a wedding video, 重要体育赛事, 孩子的生日, 是被记录下来并放在一旁以备将来观看. Fast forward time to when someone really needs to tape something 和 isn’t pay attention, 他们拿起放在一边的带子. 那段珍贵的记忆已经消失了，但还没有人知道. It isn’t until sometime later when everyone gathers around to relive that memory, 和 somewhere in the middle of blowing c和les out on a birthday cake, 屏幕变得模糊, 和 the child party is replaced by the final episode of Family Ties (or worse). This risk scarred the public consciousness to the point that sitcom episodes were made about it, 如 《ladbrokes立博官网》十周年纪念特辑.
The closest my kids will come to this excitement is the r和om YouTube clip. The joy of discovery that the VHS tape offered doesn’t exist anymore. 几乎每一条媒体都被总结过, 详细检查的, 并在网络上大肆抨击. 技术总是向前发展的. The great technologies of today soon become the obsolete paper weights of tomorrow. 录像机有它的时代，它很神奇.
你最喜欢的VCR存储器是什么? 你在录像带的世界里发现了什么电影? 请在评论区告诉我们.
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