Do you still use a VCR?

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washabear

Well-known member
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Hello all:

Last week, my 11-year-old VCR conked out. I guess I'm way behind the times, but I was surprised to find that stand-alone VCRs are not made anymore. I hooked up a VCR/DVD recorder combo that I had had for several years but never used. It's OK, but the DVD recorder is temperamental at best and will only accept a few older types of DVD RWs, which seem to be hard to find. I certainly never had that problem with videotapes. I guess I'll use it until the VCR part fails, but then I'm not sure what I will do.

Sometimes technology advancements that make previous technology obsolete just puzzle me. What's wrong with keeping something that works?

Anyone else still use VCRs?
 
Just The Way It Is....

....You might try getting a new DVD/VCR recorder combo; they're much less temperamental than they used to be.

Aside from that, looking on eBay for NOS VCRs would be the only other thing I'd know to tell you. Well, that and keeping an eye out at yard sales.
 
yes

I have two connected and in use-a 1982 RCA branded matsushita top load and a 1985 GE branded matsushita built front load.The 1985 machine has not needed any repairs,but the 1982 top load one needed some belt dressing applied to some drive tires several years ago-has been fine since.
 
In A Word

Yes!

Indeed when our previous JVC TOL VHS recorder bought the farm several years ago headed right to where America shops (fleaPay) and purchased another NOS vintage model. You have go to vintage (pre say 2000's or so) because those are the last units produced with built in tuners. Modern offerings since do not have tuners in order to better work with the new digital television age. Well that but some say it was the motion picture industry lobby wanting to cut down on home recording of broadcasts.

About two weeks ago finally entered the digital age somewhat with the purchase of an NOS older model Phillips DVD *player* only. Connected it through the VCR so now can watch DVDs and am that happy.
 
Thrift stores are full of VCR's.  Most of them probably work fine, but met with a similar fate as the discarded turntable you recently nabbed.   The stores already have everything necessary to test one out:  TV's, VHS tapes, and even the cable to connect the VCR to the monitor.
 
To True

Rather like if possible nabbing NOS in box electronics were possible; this way one is sure it hasn't been abused beforehand. Especially with some of the more difficult to locate TOL VCRs. You also get the owner's manual and remote two things that often are missing from thrift finds. Strongly feel even if they are dropped off with the thing they go on walkabout after item is stocked on the floor.
 
heaven's yes.......I must have 5 of them, still since brand new, still working, and never needed a repair yet...

probably the best on is the Panasonic from 1988...2 head stereo, seemed best to "copy" other videos, it would not recognise the "copy guard" that a 4 head unit would, and block you from making a good copy....

I find the DVD recorders not so much tempermental, as annoying that they take a while to set up before you can start recording....a VHS, pop it in, and push "record"!
 
The Problem....

....With thrift-store VCRs is that you can end up with the "kid's VCR," used for Disney movies and whatnot.

Which means sticky fingers made for sticky tapes, which got inserted into the VCR for years.

I bought one unit that looked decent on the outside, but when I got it home, it was apparent that the outside had been treated to more than a bit of cleaning. Inside was full of dust and goo. How it was functioning as well as it was is a mystery.

On the other hand, you could end up with Aunt Hilda's old unit, used only a dozen times for viewing camcorder tapes of the grandchildren, with the timer flashing "12:00" the whole time she had it.

It's a crapshoot. My current driver is a Sony TOL DVD/VCR unit, purchased at Salvation Army for six bucks. Didn't have a remote, and universal ones don't work with this unit (Sony has its own way of coding remotes, like they have their own way of doing everything else), so I bought a replacement factory remote on eBay - another six bucks. Works like a charm.

Not too shabby for $12!
 
I use packing tape to attach remote controls to any electronic device I donate.  I don't know if it helps, but is it really that difficult for the drop-off staff to do something similar when such items are received?  This brings to mind the wise people who run Urban Ore, the everything imaginable reselling/recycling center in Berkeley.  Their vintage stoves are displayed without any knobs, with a note advising the knobs have been intentionally removed.  All stoves are given a name, so if you (intend to) purchase one, you go up to the counter and ask for "Sadie's" knobs. 

 

Getting back to VCR's, we have one on a 20" Magnavox that has built in VCR and DVD, and I'm also hanging on to my mid-80's Betamax (a far superior system to VHS) because I taped the mini series spoof "Fresno" on it the first time it aired, before CBS stupidly ruined it by dubbing in a laugh track prior to re-running it.  Like the average viewer wouldn't presume anything starring Carol Burnett was a comedy?
 
There are software programs available for a cheap price that will bring the start button to Windows 8. It's very popular software.

Speaking of VCR's, we have a 1997 Sony but haven't even turned it on in about 18 months. All we use it for is to watch one of the 6 movies we own and for watching videos we made on several vacation trips. That's is. It basically sits there "in case" we want to watch one of our own tapes. We should probably have those vacation tapes transferred to a DVD.

We have a DirecTV box/DVE that we use for just about everything we watch. All you do is highlight the show you want to record and press the record button on the remote and that show will be recorded. It even has a "record this show weekly" option so you don't have to reset it every week. It also has a super fast forward button that makes 3 minutes of commercials skip by in about 5 seconds.
 
We have several VCRs. One is one of the first RCA's that cost over $1000 when new in the late 70's early 80's? We also have about 500 VHS tapes. We have slowly been replacing them with DVDs but not in a big hurry to replace all 500. Plus there are some that have never come out on DVD.
 
Now that NTSC has been replaced I can't imagine using a VCR now. Even years ago I had difficulty with watching the degradation from a consumer VCR, especially the VHS models. These days with HD programming my eyes are accustomed to better then 480i. I really can't stand anything coming off consumer tape.

I have a beautiful condition Sony SL-HF900 with the box manual and service manual. It was one of the best of the best Super Beta Hi-Fi units from 1986. I had considered keeping it for audio recording but hard drives are cheap and I don't like dealing with sequential access media anymore. The Pavek museum has agreed to take it and use it for transcription services so I don't have to scrap it, yay! The couple VHS machines I have can get crushed for all I care, personally I was always peeved I had to embrace that format!

The big issue I am having is what to do with all the cassettes? I probably have 300 or so, most of all recordings off-air or time shifted television. I will NEVER bother to watch any of them and I want to be rid of them. If only I could find someone that will dispose of them in a more eco-friendly manner then burying them in landfill. Anyone know of any videocassette recyclers?
 
The cassettes I wish to dispose of are all home recorded, off-air content. I pretty much NEVER bought any commercial video tapes. I adopted DVD early and all the movies I have bought are on the optical disc. Somehow VHS never seemed like a format I wanted to pay for a commercial movie on.

I have a good size demagnitizer at work so I can probably erase all of them if I were going to try to give the cassettes to someone for reuse. I just can't imagine using a VCR anymore though...
 
I have two VCR's and two Sony DVD players. The Panasonic VCR player is in the living room and a Sansui in the bedroom. However, due to tracking issues, the Sansui is used less and less.

I also have quite a few VCR tapes (both pre-recorded and many recorded TV programs) which I intend on disposing of. Some of these tapes haven't been watched in at least 10 or so years, so I don't even know if they'll play properly.
 
I have many dozens of VHS and Beta tapes I have not looked at in 15-20 years. Back then having the ability to save content was new and I saved way too much. All those tapes will end up in the landfill at some point along with countless CDs that I never listen to anymore. It's just so easy to stream stuff from the computer, watch netflix, or listen to Pandora and such I see no reason to save much any more. My DVRs fill up and seasonally I dump hours and hours of content I thought I'd watch but never got the motivation to do so.

I can't fathom using a VCR , it's so cumbersome and slow. With my Directv DVR I have 30 second skip enabled and with 4 or 5taps of a button i skip all commercials, it know what and when to record, solves recording conflicts, and will even search for shows I might like and record them if I wish. My DVRs are all interconnected so I can watch anything in any room - If you are still using a VCR you have no idea what you are missing...
 
Good news I just did a Google search for Video cassette recycling and the local county drop off site here takes all forms of media!! Finally I can be rid of boxes of cassettes that I hated the idea of just burying.

Remember for disposing of CD's & DVD's you can drop those off at the local Best Buy, they have a bin in the entry way.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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
 
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?
 
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.
 
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!
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 

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