Retro Rewind: Back to the 80s A/V question

SteveMcQ

SteveMcQ

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So my aunt's aged VCR is virtually down for the count. I can't convince her to switch over to DVR/TiVo since she's not so technically savvy (bad excuse on her part, but I can't sway her). So I'm tasked with trying to help her get on with her TV recording needs with another VCR.

Problem is, I haven't dealt with VCRs in a long while and I wanna make sure I get one that'll let her record her shows (she does have cable, but the shows she likes the most are on ABC, etc.).

Now the current one she has, has the cable going to the VCR then feeding to the TV. The new VCRs I've looked at have no COAX input. They only have the composite inputs and outputs.

Here's a pic as an example of what I'm talking about on the VCRs I've been seeing lately:

8240913_ba.jpg


So I can connect the COAX cable to the TV and then a composite cable from the TV-out to the VCR Line in and it'll record that way?

Oh, and are there no other B&M places that offer just the stand-alone VCR? Most I've seen, like the Sony one above is a built-in VCR/DVD combo for $99. She's already got a DVD player and I imagine she'd yell at me for doubling that up, but I can't find any that are just a plain old VCR.

Thanks for your help.
 
[quote name='darthbudge']Make her evolve and get Tivo. Do it for society son. Seriously.[/quote]The woman's insane. We offered to give her an LCD HDTV we had lying around since we got a new one for the den. She kindly declined. She's also the type to buy full screen DVDs. It's painful.
 
[quote name='SteveMcQ']The woman's insane. We offered to give her an LCD HDTV we had lying around since we got a new one for the den. She kindly declined. She's also the type to buy full screen DVDs. It's painful.[/QUOTE]
humanity_lg.jpg
 
I think the only way you could do it with the current VCR is to get a cable box. The different cables boxes I've dealt with through my cable provider have coax out, RCA out and S-video out.
 
Target (and presumably Wal-Mart) have switcher devices. They typically have some sort of blurb on them about "connecting your older devices". GE makes the ones I've seen at Target.

Oh, Radio Shack has them too. $20 - $30, depending on the kind of connections you need.
 
If the TV or cable box has composite out, you're in business. Otherwise, head down to the Goodwill and buy a VCR with coax for 5 bucks.

I recently had to dig out my VCR in order to hook up my Atari to my LCD, which doesn't have coax. They're still good to have around just for all the connectors.
 
[quote name='SteveMcQ']She's also the type to buy full screen DVDs. It's painful.[/quote]

Full screen pisses me off.

Walmart had a whole cache of DVDs for $4 and I thought I hit the motherlode, until I realized that the ones I wanted were fullscreen format only.

Damn you fullscreen people!
 
I don't understand why anyone would want anything in other than the original format.

If it was fullscreen, then it should be fullscreen. If it's wide it should be wide.
One of the stupidest things I have seen is people taking fullscreen and cropping it to wide online.
 
[quote name='GuilewasNK']I don't understand why anyone would want anything in other than the original format.

If it was fullscreen, then it should be fullscreen. If it's wide it should be wide.
One of the stupidest things I have seen is people taking fullscreen and cropping it to wide online.[/quote]She just can't understand the whole widescreen thing no matter how many times I've explained it to her. She sees black bars and thinks she's missing parts of the pic. :roll: This was a woman who turned down an LCD HDTV from us. D'oh.
 
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