Ok, I have 4 tvs, 4 dvd players, and 2 vcrs....

My mother in law now lives with us, and wants a tv and vcr in her room.

I don't want to move any of my current setups, so she'll pay for it.... her feeling is "A tv set and a vcr"

(I don't understand, because if she got a dvd player, she could play any of my 400 dvds)

OK, anyway, what should I get? She's paying, and she doesn't have any "quality" issues, but I'd like to get her something nice...

what would be good in the 20"-30" range, with a nice vcr, and maybe even slip in a dvd/vcr combo unit....


Obviously, standalone, no stereo to hook it into....

price range: cheap as possible, but I don't like to get crap.

thanks!

Nobody interested enough to comment?

Seeker, I have seen some combo units that look interesting, including one that does DVD and VHS. Costco (if you have access) has a good selection, so they must be somewhat popular. I know one of the big uses is for companies that do demonstrations or training tape, etc.

But I have nver been a big fan of the combo units. My experience with VCRs are that they are a cheap and disposable commodity. For under $100 you can get a good Hi-Fi unit. But even my expensive VCRs all seem to die after a while, mainly I believe because they have relatively complicated mechanisms.

With a combo unit, your TV would lose value and you would still need then to buy a VCR to hook to it, should the inside VCR break.

I have a VCR/TV unit in my office and one in the bedroom. I found a VCR and a separate TV that could sit on it and it would look good. For your in-law, if they are not technically savvy, get the same brand and one remote.

Otherwise, check out the combo DVD/VCR/TV unit at Costco.

Never buy a TV/VCR combo unit. My in-laws had one. A tiny belt in the VCR broke, and it rendered the enitre set useless. Had I not been able to repair it easily, they would have either paid through the nose to replace the $2 belt or they would have had to throw away the entire unit and start again from scratch.

Buy separates instead. The only disadvantage will be two separate remotes, but if you buy the same brand maybe she can control both units with one remote.

I'm in agreement. And the cost of the tv/vcr combos is quite a bit more than separates, and lower quality ovreall.

so, now I'm looking for separates that will still fill the need (an example being that one remote would be better than two, as mentioned already)

But, it's a pain... I'd rather get NICER stuff and pay a bit more, but she wants something "cheap and simple"...

Good move. In addition to what the others have said, some TV/VCR combos don't allow a DVD player to be hooked up to them because of the macrovision issues(if she even does get into DVD).

What about getting separates and a nice, simple universal remote and setting it all up for her?

I'm headed in that direction; plan to just say "this is the best thing I could get for the price"...

Now I just have to decide what CHEAP separates to get.