Do you still use a VCR?

[danemodsandy]

My Reason For Keeping a VCR:

First off, for simple time-shifting, it's easy, cheap and it's paid for.

But the bigger reason is that with so many people dumping VHS collections into yard sales and thrift stores, I often find rarities - stuff that didn't sell all that well on VHS, and therefore doesn't stand a snowball's chance in Hell of a DVD release.

Given that I rarely watch movies made after about 1960, this represents both a great resource and a great savings. Even when something is on DVD, I often find it far cheaper on VHS. A recent example would be Winter Meeting, a 1948 Bette Davis movie that is not as well-known as her other films of that decade are. It's available on DVD through Warner Archive, but it's $22.95 plus shipping.

The VHS cassette of Winter Meeting I found last week was fifty cents.

This would not work for everyone, but it works for me.

P.S.: A really outrageous example of savings would be the 1960 made-for-TV version of Peter Pan, starring Mary Martin. A lot of us boomers grew up with this TV special. The VHS tape turns up pretty often at fifty cents or a buck. The DVD version was only in release a short while, and now used copies go for between $100 and $250. So, that one's a case of VHS or don't own it at all. Unless you're rich. And I ain't.

 

[washabear]

Thanks for all of your replies. I enjoyed reading all of the different perspectives.

I don't think I would want to get a used VCR because I'm afraid it might have roaches in it. I think my cable box has a DVR, but I believe I would have to pay extra to use it, which I would not be willing to do. I could be wrong about that; I'll have to look into it.

OK, I'll admit that these days I mainly use the VCR to record Y&R so I can watch it in the evening. I can watch it online, but it's so gunked up with ads that it's painful to watch. So the VCR works fine for my purposes. I also have many recorded movies and other things on videocassettes that I still like to watch, so I want the VCR for those as well. Some are from the 1980s and still work fine. The picture quality of VCR looks fine to me.

I guess I'll trundle along with what I have for now and maybe look into getting a backup VCR/DVD combo for when this one fails.

Thanks again.

 

[kenmoreguy64]

I still have a number of VCRs

Both VHS and Beta.

I seem to seldom use them for recording, but when I do its one of the betas. I had a huge collection of Beta machines until recently, but I sold most of them on eBay, including an SL-HF1000 for over $700.

Phil - I sold two SL-HF900s on eBay last year for about $300 each. There has been a decent market for Beta machines on eBay for some time. I still have two more and now my Dad's SL-HF600. You can also sell the tapes on eBay. I sold over 200 beta tapes that were surplus of mine or my Dad's last year for about $1 each. MUCH better than dumping them. Some of the buyers just like to fish through them for old commercials. They have to be sold as blanks.

My primary use for the machines now, which just re-surfaced a couple weeks ago, is watching my Star Trek tapes. I have every episode of the original Star Trek (79 episodes), all the Next Gen, all DS9, and three seasons of Voyager on VHS. I think that is approaching 500 tapes like Justin. I hadn't touched them in years, in fact about 25% have never been opened. I've been watching about 4 a night lately after I get home from work and the gym.

About getting a machine at a thrift store - I have a TOL Toshiba which I bought new in 1995 that I have really enjoyed. I saw one just like it at Good Will a couple years ago and grabbed it for I think $5. I took it immediately to my service shop, called VCR Doctor, who cleaned and serviced it before I put any tape in it, for the very reason that Sandy indicated - dirty kid's fingers. Now I have a backup to the first Toshiba. I was glad to have it when I had the original one serviced last year.

Gordon

 

[mich2013]

Torrent anyone?

Am I the only one here, who just downloads everything, and keeps his computer direct connected to the TV, and uses OTA antenna to watch Local's as needed?

 

[wayupnorth]

I still use a rooftop antenna to get local stations for basically local news but have DirecTV on an old grandfathered package. But it p...es me off that I cant get 1 or 2 more channels and they keep adding more shopping garbage and church channels for free. But they keep increasing the monthly price every year and the networks add more and more commercials.

 

[tolivac]

My Sony VCR just gather dust at this point-The VHS tapes I have now are video "owners manuals" of older appliances I have.VHS movies I have given away,or thrown out.DVD'd and Blu Rays are so much better.Since I have a widescreen TV-the VHS movies also pose another problem-they are "pan&scanned" copies of movies that would normally be widescreen and sized to fit older 4x3 TV's.The audio of VHS tapes is terrible-even the "Hi-Fi" soundtracks just don't cut it.And the playing life of the tapes is less than DVD's.I don't use downloads-too much work and hassle for me.Just easier to buy or rent the DVD or BluRay discs.I no longer watch broadcast TV-too much trash on broadcast TV,cable, and sattelite.
The sony VCR worked good when I bought it back in the 90's-It replaced a NEC VCR that failed constantly and ate tapes-so it and I had a target session at the range-it was the target!Loved blasting that horrible machine to bits!.308,.223 did it in-and a blast from a freinds 12 G shotgun with buckshot.NEC was recycled alright!

 

[arbilab]

The history of video recording is very much the same as mine. It was invented when I was 10yo. I first saw one when I was 12yo and I was positively enchanted. And remained so for 30 years, when my career was making broadcast VTRs work.

Not that hardly anyone ever knew how it worked, but today they don't know or care what it was. Well that's about par, they don't know or care who I was either. Just one of a couple thousand guys who made television possible in that era, for what that was worth. ($15K/yr went a long way in 1985.)

So keep your stuff alive, or shxtcan it like everyone else has. You have my best wishes. That's all I have left. Plus some movies and a working JVC VHS.

 

[mark_wpduet]

Not me --

In Christmas 1984, I was still 12...We got our first VCR and let me tell you I used the hell out of that thing until 1995 ish recording my soaps every day while at school at watching them in my room at night......I don't think I've used one for ten years maybe?

I mean, I don't even use DVD's anymore......When you can have multiple complete TV series and tons of movies stored on an external drive and watch them via a media player on your tv. I've encoded most of my dvd's over the past few years in DivX, XviD, and X264. It's so much better than going to get a DVD, changing it out, putting it back, getting another one, etc....same for VHS tapes.

 

[jakeseacrest]

I still have a VCR/DVD player in my bedroom. I have alot of tapes that aren't available on DVD and some that I haven't bought the DVD version yet.

 

[whirlcool]

A friend of ours had a three store video rental chain back in the 80's. Around 1999 he closed them all down, but started selling the 25,000 tape inventory on Ebay. H's very surprised at how much some of the tapes will fetch.

 

[jeffg]

Two of them in fact.

In many cases original VHS material is "better" (less grainy etc) than its poorly digitially transferred equivalent.. The first work that came to my mind was Peter Gabriel's "Secret World Live" concert. The VHS is great, the DVD is barely watchable imo.

 

[ovrphil]

Yes

I still use and play VCR tapes on a (Goodwill find) Sony SLV-D380P VCR/DVD player......started archiving all those with a ('nother Goodwill find) Liteon LVC9016G VCR & DVD recorder; less than a hundred VCR tapes produced from just two VCR's I bought when money was abundant - TOL's Fisher and Mitsubishi, late 80's/early 90's. I'm ready to move on, but will always have some VCR/DVD player to play those VCR tapes not found on DVD.

I haven't experienced any problems with the Goodwill Sony and Liteon product I bought. The LiteOn was a God-send. Just used a DVD/VCR cleaner, and both work flawlessly.

You can donate any of your vcr tapes to thrift shops and Goodwill, if you have them nearby. That's where you can find unused DVD and VCR tapes, and some rarities that aren't on DVD.

Kenmoreguy64 - I knew Beta machines had some value - you did well, congrats.
Mark_Wpduet - thanks for mentioning - like that idea

 

[danemodsandy]

Sometimes:

VHS's lower resolution helps with source material that is a little "distressed."

One of my favorite old movies is 1940's Escape, with Norma Shearer and Robert Taylor. I had it on VHS tape for a long time, and it looked pretty good for such an old movie.

I now have it on DVD from Warner Archive. Warner Archive is a special division of Warner Home Video for releasing classic movies that would be unaffordable to restore for regular release. Instead of restoring, Warner Archive uses "best available prints" from the Warner vaults. This makes a lot of movies available that would never make the cost of restoration back, due to limited sales.

However, the higher resolution of DVD makes every scratch and dust speck much more apparent than VHS did. I'm grateful to have this movie at all, but still, it was actually more enjoyable on VHS.

 

[sudsmaster]

I've gone through a lot of VCR's, even bought a pair of matching high end Sony VCR's (2000 series) back in the 90's so I could make edits etc in SVHS. Both those have since died, as well as a JVC, and a Panasonic. Still have a Sanyo Beta recorder, and it still works, though. Even have a little Sony Hi-8 deck, which was useful for processing Hi-8 tapes made with a Hi-8 camcorder.

When Panasonic came out with a dual DVD recorder/VHS deck, with an ATSC tuner (EZ-475), I scooped that up from Costco. I think that was around 2008 or 2009. Have made a lot of off-the air recordings with it, esp. PBS and similar documentaries. I also use it to time shift, but that tends to build up a pile of DVD's. Could use DVD-RW discs for that, which I have done as well.

As far as convenience goes, it takes no longer to pop in a blank DVD+/-R disc and start recording than it does to pop in a blank VHS tape for same. A DVD-RW will take extra time to format the disc first, but once formatted it's as quick to start recording as a write once disc. Disc mfg makes a difference - Sony DVD's tended to be troublesome, but lately I've had good luck with TDK's.

I rarely watch anything on tape any more, unless it's the only copy. And then I'll try to move it to DVD disc ASAP.

 

[mark_wpduet]

I have a DVD player VHS combo in my attic

Just in case I need one in the future....

I'm bored, so I'm going to list everything that is on my 2 tb external hard drive......and there's STILL 1tb of space LEFT.

-Charmed - complete
-Smallville - complete
-Desperate Housewives - complete
-Six Million Dollar Man - complete
-Bionic Woman - complete
-Golden Girls - complete
-Designing Women - complete
-Sex and the City - complete
-Roseanne - complete
-Modern Family (complete so far)
-Hot in Cleveland (complete so far)
-Seinfeld -complete
-King of Queens -complete
-A haunting - complete
-Twilight Zone (1980s) complete
-Soap (complete)
-Big Bang Theory -complete to date
-Alice - complete
-Charlies Angels complete
There are also 131 movies in the movie folder.

Can you imagine how many VHS tapes or DVD's that would be.

UGHGH

 

[washer111]

Would if I Could

But I think even 3 3-head cassette decks is enough (and one requires some "calibration" and service... Something that nearly 1 year later I've yet to get around to sending it off for).

What I have trouble with is the DVD vs. VHS thing. Back when it was released, I think DVD was better quality on our older CRT televisions. But now, if you try to watch anything on a larger LCD or Plasma TV at reasonable range, you get the horrid .Mpeg file format's lovely compression scheme that makes anything that isn't still blocky and pixelated. Issue is obviously TV networks that are too stingy to fork the additional storage space and have higher quality 480p stuff around (480p is just a resolution. The actual bandwidth can be anywhere up to 5-6 Mbps).

High-Definition on tv (720 or 1080) is a big improvement, but I've found the quality is sometimes worse, again because of the video bandwidth (HD should be at least 7Mbps if memory serves me correctly), where they use rates well into the Standard-Definition range.

Having visited some friends a few times recently, and having watched some movies via online streaming and VHS (projected onto a wall!), I can safely say VHS looks far better in Standard-Definition, as it lacks all that horrible compression artefacts seen on digital stuff.

But now for the Million-$ question: Who here still uses Laser-Disc?! (High quality, Analogue DVD predecessor, but with hugely oversized and sensitive discs). If Wikipedia is correct, it was still a very popular medium well into the 2000s, with most chains retiring their LD's around 2006 or so.

Anyone into HD-DVD still? (Blu-Ray's competition back in 2005/6/7)

 

[tolivac]

Laserdisc-have a large collection of them and two Laserdisc machines-one is a Pioneer "Combo" machine that can also play DVDs-since it is a first generation player-some DVDs will not play on it.The other Laserdisc machine I have is a Sony one.Laserdiscs will blow VHS tapes out of the water as far as video and sound quality is conecerned.Laserdisc was the first serious "home theater" format.
HD DVD- still have a collection of them and a HD player.(Toshiba)Still works.Did not turn any of the HD movies I have toward BluRay ones-didn't see the need.Guess I now have a collectors item!And to top it off--Best Buy gave me a $60 gift card(used the card to get some BluRay movies) becuase I had a now what was considered "obselete" machine.And from what I have been reading on one of the Cinema forums-some movies are actually sent to them as special BluRay discs-and the projectionists report the BluRays they get work fine from any of the digital projectors they use.The discs they get don't have the "consumer" type menus and trailers.Just the movie and trailers that could go with it from the movies studio that sent them the disc.
Oh yes-some of my Laserdiscs did suffer from "Laser Rot" corrosion of the metal disc layer from improper sealing of the plastic disc facings.CD's and DVD's didn't have that problem.Have DVD replacements of the Laserdiscs that rotted.
At one time saw some HD movies in the DVD bins at Food Lion-didn't get any-titles I already had.They like $5.00 each.

 

[countryford]

As I sit here typing away on my laptop, I'm watching the original black and white Perry Mason on my 1959 Magnavox console tv through a dvd player. I have up through season 5 of Perry Mason and just ordered season 6 on ebay. I have over 100 tv shows on dvd, and yes it does take up alot of room, but so does my 1000+ records.
Someone mentioned Laserdiscs, I have a laserdisc player and about 30 movies on L/D.

 

[jeffg]

"Who here still uses Laser-Disc?!"

(raising hand)

One's in our rack but it's rarely used. Laserdisc was the last released format for a few titles.

 

[cfz2882]

pioneer laserdisc

have a 1990 vintage pioneer laserdisc player-not in DD use,it does work but needs motor repair before I would use it much.Out in the garage,hooked up and operating,is one of my favorite video machines:1982 RCA CED"selectavision" disc player-it actually works pretty good,but is a little klutz to insert or withdraw a video "record"(plays video "records"with a "needle"!!)Record comes in a thick plastic sleeve that is inserted in player and withdrawn leaving the record in the machine-when playing is completed,record is stopped and sleeve inserted to collect the record.Dust particles on the record can cause a momentary playback glitch.I have about 70 discs for this machine.