VCR Question

Hi,

I hope this is the right forum to post this question as I have only posted music related posts to the Music Corner.

I have a VCR (Mitsubishi from about 13-14 years ago) and it still works great.

Throughout the years I have collected about 500 music VHS tapes.

Many are commercial releases that have never been released on DVD. Many are compilations that I made over the last 20 years. Anything that featured artists I like. For example Letterman and Leno performances. VH1 and MTV back from when their aired live music. PBS concerts, SNL performances of the artists I like etc. Lot's of rare soundboard concerts etc that I bought at record shows years ago, etc.

I just don't have the time and energy to burn these all to DVD R.

Getting a VCR machine is getting more and more difficult. The only one's I can find (and they are few) are the combo VCR and DVD player machines for under $100.00

So my question is should I buy another new machine, test it to make sure it works properly and then put it back in the box so that when my Mitsubishi doesn't work any more I'll have another deck?

Also if I buy a new machine and other than testing it when I buy it and then box it up will it work in say 3-5 years if it hasn't been used?

I know most people here would say just burn the VHS tapes to a DVD but I really just don't have the time and since I have so many great tapes it would take a long, long time.

Note: none of these are movies just music stuff.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Scott

 

I would suggest you check the used market for some outstanding quality VCR's , check their condition and if good get one then link it to your HiFi set-up.
There were a lot of real good VCR's around and i see no reason why you shouldn't just enjoy your music videos in the good old analog quality that you want to for decades to come.

Good Luck

 

here are some of the very best VCRs ever made. you simply cannot go wrong with any of these:


JVC HR-S8000U S-VHS







MITSUBISHI HS-U80 S-VHS






MITSUBISHI HS-U70 S-VHS







the JVC is TOP RECOMMENDED, even over the superlative MITSUBISHIs, as the HR-S8000U is a beautifully finished, DIRECT DRIVE workhorse built to last decade after decade...

 

From your post, you've got some valuable performances on VHS that may never appear on DVD.

And the medium of VHS, along w/ the players, is slowly but surely dieing.

At some point they will probably stop making VCRs, and you can forestall that day by buying some now as replacement units.

Either this material is worth archiving or not. Why not take some of your favorite performances and try archiving some them to DVD, and just see how much trouble and time is involved? It will either be worth it to you, or not. You may get a tremendous sense of satisfaction, that will motivate you to cherry pick the most treasured performances and archive them.

If you haven't got time to archive, do you still have enough time to watch all this stuff?

 

The best practice in mission-critical applications is to store the one you currently use and you know works long-term, and use/test the new unit as your regular unit.

 

If it's at all possible, see if the tapes you recorded will play on a VCR they weren't recorded on. Nearly every time I've bought a new VCR, I couldn't play some of my old tapes on it.

 

The Panasonic Proline AG-1980 is a great, dirable deck to look for. That JVC HR-S8000U is proably even better but it wasn't produced in much quantity and is very hard to find.

 

Don't forget the Sony SLV1000. I've never seen a better consumer VCR. It's very well built and performs as well as any I've ever seen.

 

There are services that will transfer VHS tapes to DVD. You might check those out. Maybe a friend or neighbor interested in some of the music videos you have would be willing to do the transfer for you? They might do it for you just to get a copy of the video for themselves.

 

I strongly suggest you buy a VCR/DVDR combo, let the machine convert everything into DVD for you. It is so easy and you don't need to monitor it. It does a fantastic job transferring it over and when you play it on DVD player with upconversion, it looks very nice.

 

It seems to me having a replacement "like new" VCR is one thing, but what about the actual tapes deteriorating over time? Wouldn't that be a concern?

I'm in the same boat as Scottb, lots of tapes and little desire to transfer them to DVD. I bought a machine to make the dubs about 3 years ago, and have burned about 2 DVDs worth of stuff.

 

I think VCR's willlastlanger than regular CD-R's you burned yourselve, This is most defiitely the case with Tapes cassettes - they always function, unless the break and evn then you can mand them. But once a DVD starts jumping it is in the trashcan with it...

Keep 1 or 2 functioning players around and maybe improt a fe to DVD, but as a genral rule just keep on enjoying tem. There is no reason why a DVD should be superior..
I don*t believ that hype, never did-- sa,e with CD's. Good Reels to Reel from the 60ies will play just fine today if stored properly in a dry not too hot or cold room....

 

I was going to mention this, and suggest that if you buy another VCR, box up the Mitsubishi except for making transfers.

Finding VCRs is easy if you just need a standard consumer model. Thrift shops are full of them, along with loads of cheap tapes.

 

shows up on EBAY often enough...

 

But are those ebay decks in well maintained condition? Many VHS VCR machines are poorly cared for, even high end models. ebay is like a pig in a poke. Parts for many older, better decks are getting scarce now. I second Rachael Bee's recommendation of that Panasonic ProLine AG-1980 machine. Those are among the best sturdy, reliable VHS decks ever made. Many industrial VHS Editing decks in good repair are better than any other VHS made. I do love high end JVC VHS decks but like to see what condition the deck I am considering is in.

 

regarding the JVC HR-S8000U S-VHS, i've seen some rather pristine beauties, and also a few poor tortured souls. still, more often than not, EBAY examples tend to appear to be in very good repair...

 

Great pics of those sweet vintage VCRs.

 

It didn't back when masses of folks were stille using VCR's and they always sold for too much. Now is different. Folks shoud look for a great VCR at this point before settling for junky consumer models, IMO.

 

The problem is that I know of quite a few people that copied their VHS tapes to DVD and some of DVD's went bad in 6-18 months-using high quality DVDR blanks.

I don't have the time to watch all of these VHS tapes now but would like to have a VCR so that from time to time over the next 20 years I can pull them out when I want and play them.

We all only have limited free time so I have CD's, DVD's and VHS tapes to enjoy and don't want to put off enjoying my CD's and DVD's because I have to spend a huge chunk of time copying the VHS tapes to DVD.

I do thank you and everyone for your suggestions.

I wish that VCR's would just be around for the rest of my lifetime-surely would make things easier.

Scott

 

I agree except the one deck I have which works great is now about 13 years old.

I'm worried that if I box that one up and use a new deck that when I go to the older boxed up deck it may not work properly due to complete lack of use for an extended period of time.

I don't need a great deck. I just want something to play the VHS tapes I made. I won't be doing anymore recording on to VHS so this is just for play back.

Scott

 

Oh I will defintely do that. The tapes I made were all in the SP mode which is easier to track and I would get a unit that has both auto and manual tracking.

Scott

 

Yes the tapes will deteriorate but so far it's been very little if any and usually at the beginning and end of the tape- which is the most common part of the tape to deteriorate first.

Scott

 

My only concern is that if I box up the Mitsubishi and don't use it for years will it still work years later? I don't know if the moving parts in the deck need to be used from time to time to keep them running properly?

I could get a combo VCR/DVD player brand new for under $100.00 but again I'm just concerned if I keep a unit boxed up and don't use it for an extended period will it still work properly?

Scott

 

One odd thing that maybe someone here can explain.

I have a number of VHS tapes that only have audio on them(live soundboard audio feeds, tapes that I recorded my keyboards directly into the VCR. Those tapes without any picture play fine (audio since there is no picture on them) on the Mitsubishi deck and some of those tapes were made on all different types of decks. However the cheap Panasonic combo VCR and DVD player I have wont play the audio on those tapes. When I play the tape no sound comes out. I guess there is something in the circuitry of the Panasonic deck that if it senses no picture then it won't play the audio even though the audio is recorded on the tape? Strange? Any thoughts as to why this is happening with my cheap Panasonic combo deck?

Scott

 

My guess is that the two decks employ a different type of stereo/sound recording, I've got an old JVC that has what they call Hi Fi stereo, yet this is different from later decks that have Nicam stereo and from memory tapes recorded on the former won't play stereo on the latter, likewise old tapes recorded on mono VCRs require the stereo switched out for playback on the Nicam decks, basically not all VCRs record their soundtracks in the same way.