VHS - is it dead?

[Not The Chef]

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[nwtv2003]

I converted almost two years ago now, I got a '4KUS' DVD Recorder from Asda in November 2004 for £129.99 which then I thought was cheap, but then they stopped selling them and replaced them with a smaller one for £69.99, which annoyed me a bit, but it does the job. Also seen a very nice slim Samsung in Tesco Extra for £129.99.

I can't say if DVD Recorders will be the future, as HDD seems to be coming along well and is simpler as it doesn't require any tapes or discs, the most popular being Sky+, but PVR's are coming down in price, Top Up TV is launching one soon (though me thinks that the download service won't be popular), Telewest launched TV Drive sometime ago, NTL will follow suit hopefully, so I'm trying to say they should be everywhere.

DVD is a better format IMO, as I do find them more reliable and you can also use them on PC's for whatever reason or another, which I think is DVD's strong point compared to both VHS and the many uses of a PVR.

I haven't thrown away my VCR, though I don't use it very often at all these days, I've copied most of my best stuff from VHS to DVD, though I've kept the original VHS copy just in case.

I never really had any problems with VHS, it suited me down to the ground and it was something I grew up with in my childhood, though when DVD came along and when prices came down, it was inevitable that VHS would start to die off.

[Nick Harvey]

I'm considering a similar move, but will have to keep at least one VHS machine for the hundreds of archive tapes.

I won't go for a PVR as I refuse to pay monthly for EPG data which, reports say, isn't always up to date and cuts off either the front or the back end of your recordings.

So what machine did you get? Where did you get it? How much, exactly, was it? Does it record from a built-in analogue tuner AND from SCART off the various digiboxes? Manual timer or Videoplus? If you know as yet, how many times can you use a disc? How much do the discs cost? Do you have to use SPECIFIC discs that the individual machine is happy with? Can you switch the coding of the remotes so you can have three of the blighters and know for certain which the remote is talking to?

That's my FIRST set of questions; there MAY be more!

[Not The Chef]

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[tvmercia]

I'm considering a similar move, but will have to keep at least one VHS machine for the hundreds of archive tapes.

I won't go for a PVR as I refuse to pay monthly for EPG data which, reports say, isn't always up to date and cuts off either the front or the back end of your recordings.

with a DTT pvr you don't have to pay for EPG data. and certainly with mine you can set it to automatically add x minutes as a safety buffer

[Charlie Wells]

If I recall there is currently 3 different DVD recording formats DVD+, DVD-, and DVD-RAM. There is also the recordable High Definition formats HD-DVD and BluRay formats, which are incompatible. It's a bit like the old battle between VHS and Betamax.

I think with both types of DVD recording there is a risk of the format becoming incompatible. Though with the formats being back by different competitors I can't see this happenning for some time. Though if did happen it would quite likely mean the end to VHS.

[Andrew Wood]

Only one thing with converting to DVD - will home recorded DVDs still be playable in 20 years or so? I've got VHS tapes older than that that still play, but I've got CD-Rs and DVDRs that have died a rapid death.

[Neil Jones]

Only one thing with converting to DVD - will home recorded DVDs still be playable in 20 years or so? I've got VHS tapes older than that that still play, but I've got CD-Rs and DVDRs that have died a rapid death.

Problem with CDs and DVDs is that they are new media so how long they last is anybody's guess. And who's to say there will be anything to play then WITH in 25yrs time?

Look what happened to the Domesday Project, and that's only twenty years old and now you can't find anything that will play the original discs. They ended up having to emulate the original system to get the data back.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Domesday_Project

[Ant]

I'm considering a similar move, but will have to keep at least one VHS machine for the hundreds of archive tapes.

I won't go for a PVR as I refuse to pay monthly for EPG data which, reports say, isn't always up to date and cuts off either the front or the back end of your recordings.

With Sky+ you can do Manual Recordings (e.g. record BBC One from 6.45 to 9.07pm). I never seem to use the thing though.

I've still got a VCR in the bedroom but it's only really used for the time. We moved it upstairs when the DVD Recorder came along. Last year we got Sky+ and it's so much easier to record things. The DVD Recorder is used for things we want to keep.

[Gavin Scott]

I don't know which way to go, format-wise.

I won't have to think about it for a while, as I was gifted a new VCR from a colleague recently.

I presume I'm not alone in my frustration with CD and DVD robustness? I have hundreds of CDs which are rendered useless due to little scratches and marks. I only got my first DVD player about 15 months ago, so I have less DVD discs around, but I suspect they are just as bad.

I'm one of those people who don't always put the disc back in its sleeve - the same as I didn't put VHS tapes back in their boxes. While it doesn't particularly harm tapes, it seems to be death to discs.

Quite frankly, it isn't good enough that a recording format should be less robust now than it used to be.

I'm certainly not going to waste my time converting my hundreds of VHS tapes until I see a format which will store the contents securely, given my messy habits.

I would prefer to use some kind of HDD or solid state medium - but I will have to wait for terrabyte storage to be within my price range.

[Pete]

with a DTT pvr you don't have to pay for EPG data. and certainly with mine you can set it to automatically add x minutes as a safety buffer

what model have you got?