I want my old VCR back...

[simple girl]

We had an old VCR (bought in the early 1990's) that finally broke. So, we had to go out and buy a new one. Got a DVD/VCR combo (seems like they don't sell stand-alone VCR's anymore).

We use our VCR obviously to play tapes, but also to record t.v. shows when we aren't home. Well, all the VCR's now require you to have a cable box to be able to record tv.

I find this quite annoying. We use cable and just have the basic package since we rarely watch movies. Now we had to go get a cable box and will have to pay an extra $10 a month so we can tape our favorite shows.

Grrrr....just had to complain.

 

[Nords]

Well, all the VCR's now require you to have a cable box to be able to record tv.

I hadn't heard that.

We're keeping six VCRs alive now and the alternatives don't look very good. (#7 is eating tapes and is probably OOC.) However the last time I went VCR shopping was in pawnshops and on Craigslist. You might be able to find something old enough to stand alone, or at least without the DVD hardware. Beats paying $120/year to not have one.

Craigslist is especially busy in our area this month (raising cash for Christmas presents) and next month (raising cash for Christmas bills).

 

[kcowan]

Well, all the VCR's now require you to have a cable box to be able to record tv.

I find this quite annoying. We use cable and just have the basic package since we rarely watch movies. Now we had to go get a cable box and will have to pay an extra $10 a month so we can tape our favorite shows.

This sounds wrong to me. Unless your cableco has gone all digital already, any VCR will record up to 125 cable channels straight from the cable. You need a splitter in front of the cable box to feed the VCR.

After all, there have not been any technical advances to VCRs lately.

 

[simple girl]

This sounds wrong to me. Unless your cableco has gone all digital already, any VCR will record up to 125 cable channels straight from the cable. You need a splitter in front of the cable box to feed the VCR.

After all, there have not been any technical advances to VCRs lately.

Well, I am not a technically inclined person at all...I let my DH handle this one. This is what it says on the box (and all the other DVD/VCR's had this on their boxes, too):

"Recording through line input only. To record TV programming, a separate cable, satellite or off-air tuner with audio/video output is required."

You say we need a splitter in front of the cable box. Note what I said was we had to get the cable box for the VCR to be able to record. (We are able to receive our regular cable channels without the box.)

OK, so I'm probably really confused and not getting what you are saying here...do you have any suggestions for how this should work without a cable box?

Thanks!!

 

[simple girl]

I hadn't heard that.

We're keeping six VCRs alive now and the alternatives don't look very good. (#7 is eating tapes and is probably OOC.) However the last time I went VCR shopping was in pawnshops and on Craigslist. You might be able to find something old enough to stand alone, or at least without the DVD hardware. Beats paying $120/year to not have one.

Craigslist is especially busy in our area this month (raising cash for Christmas presents) and next month (raising cash for Christmas bills).

thanks for the suggestion Nords! I will keep my eye out on our local Craigslist.

 

[saluki9]

People still use VCRs?

 

[FinanceDude]

People still use VCRs?

Yes, I have a lot of treasured moments on them, like my wedding, etc.

I have one of those units that has a VHS slot on one side and will burn to DVD directly. I have been taking all my VHS and burning to DVD, and keeping important stuff in the safe deposit box.

I have a HD DVR, but when I tape shows, they play blurry, and I haven't taken the time to figure it out...........

 

[ERD50]

A splitter somewhere should work, it may depend on your exact set-up...

Now a rant from me: I wanted to buy a DVR for the family. We do not have cable or satellite, but get all the Chicago channels clearly. DVRs make so much sense over a VCR (easy to schedule, no checking to see if a tape is in, erasing over what you wanted, keeping track of the tapes, etc.). I looked at them last year, for OTA (Over The Air) broadcasts, you can get a free program guide from TV Guide (OnScreen). I think they sell a subscription if you want some advanced features, but the free one looked plenty good for me. The DVRs were kind of expensive, I figured they would come down in price this year...

Surprise! I can't seem to find one that is not sold w/o a 'discount', but requires a TiVo subscription ($12/month - or as I prefer to say, $144/year) to function. Arggggg.

Alternative may be to buy a used one (can't do that for a gift to my wife, nope), or roll-your-own MythTV that requires you to build a little Linux box. I might find that fun and challenging, but I know my wife would not be impressed with some kludged together home-grown box that would probably crash once in a while. And since they need to be awake 24/7 to record, I hear they suck a fair amount of juice.

My understanding is that the retail outlets dropped the 'unbundled' DVRs because they just could not sell them next to the same unit with a 'discounted' (but bundled subscription) price. I guess the average consumer does not look at a monthly charge as 'real money'. So I suffer for it. Many things seem to be going this way - 'cheap' up-front cost, expensive (and locked in) monthly cost. Stinks, IMO. /rant.

-ERD50

 

[Sarah in SC]

<Many things seem to be going this way - 'cheap' up-front cost, expensive (and locked in) monthly cost. Stinks, IMO. /rant.>
Gawd, but isn't that the truth! No one calculates the cost of anything anymore, just can I afford the monthly fee?
We have a stand-alone VCR and a really old tiny color tv. When I broke down and bought a DVD player a year ago, I realized (after the fact) that the tv didn't have a n input plug for the dvd player. So I ran it through the aux on the VCR player and it works great. If anyone has this particular problem, it works pretty well. I have to use all three remotes to watch the X-files DVDs I borrow from the library, but I feel all cool doing it!
Good luck in your VCR search! I hope mine never goes, otherwise I've gotta replace the tv, too!

 

[NotSoonEnough]

Well, I am not a technically inclined person at all...I let my DH handle this one. This is what it says on the box (and all the other DVD/VCR's had this on their boxes, too):

"Recording through line input only. To record TV programming, a separate cable, satellite or off-air tuner with audio/video output is required."

You say we need a splitter in front of the cable box. Note what I said was we had to get the cable box for the VCR to be able to record. (We are able to receive our regular cable channels without the box.)

OK, so I'm probably really confused and not getting what you are saying here...do you have any suggestions for how this should work without a cable box?

Thanks!!

If all it has is a "line input" then your DVD/VCR combo does not have it's own tuner, thus the need for a "cable box". Old VCRs have built-in tuners.

 

[jambo101]

People still use VCRs?

Whats a cable box?

 

[WanderALot]

If all it has is a "line input" then your DVD/VCR combo does not have it's own tuner, thus the need for a "cable box". Old VCRs have built-in tuners.

SimpleGirl, I think NotSoonEnough is right. Your new VCR/DVD doesn't have a tuner so it can only record what comes in through the line input. Since you use your cable-ready TV to tune the cable channels (no cable box), you can't record any shows. If your TV had an audio/video line out, then you could hook that up to your VCR, but then that would mean that you have to have your TV tuned to the channel that you wanted to record!

Alternative may be to buy a used one (can't do that for a gift to my wife, nope), or roll-your-own MythTV that requires you to build a little Linux box. I might find that fun and challenging, but I know my wife would not be impressed with some kludged together home-grown box that would probably crash once in a while. And since they need to be awake 24/7 to record, I hear they suck a fair amount of juice.

I tried the MythTV thing and it was fun to do, but doesn't quite pass the DW-approval test. The interface is a little quirky and DW didn't like having to use the keyboard to change channels (too lazy to get the remote working!). Things might be much better now since this was about a year ago.

 

[Nords]

People still use VCRs?

Until we can buy a Tivo that'll simultaneously record five separate channels on a weekly rotating schedule...

... so if anyone is getting rid of their VCRs, lemme give you a shipping address!

 

[aenlighten]

Have to make sure it has a tuner

With the new HD/ATSC standard, anything with a SD/NTSC tuner must have an HD/ATSC tuner or neither. Some drop the tuner altogether, but others do include the ATSC tuner converting the HD signal to SD. Unfortunately, nothing so far actually records or passes an HD signal in HD other than the Tivo HD and some proprietary cable/satellite system boxes. Avoid anything without a ATSC tuner.

 

[saluki9]

Until we can buy a Tivo that'll simultaneously record five separate channels on a weekly rotating schedule...

... so if anyone is getting rid of their VCRs, lemme give you a shipping address!

Nords, I'm coming to Honolulu next week, should I bring my 1998 era Sony with me?

 

[TromboneAl]

ERD50,

The DVR that I have should work for what you want. You can buy it on Amazon here:

Amazon.com: Panasonic DMRE85HS Progressive-Scan DVD Player/Recorder with 120 GB Hard Drive Recording: Electronics

You can read the manual here.

Mine gets the programming info from the TV guide that's transmitted by the cable company. That may work from the broadcast TV guide, but I don't know. In any case it's possible to set up recording times (e.g. every Friday 8-9, channel 6), although that function is buried in the menus.

EDIT: OK, I see they don't have new ones on Amazon. But I bet you can find a new one of these (or equivalent newer model) somewhere on the Internet.

 

[simple girl]

Wow, thanks for the great replies. I shared the info with DH. Then I went and searched the net a little more and found this:

" Because all tv broadcasts are switching to digital broadcasting in 2009, manufacturers are required to make the newer machines either with a digital tuner or no tuner at all. The digital tuners are more expensive, and so a lot of the less expensive machines currently in stores don't have any tuner at all. The only way to record tv shows on such a machine is to attach something else with a tuner (e.g., a cable box or another vcr) to the line input jacks on the machine, and then use the other device to tune in the channels. (If you have an older vcr that still tunes in the channels but doesn't record so well, you might want to use that). It is still possible in some stores to get older models of some devices that still have the analog tuners, but they're getting harder and harder to find."

So....we could have used our old VCR as a "tuner"...but unfortunately threw it out! So Nords (and whoever else doesn't want to make the same mistake as us!), don't throw out your old VCR's! The tuners may still be good and you can route the signal through them to your new DVD/VCR (as long as I am understanding the above correctly).

We will be looking at local pawn shops/etc. for an old VCR we can rescue

 

[ERD50]

ERD50,

The DVR that I have should work for what you want. You can buy it on Amazon here:

Amazon.com: Panasonic DMRE85HS Progressive-Scan DVD Player/Recorder with 120 GB Hard Drive Recording: Electronics

You can read the manual here.

Mine gets the programming info from the TV guide that's transmitted by the cable company. That may work from the broadcast TV guide, but I don't know. In any case it's possible to set up recording times (e.g. every Friday 8-9, channel 6), although that function is buried in the menus.

EDIT: OK, I see they don't have new ones on Amazon. But I bet you can find a new one of these (or equivalent newer model) somewhere on the Internet.

Thanks T-Al, that is the problem I'm finding - they just are not carried by the major sellers. I found two questionable sellers, they want ~ $500, but this box will be obsolete in a year. It only has the analog tuner, not a DTV (ATSC tuner) compatible.

I'll take another look for similar, newer models, but I think I'll be back at the beginning - TiVo contract, or no-go.

The price of *most* electronics comes down with time, these are not. Probably because of the oligopoly of the local cable and two satellite companies.

-ERD50

 

[ERD50]

RE: Amazon.com: Panasonic DMRE85HS Progressive-Scan DVD Player/Recorder with 120 GB Hard Drive Recording: Electronics

Thanks T-Al, that is the problem I'm finding - they just are not carried by the major sellers. I found two questionable sellers, they want ~ $500, but this box will be obsolete in a year. It only has the analog tuner, not a DTV (ATSC tuner) compatible.

I'll take another look for similar, newer models, but I think I'll be back at the beginning - TiVo contract, or no-go.

Yep, more googling and found this, very few on the market:

Philips DVDR3575H Video Player and Recorder editors' rating explained - CNET Reviews

CNET editors' review

for Philips DVDR3575H Reviewed by: Matthew Moskovciak
Edited by: John P. Falcone
Review date: 11/5/07



DVD recorders with hard drives used to be the poor man's TiVo. Sure, they lacked the finesse and eye candy of a true TiVo, but you didn't have to pay a subscription fee and you could burn anything right in the same unit. Fast-forward to today and you'll be hard pressed to find a DVD recorder with a hard drive, and if you go to eBay it might cost you nearly $2,000 to pick up an older model. The Philips DVDR3575H is one of the few DVD recorders with a hard drive that's still on the market, plus it has a built-in ATSC tuner,

So, this Philips DVDR3575H is available at a decent price ($290), no subscription, but has no guide at all - you program like a VCR. OK, still has the advantage of not finding/rewinding tapes, and running out, etc. But some negative reviews.

Ahh, but overall very positive here:

Philips DVDR3575H - Features, Setup and Operation - AVS Forum

Soooo, *if* I can get my wife to settle for a DVR instead of the whole cable/satellite approach, this unit looks pretty good. The only other advice there was - January CES show - maybe newer stuff?

-ERD50

 

[NotSoonEnough]

RE: Amazon.com: Panasonic DMRE85HS Progressive-Scan DVD Player/Recorder with 120 GB Hard Drive Recording: Electronics



Yep, more googling and found this, very few on the market:

Philips DVDR3575H Video Player and Recorder editors' rating explained - CNET Reviews
So, this Philips DVDR3575H is available at a decent price ($290), no subscription, but has no guide at all - you program like a VCR. OK, still has the advantage of not finding/rewinding tapes, and running out, etc. But some negative reviews.

Ahh, but overall very positive here:

Philips DVDR3575H - Features, Setup and Operation - AVS Forum

Soooo, *if* I can get my wife to settle for a DVR instead of the whole cable/satellite approach, this unit looks pretty good. The only other advice there was - January CES show - maybe newer stuff?

-ERD50

Or, if you have plenty of free time and a spare PC, there is always MythTV...

MythTV

 

[layla17]

What is MythTV? I've never heard of it...

 

[NotSoonEnough]

What is MythTV? I've never heard of it...

There is a link to the screen-shot page at the bottom of my post. In the Main Menu on the left hand side of that page is a link to the Wiki. The MythTV FAQ is at the link below...

Frequently Asked Questions - MythTV

And the intro...

User Manual:Introduction - MythTV

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

If the phrase "download an ISO image and burn it to a disk, then after installing and booting the tailored linux distro and loading the mythtv software configuring the drivers, services and applications to your configuration" makes you say "whaaa?", mythtv is probably not for you.

If you find yourself regularly playing with linux, you'll find it a piece of cake.

Decent, but not as good as a tivo.

 

[TromboneAl]

If I wanted to record TV on my PC, I'd probably start here:

Why - Record TV on your PC - CNET.com Digital Home - CNET.com

 

[aenlighten]

So....we could have used our old VCR as a "tuner"...but unfortunately threw it out! So Nords (and whoever else doesn't want to make the same mistake as us!), don't throw out your old VCR's! The tuners may still be good and you can route the signal through them to your new DVD/VCR (as long as I am understanding the above correctly).

We will be looking at local pawn shops/etc. for an old VCR we can rescue

The thrifts usually have piles of them, but after 2009 they will be obsolete because they will have nothing to tune to since analog signals will be going away. They might still work on cable until they all go digital though.