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Surprise: RIP, VHS

Smallville

Smallville

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My wife just threw out all of our VHS tapes last week, we still have one VCR but nobody ever uses it. I can't remember the last time I taped anything, it's DVR now.
 
I use the DVR a lot too. And if there's something that has to be kept, I burn it to DVD. Wish I had saved the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics this year.
 
I'm an antique. I know how to program mine and still do. I find it easier to control stop/start on a VCR than on a DVR.
 
Craig Mac said:
What is a VHS??
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Still haven't upgraded from BetaMax, eh?


VHS is the tape that looks like this:

tape.jpg
that


and goes into this:


4100.gif
 
ClairefromClare said:
I'm an antique. I know how to program mine and still do. I find it easier to control stop/start on a VCR than on a DVR.
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Ummmm, Claire . . . the buttons on the DVR are identical to the buttons on the VCR for play, stop, pause, fast forward, and rewind.
 
The worst part of a DVR is not having a skip feature.
I still keep a VCR around for some old snowboarding and motocross videos. I dont watch them enough to upgrade, but I dont want to throw them away either. Then again, I still have a record player.
 
Harry Longshanks said:
Ummmm, Claire . . . the buttons on the DVR are identical to the buttons on the VCR for play, stop, pause, fast forward, and rewind.
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You'd think so. We must have a cheap DVD player (hell, I know we do--I bought it at the grocery store), so it doesn't respond really quickly, and a couple of seconds always go by in mute.
 
ClairefromClare said:
You'd think so. We must have a cheap DVD player (hell, I know we do--I bought it at the grocery store), so it doesn't respond really quickly, and a couple of seconds always go by in mute.
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Okay, you do know that DVRs and DVD players are different, right?

DVR (Digital Video Recorder) is the generic name for TiVo. You get them from your cable or satellite provider.

TheGasman said:
The worst part of a DVR is not having a skip feature.
I still keep a VCR around for some old snowboarding and motocross videos. I dont watch them enough to upgrade, but I dont want to throw them away either. Then again, I still have a record player.
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My DVRs (DirecTV) have a 30-second skip button.
 
I wish we had the commercial skip (30 seconds) but Time Warner hasn't incorporated that feature into their DVR's yet. A friend of mine has a Dish DVR that has skip on it and he uses it in between plays during football games.
 
Yeah we have DirecTV, the 30 sec. skip feature is awesome. I don't know how I watched tv before the DVR,lol
 
Harry Longshanks said:
Okay, you do know that DVRs and DVD players are different, right?

DVR (Digital Video Recorder) is the generic name for TiVo. You get them from your cable or satellite provider.
Click to expand...

Uh... I'd assumed it was like the difference between read-only and read-write.

So it's just something else for which they can charge us an obscene monthly fee?
 
PVR is my new god lol
 
ClairefromClare said:
Uh... I'd assumed it was like the difference between read-only and read-write.

So it's just something else for which they can charge us an obscene monthly fee?
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Usually about $5. And totally worth it.
 
Harry Longshanks said:
Usually about $5. And totally worth it.
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Especially if you get one that has two tuners. I can watch one thing and record something else. Or, I can record two things and watch something I have already recorded.
 
MO_Hacker said:
We pay $5.99/month for the DVR, it's well worth it.
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I agree. I threw my vcr out when I got my plasma. VHS looks like crap on an HDTV.
 
My VCR is fantastic. I got it for free. VHS tapes are usually about a dollar, or two or three.

I've always felt CDs make sense because sometimes you want to play song #6 or whatever, but VHS? You put in a movie and hit play. Maybe stop it to go to the bathroom, but then it's back to play.

Plus, almost all my old plays are on tapes - I have shows from when I was 12 still recorded. It's cool to see my craft...and me :wink:...change.

All it would do would be cost me more money and time to switch over. I'm going to buy a whole machine to turn all my tapes into DVDs so I can have improved quality? These are Jr. High school plays from the 90s. The quality can not possibly improve with merely the picture.

I'm holding on until I hear good reason to let go.
 
There are a few good reasons to have them converted. Better quality will not really take place Julie. The picture is the picture. However over time tapes degrade. Dust, moisture, etc... can all lead to tape failure. However DVDs are technically forever. There have been a select few cases of "DVD rot" but nothing major and certainly not enough to be alarmed.
 
My movie collection has essentially ceased to exist... I was buying 1/2 dvd's a week (some new movies, classics, art house films) then bang... I haven't bought a DVD in over a year now

thanks on-demand!
 
JB and I couldn't live without our DVR. We tape everything this way we can skip over the commercials. I think I have an old VCR buried somewhere in storage but the only thing I have on VHS is my skydiving video, besides that everything is on DVD now.
 
I still have the classic dvd/vhs combo player! thing cost me like 300 bucks when it first came out!
 
DDBowdoin said:
I still have the classic dvd/vhs combo player! thing cost me like 300 bucks when it first came out!
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A couple of years a go I bought a VCR/DVD Recorder so I could transfer what I wanted to over to DVD. You can also record off the DVR onto DVD's with this thing (I have done that for a couple of things). At the time I got it for $129 but I also got a $50 gift card when I bought it from Best Buy. So $79.
 
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