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Topic: VCR Help

Paul Rich
Film Handler

Posts: 56
From: Murfreesboro, TN, 37128
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 09-07-2002 07:44 PM

What type of VCR do you all recomend for repeated use for a lobby trailer tape?

We've gone through 4 VCR's in three years. The last one we got lasted about 6 months. The managers are (supposedly) turning the VCR off at night. Getting the heads clean doesn't help because by the time the problem is noticeable, the heads are beyond cleaning. Anyone know of a cheap long-lasting VCR that takes a lot of use.

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Ian Price
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1714
From: Denver, CO
Registered: Jun 99

posted 09-07-2002 07:47 PM

UA stopped using U-Matic VCRs 12 years ago and switched to Laser Disc. I would recommend that you stop using VCRs because they will wear out every year if you play them every day. Use your computer to master them on DVD or VCD. You can also have a computer serve the video directly to the lobby monitors.

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Frank Angel
Film God

Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 09-07-2002 10:01 PM

We found that the few models that are available for playback only seem to hold up better. I don't know if that is because they are expected to be used in a hard-use or if it is just coincidence that ours fared better than the two regular consumer models before them. I believe we currently have a Panasonic, but Ian is right -- even 3/4in industrials will die a slow death if they are expected to sustain uninterrupted use on a daily basis, and U-matics were designed for industrial use; VHS is not. I can find out the model number of our Play Only unit, but we had one before this one that died too, so there is no guarantees.

You might want to try going the Tivo (sp?) route. Transfer your program material to the a Tivo hard-drive and run that instead of VHS -- it might be cheaper than buying a full blown computer for this purpose, although you could probably find use for a computer beyond just playing back the video files. Even a hard drive could crap out from continued use -- it is still a mechanical device, but hard-drives seem to fare a lot better in terms of spinning all day long, day in and day out without necessarily dying. And if a hard drive does die, you just replace it, not the whole computer. I am not sure if the Tivo thing can be user-serviced like a computer.

There used to be a saying in the computer world, "It's not IF a hard drive will fail, it's WHEN." You don't hear that much any more because they have gotten a lot more robust (used to be also that if you jarred the computer while it was running, you could crash the hard drive -- not so any more.) In any event, you will get much longer life than a VCR. Plus -- toot the horns and blow the whistles!-- you can say you have DIGITAL images in your theatre!

Frank

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Paul Rich
Film Handler

Posts: 56
From: Murfreesboro, TN, 37128
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 09-07-2002 10:14 PM

Well, that's not going to happen. I work for Carmike, heh. It has to be a VCR. I'll check on play only models.

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Daryl C. W. O'Shea
Film God

Posts: 3977
From: Midland Ontario Canada (where Panavision & IMAX lenses come from)
Registered: Jun 2002

posted 09-08-2002 01:03 AM

We've been using an 'RCA Commercial' VCR for 2 years now with no problems. However it is up in the booth and the projectionists turn it on and off each day. The VCR has lots of features, like programmable loops.

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