Refers to where you wish to view a certain motion-picture creation for the first time, but DVDs or BluRay disks of that title are rather pricey, and so you are hesitant to shell out that much when you can't be sure that you would even like the movie all that much, anyway. So what you do is to initially purchase a used VHS tape of said film for just two or three bucks... sure, the tape may be an old worn scratchy thing that doesn't give all that pristine a picture, but at least you will be able to view the movie and see what it's about and how good it is, and then decide if you wanna "upgrade" to a more-costly digital disc of this title.
Now that so many older movie-titles are available on YouTube and other online video-viewing sites, there is often less of a need to perform a VHS-preview of a particular movie, since you may be able to just watch it online, and thus be able to "determine for free" if you want to buy a copy of it on DVD or BluRay.
by QuacksO June 8, 2019