Top 25 things vanishing from America: #18 -- The VCR

yeah but, some of us still rely on the v.c.r to tape daily shows!!!

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I hate DVD's and I hate CD's. When scratched , they don't work, they glitch, or skip, things like that. The Best thing that ever came out is the VCR and Cassettes; They've lasted FOREVER!...... If they can find something where we can record our own music or movies, that would be great! But, we have to go with CD'S AND DVD'S , To me , I feel they are controlling me, and I hate being controlled by some Jack ass out there. They are the most STUPIDEST THINGS IV'E EVER SEEN. Can't record on them, can't do anything on them, but, when they go bad, use them for scaring off the crows in your fruit trees;)

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You can still get a VCR - it is just bundled with a DVD player.

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Dude wake up from your sleeping rock!!

You CAN record onto DVD's and CD's. If you look with your eyes in many stores you will see that they do in fact sell DVR's (digital video recorder) and DVD Recordable units.

By the way DVD's and CD's also do last as long as you take care of them by simply putting them in a case or a CD carry case. A DVD-RW disc can serve the same (mostly better) purpose of a VHS tape. Also the information on VHS tapes tend to degrade over years and when exposed to any magnetic sources then your information is lost. If a DVD or CD receives a scratch there are CD/DVD refinishers that repolishes the bottom to the disc for a fairly cheap price. You can also just rub a candle on the bottom of the disk and polish the wax in to renew the disc.

You seriously need to stop badmouthing technology. Learn to adapt and accept. Also lose that "the world is controlling me" attitude because it just only lowers your remaining IQ points.

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better than DVD-RW--use DVD RAM! Chasing playback is the best feature around.

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Personally I like VCR's, you can play them without all the surround sound garbage.

You can record movies off the movie channels for nothing or record digital music off the cable.

With a bit of discressionary looking you can find older movies on video tape.
and if you apply your mind to it a good VCR can do lots

But everyone has to have the newest and best blah, blah, blah
blue ray are supposedly going to make standard DVD's obsolete. Don't hold your breath.

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Over the last two years about a dozen of my VHS tapes have gone bad. The cassette mechanism locks up and the tape is unplayable.

Now I'm looking to buy a VHS/DVD combo that will record the tapes to disc.

I've already transferred my audio tapes to MP3 files, and by running the tape tracks through a sound editor the sound quality has been improved considerably.

DVDs are the way to go!

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If everything was on dvd it wouldn't be so bad, but some things are still ONLY on VHS. Also, I still have hundreds of vhs tapes that I woujldn't want to be obsolete! I have a duel VCR/DVD player and hope they continue to make them.

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I have a dvd recorder a vcr and a dvr. I love all three but one thing the vcr can do that the others can not do is record 2 hour plus action movies without zapping your memory and bubbling up the picture. My dvd recorder can not record actions movies that are more than 2 hrs long without showing digital bubbles because you have to use a slower speed. Action movies on my dvr will suck up memory. Vcrs will never totally dissapear like 8 tracks not ever.

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Look, let's get real here. Sure, DVDs look better, picture wise, but they are a pain in the butt because they are so "Fragile". Come to think of it, ANYTHING DIGITAL is ultimately a pain in the butt. If you get a scratch on a CD or DVD, very likely it's fried- a GONER- a coaster- not just the one song, but ALL of them, because of one scratch. Out of every ten DVDs I've made on my Toshiba, one of them goes bad, sometimes while I'm still recording it. I've always been a technology nut, beginning back in 1956 with my grandfather's old Webcor reel to reel recorder. HEY, you know what? Those tapes I made in 1956 still play. The fidelity is limited, but damnit, tape WAS a pretty reliable medium. My 3000 vinyl albums still play too. Sure, they're scratchy, but they sound fine, once you ignore that. And, ANALOG audio WAS and IS warmer than Digital. Then I moved on to cassettes. Hey, they still play fine too. A very reliable medium. Then I went on to minidiscs. I loved them, they sounded great, and now even they are being phased out. And the DVDs and CDs I burned last year or so. The best scenario is that one out of twenty goes bad, for no apparent reason. SO, I make duplicate Copies of EVERYTHING I do in the digital realm. It's time consuming, but I need that safety backup, because Digital is NOT a reliable medium. Of my old VHS tapes, perhaps one of every two hundred goes bad, usually from some abuse I cause, like dropping them too many times. That's a much lower figure than digital products, that tend to go bad if I just LOOK at them crosseyed. I'm not sure if my CDs and DVDs will actually be playable Fifty years from now, as my original tapes are from 1956. Overall, modern technology sucks. Unfortunately, so does most of the music that they record on those discs. The quality of recordings is very poor now, particularly when everyone takes it down the AM FIDELITY level by squashing it for their stupid little IPODS.Convenient, yes, but it doesn't much better than a transistor radio did from 1959. I know. I've seen it all come and go, just like real rock and roll.

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Here's what will happen when everything goes digital. Because of rights management encoded copies, nobody will be able to duplicate anything. Does anyone remember Sony's rootkit embeded discs? Your purchases will not copy for your own personal use. I like VHS's versatility and freedom of use - all of which disappears with digital. I hate this being foisted upon an unknowing public. With this "advance" comes the ability of the companies pushing it to put any stealth program into your computer to watch and corrupt your machine. Awful.

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I surely hope the last post is in error!!!!

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VHS and audio cassette tape were great in their day. They give a reasonable picture on an analog TV with a 27" or less picture tube. However on a larger screen HD capable TV they have a very poor picture compared to DVDs.I have 3 VHS recorders which I plan to keep. I will keep some VHS prerecorded movies I bought because I don't want to keep repurchasing them on DVD or Blueray. My wife recorded many movies and TV shows on VHS and has a collection of exercise and other videos which would be expensive to rebuy. It also would take too much time for me to dud them to DVD and can see no advantage to doing so. Our cars still have audio cassette players, however I use a cassette adapter to play the Zune or MP3 players in the car. However there will always be a need for VHS and audio cassette because of the analog "hole" which is the only way to get around digital encryption. This will work only until analog audio and video outputs and inputs disapear from TVs and stereos in a few years.

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I am a senior and just want my VCR, it's slowly going and have been trying to buy one for 6 months now, if anyone knows where I can buy one please let me know, i just don't want a DVD/VHS combo, tired it and hate it. Thanks

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The retailers are missing the boat on the VHS recorder. My Mom is 85 and comfortable with this medium. It is fast, simple to program and she uses it everyday. Where is the digital tuner VHS machine? I can find one or two at best. In a market where they are trying to find new ways to make money, it seems they are ignoring the obvious.

The DVD recorders have yet to match the simplicity of the VHS machines. We are a long way from where we need to be on this one. It is a shame they don't see this.

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VCRs aren't going anywhere anytime soon. People have too much crap from birthdays and sex with their high school girlfriend on VHS for it to never be needed. Plus there are a TON of films where the rights holders are long gone and the film will never be given a dvd treatment. I have over 200 VHS tapes and --- content aside --- there will always be a tremendous nostalgia factor. Looking at those piles of plastic clamshells represents too much of my past to ever do away with them. So I will always need a VCR to view that stuff.

"If you really take care of a disc...", blah, blah nonsense crapola. Even discs fresh out of shrinkwrap can be damaged!!! Even if you treat it like a baby! Even if you clean it!! Even if, even if... All formats have their drawbacks: VHS had bad audio; audio cassettes could get chewed; dvds and cds skip and scratch; dvrs pixelate and lose data. None of these are perfect.

But nothing will ever beat an indestructable video tape that still plays after 25 years and having been dropped a thousand times.

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I have two older TVs that only have hookups for coaxial cable on the back. None of the DVD/VCR combos I've seen with work with that.

I watch my DVDs on my computer. The monitor is better than the TV screen.

It's not that I'm opposed to technology, it's just that I'm opposed to spending money I don't need to spend. Also, I don't want a mess of cables all over the place.

So to get a VCR these days also means buying a new TV for me, I guess.

I don't watch enough TV right now to care.

I wish I had bought some more VCRs back when they were really cheap.

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