New VCR blues

[Bobtheduck]

I desperately needed a new VCR, and I got one for my birthday. The old one was eating my tapes and would randomly shut off and spit the tape out half the time I tried to rewind anything... Very annoying.

Well, I got a new one, not the brand I wanted (I wanted the same brand as I had before, and you'll see why) but it worked. It didn't randomly shut down, and I like that it would record the sound about as well in SLP as it does in SP...

I was happy with it until I started watching some of my old tapes... Tapes that, when they played, played perfectly fine on my old VCR, will not play right on this VCR. It should have fast auto-tracking, but it doesn't. It took the length of 2 or 3 AMV's for it to adjust, and if I fast forward, well I gotta start the process all over again. The worst thing is that it works in reverse too. If I watch a tape I recorded on this on another VCR, it won't work. Same deal... Of course, this only applies to NEW VCR's. I could watch about any tape on my old VCR, provided it didn't eat it.

These are some major problems that will likely only get worse as VCRs are phased out in favor of DVD recorders.

1. Different VCR's have different tracking and handle EP mode differently. My decission to save money means that most of my tapes (my homestar tape, probably my simpsons tapes) will not work, though I found one that worked fine... I don't know why it did and not the others, since they came from the same VCR...

2. VCRs do NOT come with manual tracking anymore. It's obvious that the problem is tracking, because it DOES fix itself after about 4 or 5 minutes... If there was manual tracking, I could just adjust it and be on my happy way...

There will never be any more innovation in VCRs, and never again will there be quality work put into them because It's all about DVDs now, regardless of the fact that DVD burners are still very expensive and they requires an environment not everyone can live up to (needs to stay around 7X degrees wherever they are stored to avoid warping the discs over time, and burnable DVDs are MUCH more susceptable to scratching)

This is so frustrating... All these tapes that are about worthless, practically speaking. It's espcially annoying with the "Computer Stuff" tapes because it required me to borrow my friend's laptop, and his life sorta revolves around it... It took me 3 days to get all that stuff, and my CTS flared up in the process...

See, you may say "why not just wait through it" That's easy to say if you're not trying to show this to people. I mean, ignoring the fact I'll lose the first 5 minutes of every tape, there's also the fact that people who are not going to want to be introduced to something they know nothing about are not going to be patient enough to ALSO sit through 5 minutes of unwatchable video and another 10-15 minutes of Jumpy video...

I've gotta personally check every tape to see which ones are going to work... The simpsons stuff I may just have to tape over them using this VCR over the next few weeks Some of it, though, I will never have a chance to get again (like Lain... It is very hard to catch it when it comes on, and I have only 2 anime (and realistically 1, because I know it is likely the middle of one now) on Tech... Sorry, "G4TechTV." I've likely got a box full of tapes I'm gonna have to dump... It's so frustrating...

[JediSonic]

This sounds complicated and frustrating 0_o

I cant really help you but... dont let bubs fix your vcr.
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