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

[mas]

I'm just wondering if anyone still uses a vcr to watch movies. I'm thinking about picking one up and I don'tknow which one to get. I see good movies at the thrift shops for a dollar or so and I talked to an employee who was putting out vcr movies and he says that a ton of people still buy vcr tapes and vcr's are always selling out the in a day or two. If I decide to get one which is the best model or brand to get. thanks

[vlame]

I'm just wondering if anyone still uses a vcr to watch movies. I'm thinking about picking one up and I don'tknow which one to get. I see good movies at the thrift shops for a dollar or so and I talked to an employee who was putting out vcr movies and he says that a ton of people still buy vcr tapes and vcr's are always selling out the in a day or two. If I decide to get one which is the best model or brand to get. thanks

just get stereo... possibly s-video out as well.

[Zandengoff]

One of the few you can get still get new retail is the Magnavox DVD/VCR combo. Sold at most neighborhood Wal-Marts. That is what I have in the bedroom for my wife's Disney VHS. Usually I notice a big difference to DVD for about the first 10 minutes then I get into the movie and tend not to notice the degraded quality for most of the film.

As for outputs, that version has composite, but in my opinion the source material is not good enough on VHS to notice quality from an s-video output. I would however highly recommend getting new for a VCR if you can as most of the used one's I have come across have issues and it is not like you are going to find replacements for you VHS collection.

[Droid party]

Maybe this guy can help.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-z4iw8Ppo1o

[gtmtnbiker]

I'm just wondering if anyone still uses a vcr to watch movies.

Nope, I haven't used a VCR since 1999 or so when I picked up a DVD player. Check to see if you have Freecycle in your area and if so, post on the mailing list that you want a VCR. I'm sure you'll get a few people giving you one for free.

[Betamax001]

I still use a VCR to watch the occasional tape that I get from thrift stores. I kinda stopped getting them (pan and scan is truly one of the worst things that ever happened to movies IMO) but sometimes you find something neat like say 20 vintage Tom Baker era episodes of Doctor Who on VHS for 5 bucks. On DVD 20 old Doctor Who episodes would be like 400 bucks maybe so theres that

Another good reason that I still use a VCR is to hook things up via standard AV cables to an older TV that has no AV inputs. Much better than using and daisy chaining a bunch of crappy RF cables!

But yeah thrift stores are your best bet, usually less than 10 bucks, just try and test them out at the store though. I bought one I thought would be perfect. Nice recentish model with two stereo input jacks, but after taking it home I found out it didnt let me switch to the input jacks through the channel up and down. I guess you needed the remote or something. Just something to watch out for.

[FiftyDollarCurse]

I'm just wondering if anyone still uses a vcr to watch movies.

Honestly, no. DVD players and DVDs are almost as universally cheap and/or worthless as VCRs and VHS tapes. I'm sure there are lots of old people that still buy tapes, or people with children that still buy them so their kids can ruin them, but the vast majority of DVDs are rapidly becoming/have become just as disposable.

[o.pwuaioc]

And yet there are still movies that haven't been released on DVD yet...

[Opa Opa]

does anyone still use a vcr?

(raises hand)

[CRTGAMER]

I'm just wondering if anyone still uses a vcr to watch movies. I'm thinking about picking one up and I don'tknow which one to get. I see good movies at the thrift shops for a dollar or so and I talked to an employee who was putting out vcr movies and he says that a ton of people still buy vcr tapes and vcr's are always selling out the in a day or two. If I decide to get one which is the best model or brand to get. thanks

Thrift Stores. Be sure to test with a couple tapes at the store. The video is crappy compared to discs, but it does still has a great use.

When my Mother in Law was in the Hospital for a week, she was getting Cabin Fever at being stuck there. I recorded a bunch of shows in EP from her International Channel on a VHS player. The EP 6 hour mode actually looked okay, worked beautiful in the hospital patient room small TV. Timeshifted a couple extra tapes on the spare VCR while she was there. A DVR would have worked, but why risk that getting stolen.