Re:Japan Will Make Its Last VCR This Month
by k-mcgrady on Wednesday July 20, 2016 @05:37PM
(#12132723)
A big assumption here is that the throwback to these old mediums is quality or artefacts but, with vinyl at least, I think that's largely wrong. Most of the arguments I see for it is the packaging. The package a vinyl record comes in has multiple large pieces of artwork, liner notes, lyrics etc. The medium also encourages listening to music as a main activity when we're all now so used to it being background noise.
With VHS you get crappy quality, you need more physical storage space (but, unlike vinyl, you don't get better packaging in return), and seeking is much more difficult (with vinyl seeking is almost as easy as CD/digital). Nostalgia is probably the biggest driver when it comes to VHS (in the same way audio cassettes are gaining in popularity).
> multiple large pieces of artwork
I've spent a few bucks on used records just to have the large format album art.
For whatever reason I don't have any nostalgia for the ritual of listening to a record, even though I tend to listen to full albums anyway.
Both vinyl and VHS are obviously inferior as a medium for high-fidelity playback compared to modern digital formats. Both impart their own artefacts and types of imperfection which may be aesthetically desirable for what they evoke. Consider the recent "Alien: Isolation" game- the developers made extensive use (and abuse) of analog video playback equipment to recreate the battered, lo-fi feel of technology in the other Alien films.