I actually recorded one of the Rep. debates on my VCR (with dig-to-analog converter box) just before New Hampshire. The DVDR was being used to record a show I watch every week.
And I still have about 8 once-blank tapes, and since I almost never save anything after I watch it, and since one tape lasted me a year or two even when I used it every day, they should last a long time.
I also have a box of 20 or 30 tapes that someone else recorded on. Eventually I'll watch each of them once, or less if it's boring, and then I'll have more "blank tapes".
The story that they could only be used 4 or 5 times was so so false. I recorded and rerecorded mine 40 or 50 times or more before they failed. Until failure, the picture quality seemed unchanged to me.
I should be able to last the rest of my life with what I have.
The subscription used to allow access to the guide data. No subscription, no guide data, no recording by program name. You could still use it as a dumb recorder. Whether they block that now as well I don't know.
The fee is not a lease fee and doesn't allow for free repairs after the warranty period.
i don't read the LA Times and I don't know what they are talking about and apparently neither do they. I just typed "buy vhs tapes" into google and apparently TDK and Maxell are available to buy. Also who the hell is Ryan Kugler?
What was posted is that VHS tapes are no longer being manufactured. That doesn't mean mountains of them don't exist in warehouses, Goodwill and dollar stores around the world.
I suggest you and chaniarts go read the actual LA times article again. While it starts off saying the last truckload of VHS tapes is leaving the warehouse, by the end of the article it's clear the article is actually talking about PRE-RECORDED VHS TAPES, ie those with movies on them. Which explains who Kugler is. He's a guy who bought up the old movies and is selling them off out of his warehouse.
That poorly written, misleading article was written over 3 years ago and major retailers are still obviously stocking blank VHS tapes from many different manufacturers, Maxell, TDK, Sony, etc.
I like that choice and have built a number of them. I think the OP may have put too restrictive requirements on the replacement. They might have been totally happy with a VCR because it is what it is. But DVRs are so much more powerful.
Assuming you're in the USA?? There are several issues to consider. The most of important is, "What do you mean by the plural 'shows'?" If you want to record multiple shows AT THE SAME TIME, you've got a problem.
Can you view ALL the channels you want to record with one antenna direction? If you've got multipath and have to turn the antenna to get a channel, that makes multiple channel recordings, or unattended recording of a single channel problematic.
Whatever you use has to have an internal or external ATSC tuner. You can't buy a new VCR with an ATSC, at least not at a rational price. Thank your legislators for preventing vendors including tuners that didn't do ATSC. So the vendors left 'em out.
That makes programming a nightmare. You have to program the VCR AND the tuner simultaneously. I tried it for a while, but gave up trying to get it right.
I tried a couple of DVD recorders without success. If there was ANY glitch in the recording process, like a bad spot on the DVD or a pixelation due to a plane flying over or ANYTHING not perfect, the recorder gave up and aborted. I ended up with the first few minutes of a show before it ALWAYS found some reason to abort. There was no recovery process.
I ended up with two VCRs and four digital converter boxes. I could set two channels on each recorder and program the VCR to record either channel. That worked fine, but since I'm home while the recordings are happening, I ditched two of the converter boxes and switch it manually.
I also have a TV tuner card in my PC. ATI HDTV wonder. It works mostly, but if I do much else on the computer, the recording skips. Also skips a lot on some channels.
I've tried a couple of other cards without success. Either no drivers or too resource hungry to run on a 2.8GHz computer. There's a lot of difference in the ability of a given tuner to get a reliable picture in a multipath area.
Some of the older cable boxes will let you tune OTA hdtv without service. So, I have a Hughes HTL-HD plumbed into the monitor.
So, I can record one HD channel on the computer if it's on a good reception channel, Two lowD channels on the VCRs and watch one HD channel on the computer monitor.
The more popular shows can be viewed on network websites if you have the bandwidth.
Most people would find this setup unacceptable.
People who report being happy have multiple dual-tuner cards (with hardware assist) in a dedicated multi-core PC. But it ain't cheap.
It won't be too long before you can stream anything you want on demand. But it will never be at a cost I'm willing to pay. YMMV.
Yes, it's the cost thing that bugs both my friend and me. Your information is excellent though. My friend knows as much about computers as his cat; but he can carefully follow a set of instructions. He does use a roof antenna to feed his sets (the analog set is fed through a converter box) and doesn't need to reposition the antenna to get all the stations in the area. He's perfectly willing to record with one set and watch the other if two shows are on at the same time. But, he's more likely to do time shifting and want to set a timer to record a show while he's at work or away for viewing later.
So far from the comments here, I see two choices given his interests and capabilities: (1) Get a TIVO or cable TV recorder system and pay the big bucks forever (2) Cobble together his new ditital TV, and a DVD or DVR player along with a computer and a honking-big hard drive for storage. Use the computer for control and moving files. I don't see yet how to set up a recording schedule, but maybe there's some software around. It sounds like streaming from the internet could be done with the same rig.
If you use a Windows platform, most non-basic versions of Windows 7 come with Media Center, which both downloads a program guide for free and permits single episode or series recording of any OTA program. It will also transcode a recorded program such that it can be burned onto a regular DVD. Takes a while, but works fine.
With Tivo you can buy a lifetime subscription for about $300. And the older units definitely worked without a subscription, but it's then just a dumb time/channel machine. I've heard the new Tivos won't work without the subscription, but not sure if that's true.
The problem for you is that the cost of a new Tivo with lifetimes is around $550- $600. That can be recovered in 3 - 4 years if you're replacing a cable box DVR. I'm saving $14 a month. In your case, with just antenna, it's a different proposition. You can check Ebay for used Tivos as well.
I'd be a bit careful. That $30 Tivo was not HD, right? And the older ones that are not HD may not be compatible with an external ATSC tuner. I no for a fact that at least some of the early ones will not work with an external ATSC tuner/converter. If it were me, before spending $300, I'd want something HD compatible. Also, there are Tivos on Ebay that include the lifetime subscription, whether new, used etc.
mine is high def, it uses a cablecard provided by comcast but did work OTA for awhile....... its a tivo premier unit that cn also use a external hard drive.
If it's replacing a dumb VCR as a time/channel machine...
I haven't had a "cable" box last 3-4 years. We're on the sixth Dish DVR in six months (SWMBO finally told them to get someone's ass out there to fix it or they were going to wear it in an uncomfortable place, along with the service).
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