The last-ever Japanese VCRs will be made this month

[Onkel Neal]

The last-ever Japanese VCRs will be made this month (http://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2016/7/21/12244094/japan-stops-vcr-production-funai)

Man, I remember when I bought my first VCR, 1979. It was $995 and had mechanical channel selection knobs and the old-style push-down Play/Record tabs. But still, it was so cool to be able to record TV programs and watch them over again, and record stuff that came on late at night without being there.

That machine lasted 3 years then I bought a new one that cost $300 and was much more advanced. :cool:

[Catfish]

^ I remember it well, still have two at home for emergency.. :03:

And.. nowadays you cannot record anything you like anymore, with you "Smart" TV due to DRM, missing start/end signals and advertisement.
Only if you have an old VCR..
This is progress :nope:

[HunterICX]

Still have one stored away :yep:

Played them Disney video tapes grey when I was a kid :D

Or them Video rental stores back then...that takes me back, it's just not the same with DVD's/Bly-Ray's imo.

[Betonov]

I'll store my JVC and sell it for big pile of money in a decade :D

I've been meaning to hook it up to the PC somehow and digitze my Blue racer (slovene dub) tape.

[STEED]

My first VCR was a VHS about the time they won the war over Betamax, it was a Logic and lasted around 10 years before it finally died of old age. Funny thing the next two never lasted that long, I think the second one lasted around seven years and the third around four to five years.

Not seen them on sale in the UK for years now apart from the combo video and DVD ones. I still got my fourth one that still works but I hardly use it. I did use it for the first time in a year or so last weekend as I still have a few cassettes in the cabinet. I have two second hand ones passed on to me so I will be alright for a few years to come.

[Eichhörnchen]

I've a few videos produced by 'special interest' groups (no, not grumbleflicks... I mean films made using amateur WW2 footage and stuff about aviation art) but which I've not got around to transferring to disc.

I also still have a big collection of aviation and wartime documentaries, which I just am never likely to transfer because of the time and trouble involved, so I keep a VHS player.

My son still watches some of his old videos from when he was very small, and to be honest I like to see and hear those again, too :)

[Jimbuna]

Started off with a Betamax version before later going all posh and getting a VHS.

[Commander Wallace]

I saw some DVD recorders that could record just like VCR's but also had hard drives of varying sizes that you could store programs you recorded, then burn them off to a DVD. Sadly, as quickly as they first appeared, they were gone. They may still be available though, just not in any department stores I have seen lately.

I think that would have been the way to go but I'm guessing movie production companies didn't want the average person to be able to do that.

[Sailor Steve]

I gave mine to one of my neighbors a few months ago. I don't have a television, and plugging it into the computer was more hassle than I wanted to deal with.

Bye-bye.

[AVGWarhawk]

We have a lot of family activity on VHS and still need the player. Eventually we will have them put on disc. I'm guessing by the time we get to that disc will outdated. :shifty:

[Rhodes]

My first one was a Hitachi, my father bought in 1992. Recorded some many movies, still have original trilogy theatrical release of Star Wars, one of the main reason I still have a VCR.
Plus 2 drawers of films/series and documentaries. And 2 VHS tapes of the trip I did in high school to Sweden...

[AVGWarhawk]

I too still have the original Star Wars Trilogy on VHS. My daughter watched it on VHS because she wanted to experience in the same quality I did when it arrived on VHS. The kid loves the 70/80's. What can I say?

[vienna]

VHS VCRs allowed me to score points with the ladies: I was always called upon to solve the "blinking 12:00" display problem for a lot of young ladies (including one who seemed to have a constant problem with the VCR 'resetting itself'). Added to this was my knowledge of how to dislodge a stuck cassette: a single sharp thump to the top of the VCR. Somehow, that simple tactic seemed to really impress...



<O>

[Skybird]

I still have two brandnew, factory-sealed Panasonic recorders in reserve. :) Plus the one in "use" - every 12 momths or so...

And no, don'T even ask. I am not selling them.

The flood two years ago killed half of my extensive VHS library, and the other half for the most got replaced by its DVD equivalents. But some TV recordings I have that are precious and cannot be bought. Some concerts where my father played, for example, and other individual stuff. you cannot buy this, not even directly from the broadcasters (legal stuff). This is what makes it precious to me.

We are more perfect today, yes. We have 4K resolutio, and special FX done by ILM. But I tell you what: the magic is gone. The world, life got "demagicalised" :) , disenchanted. I experience that as a tremendous loss.

I also still have my first cassette walkman, the famous Sony WM-1, the first of its kind ever. The daughters of a university friend of mine had no idea what it was and what it was for when I once showed it to them. :)

[Highbury]

I still remember when my parents came home with our first VHS, I was thankful they had the sense not to get Betamax. It would have been about '79 - '80. I still have a shelf full of tapes and a player but it hasn't been turned on in years.

[Wolferz]

Next time you rent a DVD, don't rewind before you return it to Redbox.
:O:

[Penguin]

Just a little reminder for y'all who still have some old treasuries on tape: Please do a back up from time to time, even better: digitalize them.

In the professional media you have the rule to back up taped based media every 5-10 years. Even there you sometimes find a tape which has already deteriorated too much. And we're talking about professional materials, rewinded and correctly stored within a close temp and humidity range, not stored in a box in the cellar like my old tapes. :03:

[Wolferz]

VHS was big back in the day but I never fully adopted it. Tape is, and always was a fragile medium for data storage. The digital highway was just over the horizon so I waited to invest in movie media until Blu-Ray hit the market.
At most, I have @ ten VHS tapes sitting on the upper shelf of my bookcase window. It's only natural for the hardware to phase out when sales become non-existent.
Everything is digital.

[Eichhörnchen]

I thought you sat and looked at cave paintings in the evenings

[vienna]

https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/t/prehistoric-tv-man-watching-television-stone-49682662.jpg


http://www.toonpool.com/user/589/files/cool_screen_saver_1056555.jpg




<O>

[Schroeder]

. The digital highway was just over the horizon so I waited to invest in movie media until Blu-Ray hit the market.
You saw the digital highway in 1980? Wow, can you give me tomorrow's lottery numbers please?:D

We still have some 200 tapes stored in the living room shelves but we hardly watch them anymore (I'm not into movies anyway).

[Wolferz]

I thought you sat and looked at cave paintings in the evenings

Oh, I still do that too.:03:
But, variety is the spice of life.:yeah:

You saw the digital highway in 1980? Wow, can you give me tomorrow's lottery numbers please?:D

We still have some 200 tapes stored in the living room shelves but we hardly watch them anymore (I'm not into movies anyway).

I'll get those numbers out to you just as soon as they draw them.:O::salute: