Back in 2003, me and some mates set the Guinness World Record for non-stop movie watching (we clocked in at 'only' 63 hours and 27 minutes, but that was enough for the record back then). The rules set by the Guinness Book were long and quite specific, but didn't have a provision for 'technology failure'.
DVDs obviously existed back then, but most stores were still a mix of them and VHS (plus the occasionaly Laserdisc Pocket, futilely seeking a return on investment). We opted to go through all the movies on VHS - basically, a DVD fail was often 'all or nothing' while a VHS tape might scroll or stutter (and indeed, 58 hours in the machine overheated and gave us no visuals for a few scary minutes) but they would usually keep rolling and come good.
Now of course it's all digital, and my wonderful VHS collection taunts me every time I step into my office as I convert them one-by-one.
DVDs obviously existed back then, but most stores were still a mix of them and VHS (plus the occasionaly Laserdisc Pocket, futilely seeking a return on investment). We opted to go through all the movies on VHS - basically, a DVD fail was often 'all or nothing' while a VHS tape might scroll or stutter (and indeed, 58 hours in the machine overheated and gave us no visuals for a few scary minutes) but they would usually keep rolling and come good.
Now of course it's all digital, and my wonderful VHS collection taunts me every time I step into my office as I convert them one-by-one.