That's the "dude you're getting a Dell" guy on a Dell monitor. Nice.

4:33 - it’s the “Dude, you’re getting a Dell” guy! In 2000 - 2003 he was huge in US television ads for Dell Computer.

The most interesting VHS tape I ever encountered was in the late 1980's when I worked at a video rental store. It was a screener tape that was sent out by video distributors with a complete version of an upcoming movie release. It had a limited number of plays on it, usually 5 before it would self erase. There was a mechanical counter installed between the reels that displayed the number of plays so far, when it reached zero it would trip an arm that had a magnet on the end of it. That magnet would contact the edge of the tape that contained the tracking info, when you rewound the tape after the last play it would erase the tracking info, making the tape unplayable. Since the tapes were supposedly self erasing we were not required to send the tape back to the distributor. It was easy enough to open up up the tape and remove the magnet and counter device so the tape could be watched an unlimited number of times. I held on to one of those tapes for a number of years with the counter and magnet still in place, resetting the simple mechanical counter after the movie was played a couple of times, I wish I still had it.

Oh my god…. My sister actually competed in that thing. Her theater teacher took it very seriously and it was a big deal for her.

As an American, and a fan of failed media formats, I can confidently say this is the first time I've ever heard of this bizarre thing. Thanks for sharing.

it's fun to see Ben Curtis again! He's the young actor promoting "The Great Gatsby" in the promo. Ben played Steven in a series of commercials for Dell computers in the early 2000s. The tagline "Dude, you're getting a Dell!' is a classic tagline.

We had a producer talk about a bid for V-lite. The cost to make copies was more than just using 20 minute standard tapes. Mailing costs was no different since it was mailed at the media rate. So, the V-lite was more expensive than standard.

We used to duplicate and pack these at Technicolour Video in Wembley in the mid 90's. They were a pain as they got caught in the flow wrapper as it went through tearing the flap.. I was the Engineering supervisor and had to come up with a way to run them with minimum damage.... The tape used was usually pulled from damaged pancakes... That poly shell was also used for the wrap around label that never caught on in the UK... Never thought I would ever see these again...When I left Technicolour in 1999 we were still producing around 50million pre recorded tapes a year just in the UK...

My dad used to get quite a few V-Lite cassettes in the mail promoting Agricultural equipment and supplies. The United States Postal Service also charged for bulk media mail by weight so a cassette that weighed 1/4 as much meant considerably less mailing expense. Most of those companies did switch to CD-ROM promo materials that ran on a Windows PC in the late 90's.

It was pretty common for me to get junk mail VHS tapes here in the US from 1996-2001, and it was always a regular VHS tape. Lots of stuff from Nintendo, but also car manufacturers for some reason. The tapes did not convince me to buy a Porsche Cayenne.

Pretty sure the actor in the video is Ben Curtis. He was the "Dude, you're getting a Dell" kid from a series of TV commercials in the early 2000s.

I thought I recognized that guy on the video; he was Ben Curtis, a student who did a bunch of commercials for Dell computers back then. His line was "Dude, you're getting a Dell." He got the axe for dealing with pot.

I am surprised that anybody felt brave enough to put one of those into their VCR! I wonder how many got tangled up inside the machine? Will these be featured in the Techmoan Museum?

Thank God this format appeared just before the fall of VHS and not in the 80s

The "bits of plastic" on the normal cassette are to lock the reels in place...that's why on V-Lite they say you have to tension up the reel as there is no reel lock on it! BTW, that type of foam packing IS recyclable in Toronto, Canada. And yes, also first time I heard of it even though I worked in a vidoe duplication studio.

I expected that promo video to end with "DUDE! You're getting a Dell!"

I get the notion that someone is actually going back in time and creating weird storage media just for you Techmoan.

The gag in the beginning was unreasonably funny. I genuinely laughed out loud. Genius in it's simplicity. :)

Dude! You're watching on a Dell! Ok, I'm 99% sure the guy on the tape was the "Dude, You're getting a Dell." guy from that infamous ad campaign.

I’ve seen the cheap VHS tapes with no windows before but this is next level. Actually impressive engineering to be able to pull this off.

I remember the "2view VHS cassette". I still have one of those around somewhere. The idea was that it's just another VHS cassette but with a prerecordered film on it. You would be able to watch it twice, and it would delete itself. After that you would be left with a blanc tape you could use for anything else, and that would remain intact. The internals were genius, the mechanism had a permanent magnet in place that would engage once, while you played the tape for the second time, and disengage afterwards to be locked in place away from the tape forever. So the permanent magnet would do its thing and disappear into a corner. These were popular at the very end of the tape era, so naturally they got replaced by DVD's shortly after.

Always interesting to find out about a physical media format I have not heard before.

When I was a kid in 1997 or 1998, my family was sent a TV pilot episode on one of these tapes for review by NBC. They asked us to mail it back to them, along with our review. The show was never actually picked up for broadcast.

Thanks to this video I learned the “Dude, you’re getting’ a Dell” guy had other jobs.

Wait.... wasn't that the guy from those old Dell computer commercials? You know, 'Dude, you're getting a Dell'.

I worked in the video production industry through the entire product life of VHS, and never came across these. Impressed

Can you imagine if we were still using this technology, and all of our channel subscriptions were distributed by KZfaq on "disposable" VHS tapes through the post? The Earth would be buried in these things!

Its great that you took it apart for us, I am always excited to see how stuff works when taking things apart myself : )

As someone who's lived in the US for 39 years, I can say that I've never heard of anything like this before just now.

these evolved into the little disposable "business card" promo video CDs that came out a little later, I remember getting one with a carton of Winstons

Its interesting how you note that people 20 years ago could still generally play VHS tapes. I remember a lot of the digital viewing upgrades remained somewhat pricey well into the 2000s. I didn't see a digital TV picture until 2003 when my family got Sky television and DVD finally became a thing that was somewhat affordable.

While I’ve never seen this type of VHS Tape, I did receive an “odd” VHS tape when I requested a Walt Disney World Planning tape in 1995. The cassette was made of soft plastic and was rather light. It had a door of the same material and the tape was around 30 mins long. This was the 1st and only time I’ve seen that style VHS tape.

He'll need to start inventing his own media formats soon

Another great Techmoan video! I live in the US, and I had never heard of V-Lite. Publix Supermarkets have accepted some Styrofoam for recycling since at least 1998, but not the Styrofoam used in shipping which is what the material shown in the video resembles.

I remember VHS and I'm only 34 Years old. I even still have a player Kicking around my house SOMEWHERE. Never heard of V-lite. I'm a fan of old Formats and when I lived with my parents we were always behind the curve on getting the latest and greatest tech. I Didn't receive my first CD player until sometime in the early 2000's. I take pleasure in trying to keep new tech backwards compatible with old tech. My parents still have a good collection of Old VHS Tapes that were mostly purchased from rental places like a local rental store such as 1 stop video and also some from blockbuster.

reminds me of those self-destructing rental DVDs - because more disposable plastic is just what the planet needs! like you said, glad there's youtube for movie trailers and such nowadays!

Looking at the complexity and parts in a VHS tape, it seems crazy that they sold them for like 5 or 6 for ten dollars. We had hundreds of VHS tapes, each one a little marvel of engineering.

Utterly new concept to me, I’d never heard of such a thing before, how fascinating, I wonder how many plays you got out of it.

I don't remember v-lite, though I do remember we got a few truly disposable vhs tapes as part of a review/ rating program for tv pilots/programs where the tape would erase as you watched it. Then, you binned the tape and sent in the review or rating and would be sent another. I think we only did that for a few months before we got tired of it and quit the program...

I came across them in the UK (DVDs was so expensive) as training or promo for computer products. I thought it was completely made of cardboard but probably not paying attention.

I cannot express how much I enjoy this channel.

It looks like the kind of tape Mr. Phelps would get his instructions on if _Mission: Impossible_ had VCRs in the 1960s.

5:25 “Will it eject? (…) Well that’s something I’ll never watch again” You’re breaking that little VHS’ heart! 😄

I'm from the U.S. and about 50 years old - I don't remember this at all. You mentioned it came from CA - My guess is that these campaigns were targeted at larger population areas, and in this case, video & movie production centers... Being from rural Pennsylvania, I never say anything like this in the mail, or even heard of it... it's unlikely the companies wanted to waste the funding on such sparse areas. Only thing similar I recall were the DIGI-PAK CD cases that were cheap and light. Great video as always, Sir- Thank you!

What an interesting bit of disposable media! While this isn't quite related, I'd love to see you cover those "Microdrives", little tiny hdd's from the late 90s and early 00s that were used in digital cameras and MP3 players. The RCA H100A MP3 player I had as a kid had one inside. Fascinating to see a working Hard drive that looks like it’s a keychain!

Always great watching techmoan during weekends :)

Such Nostalgia, I miss VHS. 🥺 📼 The 80's and 90's were the good old days. 😎👍

I am about the same age as Techmoan and the "back in my day..." remark prompts me to remind all the younger viewers that back in our day we had to not only send off for our disposable VHS tapes and wait for the post, we also had to watch them uphill both ways. 😁

Techmoan never disappoints, always something new and interesting.

Considering its age and the simplicity of the mechanism the image quality is surprisingly good. I fondly remember the pre-interner era where the whole family drove to the videotheque to select a couple of movies to enjoy at home, together. Good times.

Great timing to release a video about a video with Paul Rudd in it.

I’m American, I grew up in the 1990’s. As a kid, I heard of lightweight mailable VHS’s, but I’d never actually seen one. Now I have thanks to this video.

Never knew something such as this existed! Thanks, Matt for the video.

Thank you for another peak back into the history I know from personal experience (VHS, not the V-lite format). Enjoyable episode. Nice to see how the V-lite tape cassette was built.

Years ago my parents got a video tape to watch then do a phone survey about. The instructions said to not rewind the tape and to throw it away after the video was watched and the survey completed. After it was done I opened up the tape and found a slot cut into part of the shell and a small but pretty strong bar magnet glued in. I removed the magnet, rewound the tape and found the video to be pretty sparkly with dropouts but still watchable. One segment was either a short pilot for a TV comedy series, or a fake short pilot made for the survey. The title of it was "Morning Glory" and I'm pretty certain it had Richard Masur and Sandra Dickinson (still looking like she did as Trillian in the BBC TV Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) in it. How long ago? Early 1990's. It'd be fun to send the tape to someone who could digitize and de-noise it, and identify the cast of that segment. Another part I remember was a storyboard with voiceover for some over the counter medicine.

The USPS still has Priority Mail boxes available that are designed to fit VHS tapes.

Funny enough, there is somewhat a modern equivalent to this: They make ultra thin "disposable" video players, with a small LCD screen and the content loaded on an SD card, and send that in the mail, usually attached to some card or even a magazine cover.

That's the "Dude, you're getting a Dell" guy. Isn't it?

They definitely did make it to the UK, I was in the Krazyhouse rock club in Liverpool in the early 2000's and a load of polystyrene VHS promos for (I'm almost certain) Duran Duran were given away to uninterested punters one night. By the looks of the piles and piles of smashed polystyrene and loops of tape strewn across the floor at chucking out time, nobody took one home to risk playing in their VCR

Hey! It’s Ben Curtis the Dell dude! Lost the Dell spokesperson gig over a bag of weed. Interesting to see him in something other than a Dell commercial telling us “Dude! You’re getting a Dell!” lol

In 1994 I got a VHS from Nintendo promoting the future release of Donkey Kong Country. They sent out one to every Nintendo Power subscriber and everyone who registered their Super Nintendo Entertainment System console (potentially millions). It must have worked because that was the first time I ever even heard of putting money down to reserve a copy of an unreleased game… and I did it. “Reserve your copy today!” They didn’t even call it “preorder” back then. It was so successful they did it again in 1996 ahead of the launch of the Nintendo 64. They did it yet again for many other games, like Diddy Kong Racing, Banjo-Kazooie, Pokémon, and more. They definitely weren’t these paper flap things so regular VHS tapes must’ve been cheap enough on their own.

This video is the V-Lite equivalent of Techmoan: Short but sweet. The main difference is V-Lite was never meant to be watched more than once, and I always go back and re-watch Techmoan. ;) You're more like a syndicated run of your favorite series... at least to me. But this points out one of the biggest losses we, as a society, have: Lack of ownership of our culture's media. I remember wanting to watch a movie and going to my cabinet of VHS Tapes, looking them over, and selecting one to watch. Now, I have the equivalent of hundreds of cabinets worth of movies/videos/ect., to watch, but they're not mine. I have to 'stream' them and hope the Wi-Fi doesn't go down. (Don't get me started on music).

LOL Always love Techmoans Hip-Hop references. Gonna have to listen to "Act A Fool" now.

im still waiting for him to discuss the Amstrad VHS dashcam

Always look forward each week to your videos. Keep up the awesome work

I remember getting CD-ROMs in cereal boxes as a kid that had games on them. I also remember them being in the actual cereal bag, not like toys now that are just in the box outside the bag with the actual food in it.

4:35 - Holy shit! Dude, you're getting a Dell!!

I'm in the U.S, was in my 20s during the '90s, and this is the first time I've even seen these tapes.

Always interesting gear you find electronics wise...keep these going.

11:20 Sending USB flash drive with H264 encoded video on it would be something that most people can watch. On the other hand pulging unknown USB device you got in the mail into your computer is a very bad idea.

3:46 Mat: "Play." JVC DVHS deck: "No."

to be fair. i didn't expect the V-light cassette to sound that good. 😮 it actually is Hi-Fi Stereo encoded, very interesting!

I had loads of light weight 15 minute VHS tapes sent to me from readers digest and other marketing companies. I used to re record them with school clips and copy from my old memorex mtx 512 computer dubbed with songs for valentine's day and birthdays. Sometimes I used to put photos on and have them set up on loop mode in school for presentation days. Like parents evenings etc.

Every upload a joy 😭👏

That guy in the video was from the "Dude you're getting a Dell" Dell computer advertisement campaign that was on TV constantly in the late 90s.

Barclaycard sent me a V-Lite-like tape when I was a student in the late 1990s. It was similar to the V-Lite except it had a flap. It wasn’t hinged or anything - it was a scored flap of plastic. Like your V-Lite, it took a couple of attempts to find a machine that didn’t just reject it.

Very interesting, I had no idea these existed. I often wonder about all the plastic used in the manufacture of VHS and it's a bit sad to think the vast majority of it's in landfill.

Funny, it does seem a good cheap way of selling blank 1 hour cassettes for daily use. If only priced at $3 it would certainly have changed the market for a couple of years. I like the styro fillup, seems sturdy enough to use. Nowadays a 3 pack VHS costs $20. Good video, thanks.

I'm impressed with the engineer who thought to make it that way. They were pretty clever with their weight saving techniques!

i love this channel. im glad it exists and am grateful.

I bought one of these at a Suede gig in the late nineties. Very short programme as I remember. I think it had a music video and some in-studio video footage. I only watched it twice so can’t bear witness to its longevity! Great vid as ever chief!

Wow, I would never dare to play this in my own VCR.

In the US V-light was most often used for things like assembly instructions in equipment/ flat pack etc. and as the one you have, promos.

Back in the day when I was putting short films on the festival circuit I would call up infomerical numbers to order promo tapes and copy over them to save cash. But even those were actual, for-real VHS tapes albeit of cheaper plastic. I've never ever run across these novelties.

Interesting video. What video capture set up do you have (or is there already a video you've put out I've missed)? I've got some old personal videos I'd like to digitise, and that copy you showed was pretty good quality

Having worked in video rental shops in the 1990’s this brings back great memories of pulling apart and repairing the cassettes after they were damaged by careless arseholes…I mean valued customers…..

Polystyrène is recyclable and is recycled in some countries. In Belgium we have bags at the recycling park to drop polystyrène in. It is then recycled in volumes later :-)

I am an old fossil that remembers life when if there was a show you wanted to watch, you needed to check the listings for the time and channel when it was aired. My family didn't get it's first VCR until I was in high school. That VCR had a wired remote. That's right, you needed to plug the remote into the front of the VCR. The pause "button" wasn't a button you pressed, it was a switch you pushed up to pause or down to unpause. It also unpaused if the cable was disconnected. My freshman year of college, my RA had a VCR that was much older than the first one my parents bought. It was larger and the tape was loaded on top . But the really wild thing about it was that it had 2 rotary channel selectors, one for VHF channels and the other for UHF channels. I am also an old fossil because I refuse to abandon physical media. I got rid of all my old VHS tapes years ago, but I have held onto my DVD collection. I've even purchased new ones this very year. I get nostalgic for a lot of older TV shows that aren't available to stream anywhere. But Amazon often has complete series DVDs on sale at relatively low prices. The other advantage of physical media is that you don't need to worry about a movie or series leaving a streaming service or for the company you purchased a digital copy of a show or movie going out of business. I have a standalone 4K bluray player and a PC with an internal 4K bluray burner. My standalone player is connected to my living room TV, while the PC is connected to the TV in my bedroom. Unfortunately, DVD drives don't come bundled with Power DVD software anymore. The Power DVD license actually cost me more than the drive did.

I don't do it often, I usually wait until I have seen a good portion of a KZfaq video, before I click the Like button, but for TechMoan I click right away. The production quality and the subject is always top notch.

Loving those Panasonic decks. They have great playback quality.

I think the most important question is "What happened to the puppets"? It was my favorite part of a lot of your videos. Please bring them back

I got one from SEGA, promoting the Saturn. It was similar to this, but felt like it was all plastic and had a protective door for the tape. Although, it didn’t play in all the players, like this one. 😆

The name V-lite sounds like some sort of disposable vaping device.

4:35 Dude!! You're gettin a Dell!!!

Wow. Really REALLY thought I'd seen all the media formats by now. Another new one, neat. Thanks Mat.

You always find such obscure tech!

my father had a V-lite tape in the UK, he got a plastic promo box in the early 2000s about rolling cigarettes it came with tobacco, a roller, instructions/paper work and a instructional tape only remember it as the tape basically fell apart

Mat needs to set up a Patreon tier where he sends you a physical copy of each video on VHS

Pure madness, an example of the MVP (Minimum Viable Product) concept but done in reverse 👀

Hats off! A rarity from the vault of analogue formats "which I never heard of".