From the vaults

[altariel]

Right. The bulk of what's lurking under the stairs is a vast pile of video cassettes, mostly stuff taped off air in the late 80s, early 90s. What the hell shall I do with them? I feel like I shouldn't be shoving video cassettes into the bin for landfill. (I'm umming and ahing over whether to keep the off-air copies of Blake's 7 from 1980 and 1981, which must be unplayable by now.) Any ideas? There's over 100.

I also have a large number of back issues of Starburst, going back to issue #1, and up to something like #180, if my memory serves me correctly. (I haven't pulled them out yet to check, will update when I have.) Back issues of Starburst are going for peanuts on eBay and frankly I can't be bothered with all the fuss. Any thoughts? Do you think a library would be interested? They're a bit musty.

I also have a box file of Horizon newsletters, again slightly musty (issues 18-30 from 1987-92, and also issues 38 and 39). Anyone want them? They're going in the bin otherwise. (Horizon is the Blake's 7 Appreciation Society: these are A4-sized magazines with a glossy cover.)

Comments

[raspberryfool.livejournal.com]

The tapes should be okay, it might be worth running a couple of FF - REW cycles. If they're humid, you can open the cassettes and air-dry them for a few days. Be careful with those video heads - they're very delicate.

You mean you have a recording of *that* BBC announcement?

I recently went through my old betamax tapes - no B7 but some ads and a 1991 play called 'Out of the Blue' with Colin Firth and Cath Zeta-Jones before they rose to mega-stardom which i'd kind of forgotten about. Old adverts can be fun too - you could spend *ages* watching those again!

There's always the option to archive anything special to DVD before disposal, again if you have the time, the kit and the patience. If you need a video capture card, I'd lend mine, but you'll need Win98 or ME as it doesn't work under XP.

If you had Horizon no. 40, i'd say 'yes' because i never received that one.
I was rather miffed about the way *ahem* treated the editing staff, and never bothered to renew my sub.

I hope you find good homes, it's a shame to throw stuff completely. Maybe someone who does a dealers' table at cons could help dispose of them.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Thanks for all this advice, much appreciated. It's been pretty humid here the last few days. I run Vista, so your card wouldn't work, but I really appreciate the offer.

I don't think I have a recording of *that* announcement, because my brother only started taping during the repeats of the third season episodes that were on before the fourth season. So it wasn't the original transmission of B7.

The bitter quarrel between viewers of B7 and viewers of Coronation Street was the reason my father got a VCR. My brother never fails to remind me that I backed the Corrie viewers (I was sucking up to my older sister).

I definitely won't throw the magazines, too much effort went into collecting them. But most of the taped stuff is available on DVD. I suppose things like adverts and continuity announcements are interesting.