http://money.cnn.com/2016/07/22/technology/vcr-funai-last/
I wouldn't mind if they would continue to manufacture them with better abilities. I have a ton of VHS tapes sitting in a box somewhere.
I want a model that won't eat up tapes. It seems all the ones I had in the 80's did that.
And yes, I would like a model with cables that would allow conversion to digital on my laptop with great ease.
I have a few tapes somewhere. I have no urge to be able to watch them.
I do remember growing up with a camcorder in the house and my brother and I used to make the stupidest movies and shows with our friends. I have no idea what happened to any of our old personal VHS tapes.
Believe it or not, you probably did name one of the major advantages of a circa 2016 VRC: connection compatibility.
We had a related problem a few years ago with my mother. My siblings and I bought her a DVD player so she could watch movies. Unfortunately, the only TV she had was from circa 1985 and the ONLY input it had was a coaxial cable jack. Guess what was one of the few outputs the DVD player DIDN'T have? You guessed it: coaxial cable. It had DVI, HDMI, composite video, S-video, etc., but no coaxial cable output.
The only reason I would be interested in converting tapes is those darn home videos. It's all the stuff with my kids. OK...I can skip over the hours of the musical shows they did in elementary school. They were a snore then and would be a snore now. But there is stuff of my parents who are no longer living, pets that are long deceased, yeh...some good memories I wouldn't mind having.
No top load, but there is a separate device for rewinding only.
What is this "VCR" you speak of, and can it get HBO?
I don't know, but you better buy a couple so you can watch all the movies not released on DVD.
http://www.blumhouse.com/2015/10/19/lost-on-vhs-5-horror-movies-that-you-can-only-watch-on-vhs/
Must be some kind of Roku device.
Better, fresher "innards", assuming that you actually want to use the machine for some real purpose.
By that I mean that the "rubber" (pinch rollers) will be supple, not hard, dirty and dried-out; plastic tape guides will be clean and not brittle; lubricating grease (yes, the tape loading mechanism does have lubricant on it) will not yet have turned to glue; the heads and the head brushes will be fresh and clean (the video heads spin on a drum and the information from those heads has to get across that spinning axis somehow, very small wire brushes are the way). The electronics may well now include some type of time base correction, perhaps even some line or field storage to help "clean up" the video played back (something almost necessary given that VCR tapes recorded years ago are probably starting to seriously deteriorate). In short, the 2016 machine should last for the next 30-years. The 1985 machine is already at the end of its useful life, even if it's never been taken out of the box.
The new machine may well have some or all of the updated interfaces that you mention but those are "convenience" items, not the real meat and potatoes of the unit. I can find an NTSC composite to HDMI interface for a few bucks, but if the machine itself won't work then what's the point?
About 10 pounds in weight.
That interface issue in a big problem.
I know that the horse is euphemistically out of the barn with that DVD player but sounds like you needed one of these to interface that unit to her TV set. (or an old VCR that has composite or s-video in and a channel 3/4 modulator output).
http://www.showmecables.com/Search.aspx?q=S-Video+and+RCA+RF+Modulator
It's the newest, hippest pokegomon, and y'all are stupid for not knowing that.
That also makes it fitness equipment with a digital interface. Is Chuck Norris still up for being paid to hawk wares?
No advantages...they will only last 5 years. The ones 1985 will be working 20 years from now.
<-------------so wack
Really? I'm going to go buy one more while there's some left! I love VCRs. The new ones have a DVD player with videocassette option. I like that. The newer ones are also smaller and less heavy. Back in the 1980s, they were huge and cumbersome and cost over a thousand dollars. Today, you can get one for less than $200.
I've had one for over 10 years. Still working!
I like videos more than DVDs. My understanding is that VCRs will not work with a digital atsc tv.
