I'm wondering - are people concerned about the fact that it is getting harder to maintain vhs decks with manufacturers no longer supplying parts for these decks more often than not these days?

I'm also getting a bit paranoid about the lack of analog inputs on modern tv's and where the state of analog will be say 10 years from now.

For the first time I'm taking seriously my need to convert my tapes to dvd - to the point that I'm buying what is now outdated technology of hdd/dvd recorders to help with the workflow.

It's kind of ironic that I missed the HDD/DVD boat because I've been so stubborn about sticking with vhs, and now when I'm all worried about what will happen to my tape collection, I feel like I'm almost out of time to deal with this.

I have well over 1,000 tapes and would really like them not be rendered useless a decade from now.

I do have a Panasonic AG-1980 as my main vcr system, but I have to admit I'm more concerned about what is happening with analog inputs to tv's moreso than that machine breaking down. I'm holding onto my old Sony Wega CRT for dear life.

Home-burned DVDs may degrade over time and become unplayable :(
I have some that I burned less than 10 years ago that no longer work... the VHS tapes that I copied still play fine. Sunlight seems to be the main killer of these disks, so storing in a dark, cool, dry place may help.

I have also seen some degradation of the aluminum coating on early laser disks :(

Right now, I am "backing up" important video on hard drive, and sometimes SD memory chips. Very large 1TB hard drives are pretty cheap now, and will continue to drop in price... large SD memory chips are getting cheaper every day. I don't know how long the SD chips and hard drives will last, but at least they can be easily "backed up", without additional loss of quality.

jr

Home-burned DVDs may degrade over time and become unplayable :(
I have some that I burned less than 10 years ago that no longer work... the VHS tapes that I copied still play fine. Sunlight seems to be the main killer of these disks, so storing in a dark, cool, dry place may help.


If you still have those failed discs, can you scan them with a media ID tool and tell me what it says? You can find the software here (click on and download Nero "Disc Speed"). Copy a paste the contents of the "Disc Info" tab here.

http://www.nero.com/enu/tools-utilities.html

Stacy, the AG-1980 is a fine VCR for archiving VHS to digital as long as its working properly. They tend to be plagued with capacitor problems, but are otherwise solid units. Panasonic still provides parts, and any VCR repair shop should be able to fix them.

If you still have those failed discs, can you scan them with a media ID tool and tell me what it says?

Sorry, they got tossed as soon as I verified that no DVD player that I owned could play them. Should have kept them, as it appears that some more modern players may be better than others in reading damaged disks, perhaps would do better on "sun faded" disks, as well. Early on, DVD "blanks" were pretty expensive, so it is possible that I chose an "off brand" to save money.

jr

It's Ironic that the original tapes are probably the most dependable storage medium if stored under proper conditions, i.e. cool and dry.

The hardware will probably die before the tapes do.

Backup to a Hard Drive is probably the best long term solution but those too need to be backed up and replaced every so often themselves.

If the tapes are common material it would probably be cheaper to buy them on used DVD's (I think manufactured DVD's will last a very long time) than to spend time (lot's of it since tape has to be copied in real time) and money trying to back up a media that has mediocre picture quality to start with.

I've been archiving shows on my S-VHS-ET machines, but lately most brands of tape have dissapeared from Walgreens (where I usually get my tape) and many other places have stoped carying tape all together so awhile back I bought two DVD recorders (I did want two, but one won't record so I'm still looking for one:( ). I'm trying to switch to DVD only archiving as I'm sick of the small errors in tape surface, etc. that create occasional black horizontal line in the picture and noise pulse in the HIFI track, and it is easier, and less time consumeing to edit out comercials, etc in DVD format after puting the discs on my computer using some software I bought a while back. This will facilitate editing and back up quite well once I get a larger external hard drive, and stop archiving the series that are currently being finished up on VHS. I also need to figure out why the timer record isn't working right. I like DVD as I don't have or particularly waht a HD TV, and know that DVD will continue to be supported for a decent amount of time. I have no doubt that I can keep my tube color sets running as long as I live and have enough spare VCRs that I don't wory about them loosing them all to wear.


Tom C.

Has anyone noticed that new standard DVD recorders have all but vanished from the box stores? All I can find are VHS/DVD dubbing type decks. Blue-rays galore but players only as planned for copyright protection.

Toshiba has a couple, one without tuner, and this model with a built in astc/ntsc/qam tuner:
http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-DR570-DVD-Recorder-Player/dp/B001TOD3KK/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1316496565&sr=8-3
There are some BluRay decks that record, but at $850 or so... frankly, I am quite content to just put the video on hard drive and quit fooling around with home recorded disks.
jr

J&R music world has a Magnavox HDD/DVD recorder with a digital tuner, as well as a stand alone Toshiba DVD Recorder with a digital tuner.

Box stores, forget about it. 99.9% of the population apparently no longer feels the need to archive. It's the .001% of us that are completely screwed with the analog to digital conversion, and its only going to get worse from here.

The set top DVD recorder market died after 2006 or so. What killed it off was likely the ATSC tuner requirements. The best recorders for VHS to DVD transfers are only available used now, of course with that using a computer with a capture card is always an option. For off air recording, the Magnavox units (made by Funai) available at Walmart will do the job most folks want.

There are many DVR type cards for computers as well that capture SD and HD video direct to hard disk. You can later burn those files to DVD-R or BD-R for long term archiving.

Stacy while there's nothing wrong with making DVD copies of your videotape library, do not discard your VHS tapes after copying them as DVDs do not have the longevity that most people think they do. By keeping your VHS masters you will ensure that you have all your recordings in the event something goes wrong with any of the DVDs.

I've still got around 200 'Beta-1' recordings, and a machine that will play them. These are recordings of mid-1976-era TV and specials, along with a recording of Gone With The Wind when NBC played it. It's horrible to watch, compared to the restored versions available today. I've got around 30 unopened L-750 tapes.

On VHS, I've got over 600 tapes. I rarely recorded at SLP speed. Most things are recorded at SP. I've still got about 40 unopened blank T-120 tapes.

Prowling at the thrift stores recently got me a pair of late 1990's Sony VHS Hi-Fi machines with a flying erase head. They both have the same tape transport, and both had the same thing wrong... the arm that pulls the tape out of the cassette and moves it in place behind the capstan pinch roller... the bearing oil becomes like glue and the arm hangs and causes the tape to get creased when the machine unloads. Easy fix. One drop of oil on the bearing, and let it leech in.

200 BI recordings, very cool! I dubbed most of mine over to another machine at BII in the early 1980s when the net recovery of one tape per movie was worth the time and trouble. Now, I don't know if I even have any of those dubs still, but I do have a 1979 Cubs game on two tapes at BI, and maybe one movie.

I converted some of my VHS tapes to DVD, using a DVD recorder and player, can't remember the name of the machine, none of them lasted long enough.
I have a large collection of VHS tapes, dating way back, but still the most dependable media is magnetic tape and there are still VHS machines available for not to much cash.
I have a second gerneration VHS machine, built like a tank, the small belt to the number counter is broken, and it will not play unless that is working.