dvd-4-life

With other devices available such as TIVO and dvd recorders-do you still video tape shows?Its rare that my VCR is used for that purpose-the only time is when I might want to save a show onto VCD.Does the fact that the show may eventually come to dvd influence your recording habits?The days of recording onto VHS and saving it is basically over for me.

Arcade

I'm sure those days will be over for me soon. But since I do not have a TIVO device, I still use the old trusty VCR. I do keep shows like Buffy Seasons 5-7 since they are not available yet on DVD here in the states.
I do have the Dish Network and may buy their recorder if it is good enough.

Iron_Giant

No, I just bought a TV card for my PC that has a DVD burning in it. So I am now starting a DVD collection of my favorite TV shows:

Monk Season 2 (Ep 1 and 2 should fit on one DVD)
X-Men Evolution
J.L.


I do need to go out and buy a bigger hard drive, my 30 gig just won't do now.

atari2600

of course - i tape alot but i tape over it once its watched (i dont collect any tv series on tape or nothing). i dont have a TIVO.

Jackskeleton

no, I just download them.

Chew

VideoTapes? VideoTapes??

What the heck are those?

big whoppa

I bought a new VCR a couple of years ago but I've never used it since I purchased my TiVo. I did some backup or archiving to videotapes from Tivo before but I don't bother anymore. So I only use it to watch an occasional video.

Patman

There's a few channels that look like crap on my ReplayTV, so I end up taping shows on those channels (like Fox and NBC) in my current situation. But it's the summer, and there aren't too many shows on, so taping is okay for 1-3 shows/week, unlike when it's the regular season where taping many shows would get too confusing.

BenCJedi

VCR? What's that? I don't tape anymore. I use my satellite receiver PVR to record shows (and extract digitally to the PC to encode in my favorite formats) or record and store them on my TiVo where I can save them for as long as I need them or extract them to my pc through my networked TiVo and also encode in any format. When a VHS tape is like $1 and the quality is low resolution, it makes more sense to me to extract digitally and fit one or two commercial-editted shows to CDR.. which costs pennies (after rebate deals). And If I don't feel like extracting/encoding myself, I simply doiwnload the tv episodes online that someone else went through the trouble of creating.

tonyc3742

All about the PVR! [Got an 80GB coming this week ]
But I do keep and occasionally use the VCR, because we have a mini-VHS video camera that we use to record babyhead's daily exploits, and I dub it onto videotape to keep a copy and to send the grandparents a copy.
When we got the PVR, we were thinking about spitting stuff onto the VHS to keep, but haven't really felt the need to yet.

fujishig

I do archive shows from my Tivo that I won't watch until they're complete... usually it's anime or cartoons that's on five days a week that I know I won't watch for a while, but I want to save space on my DVR...

I do occasionally load up the VCR to tape shows that conflict... or to lend a show to a friend. Other than that, I can barely watch movies on it anymore (I tried renting a bunch of Blockbuster tapes, as they're cheaper than DVDs... never again...)

BenCJedi

The only problem with Blockbuster DVDs (at least in my area) is that they are scratched everywhere and sometimes come with a coating of snot on them rendering them extremey prone to skipping/bit breakdown and frustrating playback. Too many times I have rented DVDs only to get to a capsilating part of the movie and then get tortured at that crucial moment by the audio/video breaking up. I thought possibly my older DVD player had served its course, but even the new one has the same problems. Cleaning doesn't seem to help on such discs. Are people so careless about the discs they rent? They sometimes look like they have been thrown across the driveway frisby-style and used as a tissue. Incredulous! Sad to say it makes more sense to PPV or download divx dvd rips that sometimes rival the quality of the original DVD (without the scratch/snot problem). I wonder how the discs from Netflix and that new Wal-Mart DVD rental service are.

Anyway I find it more appealing in extracting/encoding my own TV shows than using a VCR to simply record them, despite it taking 3-4 times longer to archive whatever show I am working on. I guess I don't like to lose quality for the tv service I am paying for.

mike1977

No, I have a Panasonic DVD recorder. I also have their antique 20 hr showstopper (6 hr in best quality), which I use the save to vcr function after I record something to save to dvd-r. Since I use A/V jacks, the quality does not come out close to commercially made dvds, but it is watchable.

With all these channels running annoying titles/banners/popups over TV shows after commercials that ruin them, why record anything you know will probably hit DVD?

mwj

I don't own a TIVO, so I still use a VCR. I have been taping and keeping Keen Eddie since I don't know if it will ever come out on DVD. I would definitely buy it it did.

BenCJedi

Yeah.. I do the same with first run shows. You never know if they will be going to DVD or not.

MasterCXtreme

I used to tape alot of SNL, Simpsons, and South Park episodes but i've stopped. My dad had a terrible habbit of recording everything he watched. He literally has boxes upon boxes full of recordable tapes in our furnace room, and i'm pretty positive that he's never re-watched any of them....

BenCJedi

Sounds like I have your dad's habit with CDRs. At least they take up less space. Packrats at heart! I doubt I will rewatch 5% of what I 'archive'. We secretly are librarians. LOL

mike1977

That's great!!! You must have TV shows that are not screwed up by anything other than a channel logo?

Chew

That's me as well. From 1990 up until 2000-2001, I taped everything I watched. I have tape upon tape upon tape.

Once I got a DVD player, TiVo, and DVDRW drive, I no longer felt like doing it. I just wait for my shows to get released on DVD now.

tonyc3742

I've rented at least 120 disks from Netflix; probably 75% were pristine, maybe 20-22% had a few 'wear and tear' scratches that didn't affect playback; one was shatterered all the hell [must have gotten smashed in the mail], and 2 have had some scratches resulting in some pixelation so bad you had to fast forward past it, but missing a total of maybe one, 1 1/2 minutes of movie. I haven't fully explored the extras on all my disks, so this is based only on the film itself. Not too bad a history, probably better than Blockbuster. I wouldn't think WalMart's rental dvd's would be quite as good, since I would guess they cater to a different audience, who might not be as careful with their dvd's as those of us here would be.

I also have hundreds of tapes I've never, nor will I ever, watch again .....16 tapes worth of the Simpsons, but now that it's syndicated twice a day, and they're releasing them on DVD, why bother? Plus I think I mostly 'collected' them anyway--it was such a pain to try to rewatch a specific episode.

C Roberts

I have a TiVo and a TV card in my PC, but I don't have a DVD burner anywhere. So I still used VHS sometimes to tape shows.

Ginwen

I tape Ebert and Roeper (because it's on Sunday night at 11:35). That's it--everything else (now that Six Ft Under and Buffy are off), if I watch it, cool, if I miss it, no loss

MasterCXtreme

Um... how else would they be screwed up?

shaggybrown

I own 2 Tivos, but I keep a Tape in the VCR to record Rescue Hero's and some other cartoons for the kids. Then they can take the tapes with them to daycare or Grandma's house or whatever. At least I can avoid cluttering up the Tivo with them.

big whoppa

I'm about to move so I had to throw out most of my recordings of the Grammys and American Music Awards and tapings from the 80's and 90's. I don't miss tape.