Wanna video?

[jducoeur]

So here we go -- one of the hardest parts of the move and divest process. It's time to get rid of the videotapes.

As most of you know, we've been accumulating videotapes for 20 years. It wasn't anything terribly organized -- we just followed a principle of, "Videotape is so cheap, we might as well keep it." So we simply kept everything that we timeshifted, and over those years, the tapes stacked up. At this point, we have around 1200 videotapes recorded off the air. And I can't come up with a good reason to keep more than a handful of them.

So -- we're about to start throwing them out. Before we do so, though, I wanted to make the offer to give them to anyone who wants them. It's an enormous collection, only modestly organized, and it's mostly EP quality recorded off the air -- not exactly HDTV. But it includes the complete runs of most good (and many bad) science fiction TV shows of the past two decades, and the better ones are recorded at SP. It also includes a couple thousand movies, ranging from the great to the truly awful.

I'll be frank: we're not willing to deal with delivering this stuff -- if you want something, you're going to have to come get it. But if there's something you're looking for (say, the complete DS9, or Nowhere Man, or even the original SP copies of Babylon 5), and are willing to come and take it off our hands, it's up for first come, first serve. Anything *not* requested in the next week or so is subject to getting chucked in the trash...

Comments

[elizabear.livejournal.com]

FYI, the freecycle lists also seem to be successful for ditching video tapes.

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

Should I get Bab 5?

[jducoeur]

Well, you're the first to ask, and I certainly recommend the series...

Ooh, ooh, me! me!

[rosinavs.livejournal.com]

I am probably interested in some of these tapes, which will probably get watched and then passed along or thrown out. I've never seen more than a few minutes of Bab5 and too many people keep telling me I should see it. I also did not have consistent watching of any of the recent scifi series, including TNG, DS9, Voyager, Battlestar Galactica, either of the Stargate series, and Dr. Who, which I never watched before the new series, but I love it! Oh, and I never watched any Firefly, but loved Serenity, so now I have to go back and watch it. Let me know if any of these are still up for grabs.

Re: Ooh, ooh, me! me!

[jducoeur]

Hmm. goldsquare may have dibs on the B5 stuff -- you may want to chat with him about that. (I personally think it's a series well worth watching, one of the best ever.)

We have most of the series you list (indeed, many of them in SP); I may spread them around a little, but let's see how that plays out...

Re: Ooh, ooh, me! me!

[jducoeur]

One additional note: the Stargates are a bit iffy. They're very tightly bound up with the Farscape collection, which lauradi7 called dibs on, and which are harder to obtain on DVD, so I think she's going to get most of those tapes...

[cellio]

If that includes tapes of Jeremiah season 2, let me know and I will find a local agent...somehow...to fetch them from you! (No luck so far on local copies.)

[jducoeur]

It does -- we'll need to dub those for our own use first, but the VHS will become available once that's done...

[cellio]

Thank you thank you thank you!

Give me a hint when dubbing your copies nears the top of your stack so I can round up a local to get those pesky tapes out of your hair for me.

[dreda.livejournal.com]

Is the Max Headroom among these? (And if so, why are you getting rid of it? ;) But I'd take it.)

[msmemory.livejournal.com]

We're dubbing Max off onto DVD first :) Jeremiah S2 as well :)

Other things, which we can easily replace with DVDs down at Newbery Comics, we're just tossing.

[jducoeur]

As msmemory says -- yep, they'll be available once I'm done dubbing them. Note that they're quite old, so the video quality is only so-so, but as far as I can tell they're impossible to get otherwise...

[corwyn-ap.livejournal.com]

Any chance you caught the complete run of _strange luck_?

[jducoeur]

'Fraid not -- I think we got the first episode or two, but that's it. Just didn't catch our attention...

[hungrytiger]

I'd be interested in the following, if you have them...
Eerie, Indiana
VR.5
Lois & Clark
Blake's 7
The Greatest American Hero

[jducoeur]

Don't have Eerie or Greatest American Hero. Do have VR.5 and some Blake's 7, although I'll probably need to dub my own copies before passing them on. We do have a good deal of Lois and Clark, which is available to give away...

[hungrytiger]

Well then, at some future point after you've dubbed them, I'd like to nab the tapes of VR.5 to see what the deal was (many friends have raved, but I missed it entirely).

If it's not a complete run, don't worry about the Blake's 7. Like VR.5 it's another show I never saw and from what I've heard I should just borrow a complete set from someone someday.

As for the Lois & Clark, I'd probably get a kick out of watching some of it, but it's also easily available on DVD, so if someone else grabs it first or I don't get there before the purge, no worries.

[jducoeur]

Been a long time, but I remember VR.5 as being kind of like Nowhere Man -- seems to be totally high concept and episodic at first, but gradually turns out to have a really interesting uber-plot developing in the background. Yet another series that I was really annoyed to have cancelled on me.

While Blake's 7 had a good deal of continuity, it predated Big Arc; individual episodes are often still worth seeing, if I recall correctly. It is *not* available on DVD in the US, AFAIK.

I believe you're the only person to call dibs on Lois and Clark, so that one you've got...