Do you still own a VCR?

[SamanthaSamantha's icon]

Granted, I don't have much use it for it anymore (not when DVDs, streaming and YouTube are all a thing)... but I still love the hell out of my VCR.

It's been around here so long, it's basically a family heirloom at this point. And you can bet that it has stories to tell — largely embarrassing stories about me and my sisters crying to dumb cartoons, sticking things into its many slots, and trying to figure out why the clock never switched from "12:00", but those are the best kinds of stories anyway >:D

If I wasn't so completely afraid of it eating my remaining tapes, I'd honestly fire it up a lot more... but it's not really worth it when the only tapes I don't already own in other formats are the kind of irrepleacable stuff I simply can't afford to sacrifice to it.

Anyway! I love my giant box of whirring madness and I hope you do, too!

Do you still have yours? Does it still work? Are you still using it?

 

[ArchienineZXAdventArchienineZXAdvent's icon]

Never had one, we even hadn't a DVD reproductor.

 

[CheesyExplosive]

 

[Stingy Perry Stingy Perry]

We used to have one at home but it got busted back in 2012. I took to every electronic repair shops I know only to rejected saying that they no longer have the parts for it.

 

[zombie100379]

still have one , not used it in over 16 years. if it were up to me , dvds would have never existed - so much prefer videotapes , just slam it in and press play but with dvd's you always need to be careful , blow the dust off , hold it by the edge and then PANIC when you let it fall.

 

[DjQuick2008]

yes i watch WWF on vhs had one delivered for my birthday last month its a VHS DVD all in 1.

 

[SamanthaSamantha's icon]

We used to have one at home but it got busted back in 2012. I took to every electronic repair shops I know only to rejected saying that they no longer have the parts for it.

Yeah... I had a much better one (A DVD/VCR combo, actually) and when something went wrong inside, they simply didn't have the parts to get it fixed. I didn't have the heart to throw it out, though.

 

[SamanthaSamantha's icon]

Never had one, we even hadn't a DVD reproductor.

I bought my first DVD player when I was 24.

Pretty expensive tech for a while!

 

[ArchienineZXAdventArchienineZXAdvent's icon]

I bought my first DVD player when I was 24.

Pretty expensive tech for a while!

We used to watch TV if we wanted to saw movies.

 

[contrail_]

A years or two ago a hobo on the street sold one to me for 3 bucks. It even had a bootleg tape of star wars episode 1 inside of it. Easily the best 3 bucks I've ever spent!
I also have two slightly broken ones, but I've been putting off fixing them for over a decade now... I'm almost certain it's some shitty belt that dried up inside or some other 5 minute fix...

 

[SamanthaSamantha's icon]

still have one , not used it in over 16 years. if it were up to me , dvds would have never existed - so much prefer videotapes , just slam it in and press play but with dvd's you always need to be careful , blow the dust off , hold it by the edge and then PANIC when you let it fall.

For sure.

The only thing I didn't like about VHS tapes was that the machine could swallow the tape whole and it'd be a shitshow to try and get it fred — I don't miss THAT, but I'd take these over DVDs any day of the week.

 

[ShinnAsukaYESTaylorSwiftNO]

yes
2 in fact
1 S-VHS model from Mitsubishi and the other being a Hi-Fi Stereo VHS model from Sony

 

[Far_Firmer_Peaches]

I sadly don't, along with my childhood collection of VHS.

 

[Stingy Perry Stingy Perry]

I bought my first DVD player when I was 24.

Pretty expensive tech for a while!

The first DVD player I bought was around $150 back then.

 

[HoyeBoye]

yes
2 in fact
1 S-VHS model from Mitsubishi and the other being a Hi-Fi Stereo VHS model from Sony

I haven’t seen an S-VHS since I worked in my school districts AV dept.

I’m actually watching through my Sailor Moon Doom Tree saga VHS box set this week while I work from home. Great background show.

And @Samantha, I totally get that fear. My tape today started going wild with lines and static. I lunged for the eject button to find the tape had not been eaten, but was extremely crinkled from a previous time it had been eaten.

 

[Sorion]

I still have one, but I see them as fairly pointless technology by now... there are just too many compromises in image quality, audio quality, reliability... I think DVD is much better and still has a place in the world, bluray is even better

 

[SamanthaSamantha's icon]

I still have one, but I see them as fairly pointless technology by now... there are just too many compromises in image quality, audio quality, reliability... I think DVD is much better and still has a place in the world, bluray is even better

I do think that the ability to record +3 hours of a baseball game (plus ads!) on a single tape was peak home tech, though.

Other than that, yeah...

 

[Boog111]

I still have mine. I like classic Dr. Who. You can stream the older ones now, but years ago they were a lot harder to find. I found that the VHS tapes were cheaper than the DVDs in most instances. I still watch them every now and then.

 

[ct9983]

I wish I still had my VCR, because I used to own a collection of around 400 tapes. built by myself and an old friend of mine. I had bought his collection off him when he upgraded to DVDs. So many movies you actually can't find in any other format