Out Of Touch

[Gilbey]

Thanks guys! I saw those DVD/VCR combo. The thing is I already have a Panasonic DVD recorder, so all I really need is just a VCR. I might check out the flea markets as Flivver has suggested... for $5?? That's a heck of a deal!! I know my friend wants $20 for his Emerson. I think I've got to look at pawn shops too. Maybe Ebay too.

 

[Vintage Betty]

You just left out the "tech-savvy, loving," part between the "geeky" and the "husbands".

Yes, I meant to say that. Really I did.

 

[Doh!]

I still have a VCR hooked up but only use it on the rarest of ocassions (I have a decent collection of tapes that have yet to come out on DVD -- or, at least, I don't feel like upgrading). However, I cannot sing the praises highly enough of digital recorders. I'm currently "taping" (recording? saving to a hard drive??) PBS' The War... and still have PLENTY of hard drive left to tape other things.

If I were going the VCR route, I'd be switching tapes constantly.

 

[Flivver]

I don't own, nor do I intend to buy, an HDTV -- I don't need one, given how little television I watch, and I'm perfectly happy to keep watching my movies on the same old little 19-inch screen I've been watching them on for years. So I resent being blackjacked into abandoning formats that have worked fine for my purposes just because it's the hot new trend. I finally gave in to the DVD movement a couple years ago, but that's as far as I intend to go -- planned obsolescence is a sucker game.

I couldn't agree more!

I, too, don't want a "widescreen format" HDTV. And I resent the fact that I will be forced to buy a converter box for my existing analog TVs if I want to continue to receive broadcasting after the switch to digital in February, 2009.

And if I would want to watch my 4:3 format VHS tapes or DVDs on the HDTV, I'd have vertical bars on each side of the picture to correct the format.

No thanks! I'll stick with old tech.

 

[Twitch]

Target has new DVD/VCR combos for $70......

 

[dnjan]

We're rapidly approaching the level of quality that will overtake what we can see.

A similar phenomenon happened in audio decades ago. I recall when our Commanding Officer cautioned us as we left Vietnam for R&R; "Don't buy a stereo that is so expensive that only your dog can tell the difference"

And then the signal quality of the input devices decreased so much that junk speakes and amplifier are fine.

I have some reel-to-reel tapes of albums I recorded in college. Some of the albums have been re-released as CD's, and so I bought the CD's for the convenience. For some reason recently I decided to play the reel-to-reel tape and was amazed as how much better it sounded than the CD.

I guess with peoples' standards being lowered by ear buds (instead of good headphones), it is easy to pass off the (lack of) quality in CD-audio.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

No-one makes VHS players?

Whoever told you that (no doubt a spotted youth) is a liar. Very available, very cheap.

bk

 

[Twitch]

Yeah my daughter got one 6 months ago at Target for peanuts. I have to figure they still stock them even if they don't advertise them.

 

[Gilbey]

Well, I talked my friend down to $10. He said okay. So I gave him a Rib Crib $10 gift card