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Journal bethanie's Journal: Ask Mashquats: VCR/DVD combos? 30

Journal by bethanie
Well, it looks like our VCR is busticated.

Over the weekend, we noticed these weird lines (horizontal, traveling from the bottom of the screen upwards) on the TV. Hubby fiddled around with stuff and discovered that if the VCR was powered on, that didn't happen -- but that it would automatically power off after about 10 minutes, which is brand new and weird.

Then today, I was trying to show Kiddo the scene in Baron Munchausen where the sultan plays the organ that pokes people with knives to make music (I think I was proposing that I should do that with her, because it would sound so lovely). But that is beside the point.

The point is that I tried to feed the tape into the VCR, and it wouldn't go. I could stick the tape in and a little bit farther past the point where it is flush with the front, but it seems that the mechanism that would then feed it into the player just isn't working. It feels like something mechanical (as opposed to electrical), because it just STICKS, and I can hear some wheels or something inside try to operate, but of course, the tape isn't going in, so they have nothing to play.

On top of that, our crappy DVD player has been inconsistently refusing to recognize discs. It can take 4 or 5 tries of opening and closing to get one to "take," which is frustrating enough for me -- you can imagine how a 4.5-y.o. would react.

So, given the state of electronic devices these days, we're pretty much prepared to just go out and replace them both, without making an effort to fix them. A VCR/DVD combo makes the most sense.

Since y'all are geeks with an affinity for these kinds of toys, I thought I'd put it out there to you -- you have any brands you've found particularly reliable? well-priced? ones that you'd stay away from? How about places to buy them? Any favorite websites?

While your replies roll in, I'll be doing my own research on this, so thanks for your help in the process!!
This discussion was created by bethanie (675210) for no Foes, but now has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Ask Mashquats: VCR/DVD combos? More

Ask Mashquats: VCR/DVD combos?

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  • That's the biggest issue. Same as the DVD / TV combos.

    Regardless, get a big name brand (Toshiba / Sony / JBL) and you should be fine.
    • ... and when one part breaks, you're going to either have to toss the whole thing, or have something half-busted sitting there taking up space, etc.

      I'd disagree about the name-brand bit, though. The "name brands" aren't made by the name brands any more - they're just rebadged cheapies. Heck, Sony doesn't even design, never mind make, their own laptops (not that Sony is "top-of-the-line" any more either - do a side-by-side comparison of their tvs - and you'll see why the Japanese aren't buying Sony TVs - t

      • Our current DVD player is a no-name that Hubby wanted because it was cheap (back in the day), could run any region, and was hackable (probably stuff he read about here on the Dot). Of course, we NEVER needed to run anything from another region, and he never did any hacks, so....

        It has lasted a good 5 years, and still runs -- it just has hiccups and hangs easily. It's worth replacing at this point, if we're gonna go ahead and get a new VCR, too (which, by the by, is at least 12 years old -- it's mine from
  • Mine was like $50 three years ago.

    Okay, it was more like $100, but it's so off-brand that the Audivox TVs won't even hang out with it.

    It's been great- never had a single problem with it. Right now it's mostly being used as a hub so that I can play old skool Nintendo without unplugging the Nintendo64 and PS2, but the VCR and DVD playing functions are still rocking out like the dorky kid at prom who doesn't care that he looks ridiculous.

    Because, lets face it, my VCR/DVD combo is the dorky kid at prom.

    I'll ge
  • With young children VCR's and DVD's take a fair amount of abuse. That's why when my wife and I decided to get a combo we just went with a middle-of-the-line panasonic from Wal-Mart. I've already had to open the thing up to retrieve a car that was put in the VCR slot by our 2-year old.

    • Someday I just know they will make a built-in little door for this kind of thing. The feature will be "foreign object extraction door" or something like that.
      • Why, when they can stick you for the price of another unit when the repair shop tells you it's going to cost more than you paid for it to fix it?
    • I second this suggestion. Joe went through several DVD players, and our VCR was ancient, so I paid $50-$70 for the cheapest POS combo unit I could. Sure, Joseph is careful, but he's four; shit happens.

      I do, however, have to take apart the other vcr and retrieve a tape. Not boy's fault, it's just old.

      • Had to recently retrieve a tape as well. Our 10-year old copy of The Lion King finally gave up the ghost. I can't even begin to count how many times our kids watched that movie........

  • i've gone through 4, count em, FOUR, DVD players. SONY, above all, SUCKS in many ways IMO.

    I finally went with a $300 JVC DVD player. It was expensive, but I researched it, and it was well loved. *KNOCKING ON SACRED FUCKING WOOD* It has lasted longer than all 4 prior DVD players put together. Its picture quality is outstanding. It's a simple single disc player.

    Needless to say, I'd personally recommend something from JVC for a DVD player. The way you like movies, I wouldn't be sucked in by one of the $5
    • I'm glad you've had luck with the JVC.

      A couple of things:

      For my movies, I watch them on my computer, with headphones, so that's not what this DVD player will be for. It's gonna be used almost exclusively by the kids.

      Another thing, we're not going to be getting any HD anything any time soon, basically not until our current TV is no longer usable (and it's less than 10 years old, so we're still doing just fine).

      I'm leaning WAY towards middle-of-the-line/cheapie, just because even though my kids *do* tr
      • Don't bother with the HD compatability - by the time its out, you'll be able to buy a whole new unit with the $$ you've saved by ignoring compatability.

        I mean, lets face it, a new dvd player is $30.00. At that price who cares about HD compatability 5 years down the road?

        And you'll never get HD compatability on a VHS tape, so again, buy cheap. The cheaper the better. This way, next time the kids stuff something into it, you won't cringe about ripping the cover off and trying to manually extract the offendi

        • Good point that they're so cheap separately. I guess we'll look at that, too. But there's an $80 combo on overstocks.com that seems like just what the Dr. ordered.

          Oh, and there are NO and NEVER will be ANY game consoles to plug in. We don't do video games in this house. No way, no how. Computer games, yes, to a very limited extent -- but NO video games.

          And I gotta say, this whole stuffing things into the VCR just hasn't occurred to my kids. Kiddo's too old to try it now, and with Squirt, well, I guess t
          • I'm honestly curious as the what the justification for no console games, some computer games, and lots of movies is.

            I mean, my mom used to feel the same way, but I worked up a logical argument (at seven!) to the effect of "what's the difference between a movie and a TV show and a video game? I propose they can all be regulated as a single line item--'looking at a screen instead of playing outside-time' or something."

            I got a Nintendo for Christmas. And the rules were simple--two hours of TV of any kind (Ni
            • You want my justification?! BECAUSE I SAID SO!

              That's all the justification YOU need!!

              :-)

              But seriously, why? Mostly because video games have no value whatsoever. They are a waste of time, they are highly addictive, they are noisy, and by and large, inappopriate for children.

              I limit the TV they watch, explaining that TV is like dessert. We don't eat a whole bunch of dessert, and we certainly don't do so before we've had plenty of nutritious food. And even then, there are some foods we just DON'T eat i
              • Okay, the only thing here I don't really understand is this: why is there a no video games policy and a limited TV policy?

                I mean, if you come back and say "well, we only let Kiddo watch educational programs, no cartoons or movies or whatever", that makes sense to me. I suppose I don't understand the logical seperation between "movie (entertainment, not educational)", "tv show (again, entertainment, not educational)", and "video game"--seems to me any one of the three essentially boils down to "time spent
                • Well, I guess I thought that the educational TV only thing was pretty much a given. Smattered with the very occasional Disney flick for sheer entertainment value.

                  But given her choice, Kiddo prefers Life of Mammals or Walking with Dinosaurs/Prehistoric Beasts, maybe because I don't give her so much shit about watching them.

                  ....Bethanie....
                  • *nods* I don't ever make assumptions, but yeah, your policy makes sense.

                    I assume her intro to "video games", if at all, will be the modern PC equivalent of Reader Rabbit or something?

                    I'm following your homeschooling stuff eagerly--I'd want to do it with any children MrsZer and I have at any point (we may not have any of our own, she's got an idea that there are lots of special-needs kids who need adoptive parents and I can't disagree) but I'd worry about...pretty much everything.

                    Basically, you're a very in
                    • Yeah. We have a few different levels of Reader Rabbit software she's already had experience with. As a matter of fact, she started with Reader Rabbit Toddler back when she was about 2. Now she knows how to use a mouse OR the track pad *really* well, and understands all about loading software and rebooting and exiting.

                      There are some folks out there who believe children should not have any exposure to computers until after the age of 5. But I'm in the other camp -- I think that being able to find her way ar

  • price (Score:2)

    by ryanr ( 30917 ) *
    Yes, I've gone through 1 DVD player, and 2(?) VCRs on the kids' TV. Last time, we found a combo that was cheap enough that we just bought it. Totally depends on price, I don't care a bit about features for their purposes. My TV is the one with all the fancy bits. I also stocked up on a couple of the $20 VHS players last time surpluscomputers.com had them for sale.
  • Sony Roxors.
    He made a very good point about HDTV compatability, though. Even if you don't have HDTV now, odds are you will within 5 or so years. Might as well have something with a longer useable life.

    Other things to consider.

    This is a big one:VHS is legacy. Say it with me, VHS is legacy. If the DVD player comes with a VHS player built in, well that's cool and all. But make the switch to all DVD all the time. Transfer the VHS collection to DVD. Either on an all-in-one machine, or flat-out pay someone. VHS

    • And if you have/let hubby build the Myth box, you can explain all kinds of new words and phrases to kiddo and squirt...

      You Ain't Kiddin'

      As for TiVo there's some current controversy about what restrictions are shortly going to be imposed on recordings, like automatic expiration etc. I think there was something about it on the front page here recently.

    • I don't know if you've already Tivo/ReplayTV/MythTV'ed. If not, now is the time. It makes SOOOO Much more sense than a VCR.

      Seconded. Just the ability to search and program shows in the MythTV at home from work was worth every penny and every second spent building it. Once this summer, we were right across the country on vacation when I noticed an Iron Maiden show coming up so I logged in and told my MythTV at home to record it. You just can't do that with a VCR.

      All the other features are just lots and

  • I have a Goldstar VCR/DVD combo. Works fine. Nice crips images on pause. I used the Y Pb Pr outputs, which give more clarity than good old cable.

    Downsides:

    YPbPr doesn't work on the VCR, so you have to switch back to Channel 3 to play tapes, or stay there and suffer the lower quality. Fairly minor.

    Wasn't able to find full support for the DVD player on the remote that came with our TV, so we stick with both remotes. I'm sure it's there, somewhere, but we don't mind the two remote game.
  • But my $70 philips dvp642 DVD player (journal entry) [slashdot.org] is still working great. Added bonuses: it can also play divix disks and is region free. You might check to see if they make combo units if the divix/region free playback interests you.
  • Don't know if they make any DVD/VCR combo units, but they tend to have that killer combination of inexpensive and versatile. They tend to run warm from what I've seen (don't have one myself, though), but not problematically so. It's true what other people have said here: the big name brands are able to play a smaller variety of file types; Apex is among the best in that regard.

    Either that or buy a magnifying glass and a laser pointer and be a real man about it.
  • (aiy yi yi!)

    I made the mistake of not doing that on the last DVD player. It was a real cheap (~$40) model by Coby. (Yeah, I never heard of them either.) It mostly works fine, but the damn thing has tunnel vision. I have to point the remote just so for it to see the signal. Some times it takes a few tries before it will see me pressing "Pause". Very, very annoying. Now, I can point the TiVo, TV, or VCR remote so the *wrong end* faces the device and it works just fine. But the DVD won't work if the remote i

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