# What was the point of VHS rewinder devices? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 23, 2009, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-point-of-vhs-rewinder-devices/522318 "2009-12-23T14:25:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2009, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-point-of-vhs-rewinder-devices/522318/21 "2009-12-24T04:09:52Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > I guess, “Please be kind - Rewind!” doesn’t mean much to people who were raised on dvds. 🙂 I teach 7th Grade. I had a student, a fairly intelligent one actually, who told me that her Grandma has a VCR. She took a tape, went to the machine, and pressed the eject button. She waited. Pressed it again. She was waiting for the “disc tray”, so to speak, to come out so she could put the tape in. She figured it out in the end. Stupid kids! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2009, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-point-of-vhs-rewinder-devices/522318/22 "2009-12-24T04:46:37Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > I agree that the main purpose of the tape rewinder was to prevent wear on the VCR. That’s also why I got [one of these](http://www.dvdrewinder.com/) for my DVDs. Cool. Does it work with CDs too, or do you need a separate unit? ---
**Author:** ![LiveOnAPlane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3d9bf3/32.png) [@LiveOnAPlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LiveOnAPlane)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2009, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-point-of-vhs-rewinder-devices/522318/23 "2009-12-24T14:53:33Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Cool. Does it work with CDs too, or do you need a separate unit? Doesn’t matter, because with un-rewound CDs, you can just set the player to play the songs in reverse order. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2009, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-point-of-vhs-rewinder-devices/522318/24 "2009-12-24T15:00:34Z")
When I got my first VCR in 1981 the tapes were $25.00 each! ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2009, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-point-of-vhs-rewinder-devices/522318/25 "2009-12-24T21:16:05Z")
Betamaxes kept the tape wrapped around the drum, so rewinding/FF actually created additional wear on the heads. VHSes unwrapped the tape from the drum so not so much a problem. (On later/better models, the tape was kept wrapped for a short while during FF/RW to speed up searching. After a few seconds it would unwrap completely for speed.) Betamaxes also had a much better system for detecting the end of the tape. So a common failure for VHSes was the led detector system failing and ruining tapes. On one of my VCRs, if the tape had the write-protect tab out, on insert it would play the entire tape to the end, rewind and eject. So idiot renters had to perform minimal actions to watch a movie. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2009, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-point-of-vhs-rewinder-devices/522318/26 "2009-12-24T21:51:23Z")
> [@Icerigger](#): > > When I got my first VCR in 1981 the tapes were $25.00 each! To clarify…the **blank** tapes were $25! I mourn the things I didn’t tape back in the day because of the expense of blank videotapes. A case of 10 at $250 was an expensive indulgence. ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2009, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-point-of-vhs-rewinder-devices/522318/27 "2009-12-24T23:19:33Z")
> [@LiveOnAPlane](#): > > Doesn’t matter, because with un-rewound CDs, you can just set the player to play the songs in reverse order. 😃 Don’t you hear messages from Satan when you do that? ---
**Author:** ![633squadron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/6/ee59a6/32.png) [@633squadron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/633squadron)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2009, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-point-of-vhs-rewinder-devices/522318/28 "2009-12-25T00:46:23Z")
> [@Richie\_Incognito](#): > > I recall in the late 80s/early 90s many households had these VHS rewinders. > > Were they used to extend the life of the VCR? > > -R Incognito The video department I volunteer for still uses miniDV tapes, and we still use an older miniDV deck to rewind them. This reduces wear on the heads in the camera/recorder. Our thinking is that the deck is cheaper than a camera, and both are cheaper than replacing the heads. By the way, we record HD to _disk_, and use that as our primary source material. The tapes are for archival backup. ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2009, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-point-of-vhs-rewinder-devices/522318/29 "2009-12-25T01:05:44Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > I teach 7th Grade. I had a student, a fairly intelligent one actually, who told me that her Grandma has a VCR. She took a tape, went to the machine, and pressed the eject button. She waited. Pressed it again. > > She was waiting for the “disc tray”, so to speak, to come out so she could put the tape in. She figured it out in the end. > > Stupid kids! 😃 I’m old enough that when I read this I pictured a top-loader and couldn’t figure out what the problem was. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2009, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-point-of-vhs-rewinder-devices/522318/30 "2009-12-25T03:31:55Z")
> [@633squadron](#): > > The video department I volunteer for still uses miniDV tapes, and we still use an older miniDV deck to rewind them. This reduces wear on the heads in the camera/recorder. Our thinking is that the deck is cheaper than a camera, and both are cheaper than replacing the heads. > > By the way, we record HD to _disk_, and use that as our primary source material. The tapes are for archival backup. I shoot to both MiniDV (HDV) and SD, and the DV tapes are _less_ of a hassle. I can transfer to hard drive from the tape quicker than I can transcode the AVC/HD clips from the SD card. I know there are a handful of programs that can handle AVC/HD native, but none of them have the main feature I need - the ability to sync multiple camera tracks together and “hot switch” an edit to do an edit in real time like I can with Edius. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2009, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-point-of-vhs-rewinder-devices/522318/31 "2009-12-25T19:24:49Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > To clarify…the **blank** tapes were $25! I mourn the things I didn’t tape back in the day because of the expense of blank videotapes. A case of 10 at $250 was an expensive indulgence. And to add to this bit of VCR tape history; back in those days I used to go to East Berlin on the weekends (the Wall was still up) and in the old communist days, those lucky enough to own a VCR in East Germany were only allowed to buy ONE blank tape per YEAR. If you were from the West, the best birthday/Christmas gift for someone in the East was to give them a blank tape - it was worth gold. ---
**Author:** ![dwc1970](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@dwc1970](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwc1970)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2009, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-point-of-vhs-rewinder-devices/522318/32 "2009-12-26T06:59:05Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > No. Some would auto-eject at the end of a tape. Most of the machines I have seen will rewind a tape when the end is reached if it is playing but will eject the tape if the end is reached while recording. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-point-of-vhs-rewinder-devices/522318.md?page=1)