#VCR Advice?
6 messages in this thread
I'm looking for a new VHS VCR for personal use. I'd like good video
and sound, cable tuning, picture-in-picture, and those handy
"remember this channel" and "return to last saved channel" buttons on
the remote. Features like switching between several video/audio
sources would be great, too. I'm ready to spend $500 or more. Any
recommendations?
Take a look at the RCA VR667HF. It has everything you need including:
4 Heads, Hi-Fi, Control your Cable Converter Box, Auto Head-Cleaning,
and a pre-programmed universal remote that can control up to 30
different TVs. Plus it includes the VCR-Plus event programming. Best
of all, its easy to use! I don't care if you are a crack
programmer! When I want to Veg, I want something a termite could
use! List is $549, best price is $351. Recommended by Best Buy
Standards from Consumer Digest.
John,
re: picture-in-picture, beware. I bought a Sony SLV-757UC 2 years ago, and
found out to my dismay that in PiP mode, one of the two pictures had to be a
currently playing tape! I couldn't view two channels at the same time, which
was the reason I wanted PiP in the first place.
Blaq!
I tried tracking down this gimzo in the Damark catalog. It's a cable converter
box that offers PIP as well as switching between three A/V inputs. Sounds
great, huh? Only $170. But I call, and it's not in stock. Backordered. Not
available until third week of November, he says, do you still want to order it.
Yes. Whoops, now the computer says third week of December, do you still want
to order it. Uh huh.
So I called a few cable converter companies. They've never heard of "Roctec",
the maker listed in the Damark catalog. They've heard rumors of upcoming PIP
boxes, but they've never seen one. So I figure this Damark item is not yet in
production, and they're just taking orders. It sounds interesting enough to
order one, still. I'm constantly disappointed with the configurations of
consumer video equipment… you can't buy a cable converter to save your life
these days, they want to sell you a VCR instead. And they don't offer PIP
except in the TV. And they don't switch between inputs. And they don't have
feature X on the VCR remote, but it's present on the TV remote. You'd think
they could jam a zillion features into one high-priced VCR, and sell it to the
gadgetheads by the truckload. I want it all, and I want it in a little black
box, and I want a remote for it, too. Am I starting to sound like Denis Leary
yet?
I got a Toshiba S-VHS deck a couple years ago and one of the neatest
feature was that I found was I could pump one of the input lines through
the PIP. Kind of a unique feature, maybe not for Toshiba.
Great for watching two football games at the same time on one TV :^)
….John
Yeah John, that's what I wanted to do too. My Sony allows me to have one
picture showing either the VCR's tuner or one of the two line inputs, but the
other has to come from the tape being played; if no tape is playing, I get
black. It would've been so easy to allow the VCR's tuner to be one picture, and
an external input the other picture, but that's Sony for you. It seems like
they often implement gee-whiz features 95% of the way, and you have to be
really crafty to discover what 5% was left out.
Blaq!