goodbye to VCR?

[ffutures]

Woke up this morning to find the mains sockets had cut out - looked in the breaker box and the RCD had tripped. So I switched on again, and eventually discovered that the VCR appears to be dead. I can only assume that it went "phut" some time last night.

This might be repairable, and I'll certainly take a look tonight, but I'm not confident of my skills in this area. Also, it has to be a couple of years since I last used it. Replacements aren't readily available, apart from hugely expensive VCR / DVD recorder combos that I don't want to buy, and a bunch of what I can best describe as crap on eBay, e.g. 25 plus postage, no remote.

Bottom line, there's maybe five or six tapes I might want to play again some time, most notably a couple of films that aren't available on DVD as far as I know - Cast a Deadly Spell and Witch Hunt. And of course I actually have about fifty tapes around the place, and they take up a LOT of space I could really use for other things.

Unless it turns out to be an easy fix tonight I think it's time to say goodbye to VCR, and look for someone who can copy a couple of tapes to disk for me.

Comments

[were-gopher.livejournal.com]

Should be able to do those two from our own copies. Definately CaDS.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I'll get back to you if the lead below doesn't pan out.

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

If you get desperate, I have a VCR in the storage unit which you are welcome to take away on "long term loan" (which I will probably never ask for back) or a small donation to the "reduce the credit card bills" fund :-)

But I think you are much better just giving up on VHS :-)

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

It belatedly occurs to me I have two or three in a cupboard at work - I can probably borrow one if the need arises. Can't keep it because it's on the stock books, but a long term loan shouldn't be a problem.

[cdybedahl.livejournal.com]

Both of those movies seem to be available at the Pirate Bay.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Really? Hmmmm....

[murphys-lawyer.livejournal.com]

Rather than have your torrenting habits splashed all over the interwebs by 4chan, we have copies as herself remarked upstream. WH is VHS, but CaDS is off LaserDisc. No qualms about providing copies because they aren't commercially available

Alternatively, I have several VHS players which are going to the tip at the end of November if nobody else wants them first, but Feltham is closer than Yorkshire.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

That would be very kind if you don't mind - I'll keep the tapes to make it clear it's simply a copy of something I legally own.

I'll message you - many thanks!

[kip-w.livejournal.com]

The VCRs I was using in this room went phut one by one. A couple of days after the second phut, I was looking for a spoon at a local thrift shop and noticed several VCRs. I opted to take a chance on one for ten dollars, including a remote. Like one of the late lamented machines, it has a jog wheel on the set (though not on the remote) that lets me do fancy things with frames. I'm quite happy with it.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

The thing is that I'm really not watching tapes much anyway - and there's very little I have on tape now that isn't also on DVD. And I can really use the space for the Victorian magazine collection etc., so it makes sense to bring the tape era to an end.