VCR / DVR / HDR ?
 

I think there are a couple of other people out there with a VCR player that they are not using too. :roll: Ever heard of DVD or HDD?

HDD is the way forward. My V+ box with Virgin Media is great. When it works. :roll:

When I moved into my house in May 2006 I had a box packed with VHS tapes and some Meat recorded tapes amongst there and the Brixton show, London 1982 and Bat 2 picture. It's still all packed up in the garage. That's how often I use VCR. I'd rather just wait and see what else gets released (or indeed watch off YouTube) rather than see if that old stuff still works. Indeed - bringing this back to topic - I don't think there is much wrong with watching stuff that was on TV somewhere that someone has put up on YouTube. I don't really consider that illegal in the same sense of filesharing albums. If content on YouTube was really only filtered down to copyright owned material I reckon probably about 90% YT content would have to go and it would be an extremely boring amateur video site.

Sounds like a plan tink, hopefully if you drop some hints she may give it to you. I'm the same and have heaps of VHS tapes filled with things I've taped off the TV. I even have an old beta video recorder which doesn't work any more and old beta tapes lying around somewhere.

Carole

Why would you wait for any specific person to give someone a VHS player. I'm sure you can find one on ebay anywhere in the world, or craig's list. Failing that, maybe try the local dumpster. :razz:

I still use my VHS player daily to watch videos because I like to watch something interesting during ad breaks and DVD players take too long to load and they don't remember the exact point that you finished watching. I still record onto VHS becaus I bought a DVD recorder once but the damn thing never works properly.

On the subject of illegal downloads and the music industry. I would never download something that was available from legal sources but I've seen a couple of bootlegs and some of them are absolute treasures that I'd have loved to have seen live but was too young. These recordings did add to my admiration of Meat's talent for putting on a fantastic show and I remember after seeing the first one I said to myself that I had to see this man live. I was lucky enough to have been able to do that this year. If these recordings do get released from an official source then I will gladly purchase them because I enjoy them so much.

I've made my decision to watch these recordings, just as some others have decided not to. That's fair enough in my mind.

Me too :) Far more flexible to use imo. I have a DVD/VCR .. and as far as asking others have they heard of DVD? .. I never expend other's resources on their behalf ;)

Absolutely .. each of us has the right to make their own decision without needing to justify or defend it.

Caryl

Yes, but as of yet, I haven't managed to figure out how to play my vcr tapes on my dvd player. Anyone ? ... :twisted: ... lol ...

My household is on tight budget due to economy. Necessaties come first THEN fun ! ... lol ... And don't "razz" about "recycling one man's trash into treasure". Would you believe this morning someone was throwing BOOKS out? SACRILEGE ! I rescued them, of course ... lol ...

And back to topic, thanks to all who explained bootlegs and legality vs illegality on the subject to me !

thats a tricky one to be fair... i could tell you how to play dvd's in the dvd player, or video tapes in a vcr, but i dunno how you play a vcr tape in a dvd player... it just wont fit

best to get it recorded onto a dvd, then play the dvd in your dvd player :D

With VCRs originally costing £1000s and now DVD recorders costing a fraction of that (in fact disks are much cheaper if you are in fact interested in "recording") I personally think staying with the old VCR technology because of financial reasons nonsense to be honest unless you can never afford to replace anything which with any technology is almost an impossible scenario regardless. I'm sure you can get a second hand DVD recorder in your country for $10-$25, like you can here in the UK. A VCR would probably cost you the same. In my opinion at this stage sticking with VCR has to be regarded as doing so purely by choice or ignorance.

I would actually bypass the DVD recorder all together and go straight to HDD. I seem to recall my DVD recorder being more of a faff than the VCR it replaced.

Well that's what I mean, I can understand the justification in using a VCR for a convenience thing. I just think the financial side of it is completely unjust. VCRs were never cheaper than DVD recorders are now and as I said you can buy a stack of disks for a fraction of how much tapes used to cost. HDD is indeed the way to go.

Tapes, arguably though, have better quality

Argue that fact then.

hopefully you'll get a tivo one next :-)

No you can't do that. ha ha But if you have both a video recorder and a DVD recorder you can copy whats on your tape onto a disc. I'm lucky, I still have one remaining video recorder which works so I have it set up next to my DVD recorder so I can copy stuff from video to DVD.

Carole

That's what I've done too. All the VHS tapes got copied to DVD and then, aside from a few "keepers", got dumped.

Please clarify and give examples.

lol

Do not knock the good ol' VCR !!!

I have some very rare Elvis stuff on VCR that you currently cannot get on DVD so for me having a VCR is essential, I also have some rare Meat stuff on VCR that is also not currently available on DVD !!

VHS is old but was never actually good. Even when it came out it was eclipsed technically by Betamax and that Phillips system.

If you have a DVD recorder it's very easy to copy VHS to DVD. Or a video capture device on a PC will do the job. Then the bulky old tapes can get dumped in a landfill somewhere. We sold a load at car boot sales but these days they're almost unsellable.

I guess that Masculine on VHS would be his holy grail ... :roll:

As long as it's not a VHS tape with the original 27 minute Surf's Up music video on it and when you play it backwards you get an unheard live version of Meat performing Renegade Angel with Jim Steinman playing Tuba with his toes.

You have that tape too? And there I was thinking my collection was superior! :twisted:

Tape quality blows, both as VHS and audio. Audio tapes still hold a special place in my heart for reasons of reminiscence only. HDD and the digital generation have still created better quality for the reasons outlined above.

Now vinyl on the other hand...? Now you're talkin'!!

Talkin' through the occasional bit of hiss and crackle! :-P

When you digitize a tape it will always give you better quality then digitizing an already digitized DVD.

A tape has a longer life span

A tape is more uniform

a Tape has better boxes

A VCR hooked to a surround sound is killer

No it wont

Do you throw your DVD's around the room?

No it isn't

Now you're struggling

And a DVD sounds even better

I see you've been at the Christmas booze stash already ...

Piffle

So the spinning head in the VCR which actually touches the (very slightly abrasive) tape doesn't erode and degrade the tape whereas the laser beam in the DVD player which is shone onto the DVD and doesn't physically touch it does erode and degrade the disc?

Until it stretches and distorts. List to the soundtrack of the Bat Out Of Hell music video.

I'll give you this one, although DVD covers aren't that much smaller and the extra features you can get on a DVD more than make up for the smaller artwork.

I don't remember seeing any Video tapes ever being sold with 5.1 surround sound ...

In fact the opposite should be true. As digital is basically a bunch of ones and zeroes there is no room for introducing anything which could degrade playback which could result into hiss or snowy pictures for example. The only thing that could happen if you use cheap assed media and make another copy of an already digital video is errors could be introduced but normally speaking digital to digital is completely lossless.

There is little I can find on the lifespan of a VHS tape but going by this article the guy basically urges anyone to copy stuff to DVD, which probably means you are wrong.

If you mean uniform with regards to shape then I disagree.
A circle is surely always more uniform?
http://www.secure-at.com/Images/Accessories/vhstape.jpg

http://www.clippingimages.com/blog/w...-format-us.jpg

If you mean uniform with regards to playback I disagree too. Analogue playback is always more susceptible to "subjective" playback interpretation I reckon. There were sooo many factors on VHS recorders which could interfere with playback quality, some came with 2 playback heads, some 4, some with 6!
I prefer this
http://www.filmdetail.com/wp-content...ray-cover1.jpg
over this.
http://images.wantaddigest.com/proof...I06_A00139.jpg
But if you like old tacky boxes it's a subjective matter I guess.

Yeah and a DVD is even better as Holy One points out. But then try a Blu Ray, it blows both completely out of the water. Fact.

As Andy points out VHS doesn't even support 5.1, there is no room on the actual tape to support that many audio channels.

:wtf: If Wario prefers some older technology its hardly a crime.

I agree. Of course his or anyone else's preference isn't a crime at all! :D

:shurg: I just like to cause debate sometimes

But what i forgot to say was VHS tapes have a bigger library. DVDs dont exist for every movie released pre 2001

But then VHS tapes don't exist for every movie made after 2001 either. :twisted:

I'd say that the library of available releases is probably fairly even now. The numbers of releases that are of interest and aren't available on DVD are very low (and for videotape you're limited to pretty much the second hand market) Can't remember the last time I wasn't able to buy something on disc that I used to have on tape.

well for one, these deserving titles have yet to be released on dvd:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_8GSnE-STkv...dventure-1.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...Kong_Video.jpg

and most notably:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...500_AA300_.jpg

Yes, but what are they deserving of exactly? ;-)

Well it may have looked like i was joking but I actually wasnt :))

Actually the tiny toons movie has some great writing, I always watched it the day after school let out up until last year when I graduated. great songs too.

Kong is actually a pretty decent musicalized version sans the happy ending.

and Bad Attitude live is Bad Attitude live ...

My crystal balls :shock: tell me that your third pick will be released in the spring of 2012. I couldn't give :shit::shit: about the other two. :twisted:

d-vhs was about the maximum developement of the vhs format, from memory it was capable of high def, can't rem what the sound formats were... it was along time ago now... and dvd killed it

laserdisc also well worth a mention as the ultimate for home cinema back in the 80's/90's
(and laserdisc muse would have been its ultimate developement.. i think was high def about 16 years ago)

and a damn good heavy vinyl album in great condition on great equipment by a good band will always be a pleasure to own and listen too

(ish)

But no good in the car. :twisted:

minidisc :-)

To throw a spanner in the works many studios and sound engineers still record to tape and prefer the sound it gives

But it's not the same type of tape is it? :?

It was S-VHS, and it was only hi def picture, best you could get soundwise was stereo.

I'd imagine a studio tape isn't repeatedly used over and over again which is where the degradation comes from with tape.

what was S-vhs?

Super VHS - better resolution but otherwise similar shite to standard VHS.

about 400 lines res if i rem correct, laserdisc about 420 and dvd was about 450

very different to d-vhs though

dvd is about 500 res apparently, oops, its been a while

My ex bought his video recorder when they first came out, he was one of the first to buy one, back then it was beta. Unforfunately for him, VHS came out shortly after that and really took off, and beta wasn't that popular. Even though, technially beta was far superior to VHS, it was used by professionals in TV studios and the like.

Carole

blame the japanese victor corporation for that...

its almost universal in the technology battle that the best marketed and usually inferior product wins... (in my opinion)

Are you sure it was Betamax and not Betacam? The latter was the pro equivalent of Betamax (same tapes but different otherwise).

Not sure, maybe it was. Most people just called them beta.

Carole

Betacam more we're talking quality tape media. 80 grand for a camera made the holiday video a touch pricey though!

And a little bulky. "Have to leave the hairdryer hun, we're taking the camera"

(Looks at collection of SLRs, lenses, tripod, camcorder etc.) ... yep, sounds familiar ;-)

True, but a heavy camera that fits on your shoulder will always give a more stable steady picture than some lightweight hand held mobile phone or digicam from Comet.

But it is harder to hold it steady. :twisted:

No it isn't. I used to work for a video production company as a cameraman, and the larger betacam cameras were so much easier to keep steady than the smaller broadcast standard digital cameras that started to become more widespread in their use.

Hi, every body. A question and please, again, I know nothing about these things so bear with me. Is there such a thing as a piece of equipment that can be hooked to tv and record directly onto a dvd, disk ? What is it called ? I think I'd like to price some. Thanks !

I assume you're referring to a DVD recorder. Yes there is such a piece of equipment. The end result is much better than a VCR, although you'll probably find getting there a bit more fiddly. As I said further up, you'd be better off skipping that stage all together and going for a HDD recorder instead. Or even going for a combined HDD/DVD if you really need to burn things to disc.

I think the reason I like VHS is to record off tv I need only hit the record button. That's what I'd like to have with recording onto a disk. What is that piece of equipment called ? I don't want to be using more equipment than that; no having to record on one machine and transfer to burning equipment or computer. As for HDD or HDR, I don't know what that is or for what the letters stand, but don't you ... OH HIGH DEFINITION, maybe ? ... Don't you have to have a tv with HD capabilities to use HDD/HDR ? I don't have one and am not in position to purchase one. I'm in position of crossing fingers that tvs, computer, dvd continue running until I hit a huge lottery ... lol ... Thanks !

HDD=Hard disk drive. It replaces the VCR/DVD recorder and stores everything onto a hard drive. All you have to do is press record, so it's the simplest solution.