Whilst waiting for recordable DVD machines to come down in price, and until PVRs (personal video recorders) become more widely available, the humble video cassette recorder is still an essential item. But what features should one look for in a modern VCR?
In the past five years, high-end VCRs have virtually disappeared from the market, victims of the increasing presence of DVD players. However, most of the important features have migrated to the very reasonably-priced machines available today.
A major differentiating feature between brands is the availability of Extended Play(EP), otherwise known as Super Long Play (SP). Most VCRs offer Standard Play(SP) and Long Play(LP), the latter allowing a tape to fit double the standard time, for example a 4 hour tape will record for 8 hours, at a slightly reduced quality. EP triples the standard time, extending a 4 hour tape to 12 hours. Its quality is similar to LP. However fast-forwarding and rewinding is much better quality than in LP, where half the screen is distorted and unviewable. [Note that EP is a recent addition to PAL VCRs, as used in the UK, Australia and other countries. NTSC, as used in the United States, may be different.]
The ability to show the remaining time on a tape is a feature that has been slowly improving over the past few years. Sony VCRs from 5 years ago could instantly display a graphic roughly showing the remaining tape. Current Panasonic VCRs can accurately determine the number of remaining minutes.
As VCRs have become cheaper, their front panels have been simplified and become less user friendly. Options such as tape speed, which I would regard as essential, are often left out. The display is often now just an LCD surrounded by a bunch of identical buttons. During the peak of VCR design, exemplified by a five year old Sony VCR, a jog shuttle would be situated on the right of the front. Turning the shuttle would set the mode to fast forward or rewind, and the distance turned would determine the speed of fast forward or rewind. Pressing the top half of the inner part of the shuttle would be Play, and the bottom half would be stop. All of the buttons were similarly well placed, such that their meaning could be determined from their position. In addition, variously coloured LEDs would illuminate the different buttons, so that they could be used, and their status determined, in the dark. All of this utility adds cost, so the paring of costs has reduced the user experience. Still, it's certainly worth checking the ease of use of the remote and the front panel.
All current VCRs create index marks at the start of each recording, and allowing fast searching to these points. In addition, current Panasonic VCRs offer the Jet Navigator feature, whereby information about the time and channel of each recording is stored. Thus, if you insert a tape you can call up a list of all the items recorded on that tape, and move quickly to any of them. If you use 4 hour tapes in EP mode, then you'll know how long skipping through 12 hours of recordings looking for that half hour show from two weeks ago can take. This is a great time saver.
Finally, a note about brand names. As a general rule, brand name products are a good investment. If you need your VCR repaired in 5 years, then it might be useful for your repairer to know about your VCR, and be able to get the parts and service manuals. On the other hand, VCRs are so cheap now that the cost of repairing will often be more than the cost of purchasing a replacement. An alternative reason to stick with brand names is if you plan on using a univeral remote control. These are pre-programmed with a variety of brand-name products.
Finally, I hope you like the silvery look, as black VCRs are quite rare these days.