VCRs - luddite rant!
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My trusty VCR seems like it might have finally died :(( and it looks like it's going to be next to impossible to find a replacement. Are there even "old style" VCRs available with NTSC tuners that can just tape my shows off basic cable? I.e. the type that I can just say "tape channel 50 from 11 pm to 12 am". I don't want a DVR with a monthly subscription because I'm sick of death of being nickled and dimed by the cable company as it is. All I want to do is record the Daily Show and the Colbert Report each night so I can watch them the next day during dinner (we very rarely record anything else). Yes, I know you can watch them online at Comedy Central's website, but I want to watch them on my TV, I don't eat in front of my computer. And I know I could connect a suitable computer to my TV, my work laptop has an s-video connection, but it's a PITA to fuss about with and I don't want to have to drag my work laptop home every day. And yes, I know Comedy Central repeats both shows at 7pm the next day anyway. So, does anybody have any ideas on a (cheap) solution? I'm not interested in digital (we have digital cable on one TV, but frankly I'd rather get rid of it because we rarely watch any of the extra digital channels). I'm using the basic cable analog system, I don't care about HD. I'd like to still be able to watch TV while recording and have a system that is capable of tuning into the right channel. In other words, something that works like my old VCR. Grrr...stupid new technology, costs more and does less. I remember when you could pick up a VCR for ~ $30! I should have stocked up.
Although I willingly gave up my VCR a long time ago I, too, have preferred to stick with analog TV. Primarily because I still enjoy vintage video games and I just don't like the way NES/SNES/Genesis/etc... games look on a high def machine and I don't mind the poorer quality, standard def analog signal for TV watching. I'm already wondering what I'm going to do when my 32" CRT kicks the bucket. Anyway, I suggest a change of perspective. Instead of looking for new, reasonably priced options, look for vintage hardware in excellent condition. Most old VCRs (from the late 70's to mid 80's) appear to go for varying price ranges from $5.00-250.00. I guess it depends on the seller. After a quick five minute look, here are a few pieces that caught my interest on eBay. Maybe with a little research you can find an old system (possibly one you remember owning from the 80's) that is known for being a super-reliable, unbreakable piece of hardware. After finding the preferable hardware, take the time to look for one in good to excellent condition on eBay or Craigslist and be willing to search for a few months until you find what you are looking for. 1978 Magnavox [^] Galaxy 2100 (Has an LCD on the front?!)[^] Magnavox from the Mid 80's (OMG, that's what I had as a kid!!1!)[^]
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My trusty VCR seems like it might have finally died :(( and it looks like it's going to be next to impossible to find a replacement. Are there even "old style" VCRs available with NTSC tuners that can just tape my shows off basic cable? I.e. the type that I can just say "tape channel 50 from 11 pm to 12 am". I don't want a DVR with a monthly subscription because I'm sick of death of being nickled and dimed by the cable company as it is. All I want to do is record the Daily Show and the Colbert Report each night so I can watch them the next day during dinner (we very rarely record anything else). Yes, I know you can watch them online at Comedy Central's website, but I want to watch them on my TV, I don't eat in front of my computer. And I know I could connect a suitable computer to my TV, my work laptop has an s-video connection, but it's a PITA to fuss about with and I don't want to have to drag my work laptop home every day. And yes, I know Comedy Central repeats both shows at 7pm the next day anyway. So, does anybody have any ideas on a (cheap) solution? I'm not interested in digital (we have digital cable on one TV, but frankly I'd rather get rid of it because we rarely watch any of the extra digital channels). I'm using the basic cable analog system, I don't care about HD. I'd like to still be able to watch TV while recording and have a system that is capable of tuning into the right channel. In other words, something that works like my old VCR. Grrr...stupid new technology, costs more and does less. I remember when you could pick up a VCR for ~ $30! I should have stocked up.
I also had the same problem and also hate the nickel and dime attitude of the cable. So I went with the Magnavox H2160MW9 A. This is a HDD/DVD recorder/player for the US market. (HDD, NOT a VCR) I've had it about 6 months and it works fine for me. It tunes and records both NTSC channels and digital over-the-air channels. I'm on FIOS, and you can't get around their subscription set top boxes -- bah humbug! But the minimal box outputs NTSC and composite video. So I feed that to the Magnovox. It includes editing ability of the recorded information on the HDD, and then you can record it on the DVD if you want. I just checked Amazon, and it may be an older model as it appears to be unavailable, but they show a MAGNAVOX MDR513H that looks like the same thing. When looking for this I think there were only two or three companies making a stand alone, non-subscription, HDD/DVD recorder/player, and I settled on this one.
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My trusty VCR seems like it might have finally died :(( and it looks like it's going to be next to impossible to find a replacement. Are there even "old style" VCRs available with NTSC tuners that can just tape my shows off basic cable? I.e. the type that I can just say "tape channel 50 from 11 pm to 12 am". I don't want a DVR with a monthly subscription because I'm sick of death of being nickled and dimed by the cable company as it is. All I want to do is record the Daily Show and the Colbert Report each night so I can watch them the next day during dinner (we very rarely record anything else). Yes, I know you can watch them online at Comedy Central's website, but I want to watch them on my TV, I don't eat in front of my computer. And I know I could connect a suitable computer to my TV, my work laptop has an s-video connection, but it's a PITA to fuss about with and I don't want to have to drag my work laptop home every day. And yes, I know Comedy Central repeats both shows at 7pm the next day anyway. So, does anybody have any ideas on a (cheap) solution? I'm not interested in digital (we have digital cable on one TV, but frankly I'd rather get rid of it because we rarely watch any of the extra digital channels). I'm using the basic cable analog system, I don't care about HD. I'd like to still be able to watch TV while recording and have a system that is capable of tuning into the right channel. In other words, something that works like my old VCR. Grrr...stupid new technology, costs more and does less. I remember when you could pick up a VCR for ~ $30! I should have stocked up.
I finally gave up the old VCR when Comcast moved from analog to digital. So my VCR would've been useless without a cable box in front of it. The dvr isn't bad, but I agree i resent paying for it per month. Ended up getting a "package" with high def, phone, internet that was cheaper than all 3 without high def before. I really like HD, but we now get way too many channels... Trying to teach my 8x year old dad to use a dvr (he had the same conversion) was "interesting"... :doh: Last I looked you could find simple VCR's online; try Best Buy or Amazon.
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My trusty VCR seems like it might have finally died :(( and it looks like it's going to be next to impossible to find a replacement. Are there even "old style" VCRs available with NTSC tuners that can just tape my shows off basic cable? I.e. the type that I can just say "tape channel 50 from 11 pm to 12 am". I don't want a DVR with a monthly subscription because I'm sick of death of being nickled and dimed by the cable company as it is. All I want to do is record the Daily Show and the Colbert Report each night so I can watch them the next day during dinner (we very rarely record anything else). Yes, I know you can watch them online at Comedy Central's website, but I want to watch them on my TV, I don't eat in front of my computer. And I know I could connect a suitable computer to my TV, my work laptop has an s-video connection, but it's a PITA to fuss about with and I don't want to have to drag my work laptop home every day. And yes, I know Comedy Central repeats both shows at 7pm the next day anyway. So, does anybody have any ideas on a (cheap) solution? I'm not interested in digital (we have digital cable on one TV, but frankly I'd rather get rid of it because we rarely watch any of the extra digital channels). I'm using the basic cable analog system, I don't care about HD. I'd like to still be able to watch TV while recording and have a system that is capable of tuning into the right channel. In other words, something that works like my old VCR. Grrr...stupid new technology, costs more and does less. I remember when you could pick up a VCR for ~ $30! I should have stocked up.
Any basic DVD recorder will work like a video recorder, just plug in a video lead (scart, composite etc) and press record or set a timer. I recommend one with a hard drive as well, as it sounds like you don't want to keep the shows, and my experience with such a recorder is that DVD-RW disks don't last many cycles. These are not PVRs, just disk recorders.
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Pssst...I personally think there is nothing morally wrong with downloading a tv show you get already with your cable subscription: http://eztv.it/[^] If you want to cheaply hook up your tv get a Popcorn Hour direct from China, cheap and easy.
There is no failure only feedback
That's the only way I watch "TV" any more. Broadcast & cable TV are "dead", they just haven't admitted it yet.
Melting Away www.deals-house.com www.innovative--concepts.com
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That thought had occurred to me too. I have an old gateway computer laying around that I had a notion to set up with Linux a while back and use as a media computer (it already has a video card with an s-video out connection). However, the wife put the kibosh on that pretty quickly with a "I'm not having a computer in the living room". That and it looked like more effort than it's worth to even find a wireless card that I could be confident would work on Linux.
You could get yourself a wireless bridge: connects to your wireless router, and provides wired connections to devices with only wired ports. I set up one of these next to my Internet enabled TV and blue-ray player, which can both now access the Internet, through my wireless router located downstairs in the basement. I used a Zyxel WAP3205. Cheapest available (I paid $50 on Amazon), but only does 2.4Ghz, which I didn't realize at the time as I was looking only for "N". I also considered a D-Link DAP-1522 (about $20 more), which I now see works at both 2.4 and 5.0 Ghz.
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My trusty VCR seems like it might have finally died :(( and it looks like it's going to be next to impossible to find a replacement. Are there even "old style" VCRs available with NTSC tuners that can just tape my shows off basic cable? I.e. the type that I can just say "tape channel 50 from 11 pm to 12 am". I don't want a DVR with a monthly subscription because I'm sick of death of being nickled and dimed by the cable company as it is. All I want to do is record the Daily Show and the Colbert Report each night so I can watch them the next day during dinner (we very rarely record anything else). Yes, I know you can watch them online at Comedy Central's website, but I want to watch them on my TV, I don't eat in front of my computer. And I know I could connect a suitable computer to my TV, my work laptop has an s-video connection, but it's a PITA to fuss about with and I don't want to have to drag my work laptop home every day. And yes, I know Comedy Central repeats both shows at 7pm the next day anyway. So, does anybody have any ideas on a (cheap) solution? I'm not interested in digital (we have digital cable on one TV, but frankly I'd rather get rid of it because we rarely watch any of the extra digital channels). I'm using the basic cable analog system, I don't care about HD. I'd like to still be able to watch TV while recording and have a system that is capable of tuning into the right channel. In other words, something that works like my old VCR. Grrr...stupid new technology, costs more and does less. I remember when you could pick up a VCR for ~ $30! I should have stocked up.
Toshiba & Sony both make recorders that have both NTSC & ATSC tuners, and can record signals direct to DVD-R/RW or VCR tape. Both units said both tuners were cable-ready. The Sony (I returned) was model RDR-GXD455 if interested, but they had a different model that included a VCR transport as well as the DVD one. If recording to DVD, one can playback the currently-recording show or a different one on the disk while it is recording. This is a really nice addition to the VCR-style time shifting usage model and lack of actual support for it was the only reason I returned the Sony (in all other ways, it was the better unit). The Sony was over hyped and claimed to do it, but couldn't actually do it, whereas the Toshiba claims, and can, do it. The Sony has the better UI and will feel very familiar if you're used to VCRs. The Toshiba UI is poorly done and hard to use, but it can be learned. Holler if you want the Toshiba model number.
patbob
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If you remember back in the day we used to be able to change channels directly on our VCRs. You could program your VCR and tell it what channel to record and it would do it. That's because it had a TV tuner built inside. Back in the 80's and 90's my friends with "nice" TVs that had more than one input could actually record one thing while watching another if they had a cable splitter that split the antenna cable between their TV and VCR and then the TV had two inputs, one for watching live TV and the other for watching off the vcr. If you don't have a tuner built into the VCR it just means that it will blindly record whatever is sent through the video cable. Thus, you cannot simply plug your cable to the back of the VCR. You have to have something in between that will actually select the channel. With cable, satellite and OTA digital TV you usually have something that does this anyway so it makes sense to remove the tuner from the VCR and save some money. In your case it sounds like you have cable. This means that your VCR input will come from the cable box output. When it starts recording you have to set the channel on your cable box first and make sure its turned on of course. If its not on you will just record a bunch of static. Our satellite box automatically turns off live TV at 2am assuming you forgot it on. If I was to record something to a VCR at 3am I would need to disable this option. If you are recording live tv and you change the channel on your cable box you will see this on your recording. One way around this is like the multiple output/input scenario above assuming your cable box has multiple outputs. As long as you have an analog out connection on your cable box (such as RCA or Coax) you should be fine. It doesn't matter what the signal is from your cable company, if the cable box can output standard definition to a TV the VCR will record just fine. Even if your cable box only has HD output you can get an HD-SD converter fairly cheap and your VCR won't know the difference. We have the Magnavox VCR/DVD-R from Walmart and it has worked great (though it recently started eating tapes, hence "worked" in past tense). We have a SD DVR from Dish Network for only $5 a month (perfectly reasonable for our taste and loads of a lot simpler than a VCR). We use the DVD-R to record shows off our DVR that we want to keep for a long time. Good luck! :)
MattPenner wrote:
In your case it sounds like you have cable. This means that your VCR input will come from the cable box output.
Thanks but here's the thing, I don't have a cable box. My TV and my old VCR both have NTSC tuners and can connect directly to the analog signal on the cable. You just screw in the coax from the wall. I'm trying to avoid a cable box, not least for the hassle that you have to leave it on and tuned to the right channel, which, as per my original rant, is technology that actually does less than my primitive VCR.
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I don't mean to derail your goal but any computer based option, whether it be a Mac Mini, old computer in a closet, set top appliance like the WD TV Live, is going to be more troublesome and costly than simply paying a small extra fee for the DVR option. I know you hate paying the cable company but if you cannot find a VCR out there most likely their solution will be more cost effective and much easier than any other solution you will probably find. Once you start dealing with wireless, Internet connections, Linux, media center software, multiple remotes (that's a biggie for non-techy family members) it's often just easier to go with an all-in-one solution. We have an all-in-one SD Satellite/DVR box from Dish and it only ran us $5 more a month over the non-DVR box. It is WELL worth the price. Any one who picks up the remote knows how to use it including my mother-in-law when she watches the kids. No more tapes to rewind or sort through, one remote for everything and it just works.
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I also had the same problem and also hate the nickel and dime attitude of the cable. So I went with the Magnavox H2160MW9 A. This is a HDD/DVD recorder/player for the US market. (HDD, NOT a VCR) I've had it about 6 months and it works fine for me. It tunes and records both NTSC channels and digital over-the-air channels. I'm on FIOS, and you can't get around their subscription set top boxes -- bah humbug! But the minimal box outputs NTSC and composite video. So I feed that to the Magnovox. It includes editing ability of the recorded information on the HDD, and then you can record it on the DVD if you want. I just checked Amazon, and it may be an older model as it appears to be unavailable, but they show a MAGNAVOX MDR513H that looks like the same thing. When looking for this I think there were only two or three companies making a stand alone, non-subscription, HDD/DVD recorder/player, and I settled on this one.
This seems to be the problem I'm running into. Several people have made good suggestion that don't appear to be available any more. I think when the OTA switch to digital happened most everybody stopped making anything with a NTSC tuner. It looks like the replacement model you suggest is digital as far as I can tell.