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So who still has a VCR in their entertainment center? (1 Viewer)

Nathan Stohler

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Jan 17, 2004
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Nathan Stohler
I used my VCR for the first time in a long time this week. I had season 3 of Aqua Teen Hunger Force (not yet out on DVD) on my TiVo, and I decided to dump it to tape to make some room.

I imagine I'll keep the VCR connected for a while. My wife has quite a collection of Disney tapes that my 1.5-year-old daughter might start watching soon.
 

ChuckSolo

Screenwriter
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Jun 26, 2003
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Rachel, I usually love new gadgets and would love to get a D-VHS machine......as soon as the prices get reasonable. As for right now, the price is way too steep for a machine and format that may very well be orphanded by the industry in a couple of years.
 

Joe Szott

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To (mis)quote MTV:

"Tivo killed the VCR star"

We used our SVHS right up until we got Tivo. Now maybe the once a quarter viewing of Bob the Builer or library VHS for the kids, otherwise it lies dormant. If it broke, I wouldn't get a new one. Tivo just owns for capturing material off of TV for later viewing.
 

Rachael B

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Chuck, I saw the 4000 for $399 someplace recently. They need to get their deck with the on-board digital tuner out there for a reasonable price. It is much too-oo high, $991-$1199 is the range of prices I've seen for it. That's the deck that could help the format make some in-roads, IMO.

D-VHS is useful in the here and now. Someday I may own an HD disc recorder but I figur that coulld be quite a few years...? With D-VHS at my dispose, waiting for other HD formats isn't nearly as painful. :)
 

dany

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D
TiVo will/has killed tape. Zero reason for me to save anything to tape that i can think of.
 
Joined
Dec 14, 2004
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Had two until very recently.

The first is a Samsung SV-5000W, which boasts multi-system standards converting in it's bag of tricks. Perhaps not the best VCR in the world but just the right tool, and certainly at the right price, to play my HUGE collection of PAL video tapes from the UK.

The other was a standard NTSC Panasonic 4 head Hi-Fi (I've always been very appreciative of 3 speed recording on the Panny's), which I replaced last week with a Lite-On 5005 DVD recorder which, again, is not the best in the world, but was the right choice for me on features and price at this point in time.

I now have the Samsung, the Lite-On (hacked region free), a Daewoo 5800 DVD (hacked both region and macrovision free), the cable company's Explorer 8000 DVR (which I'll upgrade to the HD version as soon as I've ofloaded my saved recordings to DVD), a Pioneer VSX-C1000 compact A/V receiver, and JVC's JX-S555 to switch between the lot. It feeds a JVC 34 inch direct view HDTV.

I'm currently a very happy home theater bunny! :)
 

Marty M

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I don't have TIVO so I keep my VCR to occasionally tape a TV show I know I am going to miss. The last precorded VHS tape I watched was Fandango. Next month I can even watch this movie on DVD.
 

CarlosGH

Stunt Coordinator
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Jan 11, 2004
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I have an old Panasonic top loader that plays old tapes great. Its over 20 years old and plays great. I have a Philips combo that does a good job at playing tapes, and recently bought a JVC HDMU-30000 for only $180! I even managed to get a used D-VHS tape with it.

Rachael B can I use any VHS tape cleaner or do I have to order the D-VHS tape cleaner only. I can get them for almost the same cost, but the thought of having to wait for it to arrive in the mail makes me lazy. Also, since you seem to know more about D-VHS, is it possible that a D-VHS tape can erase on its own? I know it had some HD Demo of the rainforest, but when I put the tape in the machine, it plays nothing and the timer doesn't move, though I hear the tape moving. Could it have erased when I put it on top of the security device deactivator?
 

Rachael B

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Carlos, head cleanliness is very important for D-VHS. It requires cleaner heads than other VHS machines do. I think the JVC D-VHS cleaning tape is about the same as other cleaning tapes, IMO. I use the it for 20 seconds and then follow it with 10 seconds of the JVC VU-V13U head polishing tape. The VU-V13U tape is an abrasive polishing tape. It's really gets the last of the residue off. However, I think it's been discontinued. I have a second one and don't have to worry for awhile yet.

Over at AVS Forum some folks are using the Sony T-CLD25 cleaning tape. I may eventually have to get one? From what I read I'm unclear if it's better or worse than what I'm using.

I clean my heads every 10 hours or if some macroblocking appears. I'm confident that the majority of D-VHS macroblocking is dirt, not bad spots in the tape. I have some tapes with some small badspots for sure, but macroblocking a bit is a sure sign to stop the show and clean-up in my experience. I have one tape where the bad "spot" keeps sliding farther into the film. One time I'll stop and see if I can find it and "it" and remove it with tweezers or a lightly moistened q-tip (I don't want more "it's" in the persona of stray cotton fibers). on second thought, a little sponge tip cosmetic applicator, eye shadow actually, might, would be better than a q-tip! Everybody should have a pack of cosmetic sponges of sorts. They're great for cleaning delicate things....

Anyway, you need to keep the heads X-tree klean! Pick up a few D-Theater tapes for amaz-ination's sake. I'd suggest that Moulon Rouge has the most eye-poppin' colour of the lot. I'd suggestthat if you have an addictive personality, that D-Theater expousure may give you a serious jones! ;) It did me...:)
 

Gary Seven

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Well... I have a VHS in the bedroom...but in the theater I still have... and I think I have all of you beat... a Super Beta Hi-Fi. I still have plenty of great stuff on Beta that never came out in DVD so it still gets plenty of use. When I get a DVD recorder and transfer all the tapes to disk is the day the 'ol Beta gets retired.

BTW, Rachael, you can pick up a pack of sponge swabs for cleaning heads at any Radio Shack.
 

BobbyMars

Auditioning
Joined
Dec 12, 2004
Messages
12
I still have my Mits U56 SVHS deck. Don't use it much except for recording/playing very early (3AM my time) Live broadcasts of IMUS In The Morning.

Have not played any Pre-Recorded tapes for a couple of years now. We either rent DVD's or purchase PPV on DISH.

Unless and until I get a DVR I don't plan to put the VCR aside.
 

Corbin Stirn

Second Unit
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Dec 22, 1999
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I have 2 S-VHS decks...a trusty JVC 7600 and an RCA 730HF. There are tons of movies, events, and concerts on VHS that I play on the 7600 with DNR and record S-VHS on the 730. A lot of stuff that will NOT be available, probably EVER. Like the HBO live broadcast of the concert for the Rock N Roll Hall of fame(which I was also at while it was being taped at home:D ). There also a lot of comedy specials i tape off HBO........the 1/2 hour and hour comedy hours, Dennis Miller, old Dream on, Tales from the Crypt, and Larry Sanders shows. Just to show that I'm an equal opportunity archivist, I also have a Panny 8-track player/recorder powered and plugged into my home theater system.;) Anybody top THAT?:D
 

Phil Nichols

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Sep 7, 2000
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I guess I'm about the only one left here who actually use a VCR for commercial prerecorded movies! I know, Iknow .... insane.

I use a 20lb Sony SLV-R1000 pro VCR (with Nordost S-Video cabling) for VHS and S-VHS OAR movies in my collection that I can't see replacing with DVD. Some are not available in DVD, some are. I watched Shrek I this evening using the VCR. I have an input to my Pio Elite RPTV setup and calibrated to deal with it and the only difference I can see between well-transferred WS VHS and DVD is horizontal resolution and a little color bleeding. The filtering in the VCR and RPTV takes out any video noise that may be present in good VHS transfers. The S-VHS movies I have come off superbly on the Sony and can hardly be seen different from DVD other than for surround sound. I do of course miss surround sound though, but VHS FM 2-channel can be pretty good - simulated SS helps. The RPTV line-doubles and performs 3:2 pull-down on the incoming 480i from the Sony to produce a very natural and rock solid image with generally deep blacks and almost vibrant colors.

I wish I had bought an LD player a few years ago, too, but I probably won't ever do it this late in the game. My DVD player is no slouch (Denon 3800 with Nordost component cabling), but the VCR stays for awhile. Michner's Hawaii is not available yet on DVD and I'm fortunate to have a collectors' copy of the Star Wars Trilogy in their original theatrical release 1989 transfers as pristine OAR widescreen VHS. ;)
 

ChuckSolo

Screenwriter
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Phil, you're not the only one that watches movies on pre-recorded tapes. In addition to my 1000 DVDs, I also have about 450 VHS tapes that I still watch on occasion. I have a lot of vintage horror tapes of movies made in the 40's, 50's and 60's that haven't quite made it to DVD yet so I still watch them on the trusty ol' VCR (JVC S-VHS machine).:D
 

Jerome Grate

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Actually plan to use the 7600 on Monday for the Static Shock Marathon on Cartoon Network. Satellite recording looks pretty nice, and unfortunately Static Shock is not on DVD, well..., not until I get a DVD recorder.
 

Jonny_L

Stunt Coordinator
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Nov 6, 2004
Messages
158
I still use my VCR's (in different areas of the house). DVD recorders are still overpriced and PVR's are not only waaaaaay overpriced but are hard to come by in Canada if your not willing to shell out for high end cable or satellite to get their in-house systems, so I still use my VCR to record stuff off TV i'll watch later.

It's seriously ridiculous that TIVO or Replay and other PVR's cant be bought legally here. Sometimes I wonder if I live in a 3rd world nation :frowning:
 

ChristopherDAC

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I'm using scraps from a sheet of onion-skin typing paper and something called GC Walsco Contact Cleaner to clean the heads, slip rings, reed switches, and so forth on my Sony reel-to-reel. Works pretty well I think, although in this weather it's going to take a while to evaporate the solvent. I guess the deck must weigh more than 30 lb. So no more "Top this" posts, OK, unless you have a Quadruplex or else one of those Fischer-Price decks which recorded 5 minutes on an audio cassette. ;)
 

Mattias_ka

Supporting Actor
Joined
May 21, 2001
Messages
567
Well, I do have a really high-end set-up, with a Panasonic RP82 with SDI output to a Crystalio video scaler and that to a Marquee 9500LC CRT PJ. I also have 4 Laserdisc players, one Pioneer HLD-X0, two Pioneer HLD-9 and one Pioneer R7G. But I still use the VCR rather lot. Almost as much as the DVD player! Dvd is great, but there is still too many great movies not on DVD for VCR to die at my home.

I would think that VCR will still be in my set-up another 10 years.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2002
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I still do. I've got it between the DirecTV/TIVO and the DVD recorder so that I can transcribe all those video tapes to DVD (as well as make up for the periodic inadequacies of TIVO). S-Video connections only.

jk3
 

Phil Nichols

Second Unit
Joined
Sep 7, 2000
Messages
345
Mattias_ka,


Interesting setup and comments related to your continued use of a VCR!

I assume you feed your VCR into the Crystalio for upscaling/processing before feeding the CRT projector? How do your VCR images look after this treatment?

I get some pretty good viewing from my R1000 VCR using high end S-Video cabling (Nordost @ ~$50 per foot) feeding an Elite 58" RPTV. The Faroudja digital sine filtering built into the VCR helps too, in addition to the DNR filtering, 3:2 pull-down, and superb line doubling going on inside the RPTV. I dedicate an RPTV input full-time to the VCR and calibrate everything on that input specifically for the VCR.

I notice you have some LD players that are the best ever made.
 

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