VCR POS

[Matt Broeska]

hey everyone. just this past weekend my vcr died. no! no need for tears or condolences... i'll be okay. afterall, it's just a vcr. one of those $150 (cdn) things that only lasted 3 years.

so now i wanna replace it and i'm wondering whether i should go with an s-vcr or not. it's YOUR job to tell me the pros and cons of a brand spank-me new s-vcr deck. is it worth the extra cash? how much do they go for now anyway? who makes the best for the most reasonable amount of cash? this is a vcr afterall... i'm saving my money for the eventual surround sound and progressive scan dvd player.

thanks in advance for your help.

[Andrew Pratt]

Matt IMO the only real alternative we canucks have is the JVC 3600 and its not that cheap compared to decent regular VCR. The cheaper JVC units also lack a lot of the funcitons and features that make the higher end models attactive. You also have to look at what you intend to do with the VCR? If your main goal is to time shift TV shows then look at the source. If you have a high quality souce (ie Satalite) then S-VHS might make sense, if you're taping of regular cable though the souce is to shitty to really gain much from the s-vhs deck. I was in your shoes last year and ended up buying a decent Panasonic VCR that has things like commercial advance (really cool) and a few other goodies. One thing I really liked about it was the lack of bright annoying lights on it (like the Sony it replaced) so I leave it on all the time in my HT mainly for the tuner and the clock

[Matt Broeska]

yeah... i called a&b and they have the jvc 4800 on sale for $309 and the toshiba 804 on sale for $379, i believe. too rich for my blood (for a vcr at least). they said they could get the jvc 7800 in, but if the 4800 was that much i didn't even bother asking how much the 7800 would be.

here's another option... what about that tivo thing or replaytv? it's actually looking like it'd be much more (price-wise), but as a toy it'd be much more fun.

of course then i've got a whole lotta vhs tapes and nothing to watch them on...

[P-Dub]

Mat, like Andrew said, it all depends on what you want to do with your VCR. My Mits VCR died last year, and I was agonizing about my purchase for at least two months. Should I do S-VHS, maybe a good regular VHS. I ended up with a cheap VCR.

How much of the old tapes do you watch, or will watch? Would a cheap VCR do the job? I find my cheapie unit does the trick for time shifting TV. And now, I don't tape as much as I used to.

I think the future will be the Tivo's and Replay. But I didn't know they were available in Canada. Well I haven't been looking. But wouldn't the cost of the unit plus the service be more than the price of a SVHS?




Paul

There are three kinds of people in this world; those that can count, and those that can't.

[Matt Broeska]

yeah i think i should think this through just a little more. if i can find a better price on an s-vhs i think i'll get one, but really i'll probably just go with something decent. my citizen was a cheapie and only lasted 2 and a half years.

and yeah that replaytv is pretty expensive stuff...

[Greg Stone]

Matt, I think you'll find that once you get the DVD player and system you want, the VCR will probably get a lot less play than you think it will. I hardly ever fire mine up, unless the youngsters want to watch a tape. I would go cheap now, then keep saving for the nicer DVD stuff you want. My .02 worth.




Greg's DVD's

[SiliGoose]

I threw my VCR in the trash after buying my Tivo. The thing will change your life...and the picture (on the DirecTivo units) will make SVHS look like crap.

I don't waste my time with analog.




-Sili

[KennyG]

What's a VCR???
Seriously, I haven't even turned my VCR on in months. If I were giving advice I'd say buy the cheapest one you can find, the VCR's days are numbered...Kenny

[Matt Broeska]

i think that the only reason i want an s-vhs is 'cause i've now got some kinda upgrade bug and i want something good. of course "something good" and "vcr" is a huge contradiction in terms. :B so what vcr would you guys recommend that is cheap but reliable? i don't want another vcr that'll expire in a few years (from damage, not dvd taking over)...

[Andrew Pratt]

Mat since you will end up buying a pronto if you hang around me long enough I'd avoid the Toshiba models since they lack discrete codes. The panasonic's have great reviews, are reasonably priced and they work If you want a SVHS I think the Future shop on St.James or the sears store in polo park had the 3600 on clearnce cheap. Had that one being available when I got mine I might have picked it up just to make one less type of conneciton but that doens't help me much now anyway since I've added component to the list of input types I have to deal with Anywho my advice is either find one of the JVC 3600 units cheap or pick up the Panasonic unit I've got and save up for the other toys you need BTW any VCR you buy now will last you a long time since it isn't going to get a lot of useage and the one feature I'd say is a must is comercial advace...its just too cool not to have.