the other day, my wife was distressed to find that the VCR att'd to our main TV stopped playing. it's something we received as a gift, i think, and it's by mitsubishi (i know, who knew those guys made electronics, too? too weird!).
we were gonna go and replace it, figuring that we should be able to find a pretty inexpensive one to tide us over until we go digital cable/whatever to use a DVR instead, when we realized something rather surprising: you really can't buy any standalone VCRs anymore. you can certainly buy a VCR with playback mode but no record attached to a DVR, or a VCR/DVD combo unit that costs considerably more, but no VCRs.
i usually like to think of myself as a pretty on-the-ball sort, but i don't think i realized just how badly out of step my TV recording habits had become.
so in a panic, we looked in the phone book for electronics repairs outfits. there were 3. none of them serviced VCRs.
then, during the day wednesday, the mrs decided to crack open the VCR. you know, ignore that entire "no consumer-serviceable parts inside" warning, etc. and you know, she found the problem, got it plugged in and set to go all inside 30 mins or so.
i know that at some point, i'm going to feel like i oughta spend more money on watching TV.
but that day hasn't come yet, and this little experience has helped me stave it off a little while longer. i spend enough time in front of a screen as it is (this one). :>
ed
silverwhisper posted on Oct 26, 2007
| views: 511
Comments
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queenparanoia said on Oct 26, 2007....
i think we have a vcr in iloilo but it was broken to and yeah nobody wanted to fix it... vcr are dead... it the year of dvd's.. . LOL... anyway mitshubishi do make electronics and appliances too. they are rather popular here in the philippines... =) -
Alyss said on Oct 26, 2007....
LOL! I have a standalone vcr, but it is rarely used.
Oh and I'm so old I remember when the first Acorn BBC computers were the bees knees. < g > -
the_infernal_optimist said on Oct 26, 2007....
We still use a plain old VCR. I don't watch that much tv (mostly kiddie stuff with little one when I do). I guess I'm a recording dinosaur too!
Tbh, it irks me when people have two or three shows they just can't miss that occupy the same time slot. I just don't get it. Who has the time for that?
I think it's super-nifty that your wife fixed the VCR. :-D
~Infernal
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silverwhisper said on Oct 26, 2007....
queen: yeah, when we found that that mitsubishi makes electronics, the mrs and i were like, "huh?" over here of course, we only know about the cars & trucks. it's just weird to me that VCRs are dead. i just can't turn the corner in my mind, you know?
alyss: i'm tempted to give you grief about the expression "the bee's knees" but as i like breathing, i'll just shut up... :>
infernal: there's a lot more time when you don't have kids, you know. :>
ed -
Eilan said on Oct 26, 2007....
We have four working VCR's. When my oldest daughter was little, DVD's weren't yet all the rage, so we have tons of kids' videotapes. They still get played pretty regularly.
There's an electronics store in our town that still does VCR repair, so if we had to get one fixed, we probably could. Most of what Wal-Mart sells are VCR/DVD combos.
Nowadays, when we buy new movies/shows, we buy DVDs, of course.
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inspiration2jms said on Oct 26, 2007....
I can go you one better Ed.
I have two stand alone VCR's. I have to use them to attach my DVD players to because my televisions do not have the required outlets to use with a DVD player.
As a matter of fact, the television in the bedroom is still a black & white. It doesn't have any hook-ups except one for an antenna.
Here is my current dilemma. I have several VCR tapes that are home movies of the kids and such. What happens to them, or I should say, what use are they when those VCR players no longer work and you can't get any at all anymore?
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uniquely-ironic said on Oct 26, 2007....
I have one of those combo units, but I bought it when that was "new". I -
evil_twin said on Oct 26, 2007....
We still have a VCR. In fact, we have two of them. We did get a DVR when we moved into this new place because it came with the cable package. But our VCR's still work and I've got a bunch of VHS tapes that I haven't gotten around to replacing with DVD's yet.
I know a guy who actually still has a Betamax! And it works! He bought tapes for it on Ebay. Talk about a relic.
-evil_twin LA
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silverwhisper said on Oct 26, 2007....
eilan: 4, huh? color me impressed! i'm surprised that you can get service for yours, but hey, more power to ya!
inspiration: about the home movies, i believe you can get them converted to a DVD if you want. the mrs and i were just saying last night that we should do that with our wedding video (VHS) so we can continue watching it in the future, esp before people stop offering that service. we both fear that nobody will be doing it shortly.
u-i: i think your comment got cut-off. ? yeah, i'm sure those combo units are great if you don't have space for both. :>
kyle: a betamax? for real? no frigging way! and yeah, i'm in the same boat, tapes i wanna replace with DVDs--besides, the DVD cases always take up less space on the shelf, you know?
ed -
uniquely-ironic said on Oct 26, 2007....
Well Schlit! I hate it when that happens. I was saying that I still have VHS format movies that I like watching. I'm sure I'll be up a creek when my VCR goes out. -
silverwhisper said on Oct 26, 2007....
i have movies like that, too, u-i. :> although i haven't bought anything on tape in a good 5-6 years, come to think of it, but the movies in question sure do hold up well. :>
ed -
uniquely-ironic said on Oct 26, 2007....
I'm not sure if I can get some of those movies on DVD. I know there are services that can transfer them to DVD, but I'm holding off until the VCR breaks. -
silverwhisper said on Oct 26, 2007....
fair enough. :>
ed -
beyondtheveil said on Oct 26, 2007....
Ed- Several months ago I replaced the VCR in the bedroom and got a stand alone player/recorded at Walmart for $69. Is that what you were looking for?
I've never had one repaired because they were old when they went out and repair would probably exceed cost of a new one.
Kudos to your wife. I repaired one years ago because it was a simple belt replacement to the mechanical drive.
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silverwhisper said on Oct 26, 2007....
yep, although we were actually in walmart and couldn't find one there, either. weird, huh?
and yeah, it's pretty cool that she was able to do so. something got bent out of place so she just bent it back into position and it appears to be doing OK. who knew? :>
ed -
the_infernal_optimist said on Oct 26, 2007....
ed: Fair enough re: time - I guess I just don't think I'd spend it that way if I did have it. Hard to say, though. There are a lot of interesting-looking shows I miss out on, so I might get sucked in. :)
~Infernal
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exhibit_c said on Oct 26, 2007....
I'd like to be able to record TV of the air (err, ...cable) but the VCR died. I suppose I should ante up for a CD recorder. -
Tink11464 said on Oct 26, 2007....
My husband had his own business for almost 20 years fixing tv's, vcr's, stereos, turntables, basically all electronics... Needless to say - the business folded a few years ago. I mean really - who would pay more than $25 to repair a $50 vcr?? Everything is so disposable anymore.We have one vcr for when he has to transfer videotapes to dvd's for people. We still have a laser disc player...We have Tivo, a dvr through the cable company - but alas no vcr hooked to watch the gazillion tapes for what - a 10-15 year period.I remember when dvd's first came out - we went to our local Best Buy and they had this small rack (only one side of the rack) with dvd's and we were buying maybe 5 - we were saying - "this better catch on" - hahaha... Now we have a 301 dvd player... -
silverwhisper said on Oct 26, 2007....
infernal: see, that's just it. nowadays it's harder to avoid hearing about new shows, you know?
exhibit c: if you've already got a DVD player, that might actually make the most sense for you--plus, i believe those can record two programs in the same/overlapping time slot.
tink: yeah, i remember when DVD players first came out too. thanks for the insight re: VCRs. wow...turntables...
ed -
wakingharmony said on Oct 26, 2007....
Me Big Dummy Just got direct tv WOW Bought a dvdrecorder combo thing ..have no idea how to work.. got tons of Vhs movies one of colleenn in 1991 in palm springs at National beauty pagent and she did lip sink of ittsy bittsy teenie wennie yellow polka dot bikini.. she had so much fun and wants that tape so bad ..shes 22 now was 6 then I have cassette tapes of them from babies singing and talking colleens 1st word was apple lol Hey I remember Betta Too -
confuzzledwife said on Oct 26, 2007....
Just wanted to let you know.. I still have 2 VCR's in my house- my youngest 2 boys get great use out of them from all the Disney movies I purchased back when my older 3 were little- that was from the early 90's. But if you're interested in buying.. Ebay has tons of standalone VCR's for 10 bucks and up :) -
Twylarants said on Oct 26, 2007....
We have digital cable w/ DVR and I love it, but I miss the old VCR. I liked to keep a lot of the shows I recorded on tapes, and there's only 70 hours of recordable time on the DVR. It's a time saver, though, because it allows you to record an entire series without setting it each week. I even remember 8- track tapes. Good God, how ancient am I ? -
exhibit_c said on Oct 26, 2007....
The great thing about the VCR is that you can use the same tape over and over. If you record but never watch, you haven't wasted anything. -
wombat said on Oct 26, 2007....
I wish I still had a BETA! May I please have the one that belongs to the guy evil twin knows? All my son's growing up videos are stored on beta, and my ex has them. (Even his first steps are on them)When we moved here to the northeast from the south, this hubby had me sell most of our VCR movies in the yard sale. I held onto a few, but have nothing to play them on.I have seen VCR's at yard sales, but never picked one up. He doesn't want to "go backward" and hook one up. I have a special tape of my relatives on VCR--and I am a baby on my grandmother's lap in them! It must have been recorded back in 1955 or 1956 by someone, and then it got put on a VCR tape by someone who set it to music. I can't even watch that now! -
Zayda said on Oct 26, 2007....
You can get a Sylvania DVD/CD Player/VCR Combo from Target.com for 69.99. It's not available at Target Stores, but only online. And frankly, that's not a bad price for that combo.
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princessbitch65 said on Oct 26, 2007....
Silver I still have a stand alone VCR and still use it. The problem is finding those darn VCR rewinders that work for more than 6 months, LOL!
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hotaka said on Oct 26, 2007....
When I was home cleaning out my things I discovered that my old VCR (from 1996) had taken up the habit of eating tape. I looked at my old video cassettes (the few that I bought plus all the recorded from TV stuff I had from the mid- to late-nineties and thought the day will soon come when I can't watch these anymore. A trip to the video rental store proved that renting a video cassette was already a past-time near extinction. The stores were loaded with DVDs and one table had videos for sale, cheap! Since the next time I come back to Canada to stay for a while will not be for many years I dropped all my videos in a box for the Salvation Army. I did the same with my cassettes and thus lost my only studio recording ever of me playing guitar. Bugger.
Remember the old VCRs from the early 80s with the huge press buttons like switches almost. Those things were massive and ugly. I remember when renting a movie also meant renting the VCR because not everyone had a VCR at home.
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Fallyn said on Oct 26, 2007....
maybe it's just the retarded area i live in....but you can still buy vcr's at the local walmart here. -
D6fer said on Oct 26, 2007....
welcome back to the stone age ed....yeah....I still got one too! -
wombat said on Oct 26, 2007....
Fallyn: We can buy VCR's, he just won' let me do it and hook them up to the the existing equipment. I like the simple times. TV on TV off. Now you have to be a genius to get it back on after a brief power outage..... -
Fallyn said on Oct 26, 2007....
ahhhh. i see.
yeah...i think it's like 15 bucks at walmart or something ridiculous like that.
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TinSoldier said on Oct 27, 2007....
I still have and use 3 VCRs in my house, and probably about 100 VHS tapes. One of the players is a combo player, though.
I remember the first VCR that I bought -- one of the first stereo units. It was a Fisher and it cost $400. I had to buy it on layaway from the Marine Corps Exchange.
It lasted over ten years before it finally gave up the ghost -- something in the power supply gave out. My first replacement for it didn't last nearly as long.
A friend of mine gave me a betamax VCR for watching anime several years ago. I may still have it, or I may have trashed it. I've never used it though.
I don't now have a DVR and don't think that I will get one. I don't look forward to the US switching over to digital broadcast only in a year and a half.
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kruuyai said on Oct 27, 2007....
I think, anymore, if you want to stick to a certain technology... like DVD's, you should stock up on new machines just as the next innovation is coming along. And then use one until it breaks beyond repair, and then start the next one, etc. Don't stock up when a new technology comes out, because they're always more expensive then. Anybody out there still have an 8-track player? -
Fallyn said on Oct 27, 2007....
i have an 8 track. in my car. :p
not the car i have to drive every day , thank god.
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husbandhater said on Oct 27, 2007....
Yes ed technology has changed but I can't beleive you guys couldn't find a single VCR by itself they are like 20$ now. I've gotten a dvd player for 35$. Do I wanna Tivo? Yes and no. I miss certain shows but in all honesty I'm so exhausted lately the children are lucky if I don't collapse in an exhausted heap before dinner is started.Mrs.Ed is Mrs.Fix it huh? Technology is moving along rather rapidly and I can't wait to see what they have for us next. -
inspiration2jms said on Oct 27, 2007....
WOW ED, this post has really exploded! -
PassionTraveler said on Oct 27, 2007....
Hmmm... remember it? I still own one! LOL
How old might you be Ed?
PT -
silverwhisper said on Oct 27, 2007....
WH: you should be able to convert your VHS to DVD, although you might wanna make that switch soon--i dunno for how much longer that will be an option. egads, beta?! :D
confuzzledwife: nah, i'm just not interested in buying electronics on ebay--i'm worried about the various horror stories i've heard, you know?
twyla: hey, i remember 8 tracks, too! wait, did you seriously just say "only 70 hours"? cuz, you know, that's a lot of VHS tapes-worth! :>
exhibit c: that's a fair point, but there's always the risk of degradation of the medium, no?
wombat: jeez, can't your ex convert it to something else? i'm sure that beta conversion services have to be available!
super z: leave it to you to have the incredibly useful link! :>
pb: honestly, i've never once used a rewinder and i don't think my VCRs have suffered for it. ?
hotaka: o hell yeah, i remember the old ones--they were as big as a stereo amp, or bigger! i remember your blog entry about your studio tape, hotaka. that seriously, seriously sucks. :<
fallyn: you know, you can still get something i might've been looking for, i have trouble calling that retarded!
d6: heh...and here i was thinking that using dial-up was what kept me in the stone age! :>
TS: excellent point re: the transition to digital. i'm not looking forward to buying new TVs!
kruu: twyla mentions remembering 8 tracks, and fallyn actually has a player in her car, if that helps. :> and your idea of hoarding isn't a bad one. :>
HH: the funny thing is that normally, i'm the one who wants to fix these things, but this time it was her. :>
inspiration: holy crap but has it! who knew?!
PT: i'm a child of the '80s. 'nuff said. :p
ed -
Fallyn said on Oct 27, 2007....
you are probably right. *laughing* i just want out of this little town pretty badly. just circumstances keep me here for who knows how long. -
Twylarants said on Oct 27, 2007....
Just remembered something even older...car record players.
I learned to drive in a '65 or '66 3-speed Mustang convertible, with a turntable that played 45s. It was under the dash on the passenger side with the spindle hanging down, so you pushed the records up onto the spindle. Every time the car hit a bump the record skipped, but who cared....I was cool!
I payed $2 for a 45 of "NIGHT TIME", by Pete Antell ( a lot of money in those days, 45s were only .79), and it melted in the sun when I got stuck in traffic on a trip down the shore.
Yeah Ed, I just checked with my husband, it's 70 hours. We record everything so we can ff thru commercials. The only things we watch live are baseball and football.
And if we're going off topic I'd like to mention that slugs ate my tulips.
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silverwhisper said on Oct 27, 2007....
fallyn: o, i can understand. :>
twyla: [blinks] no way--they mounted a damned turntable in a mustang?! that's just crazy! btw, sorry about your tulips. :D
ed -
Fallyn said on Oct 28, 2007....
i have never even heard of a record player in a car. wow. -
silverwhisper said on Oct 28, 2007....
i remember once thinking as a kid that would sound like a good idea but wouldn't it skip an awful lot?
ed -
Twylarants said on Oct 28, 2007....
Now y'all are making me think I'm getting those damn drug flashbacks again...lol ; (
I Googled "record players in cars" and went to crave/cnet. People remembered them from the 50s, but further down someone mentions the upside one from the 60s. Whew! Sanity restored. Yeah, they skipped a lot, lots of potholes in Jersey. And potheads.
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silverwhisper said on Oct 28, 2007....
sorry for the inadvertent flashback experience, twyla. :D
ed -
PassionTraveler said on Oct 28, 2007....
As I suspected Ed, We are quite close in age. Here you go pretending to be all sage and I think we are prit-near the same age. :P more or less a 5 year gap I'd guess.
PT
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silverwhisper said on Oct 28, 2007....
i don't know what you mean, PT... :D
ed
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