Recording vs Buying In the 90's/2000's

[sangofe]

You were able to get English fansubs? I was under the impression that most of those were sold in the US. The NTSC/PAL difference probably didn't help matters either. How were you able to acquire them?

Well, internet existed and so did international shipping.

I just got a VHS player that played ntsc tapes, plus secam and pal players played ntsc in black and white to watch the tapes.

[Danfun64]

Do you remember what groups you got the most from?

[sangofe]

Do you remember what groups you got the most from?

Ctenosaur video sent me a+ tapes directly of stuff they subbed.
Then I got some anime labs and random groups. I didn't get a lot on tapes. Some z movies, dB movie 4, gt 1-12 and some random dbz eps.

I got a lot more VHS rips in rm and divx. And dvdr.

[Hellspawn28]

You were able to get English fansubs? I was under the impression that most of those were sold in the US. The NTSC/PAL difference probably didn't help matters either. How were you able to acquire them?

People got their fansub tapes from fee markets, some comic book shops, hobby shops, and at Conventions. You even had websites back then that would sell them and ship out to you. I would get mine at stores that would sell Japanese imported items, and they were very good common when I was growing up. They barely exist now thanks to Amazon and Ebay.

[Robo4900]

You were able to get English fansubs? I was under the impression that most of those were sold in the US. The NTSC/PAL difference probably didn't help matters either. How were you able to acquire them?

If you're interested in this stuff, you may find this video interesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-QuIbLqNNw
It's a guy called Beej who used to sell fansub video CDs to people way back in the day talking about his old website, his process for selling the CDs, etc. Apparently once upon a time he was actually quite a big deal in the anime scene because of how many CD orders he used to fill out.

[MCDaveG]

I was recording it from TV on Extended Play format on VHS, so I have got the whole GT on one VHS... Well, the quality was watchable
Later in early 2000's I was downloading RM trough Kazaa, mostly OG DB in english as I understood it well in comparison to the German dub.
I remember being shocked by the US dub of Z as I have saw it on CN late at night on cable TV and later some snippets on the internet.
That was really something surreal, as the whole Europe had basically the edited French version with Kikuchi score.
These were the openings of my childhood: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQ9qmq630X4 and of course! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKtUYiAWZOg It ran on prime time right after my parents finished watching News.

And nowadays, stream services and importing, as Czech Republic is probably one of the few countries, where Dragon Ball never went except for brief airing of Dragon Ball GT at night on now discontinued Animax.

[sailorspazz]

I recorded as many as possible so I could rewatch them as much as I pleased (if I happened to be watching while recording, I'd stop and start it to cut out commercials so I could fit more on each tape). Then once the DVDs started coming out, I started purchasing those since I wanted to watch it in Japanese. Though I was also recording the raw Japanese episodes from the International Channel starting from somewhere in the Cell arc, all the way through the end of GT. I still have most of those tapes, though I haven't touched them in years, so who knows if they still work

[JustAlex1997]

I recorded as many as possible so I could rewatch them as much as I pleased (if I happened to be watching while recording, I'd stop and start it to cut out commercials so I could fit more on each tape). Then once the DVDs started coming out, I started purchasing those since I wanted to watch it in Japanese. Though I was also recording the raw Japanese episodes from the International Channel starting from somewhere in the Cell arc, all the way through the end of GT. I still have most of those tapes, though I haven't touched them in years, so who knows if they still work

No reason to assume they won't. It's watching/rewinding that damages VHS tapes, so I'm willing to bet that some minor static is the worst they'd have if you haven't touched them in years.

[Planetnamek]

I recorded as many as possible so I could rewatch them as much as I pleased (if I happened to be watching while recording, I'd stop and start it to cut out commercials so I could fit more on each tape). Then once the DVDs started coming out, I started purchasing those since I wanted to watch it in Japanese. Though I was also recording the raw Japanese episodes from the International Channel starting from somewhere in the Cell arc, all the way through the end of GT. I still have most of those tapes, though I haven't touched them in years, so who knows if they still work

No reason to assume they won't. It's watching/rewinding that damages VHS tapes, so I'm willing to bet that some minor static is the worst they'd have if you haven't touched them in years.

Tapes can become damaged without being played if they are stored improperly.

[dougo13]

I recorded as many as possible so I could rewatch them as much as I pleased (if I happened to be watching while recording, I'd stop and start it to cut out commercials so I could fit more on each tape). Then once the DVDs started coming out, I started purchasing those since I wanted to watch it in Japanese. Though I was also recording the raw Japanese episodes from the International Channel starting from somewhere in the Cell arc, all the way through the end of GT. I still have most of those tapes, though I haven't touched them in years, so who knows if they still work

Those could be very valuable to the fan scene if they were from the original broadcasts and recorded on a hifi recorder. Yes, the International Channel broadcast a lot of interesting stuff. It was great if you had a dish and was watching it directly from Japan. But I don't miss not having satellite equipment anymore. It could be great at times and very finicky other times. I did like how you were able to rip the contents of the hard drive at one time. But later, after they encrypted everything, it was impossible.

[samuraix123]

I recorded as many as possible so I could rewatch them as much as I pleased (if I happened to be watching while recording, I'd stop and start it to cut out commercials so I could fit more on each tape). Then once the DVDs started coming out, I started purchasing those since I wanted to watch it in Japanese. Though I was also recording the raw Japanese episodes from the International Channel starting from somewhere in the Cell arc, all the way through the end of GT. I still have most of those tapes, though I haven't touched them in years, so who knows if they still work

Those could be very valuable to the fan scene if they were from the original broadcasts and recorded on a hifi recorder. Yes, the International Channel broadcast a lot of interesting stuff. It was great if you had a dish and was watching it directly from Japan. But I don't miss not having satellite equipment anymore. It could be great at times and very finicky other times. I did like how you were able to rip the contents of the hard drive at one time. But later, after they encrypted everything, it was impossible.

I remember my Uncle had Satellite and it was almost always out because were we live in the mountain areas, if it rained ANY! it was gone. haha

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

I recorded as many as possible so I could rewatch them as much as I pleased (if I happened to be watching while recording, I'd stop and start it to cut out commercials so I could fit more on each tape). Then once the DVDs started coming out, I started purchasing those since I wanted to watch it in Japanese. Though I was also recording the raw Japanese episodes from the International Channel starting from somewhere in the Cell arc, all the way through the end of GT. I still have most of those tapes, though I haven't touched them in years, so who knows if they still work

Those could be very valuable to the fan scene if they were from the original broadcasts and recorded on a hifi recorder. Yes, the International Channel broadcast a lot of interesting stuff. It was great if you had a dish and was watching it directly from Japan. But I don't miss not having satellite equipment anymore. It could be great at times and very finicky other times. I did like how you were able to rip the contents of the hard drive at one time. But later, after they encrypted everything, it was impossible.

I remember my Uncle had Satellite and it was almost always out because were we live in the mountain areas, if it rained ANY! it was gone. haha

My family had DirecTV many moons ago when i was a little kid and it was a similar story, basically any time large downpours of rain or strong winds happened the signal would constantly drop in and out so any and all VHS recording was done only when there was no adverse weather conditions that would interfere with the dish. Needless to say, much later after we'd moved a time or two we switched to cable and haven't looked back.

[ikaos]

I recorded the whole series manually (cutting out commercials) off of Toonami from the Ginyu episodes all the way up through the middle of Buu (sometime around Vegeto appearing I think). At one point they aired reruns of Saiyan/Namek and I got those too, as well as a tape full of early DB. I only owned a few DVDs once they started coming out mostly out of interest in the uncut Japanese version. Two things changed in 2003 for me. The first is that "season 6" of Z (the episodes after Vegeta blows himself up) were released on video first and appeared on stuff like Kazaa before airing on TV, so I was able to download them and thus had less reason to record the series. Second, crappy copies of the Dragon Boxes also appeared online and once I was able to procure those, I had little interest in the dub anymore.

It's unfortunate that I gave my tapes away at some point since I likely recorded things that are rare now, like NEPs, but at the time I wasn't thinking like a collector.

[dougo13]

I recorded as many as possible so I could rewatch them as much as I pleased (if I happened to be watching while recording, I'd stop and start it to cut out commercials so I could fit more on each tape). Then once the DVDs started coming out, I started purchasing those since I wanted to watch it in Japanese. Though I was also recording the raw Japanese episodes from the International Channel starting from somewhere in the Cell arc, all the way through the end of GT. I still have most of those tapes, though I haven't touched them in years, so who knows if they still work

Those could be very valuable to the fan scene if they were from the original broadcasts and recorded on a hifi recorder. Yes, the International Channel broadcast a lot of interesting stuff. It was great if you had a dish and was watching it directly from Japan. But I don't miss not having satellite equipment anymore. It could be great at times and very finicky other times. I did like how you were able to rip the contents of the hard drive at one time. But later, after they encrypted everything, it was impossible.

I remember my Uncle had Satellite and it was almost always out because were we live in the mountain areas, if it rained ANY! it was gone. haha

I remember getting wildfeeds of many shows using a 10 foot BUD (Big Ugly Dish) back in the old days. I recorded many shows that way like Babylon 5, Star Trek DS9 and Voyager, etc. The wildfeeds were neat as they did not have the commercials in them other than network ones, had the promos for the current as well as NEP, surround sound setup, etc. An interesting curio for sure. Later, I had small dishes for over a decade. I could never get the programming from the International channel as it was on a sat too low to be viewed in my area (at 61.5 degrees as I recall). But I recently acquired many tapes that may have been recorded from that service. too bad they aren't cataloged for the most part, requiring me to search through every last one of them. What a nightmare...

[samuraix123]

Those could be very valuable to the fan scene if they were from the original broadcasts and recorded on a hifi recorder. Yes, the International Channel broadcast a lot of interesting stuff. It was great if you had a dish and was watching it directly from Japan. But I don't miss not having satellite equipment anymore. It could be great at times and very finicky other times. I did like how you were able to rip the contents of the hard drive at one time. But later, after they encrypted everything, it was impossible.

I remember my Uncle had Satellite and it was almost always out because were we live in the mountain areas, if it rained ANY! it was gone. haha

I remember getting wildfeeds of many shows using a 10 foot BUD (Big Ugly Dish) back in the old days. I recorded many shows that way like Babylon 5, Star Trek DS9 and Voyager, etc. The wildfeeds were neat as they did not have the commercials in them other than network ones, had the promos for the current as well as NEP, surround sound setup, etc. An interesting curio for sure. Later, I had small dishes for over a decade. I could never get the programming from the International channel as it was on a sat too low to be viewed in my area (at 61.5 degrees as I recall). But I recently acquired many tapes that may have been recorded from that service. too bad they aren't cataloged for the most part, requiring me to search through every last one of them. What a nightmare...

Luckily for me anytime I recorded Toonami i always dated the air date including nowadays haha I don't know what made me do that either

[dougo13]

I remember my Uncle had Satellite and it was almost always out because were we live in the mountain areas, if it rained ANY! it was gone. haha

I remember getting wildfeeds of many shows using a 10 foot BUD (Big Ugly Dish) back in the old days. I recorded many shows that way like Babylon 5, Star Trek DS9 and Voyager, etc. The wildfeeds were neat as they did not have the commercials in them other than network ones, had the promos for the current as well as NEP, surround sound setup, etc. An interesting curio for sure. Later, I had small dishes for over a decade. I could never get the programming from the International channel as it was on a sat too low to be viewed in my area (at 61.5 degrees as I recall). But I recently acquired many tapes that may have been recorded from that service. too bad they aren't cataloged for the most part, requiring me to search through every last one of them. What a nightmare...

Luckily for me anytime I recorded Toonami i always dated the air date including nowadays haha I don't know what made me do that either

Yes, I did that for just about every tape I recorded myself from 1980 - 2000 (though I may not have done that when I was recording on 8mm). But I only catalogued a few hundred tapes out of the thousands I recorded or received in a database which can now only be read on an old XP computer! The anime tapes are a nightmare since they don't have dates on them, either the ones acquired through my contact(s) or else the ones I acquired recently in that big trade (about 600!).