Is now the best time ever to buy a VCR?
My old Sharp was a decent unit when I bought it, but technology has moved on and the machine is starting to getting cranky about loading tapes. I bought a nice DVD player last fall, but I have a lot of money invested in video tapes and I hated taking the chance of them getting munched. Plus I like having a simpler machine to load for the rug rats than the DVD. My 2 year old figured out how to load her Blues-Clues videos in no time.
I looked around and found this. http://ww2.onecall.com/PID_9800.htm An S-VHS VCR with S-Video output for only $118. How could I pass this up? This is a much better machine than my old unit for less than a quarter of what I paid 8 years ago.
Turns out there's a good reason for this, most VCR manufactures (including Philips) have just about wiped out their high end VCR product lines (go figure), so basically what the vendors have on the shelves is about all that's left and they are closing them out hard. If you have ever wanted to get a high quality VCR now is the time.
P.S. Got it in today, hooked everthing up. Very impressive image! Even makes my regular VHS tapes look sharper (has image enhancement modes for normal VHS) plus it has more features than I have time to read about. Major geek appreciation factor here. Can't wait to see how well it copies DVD's. Manual claims there is a selectable video stabiliser built-in. Maybe I won't need to make an external sync stabiliser box after all.
Phil
My old Sharp was a decent unit when I bought it, but technology has moved on and the machine is starting to getting cranky about loading tapes. I bought a nice DVD player last fall, but I have a lot of money invested in video tapes and I hated taking the chance of them getting munched. Plus I like having a simpler machine to load for the rug rats than the DVD. My 2 year old figured out how to load her Blues-Clues videos in no time.
I looked around and found this. http://ww2.onecall.com/PID_9800.htm An S-VHS VCR with S-Video output for only $118. How could I pass this up? This is a much better machine than my old unit for less than a quarter of what I paid 8 years ago.
Turns out there's a good reason for this, most VCR manufactures (including Philips) have just about wiped out their high end VCR product lines (go figure), so basically what the vendors have on the shelves is about all that's left and they are closing them out hard. If you have ever wanted to get a high quality VCR now is the time.
P.S. Got it in today, hooked everthing up. Very impressive image! Even makes my regular VHS tapes look sharper (has image enhancement modes for normal VHS) plus it has more features than I have time to read about. Major geek appreciation factor here. Can't wait to see how well it copies DVD's. Manual claims there is a selectable video stabiliser built-in. Maybe I won't need to make an external sync stabiliser box after all.
Phil
We recently got what I hope will be our "last" VCR, as there are a number of tapes about the house that are worth watching, but not worth re-buying as DVDs. Yes, they look better than ever.
The caveat is that the casing on the new one is plastic and the motor noise is quite annoying. The older ones all had metal cases and ran nearly silently.
Grey
The caveat is that the casing on the new one is plastic and the motor noise is quite annoying. The older ones all had metal cases and ran nearly silently.
Grey
Geoff said:What, may I ask, has this got to do with DIY audio?
Actually, i had a friend of mine who used a quality VCR (with separate audio/video input and outputs) to master songs of his band... you'd check the audio specs on some of these devices, i can't recall the numbers but they were impressive!
Hi Grey,
I know what you mean. I went to all the usual retail outlets and all the had on the shelf was basically the same junk China made VCR with different face plates on it. The enclosure looked like it might have started life as a salad spinner.
This particular Philips VCR sold for $500 not that long ago (my church bought this exact model a year ago and paid over $300 for it then). It has lots of high end features like a very solid metal case, real isolation feet, super quiet motors even during rewind and speaking of which this deck has the fastest rewind/fast forward I have ever seen. It is also significantly bigger than the low end decks (about twice as big, I had to take off the door to get it into my entertainment center) . Don't know if bigger is better, but I think there must be a lot more stuff in there (more stuff is good, ask any tweaker).
Phil
I know what you mean. I went to all the usual retail outlets and all the had on the shelf was basically the same junk China made VCR with different face plates on it. The enclosure looked like it might have started life as a salad spinner.
This particular Philips VCR sold for $500 not that long ago (my church bought this exact model a year ago and paid over $300 for it then). It has lots of high end features like a very solid metal case, real isolation feet, super quiet motors even during rewind and speaking of which this deck has the fastest rewind/fast forward I have ever seen. It is also significantly bigger than the low end decks (about twice as big, I had to take off the door to get it into my entertainment center) . Don't know if bigger is better, but I think there must be a lot more stuff in there (more stuff is good, ask any tweaker).
Phil
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