Last manufacturer pulls the plug on the VCR

[N2IXK]

http://www.slate.com/articles/techno...s_and_vcr.html

[centralradio]

Yea .Sad news. caught this article over on ARF. Can blame the press and Hollywood.Globalists and the digital numnuts .Stupid public got bought up in with the digital DVD crap like they did when the CD came out 30 years ago plus the content is online too..Hollywood does not want you to record their programs on any medium which DVD recorder and blank DVDs suck .Those of us that can watch and free download content online is a plus which I dont mind.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/techno...d=ansmsnnews11

I guess we are sitting on a gold mine that have loads of VCRs in our storage area/Basements and garages.Is Funai low in the barrel for quality.Walmart still stocks the Magnavox combo VCR/DVD deck there. Now you got to order blank VHS tape online at Walmart since they pulled the Memorex tapes off the shelves in the stores.Maybe it will turn around like vinyl has done.People will wake up when they loose their digital photos/home videos/movies/TV shows and favorite music when their computer and other digital device fries. In the analog world that crap does not happen and it will be there for your lifetime and some.

[Damnation]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

The omission of RF tuners on all new VHS/DVD players is meant to force people to buy the DVD of any program they want to keep.

Honestly this is still far, far better than what's likely going to the near future for the mainstream. Practically no physical media exists (maybe an esoteric format like 4k UltraHD Blu-ray), everything is streamed, no way to keep hold of anything. All power in hands of the studios. That lesser-known movie you love not on Netflix, Hulu, whatever? Better have an old physical copy or you're screwed. Want a wider selection of content? You have to subscribe to several services for that. More $$$ for the bigwigs. Netflix drop a group of movies for months or years from the service? Screwed again. That's the future.

[Dude111]

Ya its all very sad

[centralradio]

Originally Posted by Damnation

Honestly this is still far, far better than what's likely going to the near future for the mainstream. Practically no physical media exists (maybe an esoteric format like 4k UltraHD Blu-ray), everything is streamed, no way to keep hold of anything. All power in hands of the studios. That lesser-known movie you love not on Netflix, Hulu, whatever? Better have an old physical copy or you're screwed. Want a wider selection of content? You have to subscribe to several services for that. More $$$ for the bigwigs. Netflix drop a group of movies or months or years from the service? Screwed again. That's the future.

Got a point there.Its all geared for the Hollywood industry elites I'll stop here.

[Ed in Tx]

Local TV news had a story today about the last VCRs made, and used this Panasonic European model F55 commercial as video for the story. Apparently was originally shown on MTV Europe channel judging from the ID bug. Nice looking VCR never saw one like it here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqfhrlWNFF8

[dishdude]

They were all DVD/VCR combos being produced?

[N2IXK]

The combo DVD/VHS units or VHS player only machines were the only ones I have seen in stores in recent years. The play only units being aimed at people who want to get content off their old tapes and onto a digital format, I guess...

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

If the tape has not been stretched badly a gentle pull through your fingers will flatten the lumps so it is semi-playable in the damaged spot...Otherwise I splice them.

I don't want to run a damaged spot through the heads. It seems, the oxide sheds and fouls the rotating head.

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

I don't want to run a damaged spot through the heads. It seems, the oxide sheds and fouls the rotating head.

The one or two tapes I had to do that with were ~2004-7 era blanks, and they never fouled the heads on the players...Perhaps some of the older tape stock had those problems after being wrinkled and smoothed.

[centralradio]

Originally Posted by dishdude

They were all DVD/VCR combos being produced?

Originally Posted by N2IXK

The combo DVD/VHS units or VHS player only machines were the only ones I have seen in stores in recent years. The play only units being aimed at people who want to get content off their old tapes and onto a digital format, I guess...

I agree.They copy their home videos to DVD and 4 years go by and find out the DVD are flaking ,scratched,corrupted and by that time they got rid of their home videos of their loved ones .How sad is that.Those Magnavox decks I've mentioned probably are Funai made.When I make copies of home videos like I'm doing now is I make a copy for myself and give another to my sister and rip a copy to my computer and move it onto my backup external drive and save the VHS master tapes.There is to much to loose of those memories of family home videos and photos due to the unstable world of digital.It really burns me up when people dump their home videos and photos.

[centralradio]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

I don't want to run a damaged spot through the heads. It seems, the oxide sheds and fouls the rotating head.

Originally Posted by Electronic M

If the tape has not been stretched badly a gentle pull through your fingers will flatten the lumps so it is semi-playable in the damaged spot...Otherwise I splice them.

Yea .bad tape could do a number on the VCR.I have a couple of decks put aside for checking questionable tapes before I put them into my good decks.To this day I probably only rented 3 tapes since they started renting videos because who knows how clean and the condition was on the last deck was.

[centralradio]

The other day I happen to go through some boxes here and found some 1980's Video Review and Video magazines .I miss those days looking at the magazines when they arrive in the mail.Drooling over while looking at the new Beta and VHS VCRs,Video cameras and later VHS camcorders.

[NowhereMan 1966]

I still use VHS to record off the TV.

[Jon A.]

Originally Posted by centralradio

I guess we are sitting on a gold mine that have loads of VCRs in our storage area/Basements and garages.Is Funai low in the barrel for quality.Walmart still stocks the Magnavox combo VCR/DVD deck there. Now you got to order blank VHS tape online at Walmart since they pulled the Memorex tapes off the shelves in the stores.Maybe it will turn around like vinyl has done.People will wake up when they loose their digital photos/home videos/movies/TV shows and favorite music when their computer and other digital device fries. In the analog world that crap does not happen and it will be there for your lifetime and some.

I'd still be using 110 film if anyone around here sold or developed it anymore.

There's a Garfield and Friends episode called "The Record Breaker" in which almost no one knows what a record player is. Such a parody of the digital audio world seems surreal these days.