No Time Left For VCRs?

You can use a converter. However, the converter will have to be manually set to the desired channel.

Will have to pre-set a digital STB

or change to a PVR / DVD recorder with a digital tuner.

Getting very cheap these days.

Same thing, just a different storage method.

If you like the 'new digital pictures', you'd be best to get a recorder which does them justice.

--
*I used up all my sick days so I called in dead

    Dave Plowman        dave@davenoise.co.uk           London SW
                  To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Two converters - the Zinwell ZAT-970A and the Dish Network "DTVPal" offer automatic timers for use with VCRs. Zinwell has 8 timers and has basic front-panel controls. The DTVPal has 5 timers and the remote must be used for all functions. I use the Zinwell and it works quite well.

The DTVPal additionally has a checkered history of bad firmware releases and Dish being generally sleazy and unwilling to honor their warranty. I don't know if that mess ever really got straightened out.

--
  Roger Blake
  (Subtract 10s for email. "Google Groups" messages killfiled due to spam.)
  "Obama dozed while people froze."

Roger Blake wrote:

Good information to have on the record.

you can still use them with a digital set top box. Also the changeover won't affect people with cable Tv.

Hi, Roger;

With the coupons, the converter boxes aren't too bad costwise; but apparently not all converters can be gotten that way. Do you know if the Zinwell can be gotten with a coupon? Or to put it another way, what kind of damage are we looking at without a coupon?

Ron

On 02/22/2009 01:42 AM, Ron sent:

$60 - $75. But, wouldn't that be best put towards a DVR purchase?

--
1PW  @?6A62?FEH9:DE=6o2@=]4@> [r4o7t]

manually set

Assuming not main recording medium, just a reserve or second recorder. In the UK for less than 15 GBP (25 USD presumably) freeview box ,Asda MDS V3 or similar, added to a spare otherwise unpowered VCR. Or for recording

2 UHF digital channels concurrently when only one possible on main recorder. Can be totally disconnected from the mains and retains channels, but added an earpiece to confirm right sort of channel, requires R/C though to change channels. Or audio compare to a working TV on same channel. One great plus for this cheapest of digi-boxes - so far anyway, it is immune to having the EPG remotely updated, outside your control, in the middle of the night when you are recording a film. With another crap taping next day 20 minutes of blank recording while a load of graphics laden ads are inefficiently downloaded because there is no one there to manually disrupt the default of auto downlaod. Asda one does not try downloading this crap at switch on, locking you out for 20 minutes unless you disable it.

-- Diverse Devices, Southampton, England electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on

Both the Zinwell and DTVPal qualify for the coupon program, both were close to $40 in cost last time I checked.

I for one have no interest in DVRs and will not purchase one.

--
  Roger Blake
  (Subtract 10s for email. "Google Groups" messages killfiled due to spam.)
  "Obama dozed while people froze."

On Feb 21, 3:41=A0am, Ron wrote: > I rather like the new digital pictures being broadcast these days, but > I have to wonder what is going to happen with all of those VCRs that > people love to set for delayed programming--- andthere are a lot of > folks who do tape shows while away or at work-- when June 12 rolls > around and VCR tuners won't be able to tune into the new digital > signals? >

So put a DTV tuner in your PC and have at it. The VCR hardly gets any use but the HTPC (geek speak for Home Theatre PC) get used lots. Recorded DTV show pictures - HD or SD - are exactly the same as 'live' TV. Besides, where will you get tapes? They're going away fast.

G=B2

Like someone else said here, I don't particularly care for DVRs either. Maybe I'm just an old fart who doesn't like change-- and in fact, I knew there was going to be nothing that I would like about the

21st century; pity that I was right about that. :-)

Ron

Who has bought a VCR recently? The only people who are likely to have a working vcr today are those who so infrequently use it that it won't be a great loss.

Granted, I've ignored those who had one fail and have a large/ worthwhile library of existing VHS tapes recorded, but let this be a wakeup call, that when we are forced to change tech, it's time to make backups onto the more current media.

Today, VHS seems such a crude low-res media to use but I realize some priceless footage may have been shot or saved in that limited format. The only good answer is buy a VCR if what you have is worth the cost, just to convert it digitally, and move on.

Move on ?????????? Dump about 80 bought titles(Disney,Stargate,Asterix,etc,etc,etc) and numerous recorded ones? Or do you have a reliable way of digitizing commercial tapes? One which avoids the drm mangling? If so, I would gladly convert, but I estimate 3-6 month hard work.

If not, its worthwhile to keep a VCR around.

Nothing like having a DVR erase or "lose" a recording before you have a chance to view it. Never happens with my VCRs.

VCRs never mangle tapes? Someone records over what you wanted to keep? You can't find the tape something you want is on? Of course with good housekeeping those can be minimised - but a PVR does all that for you.

--
*Acupuncture is a jab well done*

    Dave Plowman        dave@davenoise.co.uk           London SW
                  To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Don't need a "PVR," "DVR," or whatever other name you want to give those useless gadgets. VCRs have meet my needs perfectly for decades and I see no reason to change.

--
  Roger Blake
  (Subtract 10s for email. "Google Groups" messages killfiled due to spam.)
  "Obama dozed while people froze."

PVRs have been established in the US market longer than the UK, but the majority of those (TiVo, ReplayTV) are seen as devices that only premium enthusiasts get via subscription on top of another subscription service like cable or satellite. So general public awareness, acceptance and casual use for non-subscription sources is probably not that great.

Badly coded software in PVRs is famous for lost recordings, especially when the hard drive is full and the unit starts it's own housekeeping, auto removing old recordings. I can imagine that soon the US is going to be flooded with cheap chinese PVR boxes that do this, and also suffer heat, excessive fan noise and hard drive failure consistently.

And then there is finger trouble - never yet seen a PVR with separate login accounts for different users, that would stop, say, little johnny from erasing (or watching) "basic instinct" that daddy recorded for late night.

Loads of ordinary folk manage quite well with VCRs and tape housekeeping, the media is tangible i.e. you can hold it in your hand, share it with friends or other TV/VCRs in the home, and store locked up for posterity.

But using VCRs with Digiboxes is a mess.

The problem comes with digiboxes having to be installed just for the VCR, and arranging *at worst* two sets of timer instructions for the VCR and the digibox.

In UK/Europe, we have the advantage of pins in the SCART connection which (sometimes - law of sod permitting) allows the remote start/stop of the VCR to record programs using settings in the digibox EPG. The alternative, which I've never seen on digiboxes (though it is used on other items), but could work universally is to have the digibox emit infrared commands to control the VCR.

Trying to explain VCR recording from digital for (mostly elderly) folk who had grown used to setting only one timer (a procedure some find a struggle with long-sighted glasses, reading glasses, a remote control with a zillion small buttons, and a horrible on-screen entry method that times out on inactivity) will mean people getting encumbered with having to learn another item of new world digital nonsense with similar usability faults (and multiple remote controls - now three). That is

*if* they actually manage timer recording, and instead sit in with the TV and press record at the right moment.

PVR - oh no. That's a toy for geeks, technical init? It is going to take a lot for folk to change ideas. It is the right solution for digital recording - however it's attitudes to change...

--
Adrian C

I bought one the other day...at a Goodwill store. It was marked $5.99, but had a blue price tag. Blue tags were half price that day. It took a little cleaning; but works just fine....

jak