Video Asylum

Posted by John C. - Aussie (i) on April 03, 2001 at 19:55:58

In Reply to: VCR's: Repair or just toss out and replace? posted by Samir on April 02, 2001 at 02:09:23:

I agree that DVDs are far superior in quality but disagree that VCRs should be discarded. We use ours a lot for time shifting/zapping ads, abandoning programs which looked good and were not etc - great time saver & allows one to organise the evening entertainment to suit the mood.

However I had a bad experience with a Mitsubishi VHS recorder and it never gave acceptable sound. Maybe the S-VHS model is better but we have settled on Nationasl/Panasonic/Technics. We find the S-VHS recorders give better results even on ordinary tape and, like you, do a lot of recording off (digital) satellite. The quality is usually a function of the broadcast quality with BBC tapings coming across the best both visually and aurally. We do not archive movies but have a number of excellent tapes of ballet, concerts & operas which we dabble in from time to time.

So, bottom line from here would be to check out prices but probably best to replace the unit with a known good brand. They are very complex copmponents and there is a lot to go wrong as well as to wear out.

John