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Message # 20097.1.1.1

Subject: Re: Re: Re: quick show of hands

Date: Tue 03/01/06 02:13:16 GMT

Name: Waterspaniel

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I've always found Mitsubishi VCRs to be quite durable. This one has steel heads with a superior picture, but it looks like the motor's gone. Assuming I could get a replacement motor and find someone to put it in, both of which are tall orders anymore, how much should I put into a 19 year old VCR? Guess I can't complain, I've had my money's worth from it. With the possible exception of Mitsubishi, Panasonic, or maybe Toshiba, you won't find a good quality VCR these days, let alone someone to fix it when it breaks. Most VCRs today are junky Wal-Mart specials with a crappy picture. They're so cheap that when they break, you're better off just junking them. Since VCRs are on their way out, manufacturers simply aren't bothering to put much into them, which I guess makes sense from their standpoint. I have another 6 year old Panasonic VCR which has an excellent picture, and another 4 year old Mitsubishi Super VHS digital, with needless to say, a picture that's about as good as it gets for a VCR. This thing is so sophisticated that when you put in a new tape (good quality videotape is also getting harder to find) it actually rates it and tells you how good it is!

My new VCR/DVD recorder combo records all the DVD formats except +RW, including the DVD-RAM, which many think will be the eventual DVD standard. Results so far have been excellent, and I highly recommend it for anyone making the transition from videotape to DVD.

In reply to Message (20097.1.1)

Re: Re: quick show of hands

By MK - wamtec@compuserve.com Mon 02/01/06 21:46:40 GMT

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Just my 2 cents.....having tried every single VCR since the 1inch tape Philips 1500 in 1971, to dozens of Betamax and VHS VCRs over the years, and now with various DVD recorders, DVRs with and without TIVO....

1) Picture quality is only as good as the tv station that is broadcasting it.....and so a DVR or Tivo works well only with the major networks who broadcast at full digital quality bit rates (which I am told is a transmission of around 16 megabits....compared to most DVDs that are rendered at 5 megabits). However...only the major networks broadcast at the highest quality. Many satellite tv and numerous foreign channels on digital cable are only broadcasting at piss poor low bit rates....e.g. watching the Greek tv channels on my dish is no better than watching a windows media player stream on a website...the quality is lousy and all pixelated whenever there is a lot of movement on the screen. Numerous low bandwidth channels now broadcast on digital cable and on satellite...when when their transmissions are poor and they broadcast using low bit rates...it makes no difference whether you record them on a DVR or an old VHS vcr....a bad transmission is a bad transmission.

2) I disagree that "ease of upload to the net" is aided by having a DVR.....I have several of them and no DVR makes it any easier for you to create clips for uploading to the net......i.e. no DVR I know...automatically creates wmv files or mpegs or avis...and has an internal FTP program where you can upload to the net from a DVR. The process for making video clips is no different with a DVR than if you use a VCR....i.e. you still have to attach your DVR or VCR to a computer/capture card...and then capture to your pc with editing software, edit the clip, and then use an FTP program to upload the clip to the net. So DVRs do not make it any easier to make clips for the net....they just make nicer looking clips....cos with an analog VCR you can always get tracking lines or jumpy tape or a jittery picture...and with a DVR the imagery is flawless and is not prone to defects that VHS tape is prone to.

As somebody who edits media every day on the pc....and also has several DVRs too....I can tell you that trying to "edit" clips on a DVR is incredibly cumbersome and tedious....it is a lot easier to just dump your footage from the dvr to the pc and edit on the pc using pc software. Forget about the internal DVR features that claim you can edit on the DVR....those features are as clunky as trying to edit your footage on the editing features of a camcorder.

Yikes....you have a 19 year old VCR.....holey moley. I have never had a VCR in my life that lasted me longer than 19 MONTHS...ha ha...I wear them out at about the same rate most kids wear out a pair of sneakers.

I will say this though...as somebody who is incredibily rough on VCRS and has them running 24/7 every day.....the new DVD recorders are really a worthwhile investment.....cos any VCR I get...it never lasts me more than 6 months before I have worn it out and toss it in the trash can....but I have bought more than a dozen DVD recorders in the last 3 years...and even my oldest 3 year old DVD recorder still functions perfectly....so DVD recorders are great....they don't wear out and get tracking problems and eat your tape...as VHS VCRs do.

In reply to Message (20097.1)

Re: quick show of hands

By Waterspaniel - Mon 02/01/06 19:03:22 GMT

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The VCR combo is the way to go, it adds versatility. My 19 year old Mitsibushi VCR just went down and I replaced it with a Panasonic VCR/DVD recorder combo. It doesn't have a hard drive, but it's very handy for dubbing back and forth between videotape and DVD, cost less than $300, and does an excellent job. And the difference in quality from videotape to DVD is night and day. Eventually though, DVDs will also be obsolete, with everything being on chips and hard drives.

In reply to Message (20097)

quick show of hands

By Homer - Mon 02/01/06 16:53:47 GMT

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Every time there is a wam scene on TV someone says 'set your VCR' or 'VCR Alert'... Just curious how many people here own a DVR or TIVO or something similar? The difference in quality and ease of upload to the 'net is just night and day! I would highly encourage people here to look into a DVR or VCR/DVR combo. Not that much price difference.

Now before I get accused of trying to sell people shit, let me just say that I personally don't care whether you go buy one or not. I am simply singing the praises of a technology that lets us share our movies across the net easier by removing the need for physical media. It has paved the way for share sites like WAMMONKEY and I can't wait to see it catch on in the wetlook community!

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