[heatpulse]

Hi, I still enjoy the simplicity and editing and recording TV on my Sony vcr SLV-EZ745...It has started playing back tapes recorded in LP in black and white half the time while still playing back in colour the other half of the time...when it plays in black and white if I press stop and then play straight away it will usually go right back to colour or if I press rewind then play straight away colour will come back, and if I press pause between 1 and 4 times the colour will come back...can someone tell me does this sound like the heads just need proper cleaning by a service centre? I've tried a headcleaning tape which did nothing.

Also I have one of the models before it the SLV-EZ725, not sure if it is any different to the 745 but that one began chewing tapes and wouldn't even eject a tape at all...is this fixable if I take it to a service centre?

With VCRs are they continually fixable so long as spare parts are around?

I am thinking about getting my VCRs serviced as many times as needed because I just love editing and recording on videotape...videotape is so much more durable than blank DVDs which can get scratched and also recording to DVDs doesn't allow you to actually edit like you can on video...with DVD+/-RW you can only record from the point on the disc AFTER whatever you have already recorded to the disc, just like CDRW, but with audio tape and video tape you can go to ANY point on the tape and start recording and effectively editing whereas recording straight to DVD takes away the whole editing process.

I am thinking of not getting a dvd recorder at all but to wait until blu ray recorders are finally released and wait for a reasonable price...then recording my hundreds of hours worth of videotape recordings to 25 and 50 gig discs will begin and will take me ages but unfortunately has to be done as technology will not allow me to view videotapes for too much longer.

Can someone tell me why there is such a huge need for all the companies to totally get rid of VCRs altogether when so many people have videotape recordings? They still make vinyl record players for vinyl, and I think it is wrong to force people to transfer all their video recordings to dvd just to be able to watch them in the future...it is going to take me hundreds of hours to transfer all my tapes...surely there is still a market out there for VCRs.

All the best.

[Broadz]

The market stopped selling VCRs when the public stopped buying them. If enough people were still prepared to buy blank tapes, and record on them using video recorders, then the market would still exist for them. But the majority of people now find the awful picture quality and sound too poor in comparison with DVD to continue to use it.

And in terms of commercial videotapes as opposed to commercial DVDs, it really is a no-brainer. It is like the difference between audio tape and CD. Nobody would choose to watch a videotape if they had the same movie/TV programme/concert on DVD - the difference in picture quality, the multiple surround sound options, the removal of having to fast forward or rewind to a particular section of the recording all mean that prerecorded video tapes have definitely had their day.

[nvingo]

Originally Posted by heatpulse

Hi, I still enjoy the simplicity and editing and recording TV on my Sony vcr SLV-EZ745...
...
I am thinking about getting my VCRs serviced as many times as needed because I just love editing and recording on videotape...videotape is so much more durable than blank DVDs which can get scratched and also recording to DVDs doesn't allow you to actually edit like you can on video...with DVD+/-RW you can only record from the point on the disc AFTER whatever you have already recorded to the disc, just like CDRW, but with audio tape and video tape you can go to ANY point on the tape and start recording and effectively editing whereas recording straight to DVD takes away the whole editing process.

PCs are now of sufficient performance as to be superior to tape for all editing needs.
Simply transfer your recordings via a capture card to the PC's HDD and edit away with something like Ulead or VideoRedo.
Author the finished programme to DVD for viewing and sharing.
Then run off as many backups on DVDR (at around 20p per blank) to be sure of not accidentally destroying that last remaining copy!
You can back up the original captured files (as these may be captured in a less lossy format than MPEG2) to DVDR too - size permitting.

[heatpulse]

Thanks for your responses...

The first response...there is still a market for VCRs...people like me who have hundreds of hours worth of videotape that still need VCRs either to continue to watch them(bought videos from the past as well as TV recordings) or to use them for the purpose of transferring to DVD.

In terms of commercially bought videos as opposed to DVDs...yes audio and video is better, but there are actually releases only released on vhs and still not on DVD...Pink Floyd's The Delicate Sound Of Thunder live concert for example...and while Pink Floyd's PULSE DVD is possibly the greatest music DVD of all time in terms of quality, the vhs version(with great audio quality direct from the master) is brilliant in its own right because the vhs has the whole 2 hour 25 minutes show without interruption but the DVD has it split on 2 different discs so the amazing live show is not continuous you have to change discs which for me does spoil the show in some sense.

I'm not saying I prefer the audio and visual quality of vhs over DVD, I don't, I'm just saying there are quite a few reasons why VCRs should still be around rather than being totally gotten rid of altogether...thats the way I feel about it...I think VCRs are still great in their own right.

The second response...I understand you can edit in hard drives, but its still not like editing on videotape and videotape is so much more durable as a storage device.

If anyone can tell me what may be wrong with the 2 VCRs I listed above I would appreciate the feedback.

Thanks.