Do you still have and/or use a VCR?

from JoeUser Forums

Someone around the office brought in a VCR the other day.  He brought it in because it had jammed with a tape inside and wouldn't eject no matter what he tried.  With fair warning that I'm better at taking things apart than getting them back together, we worked to get the jammed tape (old Laurel and Hardy if I'm remembering right) out of the machine as it was a loaner from a library.  That part went ok, but getting the machine back together, as expected wasn't as easy as I would have hoped.

But, it wound up not mattering as the machine had apparently popped the drive belt and had other issues going on.  The heads wouldn't spin and the mechanisms were jammed up for other reasons, so the owner of the machine sadly said good-bye to what had, at one point in time, been an expensive purchase.  Hi-Fi VCR with VCR Plus features.  He was thinking several hundred dollar purchase (up into the $500 range).

I was telling him that I've not touched a VCR in a long, long time.  Not quite true as I have a TV that has a VCR built-in (I didn't want it that way, but I did want a TV with all of the ports that this one has, so I had no real choice at the time of purchase), but I never use that VCR, even for playing back anything.  I've long since switched to DVD, even though I know there are a few titles you just can't get in DVD format that might be available in VHS.

I'm quickly moving away from even DVD, on to HD-DVD and Blu-ray (much less so on the Blu-ray side, as I still prefer HD-DVD myself), but I have several different machines that can play DVD and even have one DVD recorder (VCR style) in the house.  It is a touchy beast, far too touchy actually, that is finnicky about what media it will work with and such, so I try not to rely on it for anything either.

As we couldn't get the VCR back to working condition, we wound up canning, as is tossing into the trashcan, that VCR with the original owner having to make plans to find a replacement at Wally-world (Wal*Mart) or K-Mart or similar.  We checked online and found you could get a DVD recorder/VCP (video cassette player) combo fairly cheaply.  He wasn't terribly thrilled with that idea as he had plans to eventually replace the original VCR but wasn't thinking about doing that now.

I suggested perhaps he could check Freecycle.org or similar and may find someone giving away a VCR just to get it out of their home, but I suspect he'll wind up buying a new something or other.  Whatever he gets will have twice the features that the original had, and most likely will include DVD playback at least.  Finding a plain old VCR isn't so easy now.

Anyway, it inspired the question of whether or not you (readers) still have a VCR yourself and/or whether you actually use it for anything if you do?

7,748 views 16 replies
Reply #1 from JoeUser Forums Top
Anyway, it inspired the question of whether or not you (readers) still have a VCR yourself and/or whether you actually use it for anything if you do?


VCR?

I say if it ain't out on Super 8, it ain't worth watching!
Reply #2 from JoeUser Forums Top
Most of my chick flicks were really cheap at WalMart on VHS not so many years ago, so yes, we still use the VCR. I have to tape things for school and such as well, so the VCR comes in handy when I have to transfer something over.
DeskScapes - Bring your desktop background to life.
Reply #3 from JoeUser Forums Top
Oops. That was from MarcieMoo. This sharing a computer thing is a little difficult. lol
Reply #4 from JoeUser Forums Top
I say if it ain't out on Super 8, it ain't worth watching!

Nice One   

We still have a VCR, still does all we need it to do. My wife is not a particularly avid film watcher, so all we use it for is playing back personal tapes or recording the odd show we would otherwise miss. There hasnt been any point in getting a DVD player for the TV, VCR has done all we need - any DVD films I want I will watch on the computer in the study.

The day is coming though as the trusty steed is noisily clanking and whiring a bit too much these days - poor soul (the VCR not the wife   )
Reply #5 from JoeUser Forums Top
Oops. That was from MarcieMoo. This sharing a computer thing is a little difficult. lol


Yeah. I know how INCREDIBLY hard it is to set up separate user accounts on Windows XP!

(oh, for the days when the teachers were SMARTER than the students!)
Reply #6 from JoeUser Forums Top

The advent of the DVR (Digital Video Recorder) was what basically sealed the fate of the VCR for me.  I was plenty smart enough to configure and use a VCR, and heck, my DirecTV satellite receivers would automatically control the VCRs, then later Dish Network receivers that did the same, and finally later still more DirecTV receivers, but once I had moved into the Dish Network receivers I was working with DVRs -- Dish Players (a predecessor to Microsoft's Ultimate TV boxes, somewhat akin to their WebTV for Windows products, somewhat akin to Windows Media Center Edition, etc.) to be exact.

Even though the Dish Players could control a VCR and make it automatically record content that was coming through the receiver, the fact of the matter was that the Dish Player boxes had hard drives on board and could digitally record the stream that was coming down from the satellite so there was no loss of resolution, etc., that comes from the digital to analog conversion, or from the TV broadcast recording that is done back on VHS tape (which doesn't support the resolution that broadcast TV actually uses).

Though I bought the Dish Players because they were capable of controlling VCRs, I quickly learned that I didn't need VCRs to record content any more -- at least while the Dish Players were initially somewhat stable boxes, before Dish and Microsoft seemed to have conspired to make the boxes basically useless due to botched software upgrades, lack of software upgrades, etc., (which eventually drove me over to DirecTV and their DirecTV DVR's powered by TiVo).

Once I moved back to DirecTV and got the DirecTV DVRs with TiVo there was absolutely no going back to VCR.  And steadily DVD took hold in the market place at about the same time, so I wound up not even using VCRs to play back rental tapes and such from Blockbuster and other rental places.

As I said in the original article, I've not touched a VCR (for my own usage) in a long, long time.  DVD had better resolution, crisper pictures, better sound, etc.  And while I occassionally longed for the ability to make my own DVDs of TV content on my TiVo boxes, I really never missed the hassles of VCRs.

I spoke up a bit, recently, in Karma's thread about A different time, a different world.  In another few years there will be plenty of people that hear the term VCR and ask what the heck is that?!?  My children know what VCRs were, but their children (when they have them) will likely never know of them and may ask the question in a way that would be similar to someone reading Gid's comment above about Super 8 and go huh?!?

Reply #7 from JoeUser Forums Top
Yes, like you I have one TV with it built in, and a couple of combo decks.
Reply #8 from JoeUser Forums Top

Yes, like you I have one TV with it built in, and a couple of combo decks.

But do you actively use them?

Reply #9 from JoeUser Forums Top
I have a little VCR/TV combo that I bought a few years ago for a long road trip and I use it to watch home movies. We do have a decades old VCR in the storage closet but I don't even know if it works.

Reply #10 from JoeUser Forums Top

But do you actively use them?

My son does - to tape DVDs.  I dont.  Even Hollywood does not rent them any longer.

(And btw, please let me know if you see the message I set up for you with you as the private audience. Thx)

No.  If an article, I think I would need the AID.  I think there is a way to send emails from one of the forums since I have been sent them before from others.

Reply #11 from JoeUser Forums Top

Yes, we have one.  No we don't use it.  In fact, I don't think it works. 

Makes a great clock though.

Reply #12 from JoeUser Forums Top
My children know what VCRs were, but their children (when they have them) will likely never know of them and may ask the question in a way that would be similar to someone reading Gid's comment above about Super 8 and go huh?!?


Wait for the day when they say that about DVDs - then you'll know the grim reaper is near   
Reply #13 from JoeUser Forums Top
I haven't owned or used a VCR in years. I haven't moved up beyond DVD as of yet but am waiting to see which format becomes the dominant one. There's still some contention as to whether the Blu Ray or HD-DVD will wind up dominating the market. My money is on HD, but that remains to be seen.
Reply #14 from JoeUser Forums Top

Anyway, it inspired the question of whether or not you (readers) still have a VCR yourself and/or whether you actually use it for anything if you do?

Yep!  still have two of em,  and use them for watching movies.  Some of my favorite movies are dirt cheap right now VHS,  ain't gonna replace all of my VHS movies with DVD's though.

Reply #15 from JoeUser Forums Top
Got a VCR and a VCR/DVD. We record shows with them. We watch movies on them. We use one as a clock. I plug my video games through one of them so that I can use my stereo speakers. Very convenient little gadgets. We don't have cable, so there's no reason to move up. The quality over the antenna is worse than VHS quality anyway.
Reply #16 from JoeUser Forums Top
I have one.  I may have two (don't remember) but I don't use them very often.  My daughter has a couple tapes she likes to watch, but everything else we have is on DVD now.