Best websites for Physical Media

Here’s an ongoing round-up of some of my favorite physical media sites. Some of these are resources, and some of these are tools, and some of these are just cool!

Here’s my top favs right now in no particular order:

Lunchmeat

Lunchmeat is a site I keep finding myself coming back to for one reason or another. Its maybe the best hub for VHS culture and analog media. If you’re into VHS, tape preservation, boutique releases, or the whole analog aesthetic, it’s an awesome place to add to your RSS feed.

Walkman.land

An absolutely insane resource showing pictures and specs for old handheld cassette devices. This website is an insane resource for old handheld cassette devices, packed with detailed photos, specs, catalogs, and documentation for hundreds of portable players and recorders.

K.D. Kemp’s Book shelf & Physical Media Guide

I love old websites from the Geocities era, and K.D. Kemp’s built a really cool collection of sites that all work together to tell a story of forgotten media. I first discovered it in my search for physical media, and the Physical Media Guide is a great place to start for a rundown on collecting old media.

VHS Is Life

Tony from @VHSisLIFE basically built an entire ecosystem of VHS products from scratch. His mold cleaner became a huge resource for collectors, and he helped bring new colored VHS tape production (pictured) back by going factory to factory until he found a shop willing to experiment with custom colors.

MisterBetamax

If you want to buy a Betamax VCR, MisterBetamax is THE place to go. He refurbishes them himself, and his site is a rich resource for every question you might have about Betamax tapes. I love that it uses a web design from the days of the early internet, and yet still works pretty well on mobile. And I even successfully accidentally bought a Betamax VCR on their website (which I still need to pay for).

VCR Zone

VCR Zone, created by Unstable_king brings a charm to “making things that should exist” — turning modern movies, anime, games, and soundtracks into fully imagined VHS and cassette releases with custom packaging, artwork, and analog presentation. He’s got real love for the physical formats, the design language. And also, he brings fresh ideas to how to deliver these formats. His approach has been a huge source of inspiration.

Tapercraft (My site)

I’ve been building this Tapercraft website for the past year as a tool for people to design and print their own VHS, DVD, Cassette, CD, and now Vinyl and Playing Card boxes and labels. More to come in the future, including MiniDisc and other formats.

Unfolder — Turn anything into physical media ;)

One more thing that I want to try: Unfolder is a mac app that can generate 2D parts for your 3D models in a few seconds. I’ve got a lot of fun things that I’d like to someday add to my “Tapercraft” website.

Bonus Links

Here’s some more things, I might add these as bigger entries like above at some point, but this is basically an organized bookmark list for me:

• VHS-style Playing Cards Link
• 3D model for 3D printing VHS tape shells Link
• Videopunks Link
• Intertapes Link