# Movies split up on VHS **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 25, 2020, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-split-up-on-vhs/854422 "2020-05-25T05:42:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2020, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-split-up-on-vhs/854422/21 "2020-05-25T20:23:48Z")
I recall that _Gandhi_ had an intermission of several minutes in the theater. They probably had the break between the two cassettes at the same place. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2020, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-split-up-on-vhs/854422/22 "2020-05-25T20:41:52Z")
If _Titanic_ split right before they hit the iceberg, you could simply toss tape one in the trash. As for _The Deer Hunter_, I’m shocked the wedding scene didn’t need a separate third tape of its own. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2020, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-split-up-on-vhs/854422/23 "2020-05-25T21:35:40Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > Pretty sure The Blues Brothers was on two cassettes. I seem to recall the split was around when they were in the tunnel after sneaking out of the Palace Hotel Ballroom, just before the big car chase. > > What was the limit of a commercial VHS tape anyway? Wikipedia says the running time for The Blues Brothers was 133 minutes, which seems like they could have squeezed it onto one tape, but maybe not. Commercial video releases were recorded at SP (standard play) on a 120 minute tape. You could record on a T-120 at SLP (super long play) for six hours, but there was a trade-off in picture quality. There was also a less common four hour speed. This was for VHS, anyway. You could use a longer tape, but it also meant a thinner tape which was more prone to jamming and breakage. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2020, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-split-up-on-vhs/854422/24 "2020-05-25T22:06:05Z")
Funny story about “Gone with the Wind”, which was split into two sides of the disc. I watched about 15 minutes of it before realizing that I had begun with Disc 2. Who knew? Seemed like a natural beginning of a movie. mmm ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2020, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-split-up-on-vhs/854422/25 "2020-05-26T00:26:57Z")
> [@cormac262](#): > > “Lawrence of Arabia” was split into 2 tapes. It was well timed because the movie itself had a built-in intermission. I have a rather recent, wonderful DVD edition, and it’s two DVDs of course cut before the intermission (which is, as I remember correctly, a few minutes of a black screen with an intermission musical score, which of course is wonderful as the whole score of that movie. That’s how the film was originally shown in the theaters). ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2020, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-split-up-on-vhs/854422/26 "2020-05-26T00:27:26Z")
I remember ragtime had an intermission when it was on HBO for like 15 minutes …it was right after the cops killed the black guy who was trying to take the baby that was found in the garden (whom I think died anyway) ---
**Author:** ![Southpaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@Southpaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southpaw)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2020, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-split-up-on-vhs/854422/27 "2020-05-26T01:11:06Z")
Sound of Music was on two tapes. Tape one ended just after the puppet show and before the ball that Georg gives. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2020, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-split-up-on-vhs/854422/28 "2020-05-26T01:30:33Z")
Reds and The Bridge on the River Kwai. I worked at a video store and both were among my favorites. Reds hasn’t aged well at all but Kwai is still an amazing film. ---
**Author:** ![DrForrester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8edcca/32.png) [@DrForrester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrForrester)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2020, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-split-up-on-vhs/854422/29 "2020-05-26T01:34:31Z")
I once owned a special edition of Blade Runner that was split onto 4 sides of 2 laser disks. That was just insane. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2020, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-split-up-on-vhs/854422/30 "2020-05-26T02:30:10Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > If _Titanic_ split right before they hit the iceberg, you could simply toss tape one in the trash. IIRC, the first tape ended right after they hit the iceberg, so you had to watch about the last few minutes of Tape I. Fortunately, you didn’t have to rewind it very far to be ready for the next viewing. Skipping that first 110 or so minutes really moved the film along.😃 ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2020, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-split-up-on-vhs/854422/31 "2020-05-26T02:47:43Z")
I couldn’t tell you if it was or wasn’t well timed but Magnolia was on two VHS tapes. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2020, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-split-up-on-vhs/854422/32 "2020-05-26T04:34:58Z")
> [@DrForrester](#): > > I once owned a special edition of Blade Runner that was split onto 4 sides of 2 laser disks. That was just insane. Should’ve had one of the [dual-side dual-disc players](https://www.laserdiscarchive.co.uk/laserdisc_archive/pioneer/pioneer_ld-w1/pioneer_ld-w1.htm). ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2020, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-split-up-on-vhs/854422/33 "2020-05-26T04:45:56Z")
Not sure how it was done on VHS, but _Woodstock_ had a double-sided DVD release in the early 2000s. To this day I can’t recall another disc quite like it. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2020, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-split-up-on-vhs/854422/34 "2020-05-26T06:38:50Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > What was the limit of a commercial VHS tape anyway? Wikipedia says the running time for The Blues Brothers was 133 minutes, which seems like they could have squeezed it onto one tape, but maybe not. As I recall (and I’ll admit it’s been a few years) the standard VHS tape was a 120, which would record 120 minutes at standard speed. You could also record at slow speed or very slow speed which would give you either 240 minutes or 360 minutes of recording time but would also give you a poorer quality picture. Most commercial copies of movies were done at standard speed. There were also other sizes tapes; 150’s and 180’s, which would give you either 150 or 180 minutes of recording time at standard speed. But these tapes were thinner and tending to break or tangle up in your VCR. Again, commercial movies generally didn’t use these tapes because movies got rented and got pretty rough treatment anyway. I think there were also shorter tapes like 60’s and 90’s. ---
**Author:** ![Didi44](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47c2d/32.png) [@Didi44](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Didi44)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2020, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-split-up-on-vhs/854422/35 "2020-05-26T07:22:10Z")
A T-120 could have up hold up to ~124min for NTSC (U.S. recordings). The E-180 (PAL, primarily used in Europe) could hold up ~127min if used in an NTSC recorder. T-140 cassettes, available primarily available only to duplicators could hold up to 144min using the standard thickness tape. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VHS](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VHS) All videocassette tapes, VHS and Beta could hold slightly more than their stated time to ensure the full recording time. I had some L-125 (30min) Beta tapes that held ~32mins of recordings. Tape duplicators could get any custom tape length, I’ve seen T-5 and T-10 tapes used for video singles and specialty presentation videos. But since the major cost of the videocassette was the case and reels, most duplicators used standard length cassettes, T-30, T-60, T-90, T-120 for VHS, L-125, L-250, L-370, L-500, L-750 for Beta. Thinner tapes and lower speeds (LP, SLP/EP) weren’t used for major studio releases because of the jamming and incompatibility issues. AFAIK, \*Cleopatra \*was the first movie released on two cassettes in 1992. There’s a long and ultimately pointless discussion about it at [videohelp.com](http://videohelp.com) [https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/394218-Betamax-digitizing-help-of-a-rare-film](https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/394218-Betamax-digitizing-help-of-a-rare-film) ---
**Author:** ![Didi44](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47c2d/32.png) [@Didi44](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Didi44)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2020, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-split-up-on-vhs/854422/36 "2020-05-26T07:42:10Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Not sure how it was done on VHS, but _Woodstock_ had a double-sided DVD release in the early 2000s. To this day I can’t recall another disc quite like it. Woodstock was released on two cassettes and the Directors Cut Blu-Ray release if on two discs for the movie. The first Criterion DVD release of _Seven Samurai_ was on two discs, as well I believe \*2001: A Space Odyssey \*and other movies over two hours were. The maximum video length of a Video DVD-9 (dual-layer) DVD is two hours to maintain quality. Up to ~11-13 hours of DVD compliant video can be recorded in very bad video quality. [https://www.videohelp.com/dvd](https://www.videohelp.com/dvd), [DVD Authoring and Production: An Authoritative Guide to DVD-Video, DVD-ROM ... - Ralph LaBarge - Google Books](https://books.google.com/books?id=vMQqBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA82&lpg=PA82&dq=max+video+time+dvd-9&source=bl&ots=sDfmuBjTpR&sig=ACfU3U0A65AQZzzv4qB4-HwTPw2PAdF8Nw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj74on0gtHpAhXHIjQIHSTlC_kQ6AEwD3oECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=max%20video%20time%20dvd-9&f=false) ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2020, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-split-up-on-vhs/854422/37 "2020-05-26T08:52:13Z")
> [@Didi44](#): > > The first Criterion DVD release of _Seven Samurai_ was on two discs, as well I believe \*2001: A Space Odyssey \*and other movies over two hours were. [First Criterion SS was 1 DVD](https://www.criterionforum.org/DVD-review/seven-samurai-1998-edition-with-restoration-demonstration/the-criterion-collection/1457). [2nd Criterion was 2 DVDs](https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/23429/seven-samurai-criterion-collection-3-disc-edition/) (plus DVD of bonuses.) _2001_ doesn’t have a Criterion release, but both Warner releases are a single disc. ([The second disc in the SE is bonuses](http://www.dvdmg.com/2001se.shtml).) > [@Didi44](#): > > The maximum video length of a Video DVD-9 (dual-layer) DVD is two hours to maintain quality. Not even remotely accurate. There have been many DVDs of movies over 2 hours released on _DVD-5s_ (especially in the early years) and vast numbers of movies above 2 hours published on DVD-9s. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2020, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-split-up-on-vhs/854422/38 "2020-05-26T13:22:15Z")
The longest movie I ever saw on a (single) commercially produced VHS was “On the Beach,” which appears to clock in at 2:14. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2020, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-split-up-on-vhs/854422/39 "2020-05-26T15:29:05Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > The longest movie I ever saw on a (single) commercially produced VHS was “On the Beach,” which appears to clock in at 2:14. Some longer movies you may have seen on single-tape VHS: _Close Encounters of the Third Kind_ 2:15 _Return of the Jedi_ 2:16 _Aliens_ 2:34 _Terminator 2_ 2:36 There are more out there. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2020, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-split-up-on-vhs/854422/40 "2020-05-26T15:59:36Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Not sure how it was done on VHS, but _Woodstock_ had a double-sided DVD release in the early 2000s. To this day I can’t recall another disc quite like it. The extended edition of _LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring_ was on a double-sided disc. IIRC the split was right as they are leaving Rivendell and you get the majestic shot of them on the hillside with the swelling music theme. Then a menu screen came up saying to turn over the disc to side 2. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-split-up-on-vhs/854422.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-split-up-on-vhs/854422.md?page=3)