Venting on a DVD recorder purchase

[Whirled One]

I have to say "nay" on the combo units too. Go with a good quality VCR and a separate stand-alone DVD recorder.

I will say that I find a stand-alone DVD recorder to be far more convenient for transferring tapes than using a computer/video digitizer card. I've had a Panasonic DVD recorder (a DMR-E30) for years now, and it's just been great, both for transferring old tapes and for standard TV tuner recording. As Geoff says, I agree that the 6-hour mode this thing has is just awful in terms of quality, but I think those "6-hour" and "8-hour" modes on DVD recorders are more of an advertising gimmick than anything else (and to make the recording modes seem more like the familiar VHS VCRs). At 2-hour mode it's quite decent (and the 1-hour mode is even better-- if what you're trying to record will fit in 1 hour) Plus, I would imagine that if anything, the quality of the encoding is better in current stand-alone DVD recorder models than my 3-to-4 year-old Panasonic.

[NowhereMan 1966]

I did buy a combo unit for Mom in 2002 for Christmas, a Toshiba. The VCR would not record anymore a few months later. The big thing there was I received nitification for signing up with a service agreement to fix or replace in January 2003 but at that time there was great confusion in my life due to me falling can cutting my left hand open, it getting infected with strep so I needed surgery. I was lucky, they got all the infection out but I do have some nerve damage, I came close to losing part or all of my left hand. Getting back to the story, the service agreemwnt went down the memory hole. Well, I took it back to Sears and explained my problem and they honored it anyways, I got the next model up and it has been fine ever since. Still, I see the idea of having separate units is better but to ach his own.

Chuck

DE KA3WRW

[Whirled One]

Originally Posted by kx250rider

Sounds like a classic case of the new machine leaving the factory (Oops; I mean Asian childrens' slave camp) with poor alignment. I'd return it for another of the same model, or take your tape to the store and try it in the demo on the shelf.

Actually, yeah, as far as that goes, you probably just got a "dud". You might want to try just exchanging it for another of the same model.

Frankly, despite how people here generally dislike Funai-made VCRs, I have to say that I bought a cheap Symphonic VHS Hi-Fi VCR about 5 years ago to use as a secondary VCR, and it's actually been amazingly unfussy, and I've found that it will sometimes even play old worn-out rental tapes that stymie my nice ol' JVC. [I've got an older Zenith (JVC) VCR though that I've also found does pretty well with well-worn tapes too, though] That Symphonic/Funai even gets along a bit better with vintage TVs than most VCRs I've tried for that purpose. I don't actually use the Symphonic much, but when I have it's actually been kind of a trooper.

As far as build-quality goes, that Funai is super-cheap-cheap. Muntz would have been proud. It's actually quite impressive. Get yourself a Funai-made VCR made within the past five years or so (available for free at your local trash dumpster), and take a look inside. The number of moving parts have been reduced to such a minimum that it's actually amazing. Compare that with the complexity of a VCR made in the 70's or early 80's..! Also, the've reduced the number of internal connecting cables by having as many sensor switches and such as possible (including the IR LEDs for the tape sensor) mounted directly to the PC board, with standoffs and such positioned so that they'll be in just the right spot when the tape transport assembly is put in place. The remaining wiring is done with edge connectors built onto the transport assembly, so there still aren't any individual connecting wires between the two. Kinda reminds me of certain early IBM PS/2 computers that used plug-in riser boards and connectors to connect the disk drives and other internal components instead of cables, but cheaper in execution. Also, considering it's obviously designed as a "disposable" VCR, the PC board silk-screen printing is surprisingly detailed-- even many of the wire jumpers on the board are labeled with the signal and/or voltage that they carry.

Despite the mechanical simplicity, I would tend to doubt the overall *durability* of one of these Funai VCRs (most of the mechanical parts appear to be on the "flimsy" side, and most of the mechanical things that would be adjustable in an older/better VCR are fixed in place on the Funais), but the overall simplicity and compactness of the transport mechanism is pretty interesting.

It's weird, I have a 10 year old Symphonic/Funai VCR, HiFi Stereo that still plays great, and I've used it a lot, especially during the first 5 years. It was a Christmas gift back in '96. It actually has great tracking, and the transport handles the tapes well, and has some editing functions on it. Exception rather than the rule :p

Anyhow, combo units. My parents bought a Sony (rebadged Samsung) DVD player/VCR combo unit. The DVD player broke within 2 years time (and it was hardly used.) Right now they bought a Panasonic combo, which seems to work much better. For my one set of old TVs, I have a Go-Video (rebadged LG) DVD/VHS combo. It was one of the cheapest ones on the shelf, yet it works great. It is almost 4 years old, and haven't had a problem. I typically pop in a DVD and set it for repeat, which it does for almost 16 hours at day at times. Sometimes do the same on the VCR.

But overall I prefer standalone units myself. I also prefer 10-30 year old VCRs anyhow.

I have a 3 year old Sony DVD-Recorder (first generation). It has decent picture quality, at least down to the 3 hour mode. It makes decent copies of VHS, Beta, DV, CATV, etc.

But for the best quality, I use my PC. Like ha1156w said, that Canopus ADVC-100 is a great card. I don't have one myself, though I do have a Hauppauge TV and FM tuner card with S-Video input. I can capture raw avi or any type of compression format I choose with any software. I have my own little process that I'm working on to restore my tapes to DVD. Lots of filters and cleaning up the video and audio. I also have a entry level JVC SVHS pro grade VCR with a time base corrector and noise filter I use for this as well. I've had a friend give me a 3rd generation EP copy of something. When I was done, you could not tell it came from a tape of that quality.

[Eric H]

I've had a few days to play around with this Panasonic and have to say it works very well!

Even in the 6 hour mode the picture doesn't look much worse than the original standard-def DirecTV picture which is pretty soft to begin with.

It also claims to upscale the VHS when copying to DVD, however like most it won't copy prerecorded tapes, maybe there's a hack somewhere to disable the Macrovision...

the model# is DMR-ES35V and it was $244 on sale at Circuit City.

[bgadow]

I agree with Whirled One that those "drug store" VCRs are amazing in their simplicity. I had been looking at them in the local discount store, where they had stacks of them for about $20, and couldn't get over how lightweight they were. Finally I found one which had been left on the ground at the town dump so I took it home to explore. I compared it to our first VCR, a Panasonic from about '85 which had finally bitten the dust. (bad power supply, not something I wanted to tackle) I decided to take that Panasonic apart piece by piece, screw by screw. I bet it took me 2 hours! Very complex, and heavily built. Yes, Funai is the new Muntz!

I don't know much about the new stuff. My main VCR is a 6 year old Panasonic-the selling point for me was that it was made in Japan. Anything made there these days can't be too cheap. It has done well so far.

[waltchan]

Originally Posted by Whirled One

Despite the mechanical simplicity, I would tend to doubt the overall *durability* of one of these Funai VCRs (most of the mechanical parts appear to be on the "flimsy" side, and most of the mechanical things that would be adjustable in an older/better VCR are fixed in place on the Funais), but the overall simplicity and compactness of the transport mechanism is pretty interesting.

The best Funai VCR chassis ever made in terms of durability and reliability is the one made from 1985 to 1988. I personally have a 1985 Symphonic VCR, first Funai VCR ever made. Still works great, and it probably has outlasted over 10 million newer Funai VCRs by now. Such a rarity. The mechanical is not cheap cheap at all. It looks like to me that very very few people have seen the older Funai VCR chassis, so they have no idea about them.

[andy]

Originally Posted by waltchan

The best Funai VCR chassis ever made in terms of durability and reliability is the one made from 1985 to 1988. I personally have a 1985 Symphonic VCR, first Funai VCR ever made. Still works great, and it probably has outlasted over 10 million newer Funai VCRs by now. Such a rarity. The mechanical is not cheap cheap at all. It looks like to me that very very few people have seen the older Funai VCR chassis.

I think that's the one Sony used briefly in the 90's.

[waltchan]

Originally Posted by andy

I think that's the one Sony used briefly in the 90's.

No, it's not the same. Is it this chassis that Sony used in the 90s:

http://www.studiosoundelectronics.com/mbk-97.htm

It says that this chassis is manufactured by Shintom

This is the original, classic Funai chassis:

http://www.studiosoundelectronics.com/mbk-94.htm

You probably never seen one coming in for repairs, so I can safely assume that it rarely fails.

[dr.ido]

A few of these Funai VCRs are amongst the last stack of VCRs to be dumped on me. I've yet to open any, but as I loaded them I noticed several had broken plastic parts inside. Not exactly a sign of durability, but I guess it could be the effect of the previous owner trying to retrieve their tape rather than the original fault. These will be headed for the bone pile. I've probably got enough decks to piece together good decks from several bad ones, but I doubt I'll bother. There are a couple of 6 head hifi decks with better badges on them that may get a second look, but I'd be better off working on the pile of G series Panasonics that have been accumulating lately.