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While it is true that this was possible, that does not mean it was easy. It may have happened, but I cannot recall a single time when I or someone in my family

While it is true that this was possible, that does not mean it was easy. It may have happened, but I cannot recall a single time when I or someone in my family actually succeeded in doing that.

kalleboo 10y ago
Odd, that was one of the main uses of our VCR. It never seemed complicated to me (tune VCR, record. Change channel on TV, watch) Maybe it was a lot easier in Europe with the SCART hookup?
- niftich 10y ago
  Same! SCART [1] was amazing; it was a single plug for analog video and audio. You'd typically have a coax splitter so both the VCR and the TV could get an independent feed from cable/antenna. Then you'd use SCART to get the VCR's output on the TV's 'AV' input, a special input mode like 'HDMI' on modern TVs. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCART https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCART
- ams6110 10y ago
  I agree, it was easy (and I live in the US). Even programming a time-delayed recording was pretty easy though a lot of owners never even seemed to learn how to set the clock. However, there were a set of people who, for some reason, could just not grok the picture currently on the TV being something different than what was being recorded.
- nibnib 10y ago
  In Europe (not sure about the rest of the world) the newspapers printed numerical codes along with each TV listing. If you typed that into the VCR it would populate the start and end times for you, possibly the channel as well? edit: the system I used was VideoPlus+, it looks like similar systems were used elsewhere https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_recorder_scheduling_code https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_recorder_scheduling_code
  - nsxwolf 10y ago
    Ours was branded VCR Plus+ in the states. We had one but I found myself just doing it manually.
  - DrScump 10y ago
    That's a shorthand for telling the VCR the channel and timeframe to record; it's not related to the ability to record one channel while viewing another. Every VCR I ever owned had that ability, clear back to my first Betamax.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

While it is true that this was possible, that does not mean it was easy. It may have happened, but I cannot recall a single time when I or someone in my family actually succeeded in doing that.

kalleboo 10y ago

Odd, that was one of the main uses of our VCR. It never seemed complicated to me (tune VCR, record. Change channel on TV, watch) Maybe it was a lot easier in Europe with the SCART hookup?

niftich 10y ago
Same! SCART [1] was amazing; it was a single plug for analog video and audio. You'd typically have a coax splitter so both the VCR and the TV could get an independent feed from cable/antenna. Then you'd use SCART to get the VCR's output on the TV's 'AV' input, a special input mode like 'HDMI' on modern TVs. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCART https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCART
ams6110 10y ago
I agree, it was easy (and I live in the US). Even programming a time-delayed recording was pretty easy though a lot of owners never even seemed to learn how to set the clock. However, there were a set of people who, for some reason, could just not grok the picture currently on the TV being something different than what was being recorded.
nibnib 10y ago
In Europe (not sure about the rest of the world) the newspapers printed numerical codes along with each TV listing. If you typed that into the VCR it would populate the start and end times for you, possibly the channel as well? edit: the system I used was VideoPlus+, it looks like similar systems were used elsewhere https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_recorder_scheduling_code https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_recorder_scheduling_code
- nsxwolf 10y ago
  Ours was branded VCR Plus+ in the states. We had one but I found myself just doing it manually.
- DrScump 10y ago
  That's a shorthand for telling the VCR the channel and timeframe to record; it's not related to the ability to record one channel while viewing another. Every VCR I ever owned had that ability, clear back to my first Betamax.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]