[diofan56]

Hi all!

I have a Panasonic plasma TV, a Panasonic Blu-Ray player, a Marantz SR4003 home theater receiver, etc.  I get my TV signals from an antenna on the roof; I do not have cable TV or a dish.  How can I record shows to my VCR and play them back through the home theater receiver?

Dave

[Phil A]

I assume the antenna goes right into the HDTV?  If it (the TV) has audio/video outs you output them to the VCR inputs and then take the VCR outs into the receiver

[diofan56]

Will that work since the channels are in digital?  There is no channel 8 any more.  It is 8.1.  My VCR is a few years old.

Dave

[Elizabeth]

You would have to use the audio and vidio inputs FROM THE TV as your VCR tuner will not work.
You could have the TV on the channel you want to record, then the audio and video output from the TV (most  modern TVs have them, mine has a digital out that I could send to my receiver and decode then analogue out to VCR)
The VCR would have to have audio and video inputs for this to work.
I do not think ANY VCR made has the digital channel tuner?
Once you have an analogue output, the VCR should be able to make a copy of program in very low definition!

[Speedskater]

Or you could get one of those Set Top Box digital TV to Analog TV converters that many people had to buy a year ago (with a rebate coupon then). You don't need to hook the STB to a TV you could connect it to a VCR (VCR ? I remember that word from long ago).

[WGH]

A good tuner is a Samsung DTV SIR-TS360 Direct TV tuner, these are usually quite plentiful on the used market and they also receive over the air digital broadcasts. The tuner works just fine without a Direct TV account or cable hook-up but the Direct TV Access Card must be inserted or the tuner will not work. The SIR-TS360 also has extra inputs so a standard DVD player and VCR can be plugged in and up-sampled to 1080i.

Make sure the remote and access card is included with the tuner or you will have to buy one.

Wayne

[Phil A]

There is always something like this too -   http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-DMR-EZ28K-Recorder-1080p-Upconversion/dp/B0014F7Z94/ref=dp_ob_title_ce

[Bob in St. Louis]

VCR........ 
Rings a bell, but I can't recall what that was. 

Bob

[WGH]

VCR........ 
Rings a bell, but I can't recall what that was. 

Bob

I think VCR's used a cassette tape similar to an 8 track tape.

The 8 track was used to playback old music though some bands have obviously never moved on.


The VRC tape is used to view and record video, usually old movies and TV. The machines have an amazing ability to make anything recorded on them to look and sound old. Your local historical society may have one on display next to the telegraph key.

Wayne

[diofan56]

Thanks everyone!

I actually have a lot of VCR tapes and quite a few are pre-recorded and are still in excellent condition.  I've thought of donating them but I'm not sure if a library would even take them.

Oh, by the way, I always preferred the Betamax format to VHS.  Too bad the Betamax never took off.

Dave

[srb]

Oh, by the way, I always preferred the Betamax format to VHS.  Too bad the Betamax never took off.

The Sony Betamax was technically superior to VHS, being a 1/2" consumer version of the Sony U-Matic 3/4" studio video recorder.  It had better technical specs and superior handling of the tape.
 
This format war was lost by Sony due to their reluctance to license the format to other manufacturers, while JVC licensed it to anyone and everyone that was interested.  When Sony later decided to license to other manufacturers, it was too late in the game.
 
Steve

[Elizabeth]

The strangest thing about Video recording is that it was originally developed by RCA. They (being idiots) thought it would never amout to anything other than a commercial broadcast oddity, and sold the idea off to the Japanese. The Japanese proceeded to make billions of the idea RCA basically gave away.
Then later, AFTER they realized they screwed up, RCA got into a format war with Pioneer over what would come next to improve on VHS/Beta.
RCA works hard on "Selectavision" a CED format using a flat 12" disc, racing against Pioneers' Laserdisc. RCA spent over a Billion dollars and got nothing for it, nearly destroying  themselves in the process. (I guess they were upset they gave away video tape, and thought they had to do catch up)
The Laserdisc was only partially successful, but did start the way to other optical formats CD, DVD BluRay.
Selectavision was a complete failure, and is only a mouldy footnote in history.
=========================
PS: Public libraries are in the process of discarding all VHS. A few still possess collections of VHS movies, but, (even though VHS are STILL a backbone of poorer folks watching movies for free from public libraries)  the public libraries are all eliminating VHS, even though the tapes can be played thousands of times! VHS tapes played a thousand times still looked great, as long a no broken player damaged the tape.. a pity all VHS are being discarded by the libraries. On the other hand, DVDs are usually so damaged after less than fifty Public Library checkouts, they are discarded.
So NO ONE wants VHS tapes. Used places no longer purchase them, and even refuse to accept them for free. Same for Public Libraries.

[nwboater]

The strangest thing about Video recording is that it was originally developed by RCA. They (being idiots) thought it would never amout to anything other than a commercial broadcast oddity, and sold the idea off to the Japanese. The Japanese proceeded to make billions of the idea RCA basically gave away.

Don't mean to be nitpicking, but this comment reminded me of a college class tour I took of Ampex Corp in the San Francisco area (pre Silicon Valley) about 1959. I remember being quite impressed with their technology, especially their huge video tape recorders. I left that day believing they pioneered video recording.

So this morning I did some Googling on Ampex and video recording and my early beliefs were confirmed.
 http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blvideo.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ampex

RCA may have been involved in much later video recording technology, but in my limited Searches for the early history I didn't notice anything about them.

It still boggles my mind the video capability that we now have on our tiny and cheap home computers. It has indeed come a long way since that early Ampex Video Recorder I saw in 1959. Aren't we lucky!

Sorry for taking this thread OT, but thought this might be of interest to someone.

Rod

[viggen]

JVC makes a VCR with digital tuner which also has a dvd burner.  DRMV150B.

[Elizabeth]

I Googles Ampex and RCA and looked at the history of television
From book Ampex and RCA page 93: "again as in the Ampex-RCA patent agreements of 1957, Ampex had given away her priceless patents for what turned out to be empty promises."
I had only remembered part of what I had read years ago...
So both Ampex and RCA got screwed in giving away the "goose that laid the golden egg".