Do you still use a VCR?

[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.

 

[cadman]

LaserDisc...

Is the only way to go! Digital quality without the compression. Analog AND digital soundtracks. I run a DVL-909 here. Though the machine plays DVDs, I bought a standalone unit a couple years back as I'm lacking the remote. I still buy LD's as they turn-up, eBay, too.

 

[ovrphil]

not to hijack the thread about "do you still use a VCR?"...but since you guys mentioned it first ....in 1990, I bought, new, a Pioneer CLD990 LaserDisc player - has tray for five cd and the music video discs that were about the size of a 45 rpm record...haven't used it in a long time, but decided to keep it. Digital quality w/o compression-as Cadman mentioned. I kept all my laser discs. My favorite isn't a movie - it's The Blue Planet(1990).

 

[kenmorebd]

I still use VHS, only to record stuff from the weather channel or weather nation( I'm a weather nerd) I like to archive weather coverage and save the best to dvd. For Tv shows I record to dvd, it just reliable and the picture is nice and sharp. Starting to look in blu-ray and streaming, just got mum Hulu plus so she can watch One Life To Live and must say streaming has a better picture quality than some Hd cable stations.(maybe time to cut the cord for me?) Broadcasters dont use enough bandwith and ruins most HD, they should have a standard, if you are in HD the bandwith cant go below X. I will always use vhs tapes, they just are so easy for time shifting and the tapes are bit cheaper than blank discs, and I have never purchased a blank tape that wont work, I have found bad dvds however.

 

[arbilab]

Except for lower signal to noise ratio, Laserdisc is equivalent to broadcast 2" videotape. You can literally plug the signal from a LD head into a highband VT demodulator and get a usable picture.