does anyone still use a vcr? What is the best one to get?

[BurningDoom]

I still use my VCR, I have plenty of great movies and wrestling tapes on VHS. No reason to get rid of it all just because DVD came out. (I do have a DVD player, BTW) Unfortunately, that doesn't make me a VCR expert, lol. I don't know the best VCR to get. But I do know that the most common problem with VCRs are the heads (which read the VHS tape) getting dirty. This can be easily remedied by buying a head cleaner tape at Wal-Greens or Rite-Aid or even Wal-Mart for a just a few bucks.

[Anapan]

The best one I ever bought and still use occasionally is a JVC HR-S3910U. The picture quality is much better than any of the other models I ever used or owned (20+ since friends and family bring all their old equipment to me to keep or repair). It has 4 heads (reads the tape 4 times), has a jog-wheel for speed control, pause-frame skipping and offers S-video input and output. I used it for converting home video VHS tapes into DVDs. I got pretty good at using Virtualdub's processing filters to get back some of the quality lost in the analog compression VHS tapes use. That was a fun side-job for a while.

You can look VCR model numbers up on amazon.com to see the "Video Head Quantity". That will give you some idea of the picture quality you'll get.

[BoringSupreez]

Get a name brand set (Magnavox, Samsung and JVC are my recommended brands, particularly JVC), don't get an ancient one that weighs 20 lbs and has the tape slot on top, and try to get one constructed out of metal (metal construction often comes along with a higher priced, better build model). Make sure it's stereo. Don't bother with s-video. I've had an s-video VCR, and it makes no difference. VHS's picture quality is too low for any benefit to be apparent.

[Bradtemple87]

I have been thinking about tracking down a new vcr online myself lately, funny the topic came up

[ajsracket]

Yes, I still use my vcr. Quite often. I grew up in the era before dvds so I have a few hundred movies on tape. I still have my laserdisc player for crying out loud!

Not to say I don't enjoy dvds and blu rays...(AND my stack of HD-DVD movies I got for pennies on the dollar when they were discontinued)...but their is something about an old media format that never gets ol for me.

To answer your question the combo ones you can get at walmart are a little pricey but good. Their are TONS ofplaces to get dirt cheap movies on vhs and as another poster said their are a SHITLOAD of movies on vhs never made into dvds

[BurningDoom]

To answer your question the combo ones you can get at walmart are a little pricey but good.

This I highly disagree with. I worked at ShopKo when I was in high school, and those combo things got taken back for malfunctions more than any other models, BY FAR. It was always just one, either the VCR part or the DVD part that malfunctioned, though, never both.

[TheyCallMeTheSwede]

I only use it for Wrestling and Anime.

[ChuChu Flamingo]

This would be a good thread to read up on

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1138464



But yeah generally any four head vcr with svideo that is made by JVC or panasonic. I also recommend cleaning the heads with a tape cleaner.

[Anapan]

I looked into it a bit more to see what was available (Turns out I'm still holding a couple of bit-rotting VHS tapes for my friends that I never bothered to convert to DVD including a 14 year old zombie movie with bloopers by my brother and his friends that they have long since forgotten about and needs to be converted ASAP for my brother's birthday) to see about my VCR's capabilities. It is a good player, but...
This guy says that only 2 heads are ever used to read tapes and other Google searches verify that. The other heads are for recording better formats (S-VHS) including stereo sound that the 2-head players cannot write. His list of brand quality (for reliability - which is what you want when buying a used VHS player) is probably better than I can recommend. Still my JVC 4-head player does a damn fine job of playing back old VHS tapes and I will not be looking for anything better.
He has a point - I've used a couple Panasonic players before and the picture quality was good, tho I was playing with low-end composite only models. It was still noticeably better than most I tried.

Hee Fee - yeah Panasonic is best. Hi fidelity - Is good function. I like that. Yery Good Mekaniks.
Yay Vee See - Second best - is better hi fidelity model.

[KDub]

I would not suggest buying any modern VCR or VCR/DVD Combo you may come across in stores today. They are cheap and worthless for the most part. The biggest issue is that the all have "auto tracking" which seems to do nothing. You need to be able to adjust tracking manually for a lot of those older VHS tapes, it really extends their life.

I suggest going to a used electronic or thrift store and looking for a beast of a VCR. It may be heavy and big but it should have good components inside and all the features you need to play your VHS tapes back with the best quality.