Understanding timer program recording on old Sears VCR

Yes.

That's how it is designed, but there probably should be a button which lets you see what you have programed.

Depeneding upon the model, it erased the program after it recorded it. Some had a special program which would repeat everyday. This was to prevent you from recording a program at the same time tomorrow if you only wanted the one on tonight and vice versa.

It never really worked in the general public. VCR's were notorious for flashing 12:00 meaning the clock had never been set.

Geoff.

Errr... you've just described every single VCR I've ever known. Except it's not usually a slider nowadays, it's called "timer rec mode". Some you just have to switch off. It's to prevent it recording stuff over a tape you were just playing. You're to tell it that you've now put the recording tape in.

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A defendant was on trial for murder. There was strong evidence indicating guilt, but there was no corpse. In the defense's closing statement the lawyer, knowing that his client would probably be convicted, resorted to a trick.

"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I have a surprise for you all," the lawyer said as he looked at his watch. "Within one minute, the person presumed dead in this case will walk into this courtroom." He looked toward the courtroom door. The jurors, somewhat stunned, all looked on eagerly. A minute passed. Nothing happened.

Finally the lawyer said, "Actually, I made up the previous statement. But, you all looked on with anticipation. I therefore put to you that you have a reasonable doubt in this case as to whether anyone was killed and insist that you return a verdict of not guilty."

The jury, clearly confused,retired to deliberate. A few minutes later, the jury returned and pronounced a verdict of guilty.

"But how?" inquired the lawyer. "You must have had some doubt; I saw all of you stare at the door."

The jury foreman replied, "Oh, we looked, but your client didn't."

lets

Some

you

the one

They tend to set themselves nowadays.

My newer VCRs don't even require that. They will happily record over the tape you were just playing right after you press Stop when it's time for a timer recording. That's not a very nice ?feature? at all.

Exactly. No one has ever made a VCR that allows you to manually record while the machine is in timer-record mode. You have to switch off timer mode, make the recording, then turn timer-record back on again.

This does not seem to me to be an unreasonable way of arranging things.

I have two VCRs, one to play and one to record, so that never happens. I do this for convenience, so I can watch something while something else may be starting to record.

Replacing them with a SKY HD hard disk recorder soon anyway. With TB hard disk.

The most annoying thing I've found is in the user interface for programming them. Is it just me or are they always extremely badly designed?

Most VCRs will have some sort of indication that the clock has either not been set or there has been a power outage. My Panasonic "Omnivision" 4-head VCR, bought new perhaps four years ago, shows four dashes on the clock display after a power outage (or directly out of the box). It can be reset manually or by means of an XDS (extended data signal) from the local PBS television station.

Most if not all VCRs made in the last five years or so have this automatic clock set function, so users need not worry about resetting the clock after the power goes out. If the user's area has a local PBS station, the auto-clock-set function will use the XDS signal to reset the clock to the correct local time.

The old "flashing 12:00" story only applies to older machines manufactured before the auto-clock-set function became more or less standard (or was even thought of). The XDS signal will reset the clock automatically when the power is restored, regardless of what channel the VCR was set to before the outage.

The use of the XDS data signal to automatically set the VCR clock has made most modern VCRs very easy to set up; just take it out of the box, connect the cable or antenna, plug it in, turn it on....and the machine will take care of the rest, not only automatically setting the clock to the correct time but also programming the tuner for all locally receivable TV stations. I had a Magnavox VCR that had this type of automatic set-up, and I liked it...a lot. Had to get rid of it, though, about nine years ago when the heads wore out. I've had two VCRs since then, however, one with VCR Plus+ and my present Omnivision machine, that have the same automatic set up systems.

I don't know, however, if today's combination VHS/DVD players even have timers anymore. The ones that have digital tuners probably do, but the bare-bones machines without RF modulators which will record only from line input (cable box, antenna) probably don't. The machines that are set up to dub from VHS to DVD, or vice-versa, carry a very clearly worded warning to the effect that the units are not designed to and in fact will not duplicate copyrighted material under any circumstances. This design, which is required these days by law, is almost certainly to prevent piracy and copyright infringement, both of which are punishable by up to five years in federal prison and/or a $250,000 fine. All commercially-made DVD movies and/or TV series carry this warning as well, which shows at the beginning of these DVDs.

Both. The Sony SL-HF900 had a superbly simple system that I won't waste time describing. I've seen other VCRs whose programming system is so difficult to follow that even an instruction book isn't of much use.

The timer programming on the HS-U4xx, HS-U7xx, and HS-HD2000U is a snap. The HS-HD2000U even lets the user enter all of the info (on time/off time/channel, etc.) into the remote, then press "transmit", and all of the info is sent to the VCR. Nifty.

use.

My Hi8 Sony Hi8 VCR has such a system. But I'd be willing to bet that most people couldn't use it, because the utterly trivial and obvious concept that you have to enter the channel, day, and start/stop times is completely beyond their comprehension. Most people act by rote, not by understanding.

The Sony SL-HF900 was about as simple as you could get. You pressed a big bar, and the setting you were to change blinked. You spun a big knob to change it, then pressed the bar again. This was repeated until everything was set.

Thus, the popularity of the DVR with IPG.

The Mitsubishi is similar. A line is highlighted; adjust with jog dial on remote; turn shuttle ring to enter - next line is highlighted; etc. Really simple.

Doesn't work with mine any more, as I only have a scart input to the VCR from the Sky satellite receiver.

Plus the JVC was so stupid that it would only set the time if it was switched off, and not on timer. I only ever had it on timer, or recording or playing.

The most annoying thing about my JVC is that it cancels what you've put in if you leave it idle in the middle of programming for about a minute and replaces the programming on the screen with "program cancelled".

The Sky box and a Sony DVD recorder both annoy me for another reason - there is a delay of about 0.5 seconds between pressing a button on the remote and something happening in a menu. And there is virtually no keyboard buffer, so it gets behind what I'm pressing and does something completely different. The sky box is even more annoying - it has no cache, if I select a progam for recording, then go back to the program listings, it reloads the bloody listings from the dish!

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One day, while a woodcutter was cutting a branch of a tree above a river, his axe fell into the river. When he cried out, the Lord appeared and asked, "Why are you crying?", the woodcutter replied that his axe has fallen into water, and he needed the axe to make his living. The Lord went down into the water and reappeared with a golden axe. "Is this your axe?" the Lord asked. The woodcutter replied, "No." The Lord again went down and came up with a silver axe. "Is this your axe?" the Lord asked. Again, the woodcutter replied, "No." The Lord went down again and came up with an iron axe. "Is this your axe?" the Lord asked. The woodcutter replied, "Yes." The Lord was pleased with the man' honesty and gave him all three axes to keep, and the woodcutter went home happy. Some time later the woodcutter was walking with his wife along the riverbank, and his wife fell into the river. When he cried out, the Lord again appeared and asked him, "Why are you crying?" "Oh Lord, my wife has fallen into the water!" The Lord went down into the water and came up with Heather Locklear. "Is this your wife?" the Lord asked. "Yes!" cried the woodcutter. The Lord was furious. "You lied! That is an untruth!" The woodcutter replied, "Oh, forgive me, my Lord. It is a misunderstanding. You see, if I had said 'no' to Heather Locklear, You would have come up with Tara Reid. Then if I also said 'no' to her, You would have come up with my wife. Had I then said 'yes,' you would have given all three to me. Lord, I am a poor man, and I am not able to take care of all three wives, so THAT'S why I said 'yes' to Heather Locklear!" The Moral of This Story: Whenever a man lies, it is for a good and honorable reason and for the benefit of others.

Is that one of those knobs you can spin and press? My GPS has that, I always press it by mistake while trying to turn it.

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The A-Z of tools:

a. DRILL PRESS: A tall upright machine useful for suddenly snatching flat metal bar stock out of your hands so that it smacks you in the chest and flings your beer across the room, splattering it against that freshly painted part you were drying....

b. WIRE WHEEL: Cleans rust off old bolts and then throws them somewhere across the workbench with the speed of light. Also removes fingerprint whorls and hard-earned guitar calluses in about the time it takes you to say "Ouch".

c. ELECTRIC HAND DRILL: Normally used for spinning steel pop rivets in their holes until you die of old age....

d. PLIERS: Used to round off bolt heads....

e. HACKSAW: One of a family of cutting tools built on the Ouija board principle. It transforms human energy into a crooked, unpredictable motion, and the more you attempt to influence its course, the more dismal your future becomes....

f. VICE-GRIPS: Used to round off bolt heads. If nothing else is available, they can also be used to transfer intense welding heat to the palm of your hand....

g. OXY-ACETYLENE TORCH: Used almost entirely for lighting various flammable objects in your garage on fire. Also handy for igniting the grease inside a brake drum you're trying to get the bearing race out of....

h. WHITWORTH SOCKETS: Once used for working on older British cars and motorcycles, they are now used mainly for impersonating that 9/16 or 1/2 inch socket you've been searching for for the last 15 minutes....

i. HYDRAULIC FLOOR JACK: Used for lowering a car to the ground after you have installed your new front disk brake setup, trapping the jack handle firmly under the front fender....

j. EIGHT-FOOT LONG DOUGLAS FIR 2X4: Used for levering a car upward off a hydraulic jack....

k. TWEEZERS: A tool for removing wood splinters....

l. PHONE: Tool for calling your neighbour to see if he has another hydraulic floor jack....

m. SNAP-ON GASKET SCRAPER: Theoretically useful as a sandwich tool for spreading mayonnaise; used mainly for getting dog-do off your boot....

n. E-Z OUT BOLT AND STUD EXTRACTOR: A tool that snaps off in bolt holes and is ten times harder than any known drill bit....

o. TIMING LIGHT: A stroboscopic instrument for illuminating grease buildup....

p. TWO-TON HYDRAULIC ENGINE HOIST: A handy tool for testing the tensile strength of ground straps and brake lines you may have forgotten to disconnect....

q. CRAFTSMAN 1/2 x 16-INCH SCREWDRIVER: A large motor mount prying tool that inexplicably has an accurately machined screwdriver tip on the end without the handle....

r. BATTERY ELECTROLYTE TESTER: A handy tool for transferring sulphuric acid from a car battery to the inside of your toolbox after determining that your battery is dead as a doornail, just as you thought....

s. AVIATION METAL SNIPS: See hacksaw....

t. TROUBLE LIGHT: The mechanic's own tanning booth. Sometimes called drop light, it is a good source of vitamin D, "the sunshine vitamin," which is not otherwise found under motorcycles at night. Health benefits aside, it's main purpose is to consume 40-watt light bulbs at about the same rate that 105-mm howitzer shells might be used during, say, the first few hours of the Battle of the Bulge. More often dark than light, its name is somewhat misleading....

u. PHILIPS SCREWDRIVER: Normally used to stab the lids of old-style paper-and-tin oil cans and splash oil on your shirt; can also be used, as the name implies, to round off Phillips screw heads...

v. AIR COMPRESSOR: A machine that takes energy produced in a coal-burning power plant 200 miles away and transforms it into compressed air that travels by hose to a Chicago Pneumatic impact wrench that grips rusty bolts last tightened 40 years ago by someone in Sindelfingen, and rounds them off.

w. PRY BAR: A tool used to crumple the metal surrounding that clip or bracket you needed to remove in order to replace a 50 cent part....

x. HOSE CUTTER: A tool used to cut hoses 1/2 inch too short....

y. HAMMER: Originally employed as a weapon of war, the hammer nowadays is used as a kind of divining rod to locate expensive parts not far from the object we are trying to hit....

z. MECHANIC'S KNIFE: Used to open and slice through the contents of cardboard cartons delivered to your front door; works particularly well on boxes containing seats and motorcycle jackets...

My LG DVD/VCR combo also has an annoying delay. I can't even enter the data in using the number keys; I have to futz around with the arrow keys for around 30 seconds just to enter one piece of data because of the ridiculously poor UI (and exceptionally slow key response). I believe the firmware coders were just plain lazy. It wouldn't have taken much to make the UI significantly more tolerable even with the slow key response.

My Philips DVD/HDD recorder is the best--I can use the arrows /or/ the number keys, and it accepts keystrokes almost as fast as I can press them. /That's/ the proper way to implement it.

I don't understand why anything made recently would have a slow response. The ZX80 was faster at key input, haven't chips speeded up since?

What isn't being into consideration is the time it takes to process/buffer digital video signals. This is even more problematic on a DVR since you are, in effect, viewing a recorded/delayed signal.

It can do all that decoding, but can't repsond to a keypress in a timely manner?