Does anyone here use vhs rewinders?

[pac.attack76]

Who uses rewinders instead of the VCR itself. I read somewhere back in the 90's that using a rewinder increases the life of the VCR. At this point, I have 4. A boxed 63 corvette rewinder, a battery and external power supply unit, and two corded units.

[Captainclock]

I've always used the VCR for rewinding tapes (that's how my parents did it as well) so no rewinders here, although the daycare I went to when I was little had a rewinder for each TV that had a VCR attached to it (it was a church run facility) and I think if I remember right most of the VCRs they had were 1980s vintage units (early 1980s top loader units and mid to late 1980s front loader units.) and I remember that my aunt had a tape rewinder or two laying around that she used.

[pac.attack76]

I collect anything related to vhs. I have several dust covers all with original boxes.

[Captainclock]

Originally Posted by pac.attack76

I collect anything related to vhs. I have several dust covers all with original boxes.

I Don't find the old tape rewinders all that facinating, I find the VCRs themselves the most facinating, because of how much variation there is in the design of them. VHS Rewinders on the other hand there isn't much to them so not much interests me.

[CoogarXR]

We use a rewinder. Nothing special, just some generic rewinder. My wife has always used one, so she prefers it. I figure, it does save some wear and tear on the VCR, so why not.

[Electronic M]

I have a VHS (looks like a 57' chevy) and a Beta rewinder....The beta sees use since all the Sony made decks keep the tape looped around the video drum during rewind which causes unnecessary head wear...Other betas like Sanyo and most VHS decks unwrap the drum on (non-visual-search) rewind/fast forward and thus don't really benefit from a rewinder.

[Ed in Tx]

I used to recommend rewinders to people who owned VCRs that left the tape loaded around the cylinder for fast rewind like 99% Betas and some later VHS. Rewinders are a heck of a lot cheaper than head drum assemblies, idlers, belts, and the labor involved.

Me personally, I always tried to leave tapes in the played tail-out position, same as audio tapes. Tape is smoothly tensioned and wound on the takeup reel that way. Then of course you rewind it first to play it.

[Celt]

I use a DVD rewinder.

[dishdude]

Rewinders suck, they stretch the tape and stop it on tension, not light shining through the clear leader like a VCR does.

[Ed in Tx]

The one I have has optical sensors. It handles tape as well or better than a VCR. You just had to know what you were lookin' for!

[dishdude]

I've never seen one like that! Do you have any pictures of it? The cheap ones I remember were one way, but you could buy the better ones that were two way and had a mechanical counter. I don't remember any with optical sensors.

[Ed in Tx]

Originally Posted by dishdude

I've never seen one like that! Do you have any pictures of it? The cheap ones I remember were one way, but you could buy the better ones that were two way and had a mechanical counter. I don't remember any with optical sensors.

Here's mine.

[dishdude]

Pretty cool! Thanks for the picture.

[pac.attack76]

That's a nice one.

[Ed in Tx]

Speaking of end sensors, I remember at least one Funai built TV-VCR combo, so cheap they didn't have an end sensor! Start-TU sensor yes, but no end sensor. Machine would simply detect reel stoppage at the end and go into rewind!