Kind of a tool... VCR died, what to replace it with

I"m confused on which way to go here. It"s sad that a machine that was less than $50.00 about a year ago is now much more complex and now 5-times as expensive. I just need something to record her programs with. The trick with all the new stuff is getting something with a tuner built-in.

I also bought a refurbished VCR/DVD combo unit from Tiger Direct 2 weeks ago and it was DOA. Naturally no return on it and I now have it off to the Samsung repair center. Wife is less than impressed with my results on this one.

Any experiences on this would be appreciated.

Got an e-mail from Samsung service today and they promise that the unit is repaired and will be back tomorrow. Who knows, this thing may actually work!!

Soundguy's got me thinking a bit. I travel occasionally for work so I will be stopping to check the electronics selections at the stores that I usually pass by.

I really like the ideas that you guys had. I knew this would be a great place to ask technical qustions.

Thanks again!!

Bob

Some years ago, when VCR's were brand new technology, there were 2 formats: VHS, which had somewhat larger tapes, and BETA, which used a smaller tape, and I thought recorded a better picture. I started with a Beta system, and accumulated about 100 tapes of recordings. Then it became clear that VHS was winning the contest between the formats, so we bought a VHS system so we could play the available rental movies. A few years later, our Beta machine went bad and I found that I could no longer find a replacement or cheap tapes anymore. I wish I had started with VHS, but that's the way the ball bounces!

Since I now have quite a library of VHS recordings, I am concerned that it will become hard to find new VHS machines in the future. I have been thinking about stockpiling a few. The machines I have seen advertised recently have not been very expensive--only about $100 or so, which seems like a bargain, since my first Beta machine cost about $850 back in 1977, and that was supposed to be a wholesale price.

We have a hard drive recorder, that also has a DVD burner that is a couple of years old. It was fairly expensive, but works pretty well. It uses DVD+R discs and can record up to 2.5 hours on each disc. I don't know how permanent the recordings are though. I have VHS tapes that work great that were recorded in the early 80's. The only thing with this machine that really concerns me is that it does not have a tuner that will pick up the newer high definition digital signals, so it might become outmoded when and if they stop broadcasting analog signals. If we don't want to archive programs, we can store nearly 100 hours of programing on the internal hard drive.

I have tried a few used VCR's from thrift stores. I have never found a good one--they usually are there because there is something wrong with them. It used to be that there were shops that would fix VCR's around this area, but I haven't seen any for maybe 10 years. I guess they found that it just didn't pay well enough to fix them when new ones could be bought so cheaply.

Good luck, hope this helped.

The hard drive available with DVD recorders offered nothing to us.

We're set for 2009, with our old TV. Still have a functional VCR for our tapes. Our decision to change? The VCR remote died, can't program the VCR without a remote and no "universal" remote would work with our Panasonic VCR. Grrrrr

We bought a Philips DVDR, works very well. About $220 with a required RF modulator. We do have to delete the DVD recording, not just re-record.

• HTPC's

You can fall asleep or mow the lawn and then come back and pick up the movie where you left off.

• Build your own HTPC

soundguy

None of the stores within a 50 mile radius have a vcr with a tuner in it. Not even the 3 wally world"s that I went to. That"s the real issue with this.

Must be a regional thing..

Soundguy