Does anyone here record music to your VCR...

...then listen back off the VCR through your system? The reason I ask this is I have Digital Cable with Music Choice and I recorded a 4-hour tape full of music off those channels on my hi-fi VCR. I'm thinking of getting a cheapie second stereo VCR just for playing back the music through my (upstairs) rig and was wondering how good (or not good) it will sound. I know VCR's are "so 80's" but this is the easiest way for me to get some long-playing tunes on my stereo from those cable music channels.

 

No, I don't!

 

It sounds very good. I used to record long radio shows and other stuff before I had Total Recorder on my PC to do it for me (that way I can edit and burn direct to CD). A friend once told me it is the cleanest sounding way of analog recording (maybe he meant on a consumer level) because the tape heads are actually moving in the opposite direction very quickly.

I never had a VCR with separate level controls, so I am not sure if that will effect your recordings or not. I think there are a few that exist, but they are probably old models. Most people don't know or care about adjusting volume on VHS. Since most of my stuff was talk (i.e. Howard Stern etc.), I couldn't really tell if it was doing anything with the sound because of the lack of level controls. I am sure the machine had some kind of limiter or something to keep everything in line.

 

I tried it a couple of times. It sounded OK, but I really didn't care for the results with my VCR. For me, it was a waste of time and tape, and skipping to certain songs was a hassle. Besides, by the time I tried it, I already had cassette with Dolby "S" and DAT at my disposal. Then I got CD-R and never looked back to tape!

 

Grant, I know you still use your DAT tape deck.

 

I used to do this quite a lot. Among other things, i regularly recorded the King Biscuit Flower Hour broadcasts and then copied them to cassettes, minus the commercials. Given that i was recording from a radio broadcast, i thought the sound quality was fine. One of the nice things about recording to a VCR is that you have the ability to do those 4- and 6-hour recordings. Using a VCR is certainly an inexpensive way to go. Good choice, i'd say.
Music Choice is kinda cool. I can listen to the 70s channel for hours and hours...

 

I do it, and I ain't ashamed unlike our friend with the FireBlade (tm).
It's great for long radio broadcasts.
Quality ain't bad. It's convienent. Tapes are cheap. And on the the slow play settings, I can get 8 hours on a tape with little discernable loss in quality. Jeff

 

Sounds good. I just think it's a waste to get all those Music Choice channels and not get some real benefit out of them, since I'm paying for them. I wanna be able to put in a 6-hour tape filled with tunes and just let it play without having to change a disc, etc. while I'm surfing the net, or whatever.

 

Just one thing to watch, on some of the music channels on my digital box, there can be a lot of compression. I am told this can be turned off, but I could never find the menu.
Jeff

(Who wishes he had a FireBlade.)

 

I, for one, would like to know how to do this. If anyone knows how, please share this. I wonder if this is only available in the HD receivers?

 

No you don't! It finally died on me last month. Don't know what happened. I was using it as an A/D convertor.

 

We at NorthernLightFX can sell you a new DAT tape deck, just to to the NorthernLightFX website, click on the contact link, write or call us and we'll get you hooked up.

 

I have Comcast cable and in the menu, there are 3 separate levels of compression.

 

I've recorded to VHS several times, including adding music to some sports tapes I watch (announcers can get really irritating sometimes!). They all sounded quite good, nearly identical to the CD version. The only thing I noticed was some compression going on, but it wasn't at a distracting level (my Hi-Fi VCR has no level controls so I'm sure it uses an internal limiting circuit). But when I shifted from the two-hour to the six-hour recording mode, the overall sound became a little softer, rather like a FM radio broadcast. I use either Maxell "Gold" or "Professional Grade Hi-Fi" tapes.

The worst limitation as others have mentioned is track selection--there is none! To make this possible (at least on my machine), you have to stop the VCR when one song ends, and restart it every time a new song starts (a very time consuming undertaking as I found out.........once!). When this is done, most VCRs insert an "index" mark on the tape and then you can use the search button on your VCR to find the tracks later.

[T]

 

Charter Digital cable has the 3 levels of compression as well.

 

Audio Compression for the T.V is good for me. It allows me to watch T.V when others are asleep as I can keep the volume down low and still be able to hear everything. You can still hear the quite parts with the loud parts not getting too loud.

 

When I was younger I used my HiFi VCR's to make party tapes that would play longer than a cassette and to record long radio shows. Have not done that for years, if I wanted to do it today I would use my Masterlink HD recorder.