I have this player in my den for playing DVD's and VCR Tapes on my 60" TV. I'm looking for another one for playing DVD's and VCR Tapes on the 65" TV in the family room. No stores carry them anymore, but they can only be found on Amazon, and are used, with missing remotes. I will not go to the trouble of transferring my hundreds of VHS tapes to the DVD format, so I'm still looking. Hal
There also use to be small tv's in combo with VCR, but not anymore. Problem was, if either one malfunctioned, both the tv and VCR would have to be taken in for repair. I remember when companies would show Training videos on these TV/VCR combos.
It is more that this kind of device is obsolete than that they are rare, because very few people even have any VHS tapes any longer. DVD’s have been the main thing for some years now; but with most people using streaming, even the DVD is going out of style. It is not likely that you would find a new one, @Hal Pollner , because I don’t think that any company even makes them anymore; so your best bet might be to try a TV repair shop that might have an old one sitting around that he can’t sell. Another option besides Amazon would be to look on eBay, but anything that you find there is going to be used as well. My daughter gave away hundreds of dollars worth of DVD’s because she no longer used those either, and now she just streams whatever she wants to watch instead. No tapes to tangle, or DVD’s to get scratched up, and it doesn’t need to be stored anywhere because it is all online. We don’t even have a DVD player, and just use online streaming for any movies that we want to watch.
Dear Yvonne Smith: ONLINE STREAMING??? Now what in the world is THAT? How do I take "one of those" into my family room to show to guests on my 65" flat screen 4K TV? The movie has to be in a physical package (disc or tape) to play in my dvd/vhs player, doesn't it? Hal
@Hal Pollner -- Online streaming has nothing to do with your physical VHS tapes. It is simply a delivery method (internet) for viewing programs. If you plan to keep your library of tapes, you'll likely have to buy an old machine from the secondary market. We recently had to borrow a VCR from my MIL to view old home movies that are on VHS. I plan to transfer those to disk ASAP.
I have hundreds of VHS tapes, and I have a high-speed rewinder, so I don't have to wear out the tape transport mechanism in the player. I've always liked the tape format! Hal
Online streaming is similar to what you do when you watch a YouTube video, @Hal Pollner . You are not actually downloading the video to your computer, you are just watching it, and it is not taking up any computer space. If you want to watch the same video again, you just go to YouTube and watch it again. There are quite a few companies that offer streaming services, and they have movie and television content, similar to the way YouTube does, but places like Netflix only carry commercial movies and videos, whereas YouTube carries videos uploaded by private people . Commercial streaming services are really popular now, and they cost a small monthly fee, compared to paying for something like cable TV; so many people no longer use cable or satellite, and instead rely on streaming service. Our favorite one is Amazon Prime Video, since we have an Amazon account, but we also use other streaming services sometimes.
One problem with VHS tapes is that they degrade over time. https://currentpixel.com/articles/video-transfer/vhs-tapes-lifespan-deteriorate/ I don't care about commercial movies and such, but I don't want to lose my precious home movies of our children's milestones. I am currently trying to figure out the easiest method for transferring those tapes to DVD.
We have a combo player, but it is reserved for the "Grandchildren's Room" that is used by the grandkids when they visit or stay overnight. We have a large collection of children's movies on VCR tapes as well as some on DVDs. When we lived in rural Alaska, television reception was almost non-existent, but we did have a TV that we got at an estate sale, so we bought VCR and tapes to entertain the children. When anything wears out, it all will be trashed or given away.
Watching a favorite movie with Friends is done in my Family Room on my 65" 4k TV with Cocktails and Shrimp & Dip on the coffee table! Watching that movie alone on a stinkin' computer monitor is no way to enjoy it! Harold
Friends, I'm an old man, and I'm afraid that "Cyber Technology" has passed me by, which is why I'm always asking questions that many of you consider laughably trite. In addition to my advancing years, (now 83) I'm also certain that I'm experiencing the early stages of Alzheimers. My short-term memory is crashing, I can't ride a 2-wheel bike anymore, and my signatures are almost unrecognizable. My Dad died of complications resulting from Dementia, and he was only 81. But all that aside, I still can't grasp how an Online Video can be transferred to a big-screen TV in another room...does this have something to do with Wi-Fi? Forgive the seemingly elementary question, but this is how I am in this stage of my life and the ever-increasing level of Consumer Technology that I'm not absorbing anymore. Harold
Don't think nothing of the lack of technology in your life. Wife and I are in our early 70's (me/70-her/71) and we don't do any streaming. However, we do have a number of dvd movies that are regular and Blue-Ray type. I'm very protective of our cd music, dvd movies and music concerts, in that I keep all very clean and keep the player clean as well. I always load a dvd or cd by the sides of the disc, not touching the recorded side at all. Our Wi-Fi, which is inside of our Xfinity Internet Modem/Router is used with our Blue-Ray DVD Player, our iPhones, my desktop computer and my computer printer. I set this all up myself.
Hal--yes, streaming is done by Wifi. Streaming is the delivery of audio/video to a viewer via the internet, as opposed to cable TV or OTA (over the air) antenna. You need an internet connection and a decent connection speed to stream media. When you watch a Youtube video on your computer, you are "streaming" that video. (It is not stored locally on your device.) For a TV that is not a "smart TV" (which simply means the streaming device is built in to the TV), you'll have to add a streaming device such as a Roku, Apple TV, or Fire Stick to receive the internet signal/streaming. You may also want to subscribe to a provider such as Netflix or Hulu for programming, but there are many free streaming services.