VCR woes - potential solution
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For that price I think I would opt for purchasing a tuner card for a computer in the other room and then one of those boxes like a media center extender for the living room. I've no experience with the mentioned toshiba VCR. Awhile back I purchased a sony VCR/DVDR for my wife so she could transfer older VHS to DVD to put in our DVD changer. The VCR/DVDR picked up on the copy protection on the VHS tapes so could only transfer stuff like home movies.
Kragan, You said you bought a VCR/DVR combo so your wife could transfer old VCR tapes to DVD. What did you buy? I have looked at a lot of them online and can't always tell if you can copy directly from the tape to the DVD. I have a lot of old home video VCR tapes that I want to transfer before they get too old.
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While looking for a converter box for my old TV I stumbled upon a DVR for analog TV's made by ChannelMaster. It has a built-in tuner and if I remember correctly, can record two shows at once. Might be an option...
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Kragan, You said you bought a VCR/DVR combo so your wife could transfer old VCR tapes to DVD. What did you buy? I have looked at a lot of them online and can't always tell if you can copy directly from the tape to the DVD. I have a lot of old home video VCR tapes that I want to transfer before they get too old.
You might also check around for people that will convert the VCR Tapes for you. I had some old family stuff converted by a local Photo place for $6/DVD (multi VCR's per DVD). Cheaper than buying a old VCR and the time messing around.
Melting Away www.deals-house.com www.innovative--concepts.com
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Update from my whinny, get off my lawn, broken VCR rant from yesterday[^]. I finally found a VCR that appears to have an analog tuner[^]. Unfortunately, it's a lot more money than I really wanted to spend (about $190). On the bright-side, it also has a digital tuner and it's also a DVD recorder. My DVD player in my living room is a piece of junk anyway (constantly skips and locks up on Netflix disks) and could do with being replaced. And I guess I could transfer the few old VHS tapes I have to DVD before getting a VCR player really becomes impossible. At half the price I'd probably jump at it. At this price....I don't know. Any thoughts?
Check this one out. It doesn't have a tuner, which from your previous post I thought wasn't an issue. If you're doing over the air then you'll need one, but if you have a cable box then you don't. http://www.amazon.com/Magnavox-ZV427MG9-Recorder-Recording-Refurbished/dp/B0032RR08S/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1294422610&sr=8-6[^] The price is great and it's not something you'll worry about losing if it dies after a year. It's similar to mine but our VCR portion is now eating tapes after a couple of years. For your situation you could just record on DVD-RW discs and not worry about the tape function. Good luck!
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Update from my whinny, get off my lawn, broken VCR rant from yesterday[^]. I finally found a VCR that appears to have an analog tuner[^]. Unfortunately, it's a lot more money than I really wanted to spend (about $190). On the bright-side, it also has a digital tuner and it's also a DVD recorder. My DVD player in my living room is a piece of junk anyway (constantly skips and locks up on Netflix disks) and could do with being replaced. And I guess I could transfer the few old VHS tapes I have to DVD before getting a VCR player really becomes impossible. At half the price I'd probably jump at it. At this price....I don't know. Any thoughts?
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Update from my whinny, get off my lawn, broken VCR rant from yesterday[^]. I finally found a VCR that appears to have an analog tuner[^]. Unfortunately, it's a lot more money than I really wanted to spend (about $190). On the bright-side, it also has a digital tuner and it's also a DVD recorder. My DVD player in my living room is a piece of junk anyway (constantly skips and locks up on Netflix disks) and could do with being replaced. And I guess I could transfer the few old VHS tapes I have to DVD before getting a VCR player really becomes impossible. At half the price I'd probably jump at it. At this price....I don't know. Any thoughts?
Magnavox ZV457MG9 Dual Deck DVD/VCR Recorder I own this one and it seems to work OK. It's slightly less than the Toshiba.
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My problems with that solution are that while I have an old Gateway computer I could use (but I don't remember what the HD situation is with it, might need an upgrade), I would, in addition to buying the tuner card, need to buy a copy of Windows (I think it had XP home, which I don't think does media center, right?) or maybe there's a workable Linux solution?, I'd need to buy the extender (but might be an excuse to buy an Xbox!), I'd need to get a cable connection to it (depending on exactly where I decide to put the thing) and I'd have to leave the damn thing on all the time (I'm pretty sure my old VCR used only a fraction of the power of my computer).
"...or maybe there's a workable Linux solution?" I've recently looked at xbmc - you can get an iso with everything in it, burn it to a cd and boot your computer up from the cd and take it for a spin. You can also put the iso to a usb drive of the proper size and run it right from that and get config settings and other data to be saved and still try it out that way. Of course you can also install it all on linux and run it for real. . .for $0. It is a DVR so your need to record is fulfilled. Yeah, the on all the time is still and issue but. . .since it's running on a computer you have power saving options I guess. . not sure if you can program the xbmc to turn the pc it is running on off after your shows are recorded (then you need to turn it on each night before you go to bed).
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I'm heading the PC tuner card route. I built a TV antenna as a test and got 60 regular and HD channels over the air.
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Update from my whinny, get off my lawn, broken VCR rant from yesterday[^]. I finally found a VCR that appears to have an analog tuner[^]. Unfortunately, it's a lot more money than I really wanted to spend (about $190). On the bright-side, it also has a digital tuner and it's also a DVD recorder. My DVD player in my living room is a piece of junk anyway (constantly skips and locks up on Netflix disks) and could do with being replaced. And I guess I could transfer the few old VHS tapes I have to DVD before getting a VCR player really becomes impossible. At half the price I'd probably jump at it. At this price....I don't know. Any thoughts?
You should be able to find a used VCR with tuner (I see them all the time at garage sales) for around $20 (plus shipping and handling). Ebay and Craigslist are two places to check if garage sales are dormant in your area in the winter.