My life with VCRs and related subject

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67Dart273

67Dart273

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Sometime in the 80's?? I decided to "join the world" and get a VCR. This was when our local small town finally got more than one video store, and there was that attraction. Plus, "I figgured" I could record Saturday Afternoon movies (which used to happen!!)

So I ended up with an "expensive" Sears VHS VCR. I recorded a few, rented a few, and I DO MEAN "a few." And.........started having problems. It would eat tape, eject the tape, refuse to play, you know, "stuff."

So, bein' before Al Gore invented the internet, I ***' ma "friends." And they said "clean the heads," etc. So I bought head cleaning kits, tried better tape, and..........

It sucked. I REALLY basically pretty much did not use the damn thing very much. .......for quite awhile.......part of the reason is I WORKED ........a LOT...........

(On a side note, I had bought a brand new RCA TV from Wards. You know, "Monkey Wards")

So this TV works for about 3 seconds after the warrantee was up and then the tuner died. I went to a local TV shop in town, and told the guy I'd give him a few bucks for a diagram, "I'd like to try and fix it". He took one look at the RCA model no. and said, "You bought that at Wards, didn'tja?"

"How'd you know that?"

"I can tell by the model. You won't find tuner parts for that anywhere except from Wards. That TV was made under a special contract FOR Wards, with a special tuner."

"Oh, GREAT!!"

So I took a junker I had, and sure enough, the I.F. (intermediate frequency) was the same, and I "jury rigged" it in there getting it to work on channel three.

Then I used my "non" VCR as a tuner into the TV, switched stations on the VCR.

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SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooo.............................

Quite a few years later, we have DVDs, etc, and the thrift stores are selling tapes cheap, and VCRs cheap. So I bought "a couple." And I've literally run HUNDREDS of damn tapes through the darn things WITHOUT A THOUGHT, meaning, I guess my expensive Sears VCR was JUNK the day I brought it home!!!!!!

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ANYWAY tonight on the 'noose' I guess we've reached a milestone.........the last company building VCRs (I didn't know anyone was STILL MAKING the things!!) is now QUITTING making the LAST of the LAST of the last VCRs

The last VCR will be manufactured this month

RIP, VHS players: The last VCRs ever will be made this month
 
That write up is hilarious as it has to explain what a VCR is! We sold a gaggle of VCR's when I worked for Circuit City. Nice Stereo 5 head JVC's and Sony's, cheaper Magnavox and Sylvania...and then there was Broksonic/Funai. These were the cheapest of the cheap. They weighed about 2 lbs and were almost empty inside except for a 8X10 sized circuit board and a drum plus the standard tape transport. If one was returned to get fixed or even cleaned (a service we provided with ESP) We just gave them a new one! Even the distributor didnt want them back, they told us to field destroy them and toss them in the compactor. These were bought by the dozen daily by dirt poor people that bought them on 26% interest CC credit cards, and most that were returned "faulty" were filled with cockroaches and stuck tapes of varying 'content'. We had a trashbag in the back that was set aside for these "buggers" as we didnt want the little guys to escape and infest out warehouse before we could dispose of these. Ah, good times.....good times....BTW, if you want to buy a VCR, hit up your local Goodwill, they always have 2 or 3 on the shelf under the 20 CD players. I still got 2 Hi-Fi models! I play 8 hour stereo recordings of old midnight to 6AM club music college radio from my days gone by. And they sound darn good for "tape". ".. Both VHS Hi-Fi and Betamax Hi-Fi delivered flat full-range frequency response (20 Hz to 20 kHz), excellent 70 dB signal-to-noise ratio (in consumer space, second only to the compact disc), dynamic range of 90 dB, and professional audio-grade channel separation (more than 70 dB..." so the end tape was as good as the stereo signal it recorded, but could record better if using a higher source like a CD.

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Wow. Our VHS players and tapes went years ago.
I recently hauled nearly 200 lbs of burned SVCDs and DVDs to the dump. We did keep the approx' 2 dozen retail DVDs with cases we had purchased over the years ( although no longer needed ).
The local Ingles grocery store still has a pretty good portion of floor space dedicated to DVD rentals. I think I might live to see the day that is gone too.
At the same time, I've never had a cell phone. Don't think I'll see the day when I carry one.
Admitting that I don't keep up with every aspect of technology either.
 
I became modern 6 months ago and I have the barest of cell phones. one day I will learn how to take pics with it and put them on the puter!? months ago I bought a dvd player. proud owner of 2 tapes so far!
O K so I do not carry the cell around with me. maybe some day?
 
My VCR and DVD recorder, will rewind a tape in 20 seconds.

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I'm a cheap bastard. I can't afford this fancy "cable TV" 'n stuff. I still yet patrol the local thrift stores, and frankly find more appealing movies generally, in VHS rather than DVD
 
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