Why are DVD/VCR combo players so popular

[Muse]

There's one in the Newegg newsletter I received today. I've always wondered why these have been on the market. They've been available for what seems like most of a decade. Why do people buy these?

At first I thought it must be because people wanted to transfer their VHS collection to writable DVD's. Is that the appeal? Is it because they want to play their VHS tapes and DVDs all in one player? I never got into VHS because it was such a lousy low res format. It stank compared to even analog broadcast TV. I bought SVHS decks, which produced a better picture when recording broadcast TV than you get on prerecorded VHS tapes, much less VHS tapes recorded off the air. However, I've never seen an SVHS/DVD player combo. Well, it's hard for me to imagine people wanting to watch VHS tapes nowadays.

 

[SuperNaruto]

There are tons of places that still rents tapes and it'll take them too much time and money to convert to dvd...

you must be new cuz in the 80s' its all about vhs

 

[nervegrind3r]

when i used to sell electronics a few years back, these were real big because people were trying to transition from vhs to dvd, and didnt want to throw out their vhs tapes. People like to use less space, and fewer components. Hell, I used to sell big tvs with a dvd and vhs player integrated. Its a convenience to have both in one unit. Alot of people still use vhs (old movies, home movies, pr0n, etc). SVHS was never a big retail product, it was more for professionals. I used to sell those too, but they had a $200+ pricetag. I used to use them for video editing back in the day when that was the best quality you could get, but it was unnecessary for consumers. I doubt if a SVHS/DVD combo was ever made.

Im using a toshiba dvd/vhs player right now. While I rarely touch the vhs part, you never know if you need it. The unit itself is not that much bigger than a standard player, and saves me the space of having two different units. Plus it was free (thank you taj mahal in NJ)

I dont believe you can transfer the vhs to dvd, or vice versa on most commercial players (think you need a specialized unit for that, but I could be wrong).

 

[TallBill]

Because most of the population isn't tech savy, so quite a few people still have VHS movies. Imagine buying hundreds of movies VHS for 10 years through your 20's or 30's and then all of the sudden DVD's come out. Are you going to want to rebuy all of your movies?

Just like how I have 200 DVD's at home and I'm going to want to watch them on whatever high def player I end up buying. There are a few movies that I'll re-purchase, but the bulk of my movies wont really matter.

 

[Wingznut]

Not to mention the amount of home movies that people have on tape.

 

[Matthias99]

Is it because they want to play their VHS tapes and DVDs all in one player?

Duh.

VHS may have been crap, but there are tons of VHS tapes out there in people's homes. And home movies, as mentioned above.

VCR + DVD-R combos are useful for transferring old VHS tapes to DVD (normally things like home movies, wedding videos, etc.) if you don't want to pay for a service to do it for you. Yeah, you can do it with a video capture card and a DVD burner in a computer, but for someone who's not tech-savvy it's easier to put in a tape and a DVD-R and push "copy".

 

[Zepper]

Mainly to save space and an extra set of clumsy cables.

.bh.

 

[lenjack]

Convenience and simplicity, not for quality.

 

[DaveSimmons]

lo-tech people find it a lot easier to copy home movies to DVD with a combo VCR/DVD-recorder: no cables between them, and the DVD part might have a one-touch-record for copying from tape.

You and I know it's about as easy to cable together separates, but joe normal doesn't want to mess with that science stuff.

 

[Oyeve]

I guess because I still have 100s of video tapes that have yet to make it to DVD. I dont have a combo player, I still have an old Sony VCR for tape viewing. I have tried converting tapes to DVD but it is an excrutiating process and I gave up a while ago.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: TallBill
Because most of the population isn't tech savy, so quite a few people still have VHS movies. Imagine buying hundreds of movies VHS for 10 years through your 20's or 30's and then all of the sudden DVD's come out. Are you going to want to rebuy all of your movies?

Just like how I have 200 DVD's at home and I'm going to want to watch them on whatever high def player I end up buying. There are a few movies that I'll re-purchase, but the bulk of my movies wont really matter.

I haven't seen a single hi-def DVD yet on any system whatsoever, but I bet the difference between it and DVD played on a decent system is far less than the difference between the best VHS you can get and a decent DVD display system. Like I said in the OP, VHS sucks compared to even analog broadcast quality TV. Anyway, I guess if I had a lot of VHS tapes, I might not be hot on replacing them all with DVD's. However, I only bought 2-3 VHS tapes back in the day (found a cheap copy of Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, and bought Fantasia). Everything else I did with VCR's had to do with recording broadcast TV (i.e. timeshifting), and SVHS is vastly superior to VHS for that. I never understood why SVHS didn't take off. The quality premium over VHS was obvious and it would have been just as great an improvement for prerecorded movies as it was for timeshifting broadcast TV. When I tried to find SVHS movies for sale or rent, I was amazed to find that they were almost nonexistent.

 

[Blain]

Why is the color blue so popular?

 

[Auric]

Two olde timey formats in one. What's not to love?

Less clutter for those who still use 'em.