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Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!brl-tgr!wmartin
From: wmartin@brl-tgr.ARPA (Will Martin )
Newsgroups: net.video
Subject: Re: Laser and Vcr stuff
Message-ID: <2659@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Date: Thu, 31-Oct-85 11:59:01 EST
Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.2659
Posted: Thu Oct 31 11:59:01 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 3-Nov-85 10:30:09 EST
References: <21169@mgweed.UUCP> <1557@utcsri.UUCP>
Organization: USAMC ALMSA, St. Louis, MO
Lines: 34

In article <1557@utcsri.UUCP> arcorp@utcsri.UUCP (Alias Research Corp.) writes:
>Is there something fundamentally wrong with vcrs in homes?
>	Stephen Trutiak

I would say yes. The signals they get to record. If you don't have
cable, off-the-air signals are often too poor to be worth recording. 
That is why I have held out, though I am an electronic-gadget freak and
have access to wholesale-priced goods in some lines, and still don't
have a VCR in my home (though I have quite a few TVs). I live in St.
Louis city, and get ghosts and color flicking in and out on just about
all channels, using both an attic antenna, coax fed, and rabbit ears.

As an audiophile, I have no interest in making recordings of
poor-quality audio signals, so I have never felt that my input video
signals were worthy of the investment in time and money to begin getting
into recording them.

I understand from people who have cable (not due in my area for some
years yet) that it is no magic solution to these problems, either.
Cable signals are often poor, also.

Maybe the new generation of digital TV circuits will fix all these
problems. After all, FM tuners have gotten pretty good at dealing with
multipath and distortion, so its about time video can do the same.

The other issue (for me at least) is time. I find I have little time
left for reading now, when there are radio programs I want to hear each
week (some of which I tape) and broadcast TV I wish to see. If I had a
VCR, and rented movies or taped late-night stuff for timeshifting, I
wouldn't have ANY time left! This sort of thing is fine for retired
people who feel the hours dragging by slowly. Myself, I find that there
is far too little time in a week as it is...

Will