We swapped tapes, and we liked it!

[rkruger]

I read this, and found parts of it quite fascinating.

Aside from the legal issues, the problem you're more likely to run into is that whoever is doing the work may never get you your tapes. Besides, the fan-subber/fan-dubber will often use some pretty poor equipment (some even use mono VCR's!), and being that most can't afford studio-quality editing equipment, you can expect video and audio drop-outs on your tape. Some try to use 8mm and Hi-8 equipment for "mastering," but this will inevitably result in shifted colour palattes.

So before the interwebs were fast enough, people actually edited and traded tapes to curb their cravings for anime.

Does anyone in here have any experiences from this period? Or perhaps a huge VHS/Betamax collection?

[halfelite]

I did a few back in the day. Either send cash with your vhs tape or send a couple vhs tapes and you get one back the quality was horrible. But it was the only thing back then.

[rostheferret]

Piracy is actually been going on for ages. I know a couple of guys who used to be big on making copies of VINYL records, not to mention embedded deep in the underground metal scene involving a very large amount of (cassette) tape trading, and in the 80s directly copying them. You could buy 2-cassette tape players that would record one straight to another. CG is filled with stuff recorded from dodgy VHS and probably copied repeatedly before it ended up being recorded to a PC and uploaded for the only group of people who actually might want to watch it. Quite frankly, that anime was tape traded as well is no huge shock. Anything not immediately available becomes a target for piracy. All the internet has done is make it easier.

[Ixarku]

I did a few back in the day. Either send cash with your vhs tape or send a couple vhs tapes and you get one back the quality was horrible. But it was the only thing back then.

Likewise, except I had a friend or two who were heavy into the fan scene, and I leeched from them, or gave them tapes / money and let them do the trading.  I was also part of anime club where members could 'check out' tapes from the club's library.  It was no big deal, it just took a lot longer to get anything, the quality was usually not great, and it was more difficult to get complete copies of longer shows.

The newer generation of fans really has it easy with this whole point-and-click path to free anime and music.

[rkruger]

Piracy is actually been going on for ages.

You are quite right.

But what really surprised me was the fact that "analog" equipment was used by amateurs to do fan-subbing. That must have been a pain.

[Roven]

But what really surprised me was the fact that "analog" equipment was used by amateurs to do fan-subbing. That must have been a pain

You tell me. My brother once bought Nausicaä CD with Chinese subs. He wanted to add Arabic subs and record the movie on a VHS tape. He used two TV's plus the computer monitor, a VHS player, some god only knows how many cables.

[harpy]

Sill remember these glorious anime scraps from the ends of illegal tapes....

[Pharismo]

i remember that i used to give a tape to a guy and when there was a space left on it he used to put more anime even if i didnt asked him to do it.

[Soryon]

When I first got into anime it was all VHS. There was one place that had a bunch of fansubbed tapes (all different colors)
Unfortunately, I was a young kid so didnt have money to buy much and the place that had them was too far for a 14 year old go with any consistency. By the time I had a job and a car the place had closed down. So I remember them, but never saw them.
I do have like 20 VHS anime tapes tho from back then, but they are official, not fan subs.

Anyway, it was that inconvenience that made me eventually quit watching anime for a handful of years until the internet made it really easy. (barring the occasional DVD rental/purchase or show on TV)