Weird things at the ends of VHS tapes

[Logoboy1000]

Um... isn't that beep on goodtimes videos?

[HappyCat32]

I use to have a WWF video and use make weird sounds like eeeerie and do do do begin and end of the movie :)

[ianhobbs97]

When i was a kid at the end of VCR i leff it on and i was scared because i think there was a monster going to pop out and scar you.

[didogazeto]

HOLLY FUCK 7 DAYS FUCK YOU MAAAAN

[MilkTheCouch]

Was this on any Popples tapes?

[ThePhantomSafetyPin]

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE­EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!­!!!!!!!!

God, I HATED that sound as a child... Soooooo many nightmares. So many. T^T

[Bluekirby22]

1:40 thats not a familiar noise!

[chris141066]

If i start my Beavis and Butt-Head VHS up, it does a phone dialing noise.

[BenPictures1]

Oooh! Paramount 1975! white screen pops up: AHHHHHHHHH!

[SouthwesternEagle]

I hear telephone numbers being dialed at the very beginning of The Lion King VHS just before the first screen comes up. What is that?

[SebiStudios2]

Have you ever seen a VHS tape with the infamous "telephone dial" sound at the beginning?

[tvpnbb]

Slenderman transformed into a VHS-tape.

[Macintosh3745]

One of my old Peter Pan VHS tapes from 1988 I believe , a few minutes after the credits, it shows a test pattern showing

"PETER PAN

1988" with an ear rape.

[shelbielynnVEVO]

@Macintosh3745 I take it that tape was a Disney Black Diamond Classics tape? You said it was from 1988.

[halfhumanhalfzombie]

Yeah that is strange. Thank god for DVDs and wasn't old to experience them.

[MultiKgiles]

There's a few minutes of whiteness on a few of my Rugrats dvds.

[homor242]

WHO ARE YOU RUNNING FROM?

[xXChocolateCornetXx]

@homor242 OH GOD NO. WHY DID YOU JUST REMIND ME OF TERRIBLE MEMORIES? ;.;

[homor242]

@xXChocolateCornetXx Okay then... THE SAVE DATA WAS CORRUPTED!

[Copper20]

I saw a white screen on my copy of True Grit for some reason.

[hotelmario510]

THAT'S OKAY SLEEP SUCKS ANYWAY

[MujiShop]

Is That Veggietales?

[EpicMan83]

1:20 The VHS is cursing at you.

[zomblification]

Who still watched VHS?

[punchmaster123]

What is this VCR you speak of??

[avickers1992]

A copy of Robin Hood (the Disney cartoon) I have I believe is from 1986 (It has the 1984 Walt Disney Classics Cheesy Diamond after the warnings) but at the end after a few seconds of "blackness," that moaning sound used for those television color bars is used.

[BrokenHedgehog]

The WSOD sounds like my VCR is cussing at me...

[buck020]

Old vhs machines would have a sensor and circuit that would automatically rewind a tape when it encountered that sound. It was also used as a que for the technician at the vhs studio to physically cut the tape reel there and thread it for use in a vhs cassette.

[TheLairOfRockwhales]

And what is so scary about a white screen that everyone on TVTropes is freaking out?

[DJSyKoh]

wtf did i just watch and how did i get here?

[DukeNukem2417]

There's something at the end of the tape....something trapped.

Something that should never be released.........

[pleite567]

@DukeNukem2417 lol

[CidSilverWing]

@DukeNukem2417 Samara?

[corbinpettyband]

@KodyBoy555 yes i mean both some have both

[AnthonyA5555]

The Grey(White) Screen of Death and the moaning sound both appears on my Richard Scarry's Old MacDonald's Farm and other animal tales 1986 VHS.

[Jigglypufflove33]

Excuse me, what is Caramelldansen doing on videos of things related to VHS tapes?

[SAIL4323]

@Jigglypufflove33

DoReMiForever watched this video, and he also watched that Carmelldansen video, too.

[Stizogm]

What's strange about this? The white screen could literally be anything, probably some sort of end of tape marker in manufacturing. The tone on the black screen could MAYBE be a data track, you hear it all the time on cb radio. If it is it would be information like date of manufacture, the title, stuff like that. OR THE KEY TO UNLOCKING THE SECRET. DECODE THE DATA, DISCOVER THE LONG LOST SECRET OF HUMANITY

[rrrjjjmmm100]

there might of been a vicious rape seen of a teenage cock-teaser that their trying to cover up is my guess!!!

[187SicknesS]

adjust the tracking please!!

[neinsudtexas10]

That paramount logo is rather scary.

[EmpireLS56KW]

I might look for a newer or second hand VHS Hi-Fi NICAM VCR I’m a bit fussy might like a another JVC or maybe a Panasonic just to go though my VHS collection. This was an interesting video.

Merry Christmas

[GoThIcWoNdErGIRL]

This takes me back to those days when I was too lazy to press rewind so I just let it play on until it rewound itself! lol

[milligansx01]

DVDs 4 Life

VHS Sucks Ass!!!

[GDelva2003]

@milligansx01

You probably were too stupid to use a VHS...

[milligansx01]

@GDelva2003 no, I used them back in my childhood days, I didn't know it does this crap, but I didn't know till late 2010 or early 2011....

[MrTweety2707]

@milligansx01 no it no have preview vhs is more amazing espically the hungarian ones dvd just have a boring logo and a menu

[crackmonster99]

You got to love 90's technology DVD and blueray don't have this kind of personality.

[plateshutoverlock]

Moco keeps Chris from seeing stuff like this because its scary

[MRLOL785]

Do home recorded VHS tapes have this too? At the end it shows "EP" in the corner.

[Kargaroc286]

@MRLOL785 I think it was a very long movie

[MRLOL785]

@Kargaroc286 6+hrs is kinda pushing it. I got some tapes that were recorded in LP that were only about half an hour/45 mins in length.

[ryanasaurus0077]

@Kargaroc286 Or a budget tape.

[mrfoxboy]

@MRLOL785 Home recorded tapes would not (unless you put it in yourself), and EP is a speed (possibly from a previous recording?)

[crazee4mm]

That "white screen" and beeping sound were cues to the recording device that recorded the video. It was recorded on a sprint maching that recorded the content in reverse (so the tape didn't need rewinding when finished. That white screen and test pattern sound was used to let the machine know when the tape was at speed so the recording process could begin. It usually took about 45 seconds to record a video using a sprint machine. Disney classics, however, were always recorded in real time.

[classicnickfan1416]

@crazee4mm why did they have to be so freaky scary? This used to scare me to death.

[systemoperator]

I saw this at the end of the 1991 VHS of "Fantasia".

[Manafichu]

@systemoperator LIAR! Disney tapes don't have this!

[systemoperator]

I'm serious, I saw it!

[123justinwilson123]

@systemoperator The White Screen Of Death?

[systemoperator]

yep

[123justinwilson123]

@systemoperator Fast Forward Your 1991 Vhs Of Fantasia And See If The WSOD Was On There

[systemoperator]

It's not on my copy, I saw it on a different copy many years ago.

[Manafichu]

@systemoperator Maybe the WSOD Fantasia VHS was bootleg? Or was it from another country, like Ryanasaurus0077's Song Of The South tape?

[systemoperator]

No, it was an actual copy.

[Manafichu]

@systemoperator Please upload what you saw!

[systemoperator]

I don't have it.

[eyeh8nbc]

I borrowed a cheap porn tape once that after a few minutes of black at the end, the recording stopped and it turned out the tape had been recorded on before- what was at the end was a rough cut of a TV sitcom, with timecode onscreen and no laugh track or music added yet. I have a tape from GoodTimes that was also recorded over one of their other titles, the end of which was still intact.

On a few very low-budget labels, I've seen the entire master tape rewind at the end.

[brandont2003]

@eyeh8nbc O_o

[Manafichu]

Dinosaurs! A Fun Filled Trip back in time had the white screen of death according to an episode of golden book video killers!

[Manafichu]

I saw a static screen at the end of my rented Larry-Boy and the Fib from Outer-Space VHS. I parodied that in my first Manafichu Video Adventures.

[computerzrul1997]

@Manafichu The static screen appears at the very end of all VHS tapes. It's NOTHING compared to the white screen of death!

[computerzrul1997]

@Manafichu My VHS of Rugrats: Tommy Troubles is from 1996, and IT HAS THE WHITE SCREEN ON DEATH AT THE END!!!!!!!!!!!

[computerzrul1997]

@computerzrul1997 I meant to say "white screen OF death."

[computerzrul1997]

@Manafichu It's always been static.

[jason24568]

Pull My Finger is too scary in the ending! More like a crashing NES!!!

[TheNEWfilmfanatic99]

When I played a tape to the end, the image of the ring wouldn't go away. Does anyone else have this problem? I am currently fighting with a dead (and possibly possessed) japanese girl that came out of my TV, so it is very difficult to type.

[maxti6]

That was actually supposed to wake you up if you fell asleep so you could turn off your TV/VCR instead of wasting your power.

Did the trick many a time believe me, but it was a freakish wake-up.

[computerzrul1997]

This is a good reason why I always stop and rewind a VHS RIGHT after it ends!

[uberm0nster1]

okay seriously, i dont get it. what am i listening for? what is the exact moment i can hear the "moaning sound"?

[TheIzzy41]

that's creepy. how old is that tape?

[patricknedz]

is this a panasonic?

[sauron974]

The "white screen of death" tone is a 1KHz sync tone, used to make sure that the audio levels are properly set in the tape duplicator.

The "Pull My Finger" bit sounds like a bit of digital encoding in the audio stream. Probably also communication from the master to the tape duplicator. Probably it says something like "End of Print" or "Start New Print" or something like that.

[islandboy4445]

i half expected a well to show up and for my phone to ring lol... no but really.

[youraftermyrobotbee]

That last one was on, like, all my Disney tapes. It made me SHIT.

[Firesting64]

this freaks the crap out of me.

[Manaphyrocks12]

On my VHS tape of Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie (made in 2003), it shows a static screen at the end.

[brettfoshager]

I don't like VHS tapes anymore. The thing I don't like about VHS tapes is when the picture goes bad and the tape gets caught.

[kargaroc386]

it's better than having a DVD skip and become unusable.

[alphamone]

I remember some of my old tapes ended with a test pattern.

[nevixFTW]

umm...moris code?

[R32Studios]

OMG Those screens once ear raped my ears one time

[neinsudtexas10]

I always wondered why they would have that noise at the end of a VHS. That used to freak me out. The last one sounded really scary. That old paramount logo at the very beginning is kind of scary too.

[wakkoswish123]

i found one in pound puppies

[plateshutoverlock]

the "pull my finger"' sounds like a low speed data burst, probably to tell the duplicating machine where to end the tape

[eyeh8nbc]

@plateshutoverlock This sound only comes up at the end of tapes that actually have a recorded signal until the very end of the tape. Some tapes, especially earlier ones, would not have any signal for the last few minutes of tape- A black screen would run for just a minute or two after the movie, and sometimes the white screen after that.

[KeijiDragon]

This is probably what happens when you die.

[poopskinTheLiar]

"Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee­eeeeeee..."

"SHUT THE HELL UP! I'M DEAD! I GET IT!"

[liammillay]

0:56 it cussed LOL

[gshowguy]

Lord almighty, I remember the WSOD from watching tapes of the Dr. Seuss specials (from Playhouse Video) and He-Man (from Magic Window).

[BPhoenixProductions]

I got the WSOD on a video right after the Golden Videos logo on an old cassette of mine, and it seriously freaked me out.

[feckingbillgates]

Why are people calling it "pull my finger"? I thought it would be because the moaning sounded something like a voice and that those phonemes could be made out.  But it's just another electronic noise - I wouldn't even call it moaning.

[singinglawnchair]

Because it kinda sounds like a fart noise? XD

[BKDBrian2]

I think the noise at 1:40-1:45 is only heard if you play the tape on a non-HiFi VCR.

[eyeh8nbc]

@BKDBrian2 Nope- it's on the Hi-Fi tracks too. The clicking in the white-screen tone shown here is only heard in the right channel, so obviously this person didn't use a stereo VCR (BTW the old linear tracks were still recorded in stereo up til the end of the format, even though no current VCRs could play it. I'm lucky enough to have a machine that plays both.)

[zenpho]

In most (audio cassette) duplication machines, tapes are duplicated by running multiple copies of the master loop onto a _single_ length of tape. This single length of tape is then cut into individual copies and inserted into cassette shells.

On the end of most audio cassettes there is a signal tone to signal where to make the cuts so the white screen and beeps are probably there on video cassettes for the same purpose.

[wiley207]

Did any Golden Book Videos use the White Screen of Death? I bet it would've been freaky on my Herbert the Timid Dragon video, which featured a rather scary closing logo at the end!

[ryanasaurus0077]

Many of them did before 1995.

[MrRandomTux]

@wiley207 The 1993 Animation of Little Critter "Just me and my Dad" used the WSOD. I don't any other tapes that used WSOD other than Early 90's F.H.E Releases of Rudolph and Santa Claus is Coming to Town.

[corbinpettyband]

@wiley207 golden book vidios did have this

[Meanmanmartin2007]

Can anyone explain, why is it on some VCRs, the screen goes blue when any form of "Blank" screen is detected. This happens on one of my VCRs(the one connected to the main one with a Scart lead)?

[MrRandomTux]

@Meanmanmartin2007 That is done only on few VCR brands including Quasar.

[Meanmanmartin2007]

Thanks for your response. Out of interest was Quasar a British company?

I didn't think the brand of tape had any impact on how the video ended. Just thought it was something to do with how much tape space was remaining. For example most of the videotapes from BBC video end with static but one or two have a black screen all the way to the end.

Also, I have a lot of those discounted videos containing children's cartoons and there's no set way in which each tape ends

[Watcher3223]

@Meanmanmartin2007

"Thanks for your response. Out of interest was Quasar a British company?"

Quasar was a consumer electronics division of Motorola, an American company.

In the late 1970s, Matsushita (Mat-su-sh-ta) Electric (a.k.a. Panasonic) bought Quasar from Motorola. Currently, the Quasar brand is essentially defunct as Panasonic is concentrating on itself for its brand identity.

[Watcher3223]

@Meanmanmartin2007

"I didn't think the brand of tape had any impact on how the video ended"

It has more to do with what the duplicating company does on its recordings.

Quite a few home video labels did not operate their own duplication facilities, so they hired 3rd party companies to fulfill their needs and it's not uncommon for one home video label to use more than one facility for duplicating one title.

[Watcher3223]

@Meanmanmartin2007

"Can anyone explain, why is it on some VCRs, the screen goes blue when any form of "Blank" screen is detected."

This was done usually for VCRs that employ on-screen display (OSD) for communicating VCR function and navigating the VCR's settings menu.

The purpose was that, in the event of a "blank" screen, on-screen information would not be clearly visible, so a stable blue or black field over no video or unstable video is generated for the OSD info to be visible.

[Meanmanmartin2007]

@Watcher3223 Thanks for your explanation

I replaced my analogue tv with a digital one a few months back and now you don't see any static at the end of most VHS tapes. Just a blue screen

[DJ5189]

This used to scare the crap out of me when I was a kid but I think the reason it did this was to signal the end of the VHS tape. I used to watch tapes late at night and fall asleep in the middle of them and then I would always wake up to this annoying sound that even started to give me nightmares. This was back in 1993 when I was 4 years old ah good times. Thanks for posting this video I'm glad someone understands how weird this sound signal at the end of old VHS tapes was.

[kargaroc386]

we really don't know what it is for.

my thing is that everybody calls it the white screen of death when it is more gray then white.

[feckingbillgates]

Why would it need to signal the end? It can just stop, and when it does that the machine would usually rewind it and even eject it after that. I like the idea that VHS manufacturers were intentionally being kind by waking us up with a nightmarish noise so that we could sleep in our beds every night rather than on the living room sofa.

[Meanmanmartin2007]

I've got a number of tapes where there is no noise, white screen or static at the end. Just the black screen until the end of the tape is reached and it rewinds, ejects.

Very common on tapes released by Video Collection International(and Thames Video) here in the UK

[hilarioph]

This not happen to me when

i recorded on the vhs. What

happen to your finger?

[SesakaBlargh]

..."They're heeeere!"

Poltergeist reference, sry. XD

That Pull my Finger sound is strange. I wonder why it's at the very end of the tape?

[Watcher3223]

Because that "pull my finger" sound, when played at a higher speed, is a signal tone.

When the signal is detected, the recorded tape is cut, mounted and wound into a pair of reels, and assembled into a cassette. Then the copying process repeats.

High volume dupes are done at high speed using a sprinter recorder which uses a big reel of blank tape, known as a tape pancake, instead of connecting loads of individual VCRs together and recording a program on individual cassettes at real time.

[eyeh8nbc]

@Watcher3223 Are there any big VHS duplicators still operating?  The last regular pre-recorded VHS title was the remake of "The Fog".

[Watcher3223]

@eyeh8nbc

I don't believe so; I think most, if not all, have gone completely optical.

[RobochaoXX]

Oh god this scares the shit out of me.

This was at the end of my Toy Story tape.

[Ampithecat]

I rented a Garfield VHS in 1999, and this scared the living hell out of me and I always had to get Mom or Dad to watch it with me.

[Kargaroc286]

thankfully i recorded that movie on tape back around 1997 or so. no microvision bullshit AT ALL. but the tape is literally falling apart now. it's the tape that my prevue guide video was originally on.

once more.  THE KARGAROC286 ACCOUNT IS FROZEN.

[ryanasaurus0077]

I don't remember the WSOD being on any Disney tapes.

[systemoperator]

Maybe they have this on any Disney tapes.

[ryanasaurus0077]

Well, none of my Disney tapes use the WSOD that I recall.

[systemoperator]

Sorry, I meant to say "didn't".

[Manafichu]

@RobochaoXX LIAR! It didn't appear on ANY Disney tapes!

[RobochaoXX]

@Manafichu calm down bro

[ryanasaurus0077]

@RobochaoXX If I may... I recently got a Mexican 1986 VideoVisa tape of "Song of the South" for Christmas, and oddly enough, it uses the WSOD. Even I was surprised, having expected it to appear on my 1980 Fotomat tape of "North Avenue Irregulars" because of the cassette shell design used on that tape only to be disappointed by endless black at the end of the tape.

[Manafichu]

@ryanasaurus0077 Can you upload the white screen on Song Of The South?

[ryanasaurus0077]

@Manafichu I would, if only I had the equipment to do so.

[JackSpader]

It should say something like:

"END OF TAPE"

"PLEASE STOP AND REWIND"

[Nodog438]

@JackSpader Thats scary too. How about the VHS will just pop out of the VCR!

[computerzrul1997]

@Nodog438 On some VCR's, it would just stop and rewind by itself.

[pvx]

The "pull my finger"/"moaning" tone featured in this video almost sounds like some sort of low-speed FSK-modulated data, much like an old telephone modem or old software cassette...

[kargaroc386]

or a 300 baud modem from the BBS days.

[CafeJavaFilms]

this is pretty freaky

[Kargaroc286]

i got another VCR and played the tape with the strange sound. it ejected early. so as soon as it stoped, i ejected it and put it in the ohter vcr, and as soon as i pressed play, the sound played. so obviously, it signals the end of the tape FOR THE VCR!!!

[VoltzCartoons]

I kind of figured that, there wasn't anything at the end of my brother's old Ninja Turtles Tapes when I heard there was a white screen at the end of it. His VCR must do that too.

[Maruigio]

I figured that, since I've only had that experience at a school I went to for three years. But still, that thing gave me nightmares.

[Kargaroc286]

recall one. that sounds interesting.

BTW if you want to comment on my channel about it, then please do it on my kargaroc386 account, as this one is frozen solid.

[Kargaroc286]

what would also be cool is a on screen version of this video. i only have a shitty webcam tho :(

[VoltzCartoons]

I thought it was on screen.

[Kargaroc286]

another explanation i have for it would be that NTSC video uses negative video modulation which means that a zero current signal equals a white screen and a all the way up signal equals a black screen. when the film ends, the VCR doesn't pick up any current from the tape resulting in a white screen. doesn't explain the tone though.

[manbest765]

Oh, sorry, we didn't mean to post that!

Anyways, I do remember seeing this stuff. I think I saw a blue screen at the end of a Muzzy tape with some weird noises.

[Kargaroc286]

BLUE!!??

[VoltzCartoons]

manbest765 and me are friends. He says he only saw it on his english Muzzy VHS, so it must be exclusisve to language tapes or something. I'll have him show me sometime and I will upload what I see.

[Kargaroc286]

YES PLEASE UPLOAD WHAT YOU SEE.

[TServo2049]

I heard the moaning on "An American Tail: Fievel Goes West" from Universal and "Beany and Cecil" from Columbia also.

From what I have noticed, Paramount and Columbia were the primary users of the WSOD. However, I *HAVE* seen it on tapes from Universal (Fievel Goes West) and Fox (Home Alone, the original release with the FernGully teaser and the American Airlines and Pepsi ads).

[Jigglypufflove33]

@TServo2049 Anywhere where I can see said American Airlines ad?

[Meanmanmartin2007]

From what I remember, my Muzzy videos just had the blank fuzzy screen at the end(a good amount of it too).  On one of my VCRs blank screen is converted to blue so maybe thats what happened on your copy.

[mimitchilove33]

@manbest765 In a video of a Pocket Monsters (Pokemon) VHS tape from Japan's ending, it had a blue screen, but it didn't have weird noises, so that's what you saw.

[Kargaroc286]

i will see if i have any tapes from 1995 that do it as well

[hssenior]

it does this at the end of forrest gump and thats from 1994 as well