[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by Whirled One

Speaking of Funai, I bought a Symphonic (Funai) Hi-Fi VCR a few years ago to use as a spare. Out of curiousity I opened it up a while back and just couldn't believe how few moving parts there were inside that thing..! Wow. Especially when you consider how the typical VHS VCR from the late 70's had such an incredible maze of belts and motors and gears, it's amazing to see how simplified they've managed to get these mechanisms. Also interesting about this VCR is the almost complete lack of connecting cables on the inside-- the mechanism portion of the VCR basically just "plugs into" the PC board just by pressing the mechanism down onto its mounting points and driving the mounting screws in place. Some of the microswitches and even the tape-end IR LED and sensor are actually mounted directly on the PC board itself rather than attached to the mechanism, presumably to reduce the number of electrical connections even further.

Yes, but these new VCRs don't last as long as the early VHS and Betamax machines did. I once had a Panasonic VCR with VCR Plus that ate a tape after only two years. I opened it to get the cassette out and wound up wrecking the mechanism. The next day I ordered a new Panasonic VCR from H. H. Gregg which has lasted two years and is still working, but for how long is anybody's guess. There may not be as many belts, etc. in these new VCRs as there were in earlier models, but the mechanism which is there is made almost entirely of plastic. It is no wonder these machines don't last longer than two or three years, but then again, VCRs were never meant to last years as the older TVs and radios often do. A friend of mine has his late father's Curtis Mathes VCR, which was new some 20+ years ago; the machine still works for playing back tapes, but doesn't record anymore. His father had the VCR repaired once or twice during those 20-odd years, but the machine cost something on the order of $800 when new so it was probably worth repairing. Today's VCRs aren't worth being repaired even once after they are out of warranty; the charge to simply have a shop look at the thing, let alone to have it repaired, is often equal to or even more than what a new VCR goes for these days. It's called planned obsolescence. VCRs are obsolete anyhow today, with DVD players now becoming ever cheaper every time one turns around, or so it seems (I have a CyberHome DVD player which sells for $30 at Best Buy and other electronics stores). With almost all new movies on DVD these days, tell me honestly, who needs a VCR except to watch old favorite VHS tapes? I have a rack in my bedroom with about 60 VHS cassettes, on which I have recorded movies and old TV series. About the only thing I use my VCR for, aside from occasionally time-shifting shows, is watching those old tapes once in a while. My DVD player is getting more use now, since I subscribed to Netflix some six months ago, than my VCR has seen in the same time period. As I said earlier, VCRs are all but obsolete these days and are being phased out in favor of DVD players, so the day will eventually come when the stand-alone VCR will be all but impossible to find except at yard sales, flea markets, Goodwill, etc. There are combo machines available now which will transfer non-copyguarded VHS tapes to DVD (not the other way around--the DMCA forbids it and all DVDs are copyguarded by Macrovision), but the industry has all but given up on stand-alone VCRs. There's no stopping progress. DVD is the wave of the future. VCRs are dinosaurs today, which is why the new machines still available are almost deliberately made to fail after only a year or two. The manufacturers of DVD players are counting on VCRs becoming things of the past, just as TV manufacturers are trying with all their might to declare CRT-based televisions obsolete--as they may well become, sooner than we may think, as flat-panel HDTVs come down in price. Heck, I saw a 17-inch Magnavox flat-panel advertised for under $500 in last week's Best Buy newspaper flyer that had me seriously considering replacing my 5-year-old RCA 19-inch CRT set, which still works well and makes a great picture on digital cable (using a cable box), with a flat-panel LCD. If these flat panels keep coming down in price (I'm waiting for 19-21" FPs to drop below $500), my CRT-based sets may well go into storage, with a new Magnavox or other brand of flat-panel HDTV taking the RCA's place in the entertainment unit in my living room. One of these days... Hey, I ditched my vinyl phono records five years ago in favor of CDs, and finally made the switch to DVD last year; my old TVs may and likerly will eventually be next, in favor of HDTV. To paraphrase a character in the 1970 movie The Graduate, I have only one word: Digital. And I'm all for it. The only thing holding me back is the currently steep price of 19-21" flat-panels. I could replace my present set with a flat panel tomorrow if I wanted a set two inches smaller than my CRT set is now, but wanting an even larger set when I do make the switch, I'll wait until the 21" FPs become reasonable.