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One of the units in one of the clusters is acting slowly, making odd sounds. I'll run a cleaning tape through it later, but that is about the only thing I can do and if that doesn't work........then it is E store time again.
As told, I guess the unit might be 18 years old or so. If my numbers are correct, then I have gotten my cash out of it even though in the last 10 years, it's use has probably been reduced.
Looking at what is available out there now, it doesn't look that dismal even if now we are talking $100ish. Can get a new combo DVD player/VCR for that cost. Further, given that some of the current DVDs, the ones made on demand, may not work in an DVR, having a pure DVD player in that particular cluster could be useful.
Still, though, such spending is not comfortable.....especially when I'm trying to be more thrifty about things.
........................you may now stop staring and saying OMG.....................
I assume "one of the units" is a VCR? Are we supposed to know what "one of the clusters" means? I have no clue.
I still own a bunch of VCRs. Most recently I bought a high-end one for $10 at a local college's surplus sale (which they have once a month). I spent another $10 on ebay buying a remote for it (the one that originally went with it) so I am happy with that deal. I have about 10 TV/VCR combos, but they are slowly breaking down -- I think I have 3 that aren't usable any more except as monitors (or small TVs with DVD players connected, but most of the TV/VCR combos are only 13" so not great for real viewing of movies etc.). I also have 2 Magnavox DVD recorder/VCR combos, which I use a ton (they are hooked up to the TV/VCR combos that don't have working VCRs any more) -- I've had them for years and they are both still going strong. And finally, I have a couple of DVRs hooked up to TVs and stand-alone VCRs, which I use in a pinch. (I do a TON of recording for my classes, mostly on videotape for convenience, then I archive the tapes to DVD. Occasionally I record directly on the DVRs but I've never been impressed with the quality ... and I know that sounds odd coming to someone used to VHS quality!)
I have literally thousands of burned DVDs (many from those videorecordings mentioned above) and I've found that they usually play flawlessly in my cheapest DVD players (go figure). Sometimes they WON'T play (or will play badly) on higher-end DVD players. Pretty frustrating!!
I assume "one of the units" is a VCR? Are we supposed to know what "one of the clusters" means? I have no clue.
I still own a bunch of VCRs. Most recently I bought a high-end one for $10 at a local college's surplus sale (which they have once a month). I spent another $10 on ebay buying a remote for it (the one that originally went with it) so I am happy with that deal. I have about 10 TV/VCR combos, but they are slowly breaking down -- I think I have 3 that aren't usable any more except as monitors (or small TVs with DVD players connected, but most of the TV/VCR combos are only 13" so not great for real viewing of movies etc.). I also have 2 Magnavox DVD recorder/VCR combos, which I use a ton (they are hooked up to the TV/VCR combos that don't have working VCRs any more) -- I've had them for years and they are both still going strong. And finally, I have a couple of DVRs hooked up to TVs and stand-alone VCRs, which I use in a pinch. (I do a TON of recording for my classes, mostly on videotape for convenience, then I archive the tapes to DVD. Occasionally I record directly on the DVRs but I've never been impressed with the quality ... and I know that sounds odd coming to someone used to VHS quality!)
I have literally thousands of burned DVDs (many from those videorecordings mentioned above) and I've found that they usually play flawlessly in my cheapest DVD players (go figure). Sometimes they WON'T play (or will play badly) on higher-end DVD players. Pretty frustrating!!
A cluster: A TV set with multiple player units connected. So I have 4 TV sets. Three of them have 4 units hitched into them, such as DVR/VCR, DVP, VHS, blu ray. The 4th is a cluster of a different kind with a DVR/VCR and then serving as the speakers for various audio units.
This VHS in question is hooked into a new DVR for converting tapes to DVD. If it has reached the end of its road, then that DVR will sit idle.
As far as made on demand DVD's, there are just some warnings saying that they may not play on anything that is a recorder, be it a DVR....or a PC.
A cluster: A TV set with multiple player units connected. So I have 4 TV sets. Three of them have 4 units hitched into them, such as DVR/VCR, DVP, VHS, blu ray. The 4th is a cluster of a different kind with a DVR/VCR and then serving as the speakers for various audio units.
This VHS in question is hooked into a new DVR for converting tapes to DVD. If it has reached the end of its road, then that DVR will sit idle.
As far as made on demand DVD's, there are just some warnings saying that they may not play on anything that is a recorder, be it a DVR....or a PC.
Hmmm ... I've never had trouble playing burned DVDs (which is what "on-demand DVDs" are, from what I understand) on my computer. I just don't like WATCHING things on my computer.
Have you tried watching the on-demand DVDs on one of your recorders? (You wrote that they have "some warnings" on them but didn't say if you'd actually tried?) When I'm not recording with my Magnavox DVR/VCR combos, I can use them to just watch DVDs (including burned DVDs). Never had a problem.
One of my "clusters" (using your word! ) is a 19" Emerson TV/VCR combo (bought at the surplus sale for $15 -- a lot of my TV/VCRs are Emersons so I already had several remotes!) connected to a DVR and a VCR. I can record (non-copy-protected) DVD to VHS by putting an output from the DVR to the TV/VCR's input. (I sometimes transfer DVD to VHS if I am worried about on-campus DVD players not being able to play burned DVDs.) Unfortunately I can't record from the TV/VCR's VCR to the DVR since there's no output from the TV; I have to just use the TV/VCR as a monitor while I play a tape in the stand-alone VCR and have it record on the DVR. That's kind of a pain but it works.
Anyway, I think you should be able to buy a used VCR pretty cheaply to replace the one that seems to be failing. Any second-hand stores in your area? You could also check Craigslist and ebay (Craigslist would likely be cheaper and sometimes free). Or garage sales?
(You're not a dinosaur with all your VCRs ... or if you are, I am too!! )
Get a refurb Magnovox ZV427MG9. It works very well with on the fly recordings. Its a VCR/DVD recorder, so I copy straight off the cable signal to VHS then hit one touch recording to the DVD. I've had it for years without any issues. The refurb's run around $80.
Occasionally I record directly on the DVRs but I've never been impressed with the quality ... and I know that sounds odd coming to someone used to VHS quality!)
They use a codec like MPEG2 which has a variable bit rate, the lower the bitrate the less quality however lower bitrates also give you smaler file sizes. Dependent on how it's recording ca have a drastic effect too, reencoding poorly encoded material is going to give you poor results. Anything over cable is poorly encoded.
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I have literally thousands of burned DVDs (many from those videorecordings mentioned above) and I've found that they usually play flawlessly in my cheapest DVD players (go figure). Sometimes they WON'T play (or will play badly) on higher-end DVD players. Pretty frustrating!!
That's usually the disc itself especially with older model DVD players. Some will only play +R, some only -R and some will play neither. Ironically the older high end DVD players were most prone to this. You shouldn't have any issues with newer DVD players and if you are ten it's probably some other issue like a bad burn. Computer drives are much more robust and never really have any issues.
Let's see, have 7 DVR's. Five of them will take +R/-R of the current market. Two of them that are perhaps a decade old are generally limited to 4X to which I "feed" them right now the Verbatim "movie DVD's" Verbatim 94866 DigitalMovie 4x DVD-R Media Discs - Spindle of 25 - 4.70 GB
(think they came from a buyout sale at CompUSA) and a MASSIVE buy from a media mail order company 2-3 years back of a clean face type of another brand.
At the time I got the two older units, I thought that there would eventually be soft ware to upgrade them or that I could get newer units to replace them. Well, I can get newer units....at 3-4X the price I got them at. Just at the time I got them, there was a consumer market to have DVR's like people had VCR's.............but that disappeared, the market changed.
Quite drastically.
As far as refurbished goes, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. The two oldest units are refurbished, but their timers don't work at all. The clocks won't keep stable time. There are periods when I think I hear the machine running.....when it is turned off.
However, since TV has changed for the worse, that's not really a problem since I rarely record off TV anymore. When I do, I stick in a 6-8 hour tape, set it on its course, and then transfer what I was after, such as Telemundo movies, to a DVD later.
So the machines work fine for what I need them for, transferring tape to DVD; for even though VHS machines are still around, loss of magnetic data from tape aside, I'm not sure how much longer I will be able to watch my tapes.
Back to refurbished machines. If the cost of a deck refurbished is $80, then I am probably better off getting a new deck for $100.
SIGH, I remember toward the end of the VHS era when I bought a new unit at Wally World for something like $45, if even lower.........................
..................of course, it wasn't worth squat! It would go off and do things on it's own more than the older units!
Now, for about a hundred bucks more, I could get another DVR/VCR deck, but there are three problems with that. First of all, for less bucks, I can accomplish what I need to do. Secondly, a deck like that would still leave the new DVR isolated, not in use.
And then there is something else. How much is enough? When will there be too many units? If and when the dubbing project is done, then what will the machinery do? As it is, I can barely keep up with 7 units and that's just usually on the weekend. It sounded great in theory, 7 units going, I could have the VHS collection transferred in about a year and a half.......but it doesn't translate well to reality at all. There are other things to do in life.
Finally, there is a 4th issue with the decks and the clusters. Where there are two DVR/VHS decks in the cluster, they may have come with different remotes, but the remotes tend to trip functions, though not necessarily the same, on either machine.
Laters, off to dinner, my Sundays end early!
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I have no clue.
I have about 10 TV/VCR combos, but they are slowly breaking down -- I think I have 3 that aren't usable any more except as monitors (or small TVs with DVD players connected, but most of the TV/VCR combos are only 13" so not great for real viewing of movies etc.). I also have 2 Magnavox DVD recorder/VCR combos, which I use a ton (they are hooked up to the TV/VCR combos that don't have working VCRs any more) -- I've had them for years and they are both still going strong. And finally, I have a couple of DVRs hooked up to TVs and stand-alone VCRs, which I use in a pinch. (I do a TON of recording for my classes, mostly on videotape for convenience, then I archive the tapes to DVD. Occasionally I record directly on the DVRs but I've never been impressed with the quality ... and I know that sounds odd coming to someone used to VHS quality!)
) is a 19" Emerson TV/VCR combo (bought at the surplus sale for $15 -- a lot of my TV/VCRs are Emersons so I already had several remotes!) connected to a DVR and a VCR. I can record (non-copy-protected) DVD to VHS by putting an output from the DVR to the TV/VCR's input. (I sometimes transfer DVD to VHS if I am worried about on-campus DVD players not being able to play burned DVDs.) Unfortunately I can't record from the TV/VCR's VCR to the DVR since there's no output from the TV; I have to just use the TV/VCR as a monitor while I play a tape in the stand-alone VCR and have it record on the DVR. That's kind of a pain but it works.
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