Replacing the VCR

Good luck if you have to replace a busted VCR!

I've been "time shifting" TV for 20 years now. Seeing as I work most week nights until 9pm, if I want to see 'prime time' TV I have to time shift. The last few years it has been getting harder and harder to find VCRs to replace the 2 or 3 I have running. Now, well as I said...good luck...finding a new VCR. Yes, there are still a few dvd/vcr combos out there, but only a few brands and in limited supply. I strongly suspect they've stopped making them and are just drawing down their inventories now. Sigh! It is the end of an era.

One of the three VCR's I use to record TV died about a month ago. I'm making do with the last two and playing the tapes back on the VCR/DVD combo in the TV room. I've been looking and no replacements are to be found. I will have to pick up a combo unit this Christmas season before they are all gone, and that should hold things together for a while, but only for a while.

So, how am I to really replace the VCR? I don't think DVD-RW is the way to go. The recorders are too expensive and the disks only hold about 4 hours each, and that's not enough for the 6 hour days I have sometimes. I think I'm going to have to go to the DVR solution.

DVRs (Digital Video Recorders) come in 3 varieties: Tivo, the cable/satelite company's box, and Media PC's. I don't want to go the monthly subscription route with Tivo or the Cable company...and they would require me moving to "digital cable" and I can't see a reason to do that yet. So, that means I'm looking at a Media PC...and nobody seems to be selling one that does what I want. Some come close, but I'm going to have to customize, upgrade, and jury rig a bit to get to what I've currently got with Cable, VCR's, TV's and coax cables.

Over the next few weeks, I plan to "spec out" what I need and start acquiring the parts. I don't have a PC I can dedicate to this project, so I'm going to have to buy one and customize it. I'm hoping I can get the entire setup done for under $700...we'll see.