Now the VCR has broken: Motoring Non-motoring forum

Non-motoring > Now the VCR has broken	Miscellaneous
Thread Author: Dave	Replies: 25

New Tue 8 Feb 11 09:52

Now the VCR has broken - Dave

Yes, I still have (or had) a VCR. It's eating tapes now as soon as the tape loads. So what cheap alternatives are out there on which to record TV programmes?

Ha, it's just as well I still have the knackered microwave oven in the cellar, as it costs £2 to use the dump. So now I can throw both of them away for the same £2. Or maybe I leave the VCR in the cellar as well, and wait for some other electrical appliance to break, thereby saving another £2.

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New Tue 8 Feb 11 09:55

Now the VCR has broken - Zero

Take it apart and clean it.

All the rollers, the guides, the heads. Get all the sticky brown crud off it.

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New Tue 8 Feb 11 10:00

Now the VCR has broken - Bellboy

no good anyway once your area goes didgelly doo
suggest you see local hospice shop as most house clearers have to dump vhs machines from deceased homes as nobody wants them
i have a top of the range sony at home i was given,i never use it but it was very expensive 4 years ago

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New Tue 8 Feb 11 10:04

Now the VCR has broken - Fenlander

We kept our VCR in the loft for years as we have 20-30 tapes we'd like to get on DVD and never got round to it. Last week fired it up and was amazed how good the picture was on our LCD TV. I can only think the image processing software in the modern TVs is very flattering to the old tapes.

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New Tue 8 Feb 11 10:07

Now the VCR has broken - VxFan

>> no good anyway once your area goes didgelly doo

Are freeview boxes being made obsolete then?

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New Tue 8 Feb 11 10:11

Now the VCR has broken - Bellboy

>> Are freeview boxes being made obsolete then?
>>
can you imagine aunt grace putting the video on to channel L3 so she can download corry?
its bad enough at work remembering the hidden hidden video recorder with the 5 hour maplin tapes no longer available on long play and making sure input is set right and i half know what im doing

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New Tue 8 Feb 11 10:14

Now the VCR has broken - spamcan61

>> suggest you see local hospice shop as most house clearers have to dump vhs machines
>> from deceased homes as nobody wants them
Agree in principle, I'm off to buy a decent Sony CD player for a fiver this morning from a local charity shop, but Dave's in Sweden, I only ever saw one charity shop in Stockholm, not sure if they are more common elsewhere in SWE.

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New Tue 8 Feb 11 19:36

Now the VCR has broken - Stuartli

>>no good anyway once your area goes didgelly doo>>

Not true. If you have a Freeview STB you can record to a VCR, which will also play back tapes on an LCD or plasma TV; they still include an analogue tuner.

A VCR is still part of my entertainment setup, but now only for playing back video tapes as my Panasonic TV is used with a standard external 1T USB hard drive to record TV programmes. The VCR's display on a 42in TV is still quite good given the now well outdated technology.

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New Tue 8 Feb 11 10:11

Now the VCR has broken - spamcan61

Well the two cheap alternatives are a basic DVB-T box with USB out for recording, or a basic HDD recorder, examples:-

direct.tesco.com/q/R.210-3937.aspx

direct.tesco.com/q/R.209-0778.aspx

I'd expect to find some maybe 30% cheaper alternatives by shopping around, OK that might be a bit trickier in SWE than here.

Ultimate cheapo solution is to get a DVB-T USB stick for the PC:-

tinyurl.com/67pbuz7

mvh........../Andy

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New Tue 8 Feb 11 10:19

Now the VCR has broken - Clk Sec

>>I'm off to buy a decent Sony CD player for a fiver this morning from a local charity shop,

Obviously I'm wrong, but I didn't think charity shops sold second-hand electrical goods.

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New Tue 8 Feb 11 10:25

Now the VCR has broken - spamcan61

>> >>I'm off to buy a decent Sony CD player for a fiver this morning from
>> a local charity shop,
>>
>> Obviously I'm wrong, but I didn't think charity shops sold second-hand electrical goods.
>>

Many don't, but some must have now found a tame person to do the required PAT testing, as the electrical appliances in my local charity shop all have 'PAT tested' stickers on them. Bought a 160GB Sky+ box for 7 quid last week, bit of a result. Not sure how much it's going to cost to have a Quad LNB fitted to the dish though :-/

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New Tue 8 Feb 11 19:37

Now the VCR has broken - Stuartli

>>Obviously I'm wrong, but I didn't think charity shops sold second-hand electrical goods>>

Not many do but the British Heart Foundation opened up such a store here about six months ago and it's proving very popular.

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New Tue 8 Feb 11 20:22

Now the VCR has broken - Clk Sec

>>Obviously I'm wrong, but I didn't think charity shops sold second-hand electrical goods.
>>Many don't, but some must have now found a tame person to do the required PAT testing,
>>Not many do but the British Heart Foundation opened up such a store here

It's amazing how many electrical items are dumped at our local tip. I bet many are in good working order and could earn few pounds for a worthy charity.

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New Tue 8 Feb 11 20:32

Now the VCR has broken - spamcan61

>>
>> It's amazing how many electrical items are dumped at our local tip. I bet many
>> are in good working order and could earn few pounds for a worthy charity.
>>

There's usually at least a couple of new looking 'all in one' printers at Christchurch tip, presumably dumped due to ink cart costs; a cheap way of acquiring a flatbed scanner if you've got the room.

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New Tue 8 Feb 11 10:20

Now the VCR has broken - FotheringtonTomas

>> Yes, I still have (or had) a VCR. It's eating tapes now as soon as
>> the tape loads. So what cheap alternatives are out there on which to record TV
>> programmes?

Buy a DVD recorder, or get another VCR for a tenner.

>> it costs £2 to use the dump

This is the first time I've ever heard of having to pay to use a "dump". Is that a Council Household Waste Tip?

Edit: Aha. You are in Sweeden. I see.

Last edited by: FotheringtonTomas on Tue 8 Feb 11 at 10:21

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New Tue 8 Feb 11 10:22

Now the VCR has broken - spamcan61

>>
>>
>> >> it costs £2 to use the dump
>>
>> This is the first time I've ever heard of having to pay to use a
>> "dump". Is that a Council Household Waste Tip?
>>
Unless I'm very much mistaken Dogbox Dave is in Sweden.

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New Tue 8 Feb 11 10:27

Now the VCR has broken - Iffy

...Unless I'm very much mistaken Dogbox Dave is in Sweden...

Think that's right, and not well-minted at the moment, so cheap solutions is what he needs.

Worth having a go at cleaning the rollers, as irregular poster Zero said earlier.

A clean, albeit by the repair shop, sorted my VCR when it started to eat tapes.

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New Tue 8 Feb 11 11:21

Now the VCR has broken - spamcan61

OK 18 quid for a basic Freeview box with USB recording:-

www.ebuyer.com/product/225560

Dunno if eBuyer will post to Sweden. I'm assuming the box will cope with Sweden's implementation of DVB-T, 90% sure it will.

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New Tue 8 Feb 11 11:28

Now the VCR has broken - Bigtee

Any scrap i have just leave it at the front gate and by the next day it's gone did this with a old fridge the scrap men take owt.

Video scrap it and get sky hd.

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New Tue 8 Feb 11 11:36

Now the VCR has broken - Dog

I bought one of these when my VCR died, I didn't like the PVR thingies.

cgi.ebay.co.uk/LG-Freeview-Digital-Tv-DVD-Recorder-1080P-HDMI-DRT389H-/270601867573?pt=UK_AudioTVElectronics_Video_DVDPlayers_Recorders&hash=item3f0120d135

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New Tue 8 Feb 11 11:39

Now the VCR has broken - spamcan61

>>
>> Video scrap it and get sky hd.
>>

He'll need a big dish and a UK postcode to use it in Sweden though, and 30 quid a month minimum.

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New Tue 8 Feb 11 12:39

Now the VCR has broken - Bigtee

He'll need a big dish and a UK postcode to use it in Sweden though, and 30 quid a month minimum.

Arrgh point taken.

Move back here Britain has got some good points.!!

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New Tue 8 Feb 11 19:22

Now the VCR has broken - Dave

Well I had a look inside, and I think it's officially broken. It pulls the tape in ok, then pulls a loop of tape out around the head. But nothing is driving the spools, so the loop around the head is all slack. Eventually it realises the tape isn't running and spits it out, leaving the loop inside as it doesn't get rewound back into the case.

I can't find any cheap VCR's here, so may have to look at a more expensive fancy electronicy thing. I'm getting desperate now, as I've already missed 2 episodes of Emmerdale, or Back to the Farm, as they call it here.

It costs £2 for a small load at the dump, and £4 for a large. But that includes 'trade waste' as you call it. For about the first 6 months I was here and renovating the house, I didn't realise you had to pay. I just pulled up with my 5m trailer and slung it in the various skips. It was only when my swedish improved I noticed the sign about paying. It's all very civilised, with no queues, and no dodgy looking people jumping in skips to retrieve things. We pay for each kilo of regular rubbish to be taken away, anyway, so it doesn't make much difference. In fact, as part of my economy drive I thought about cancelling my regular bin collection and just filling the trailer up over a 6 month period, then going to the dump. But even I'm not that tight.

But on the bright side, I've taken orders for 5 dog boxes today, and I've another 2 fairly definates coming later this week. If it carries on like this I may be able to splash out on new microwave and a HDD recorder.

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New Tue 8 Feb 11 19:32

Now the VCR has broken - Zero

The drive belt has broken or dropped off.

>> I can't find any cheap VCR's here, so may have to look at a more
>> expensive fancy electronicy thing. I'm getting desperate now, as I've already missed 2 episodes of
>> Emmerdale, or Back to the Farm, as they call it here.

Use a proxy server and use the ITV Iplayer on line.

www.itv.com/ITVPlayer

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New Tue 8 Feb 11 20:24

Now the VCR has broken - Dave

>> Use a proxy server and use the ITV Iplayer on line.
>>
>>
>> www.itv.com/ITVPlayer
>>
Ha, will that work with my 56K mobile internet connection?

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New Tue 8 Feb 11 20:26

Now the VCR has broken - spamcan61

>> >> Use a proxy server and use the ITV Iplayer on line.
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> www.itv.com/ITVPlayer
>> >>
>> Ha, will that work with my 56K mobile internet connection?
>>
At least you'll learn 'buffering' in Swedish....

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