I was at Walmart the other night and noticed they are still selling the Magnavox VCR-DVD combo for about $188 bucks.

I'm glad that they are still selling video tapes.I"m not a fan of using DVD recorders because they suck and make good coasters for my soft drinks.

OK .Who was the idiots that eliminated the tuners on these newer machines.
Alot of cable boxes dont have RCA comp outputs.Those little cigarette sized cable DTA adapter boxes are only RF out.

I don't know why they are eliminating tuners. They can't cost that much to have in there. I know certain models of VCR/DVD-R with a digital tuner still bring decent money on ebay, so they must be getting hard to find.

I think they are trying to eliminate 'uncontrolled' time shifting through devices that are not computer connected to the cable/sat providers (and have fees associated with them that content providers can ask for a piece of)...
They probably only still sell those for video camera owners so they can put their tapes on DVD....

Hollywood has been trying to kill consumer video recording equipment since it's infancy...What is to say they have not found a route to that in our digital world.
Of course computers are a decent loophole, but it's getting harder to illegally distribute material, and sooner or later there will probably be crap to stop that too.

Analog video has already been killed in new consumer goods at Hollywood's behest...what is logically their next move?.

I think they are trying to eliminate 'uncontrolled' time shifting through devices that are not computer connected to the cable/sat providers (and have fees associated with them that content providers can ask for a piece of)...
They probably only still sell those for video camera owners so they can put their tapes on DVD....

Hollywood has been trying to kill consumer video recording equipment since it's infancy...What is to say they have not found a route to that in our digital world.
Of course computers are a decent loophole, but it's getting harder to illegally distribute material, and sooner or later there will probably be crap to stop that too.

Analog video has already been killed in new consumer goods at Hollywood's behest...what is logically their next move?.

Yes leave it to the CORRUPT industry when they dictate to manufactures what to produce.

Cable companies want you to use their DVRs.

Yes the Betamax case .I remember that.Now they are fighting mad with the internet.


Lastly blame the stupid general public which gets brainwashed with the media and the government on saying analog is crap and go digital.

OK .Who was the idiots that eliminated the tuners on these newer machines.
Those tunerless recorders appeared when digital tuners were required in any device that had a TV tuner in it at all. Since "most" people have pay-TV subscriptions that include their own tuners, the no-tuner recorders made sense and of course were cheaper.

Regarding cable-TV boxes not having composite-video outputs, complain to the company and insist on one. Threaten to cancel your subscription if they resist... I bet they will "find" one for you. :)

Those tunerless recorders appeared when digital tuners were required in any device that had a TV tuner in it at all. Since "most" people have pay-TV subscriptions that include their own tuners, the no-tuner recorders made sense and of course were cheaper.

Regarding cable-TV boxes not having composite-video outputs, complain to the company and insist on one. Threaten to cancel your subscription if they resist... I bet they will "find" one for you. :)

I figure that was one of the issues .I have one cable box with comp outputs but the other 5 small ones dont.I'm not going to give them another penny for 5 boxes with comp outputs.

That good I can get most of the show I watch for free download online.

One option if VCRs are as dirt cheap (~3$)/common in thrifts by you as they are here is to buy one and use it's tuner and composite outputs to convert the RF from the boxes to composite.

I figure that was one of the issues .I have one cable box with comp outputs but the other 5 small ones dont.I'm not going to give them another penny for 5 boxes with comp outputs.

That good I can get most of the show I watch for free download online.

Another alternative is to buy DVDs of your favorite shows from Amazon.com, et al. I like TV series from the '60s-'70s and have many of them now on DVD. If I did not have so many old shows on VHS already (I have perhaps 50+ such programs on tape now), I'd have put my VCR in storage long ago.

As to cable boxes with or without composite video outputs, I think the industry is trying its darnedest to do away with the ability to record from cable TV. This issue should have been laid to rest 39 years ago when Sony won a court case against MGM and other motion-picture producers, in which the latter were trying to have recording of TV shows and movies banned on the grounds that being able to record shows off-the-air was keeping folks from buying VHS tapes, and much later DVDs.

However, it seems as if the industry is trying, once again, to have recording of TV shows banned, and the elimination of composite video outputs from cable boxes is a step in that direction; so was doing away with RF tuners in new VHS/DVD players. What comes next is anyone's guess. Remember, cable TV is a business, and the industry will do anything and everything in its power to protect its bottom line, including if necessary keeping viewers from recording shows.

BTW, as far as modern DVD recorders being no good for anything much other than making coasters (!) is concerned, I think the problem may just be bad discs, operator error, or there may be something wrong with the recorder itself. I have transferred images and audio (mp3) files from my computer to CDs using a CD burner (the Brasero CD burner that is bundled with the Ubuntu operating system) and have had no problems to date.

Some DVD recorders are finicky about which brands they will record on.

Yes leave it to the CORRUPT industry when they dictate to manufactures what to produce.

Cable companies want you to use their DVRs.
In a perfect world (at least regarding TV recording), they would make combo machines with a digital tuner, hard disk drive (for DVR function), and a Blu-ray recorder, so we could make discs of HD shows, just as we used to record video tapes in the old days.

Really, though, remembering how many people had 12:00 flashing on their VCRs, maybe the market for such over-the-air Blu-ray recorders would be pretty small. They do sell such machines in Japan, I think, but of course there are plenty of high-tech gadgets there that we do not get in the USA.

In a perfect world (at least regarding TV recording), they would make combo machines with a digital tuner, hard disk drive (for DVR function), and a Blu-ray recorder, so we could make discs of HD shows, just as we used to record video tapes in the old days.

Really, though, remembering how many people had 12:00 flashing on their VCRs, maybe the market for such over-the-air Blu-ray recorders would be pretty small. They do sell such machines in Japan, I think, but of course there are plenty of high-tech gadgets there that we do not get in the USA.

They wont make it here in the US.The movie industry will start another Betamax case type fight over it.I would not mind getting one of those DVR units that the content can be moved onto my computer or burn it to DVD.
Then I will kiss VHS goodbye.

Yea I do remember the flashing 12:00.The idiot owners were to lazy and dumb to set the clocks.The later models had the clock auto-set on them.

The movie industry will start another Betamax case type fight over it.
Yes, and ironically Sony, who won the original case against Universal, would be at the front of the pack now-on the content-providers' side.

The later models had the clock auto-set on them.
The last VCR I ever bought (for my mother in 2004 as a gift replacement for her failed one) figured out it was connected to an antenna, scanned and stored all of the channels, and found the one with the clock signal and set its clock. All of this happened just by plugging in the machine-I did not even have to hit the power button if I remember right.

I had two VCRs, a Magnavox and my current Panasonic, that had the automatic clock set function. The Magnavox had the automatic setup feature, which worked as soon as the unit was plugged in; of course, this was in the NTSC analog TV era. Now, with digital, the automatic clock set on my Panasonic VCR does not work, even with the machine's tuner set to a local PBS channel. The automatic channel search, however, works perfectly with the cable in my area (Time Warner).

...

I had two VCRs, a Magnavox and my current Panasonic, that had the automatic clock set function. The Magnavox had the automatic setup feature, which worked as soon as the unit was plugged in; of course, this was in the NTSC analog TV era. Now, with digital, the automatic clock set on my Panasonic VCR does not work, even with the machine's tuner set to a local PBS channel. The automatic channel search, however, works perfectly with the cable in my area (Time Warner).

Yes, and ironically Sony, who won the original case against Universal, would be at the front of the pack now-on the content-providers' side.


The last VCR I ever bought (for my mother in 2004 as a gift replacement for her failed one) figured out it was connected to an antenna, scanned and stored all of the channels, and found the one with the clock signal and set its clock. All of this happened just by plugging in the machine-I did not even have to hit the power button if I remember right.

I never used the auto clock feature because it was never on the right time.
I got one more year of use on my Panasonic VCR because the calender stops at 2015.I probably can set it to some other year which will be exact same as 2016 when It comes around.

Blu-Ray recorders and DVRs with BD writers are common in other countries, but not in the US. People seem to be content with the cable company's DVR.

The Movie/TV people dont want them hare.
My friend had a DVR and it crash with all of his movies on it went south.I'm not fond of them because of that problem.They are like a computer .The data is here today but gone tomorrow.I've been through some expensive pro recovery jobs with my computers.I dont need the BS with DVRs.