# A tale of woe: can anyone programme a friggin' VCR?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-tale-of-woe-can-anyone-programme-a-friggin-vcr/127042>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [September 4, 2002, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-tale-of-woe-can-anyone-programme-a-friggin-vcr/127042 "2002-09-04T23:01:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Loneraven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c0e974/32.png) [@Loneraven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loneraven)\
**Post date:** [September 4, 2002, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-tale-of-woe-can-anyone-programme-a-friggin-vcr/127042/1 "2002-09-04T23:01:14Z")

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So… I have to go back to school tomorrow, but I’m online at midnight. Go figure.  
Anyway, I am extremely bored, so here’s the question - am I the only person who feels homicidal when they get back home to find that even though they set the VCR to tape Enterprise, or Stargate, or even M_A_S\*H, it has for some reason taped Film 2002 with Barry Norman, or Newsnight, or Gardener’s World or something equally unwatchable?  
More to the point, can anyone programme a friggin’ VCR?!

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**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\
**Post date:** [September 4, 2002, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-tale-of-woe-can-anyone-programme-a-friggin-vcr/127042/2 "2002-09-04T23:27:51Z")

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What’s worse is actually setting the thing correctly only to find that you a) forgot to put a blank tape in b) forgot to turn the damned thing off to set the timer or c) left a previously self-made tape with the record tab still on thereby wiping out a half dozen edited shows that you’ll have to wait six months to re-record.

I’ve been taping for over 18 years and have done each of these on more than one occasion!

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**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\
**Post date:** [September 5, 2002, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-tale-of-woe-can-anyone-programme-a-friggin-vcr/127042/3 "2002-09-05T01:05:44Z")

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This isn’t going to make you feel any better **loneraven** , but I’ve never understood why people find it difficult to programme a video machine. Maybe some models are easier to use than others, though? I certainly know of people who never use their pre-programming facility because they’re scared something terrible’s going to happen or because they haven’t read the instructions.

I suppose there’s no foolproof solution to **Mr. Blue Sky’s** problem c, but you can’t get problem a or b on my machine - there’s an audible error if you don’t put a blank tape in and another if the programme sequence doesn’t complete.