VCR Players - Will they keep making them?
 

I guess they will keep making them as long as people keep buying them,
but I was
wondering how long that will be.

I have hundreds of videos I watch on and off. I'm not really interested
in replacing them
with DVDs. I have titles like Alien, Platoon, Apocalypse Now, etc. I
still like watching them
but I've seen them so many times, I don't feel like buying them on DVD.

Just wondering how long the manufactures will be making the dual
players, DVD/VCRs.

Re: VCR Players - Will they keep making them?
 

I'd (generously) give it another 3-5 years.
I haven't purchased one since 2000, and I almost never use them, and only
keep them because I haven't dubbed all my old vhs tapes to DVD-R.
Regarding replacing your VHS movies with DVD's, you might want to look at
the cheap bins at Walmart, that might make you change your mind.
Sooner or later, those VHS copies will wear out or get eaten by your VCR.


<beckola@hotpop.com> wrote in message
news:1138521343.905125.76540@g43g2000cwa.googlegro ups.com...
> I guess they will keep making them as long as people keep buying them,
> but I was
> wondering how long that will be.
>
> I have hundreds of videos I watch on and off. I'm not really interested
> in replacing them
> with DVDs. I have titles like Alien, Platoon, Apocalypse Now, etc. I
> still like watching them
> but I've seen them so many times, I don't feel like buying them on DVD.
>
> Just wondering how long the manufactures will be making the dual
> players, DVD/VCRs.
>

Re: VCR Players - Will they keep making them?
 

VCR's were largely disposable several years ago. I would think if you
have a very large collection of good stuff you definately want to keep,
you might look into buying a number of VCR's and storing them for
future use. I would think if you were handy it would make sense to buy
all the same model and then cannablilize them for parts as they go
down. Say you bought ten of them. I would think you could keep them
going for a good many years. Heck, up until recordable DVD got going
people were still trading hi end Betamaxes on Ebay because of their
technical superiority to VHS. I thought that was kind of cool in a
way. Lots of folks had original TV broadcasts from the 70's and early
80's with the original commercials. It's your own time capsule.

-beaumon (who has a very decent Phillips S-VHS unit I bought several
years ago and now never use)

Re: VCR Players - Will they keep making them?
 

<beckola@hotpop.com> wrote in message news:1138521343.905125.76540@g43g2000cwa.googlegro ups.com...
>I guess they will keep making them as long as people keep buying them,
> but I was
> wondering how long that will be.
>
> I have hundreds of videos I watch on and off. I'm not really interested
> in replacing them
> with DVDs. I have titles like Alien, Platoon, Apocalypse Now, etc. I
> still like watching them
> but I've seen them so many times, I don't feel like buying them on DVD.
>
> Just wondering how long the manufactures will be making the dual
> players, DVD/VCRs.

They still make turntables...

But if you like a movie well enough to watch
a relatively low-quality, "full-frame" version
of it again and again, then you like it enough
to pop for the movie on DVD and *really*
enjoy it.

Re: VCR Players - Will they keep making them?
 

NFord wrote:
> <beckola@hotpop.com> wrote in message news:1138521343.905125.76540@g43g2000cwa.googlegro ups.com...
> >I guess they will keep making them as long as people keep buying them,
> > but I was
> > wondering how long that will be.
> >
> > I have hundreds of videos I watch on and off. I'm not really interested
> > in replacing them
> > with DVDs. I have titles like Alien, Platoon, Apocalypse Now, etc. I
> > still like watching them
> > but I've seen them so many times, I don't feel like buying them on DVD.
> >
> > Just wondering how long the manufactures will be making the dual
> > players, DVD/VCRs.
>
> They still make turntables...
>
> But if you like a movie well enough to watch
> a relatively low-quality, "full-frame" version
> of it again and again, then you like it enough
> to pop for the movie on DVD and *really*
> enjoy it.

Thanks for the responses. It seems ironical because I didn't really
have a
large VHS collection until DVD became mainstream.

I was at a garage sale where a guy was asking 50 cents to $1.00 for his
videos. I asked how much for all them (300+ movies) and he said $100.00
for the lot. I've been buying them as a "hobby" ever since.

It's hard to explain, but its become addictive. Probably because you
can
buy videos for less than it use to cost to rent them.

I wasn't aware that you can still buy turntables. Most likely this will
be the
case with VCRs many years from now.

Re: VCR Players - Will they keep making them?
 

In article <1138539951.670002.134720@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups .com>, lorincantrell@yahoo.com wrote:
>VCR's were largely disposable several years ago. I would think if you
>have a very large collection of good stuff you definately want to keep,
>you might look into buying a number of VCR's and storing them for
>future use. I would think if you were handy it would make sense to buy
>all the same model and then cannablilize them for parts as they go
>down. Say you bought ten of them. I would think you could keep them
>going for a good many years. Heck, up until recordable DVD got going
>people were still trading hi end Betamaxes on Ebay because of their
>technical superiority to VHS. I thought that was kind of cool in a
>way. Lots of folks had original TV broadcasts from the 70's and early
>80's with the original commercials. It's your own time capsule.
>
>-beaumon (who has a very decent Phillips S-VHS unit I bought several
>years ago and now never use)
>
Agreed, i have stocked away a good number of Mitsubishi SVHS decks and a few
JVC ones for that purpose, but i have to admit, its been at least 9 months
since i have even held a vhs tape in my hand.

Re: VCR Players - Will they keep making them?
 

NFord wrote:
> <beckola@hotpop.com> wrote in message news:1138521343.905125.76540@g43g2000cwa.googlegro ups.com...
>
> They still make turntables...
>
> But if you like a movie well enough to watch
> a relatively low-quality, "full-frame" version
> of it again and again, then you like it enough
> to pop for the movie on DVD and *really*
> enjoy it.

I couldn't agree more. The DVD picture quality, durability, and
widescreen format
is vastly superior to VHS. The only way I can defend my addiction to
buying VHS
movies is that I'm discovering movies I would have never thought to buy
on DVD.

My most recent purchase was a lot of about 25+ movies for 50 cents
each.
It included a copy of "A Bronx Tale" Robert DeNiro. This is one of the
best movies
I've seen in years, but probably would walk right buy it, if it I saw
it on the shelves
at Best Buy or Wal Mart.

Re: VCR Players - Will they keep making them?
 

I haven't bought a movie on VHS in years. The only reason I still have
a VHS machine is to record shows off tv. Now that I have DirectTV with
a two-channel DVR, that reason is gone. I still occasionally tape stuff
for other people, and VHS is the easiest way to give it to them. When
analog broadcasting stops in 3 years, there won't be much call for
analog tape machines.

Re: VCR Players - Will they keep making them?
 

In article <1138561816.491242.165600@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups .com>,
<beckola@hotpop.com> wrote:
>
>NFord wrote:
>> <beckola@hotpop.com> wrote in message news:1138521343.905125.76540@g43g2000cwa.googlegro ups.com...
>> >I guess they will keep making them as long as people keep buying them,
>> > but I was
>> > wondering how long that will be.
>> >
>> > I have hundreds of videos I watch on and off. I'm not really interested
>> > in replacing them
>> > with DVDs. I have titles like Alien, Platoon, Apocalypse Now, etc. I
>> > still like watching them
>> > but I've seen them so many times, I don't feel like buying them on DVD.
>> >
>> > Just wondering how long the manufactures will be making the dual
>> > players, DVD/VCRs.
>>
>> They still make turntables...
>>
>> But if you like a movie well enough to watch
>> a relatively low-quality, "full-frame" version
>> of it again and again, then you like it enough
>> to pop for the movie on DVD and *really*
>> enjoy it.

>Thanks for the responses. It seems ironical because I didn't really
>have a
>large VHS collection until DVD became mainstream.

>I was at a garage sale where a guy was asking 50 cents to $1.00 for his
>videos. I asked how much for all them (300+ movies) and he said $100.00
>for the lot. I've been buying them as a "hobby" ever since.

>It's hard to explain, but its become addictive. Probably because you
>can
>buy videos for less than it use to cost to rent them.

>I wasn't aware that you can still buy turntables. Most likely this will
>be the
>case with VCRs many years from now.

Any decent machine shop could make a turntable. It takes a lot
more than that to make a VCR. As with much electronic equipment
the pieces/parts used to asemble them go out of production and when
it breaks it all over.

A friend of mine bought a Marconi standards convertor to translate
PAL to NTSC and also NTSC to PAL. He converted most of the Wild
World Of Sports for ABC for European distribution. That cost
him about $250,000 in 1967 [or thereabouts - which if you take
inflation into account adds up to a LOT of money by 2005 standards]

The last time I saw that beast - a full 6 foot rack with really
deep cards - it was waiting to have the cards cut up to retreive
the gold as the ICs needed to make it work had not been available
for years.

Also during that time he had the three networks with direct feeds
to his shop and he'd record the ABC, NBC and CBS nightly news
and then fly them to Puero Rico so the citizens there could see
Walter Cronkite et al 24 hours later.

For people who have grown up with instant communications anywhere
in the world [ if you concede that the absolute minimum propagation
delay is about 1/3 of a second] to envision a world where moving
images had to be flown by aircraft - and the only images that moved
faster were still pictures transmitted by 'wire-photo'.

The concept of those machines became similar to fax years later.

And news was made when Queen Elizabeth was crowned and COLOR
wirephotos showed up in newspaper with all the hoopla attendant
to the first color wirephoto transmission.

There had to be three passes for those, one for each of the color
separations. The only place I can immediately think of where you
get a hint of how those worked is in the film Call Northside 777.

Bill

--
Bill Vermillion - bv @ wjv . com

Re: VCR Players - Will they keep making them?
 

In article <1138563643.459708.91790@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups. com>,
<beckola@hotpop.com> wrote:
>
>NFord wrote:
>> <beckola@hotpop.com> wrote in message news:1138521343.905125.76540@g43g2000cwa.googlegro ups.com...
>>
>> They still make turntables...
>>
>> But if you like a movie well enough to watch
>> a relatively low-quality, "full-frame" version
>> of it again and again, then you like it enough
>> to pop for the movie on DVD and *really*
>> enjoy it.

>I couldn't agree more. The DVD picture quality, durability, and
>widescreen format is vastly superior to VHS. The only way I can
>defend my addiction to buying VHS movies is that I'm discovering
>movies I would have never thought to buy on DVD.

Well I've bought very few VHS tapes in my lifetime. But I've
bought several in the last couple of years - and none were
as cheap as 50 cents.

These were films that never made it to DVD - and perhaps never will
- are never shown on cable - so the only way to get them for the
moment is to search for used VHS tapes to tranfer them to DVD>

>My most recent purchase was a lot of about 25+ movies for 50
>cents each. It included a copy of "A Bronx Tale" Robert DeNiro.
>This is one of the best movies I've seen in years, but probably
>would walk right buy it, if it I saw it on the shelves at Best
>Buy or Wal Mart.

Cheap is good. I picked up a single DVD, a set of two DVDs
and a set of 4 DVDs - for a total of $10.67 - on a closeout rack.

These were el-cheapos to begin with but one was only 50 cents.

Nude - er new in the box.

Bill



--
Bill Vermillion - bv @ wjv . com