VHS player/dvd recorder ideas please

almillar

I'd spend the money on a combined unit. For the number of tapes you have, the convenience of having the machine sync everything for you, will be invaluable. Don't buy new, they're extremely expensive as they're quite niche now. They'll be all over eBay and Gumtree. My FIL has a good Samsung, and many Panasonics are good too.
You mention not needing Freeview - good choice - you don't need it for what you're doing, and you'll get one cheaper.

AnthonyUK

You'll have to go secondhand for old non-Freeview units and they are hard to get;nobody wants an analogue tuner anymore and more want them with Freeview built-in.

silkyuk9

googler wrote: »

Well, the poster above has shown two Toshibas at £200 and £300.... is the cheaper of these still 'too much' ??

I dont know much about the units but seen this on Amazon for £146

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/B003LO2RIU/ref=sr_1_1_olp?ie=UTF8&qid=1393598813&sr=8-1&keywords=toshiba+vcr+dvd+combi&condition=used

As long as I can put in a VHS tape and record the contents to DVD thats all I need. Is this any good??

googler

silkyuk9 wrote: »

I dont know much about the units but seen this on Amazon for £146

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/B003LO2RIU/ref=sr_1_1_olp?ie=UTF8&qid=1393598813&sr=8-1&keywords=toshiba+vcr+dvd+combi&condition=used

As long as I can put in a VHS tape and record the contents to DVD thats all I need. Is this any good??

That's the £200 Tosh referred to above. Depends whether you want to take a chance on a used one for £50 less. I'd go for new.

cookie365

If they're in the attic going mouldy, throw them away.

If you never watch them now on VHS, why spend a £200+ and waste countless hours converting them so you can never watch them on DVD?

silkyuk9

cookie365 wrote: »

If they're in the attic going mouldy, throw them away.

If you never watch them now on VHS, why spend a £200+ and waste countless hours converting them so you can never watch them on DVD?

Because there is history on them, wedding VHS several holiday movies and hundreds of boxing matches.

The mould should not be a problem. I was told just to fast forward the tapes and do a complete rewind to get rid of the bits of mould on the tape.

WhiteChristmas

Set-top box DVD recorder penetration never really hit "critical mass" before they were superceded by hard disk recorders; I used several over the years and none lasted more than about 18 months (that was with heavy use, mind). The burn quality was often poor and a lot of the discs have already deteriorated - they didn't (and don't) have the longevity of VHS tapes.

For archival purposes, your best bet is to hook a video up to your computer and convert it to as high quality a digital format as you can. This can then be converted to whatever format you want in future but, more importantly, is easy to back up.

cookie365

silkyuk9 wrote: »

Because there is history on them, wedding VHS several holiday movies and hundreds of boxing matches.

The mould should not be a problem. I was told just to fast forward the tapes and do a complete rewind to get rid of the bits of mould on the tape.

Boxing? That sounds familiar.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=4710455&highlight=boxing

You asked the same thing last year.

And in 2010

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=2725105&highlight=vhs

And in Summer 2011

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=3330556&highlight=vhs

And later on that year

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=3689951&highlight=vhs

And I'm losing the will to go through all your threads but it seems like you asked the same question in 2008 and 2009 too.

I'm assuming the questions are genuine - seems an odd thing to troll about - but it's clear you aren't ever going to do anything about it.

There may be history there, but it's obviously history you aren't interested in. Bin them now.

[Deleted User]

cookie365 wrote: »

There may be history there, but it's obviously history you aren't interested in. Bin them now.

I was going to say this regardless of the apparent repetition, but surely the money-saving option is to pay a firm to put the wedding and holiday videos onto disc and dispose of the others completely?

googler

silkyuk9 wrote: »

The mould should not be a problem. I was told just to fast forward the tapes and do a complete rewind to get rid of the bits of mould on the tape.

All that will do will be to spread the mould spores around the insides of the machine, and possibly into the atmosphere around it.

Depending on the type of bacteria in the mould, this could be a health risk for you.

For future reference, if you're going to store tapes in a garage, attic or similar space, wrap them in clingfilm or put them in zippy bags, and optionally box them up with some absorbent silica gel sachets in the box.