VHS recorders

[MrT]

How long will VHS recorders be available to purchase? With many shops ceasing to stock them, sooner rather than later might be the time to invest in one (or even two) new machines so that tapes can continue to be played even when the technology is well and truly in oblivion.



Now on that point let me recommend the "FUNAI" brand VHS recorders which may still be found on the shelves of larger TESCO stores. At £31, I casually threw one into the trolley yesterday and what a great little player it turned out to be - It handles NTSC playback, and gives a nice steady picture even on older tapes.



Sound is clear but only mono - not really a problem though for anyone into films of the 30s, 40s, and 50s..... get one while you can!



Mike (MrT)

[mark windley]

i will haft to agree with. MR.T. i done the same thing not so long ago

a .LG.player a good investment for around .. &40 pound about $150 australian dollars ....

[orpheum]

To be honest i have 3 spare machines.I just have so many tapes built up since 1979 that transferring everything to DVD is a non starter.

[boilerboy]

Well I managed to get a stack from our local video shop for a song. I have a new vcr on laybye

so I now have200 or so films and they're all good.

[Carmel]

Sainsburys were selling them a couple of months ago for £20 so i bought 2 and have them in storage just in case, it was a great deal so im sure you can still buy them in some stores.

[smudge]

name='orpheum']To be honest i have 3 spare machines.I just have so many tapes built up since 1979 that transferring everything to DVD is a non starter.

I have to admit that even now, some 5 years later, I still have the dregs of my VHS to transfer to DVD. I did somewhat underestimate how long it would take to transfer my considerable collection. This was with 2 DVD recorders running after the first 6 months too....



Smudge

[Wolfgang]

You can still get tape cassette players 20 years after CD become popular so I think VCR's will continue to at least be built into combo DVD/VCR for years yet.

[jamiesd]

I've still got 2 betamax video recorders along with my vhs one

All still going strong

[JohnB_Toronto]

name='Wolfgang']You can still get tape cassette players 20 years after CD become popular so I think VCR's will continue to at least be built into combo DVD/VCR for years yet.

I agree wholeheartedly - you can also still buy turntables, needles, cartridges etc. despite CDs having taken over. Even if the big manufacturers drop VHS players from their lineups because of insufficient demand, we'll still have smaller, more specialized firms producing them for a long time after that.

[MrT]

Hopefully what you say may be true but prices could rise quite significantly once general mass production of the machines ceases. The same is true of turntables that can play at 78 rpm - still available if you're prepared to fork out several hundred quid, but nothing comparable on the market price wise to the decks that Garrard and similar manufacturers turned out in their thousands until the early 1980s.



It still makes sense to take advantage of the special offers now because my belief is that free standing VHS recorders will disappear from shops very very soon - me I'm back off to Tesco at the weekend to try and get another £31 bargain.



Mike (MrT)

[Wolfgang]

Those Funai VCR's are going for £20 on ebay:



eBay.co.uk - video recorder, video recorder VCRs, vcr, sony video recorder items at low prices

[marker]

name='Wolfgang']Those Funai VCR's are going for £20 on ebay:



eBay.co.uk - video recorder, video recorder VCRs, vcr, sony video recorder items at low prices

at this silly price I am tempted to buy one

[essaljay]

I consider myself very lucky in that I bought a Sony VCR/DVD recorder, transferred all my tapes (a mammoth task) and on completion the dvd laser unit broke down but as it was within a year of purchase it went back to the factory and a new complete unit was installed.

[image45]

name='jamiesd']I've still got 2 betamax video recorders along with my vhs one

All still going strong

I have two S-VHS machines and a standard VHS machine. One of the JVC S-VHS Machines is away been serviced at the moment, as its clutch needs changing as well as its pinch roller! You need to watch your tape machines all the time to keep them running well. I still get the odd rare TV show on video so it’s vital you have these machines running at optimum condition. Well done on having some Betamax machines running too at your end! I stopped using the Betamax machines, as the video noise level on tape-to-tape copies was much higher than on VHS machines with digital tracking. Once S-VHS became more affordable there was no turning back for me!!!!

[oldmantv]

i miss the vhs recorders, you could have one and keep it and use many times for years without the quality of the video being affected ... while now when i buy a dvd, i have to be very carefull with them for them to last longer... *sigh*

[orpheum]

I simply dont trust dvds.On numerouse occasions i have come back home to find that the film has not been recorded and the message "error" shown.Furthermore it then makes the disc faulty as you cannot finalise it so this means that you cannot play it on any other DVD.If there is anything that i want to make sure of recording i will always use VHS

[samkydd]

name='orpheum']I simply dont trust dvds.On numerouse occasions i have come back home to find that the film has not been recorded and the message "error" shown.Furthermore it then makes the disc faulty as you cannot finalise it so this means that you cannot play it on any other DVD.If there is anything that i want to make sure of recording i will always use VHS

I haven't bought a DVD recorder simply because I have two VHS machines set up plus another two in reserve, and so many tapes that I could build an extension on to the house with them. I marvelled at the technology of taping programmes when it first came out and twenty six years later I'm still in awe of it, so I'm sticking with recording on to tape. It does the job okay, and you're guaranteed of watching your programme from where you stopped it the day before, whereas with DVD one accidental touch of a button and it goes back to the start.



These newspaper free DVDs are the worst because they don't have chapters, so if you get a speck of dust on the disk or hit the wrong button on the remote you're back to the start every time, and you have to fast forward for hours until you get to where you left off! There is nothing more annoying and nine times out of ten you give up in frustration.



But the marketing machine is all powerful and so if I don't keep up to date then I must be missing out on something, I don't know what it is but there must be something surely!

[JohnB_Toronto]

name='essaljay']I consider myself very lucky in that I bought a Sony VCR/DVD recorder, transferred all my tapes (a mammoth task) and on completion the dvd laser unit broke down but as it was within a year of purchase it went back to the factory and a new complete unit was installed.

Sounds like you maybe put it through several years worth of normal use before the warranty ran out. I'm the same - I wear out my players far faster than the average user (I suspect most of us do). This is a pretty good argument for using a quality brand name that stands behind its warranties.

[orpheum]

While i agree with samkydd DVDs have one important advantage.You can take a DVD player with you anywhere.So i am able to use it in the car as an MP3 player.When i go away i take a few discs with me and watch them in any spare time that i have.So i record my old tapes on to DVD and can enjoy these old films if there is nothing on the hotel tv set.So in that respect portable DVD players are a godsend.

[samkydd]

name='orpheum']While i agree with samkydd DVDs have one important advantage.You can take a DVD player with you anywhere.So i am able to use it in the car as an MP3 player.When i go away i take a few discs with me and watch them in any spare time that i have.So i record my old tapes on to DVD and can enjoy these old films if there is nothing on the hotel tv set.So in that respect portable DVD players are a godsend.

I'd agree with you there, when I work away I take a laptop and a few DVDs plus my trusty Freecom USB plug-in so I can connect the hotel room TV aerial lead and get all the Freeview channels on the computer as well. I can also record from the Freecom gadget on to my hard disk, which is sometimes useful, but there are usually so many repeats that you never seem to miss a programme or film.