The DVD half of my DVD/VHS player died. It was only 6 months old. I REALLY wanted to watch Two Towers this weekend. But I can’t. Oh, I could if I had it on VHS. But I don’t–DVD renders a much better picture so I didn’t bother with multiple media. I figured a DVD player would go for more than, oh, 6 months. My 8mm projector still works and it’s older than I am. But I don’t have Two Towers on 8mm. I have it on DVD. Which is as useful as having it on a paving stone because, well, I never did get a paving stone player.
I have a DVD/VCR combo made by GoVideo - some off brand, apparently. It’s lasted almost four years. Seems like a Panasonic should last longer than that.
I saw DVD players at Target for under $30 last week. Maybe a similar sale is in your local store?
Thanks. Y’know, it’s a million little things like this that make me really crazy.
I have a Panasonic home stereo unit gizmo…thing. About 1 step up from a boom box except the speakers are permanently detached so as to give it a sort of, I dunno, “grown up” feel. The 5 disc changer on it? Yep, useless just after the 3 month Circuit City “we don’t care WHAT happened, we’ll fix it” warranty expired. The Panasonic 12 month warranty is still good, but in all fairness my 4 year old is taking the heat for this one. She was wrestling with the CD tray. Proving to it that she was stronger than the little motor that sucks your CDs into the mind-bogglingly complex, difficult to disassemble (so I could extract the CDs stranded in the belly of the beast), and dern near impossible to reassemble by Americans, inner workings. But I could replace that particular part easily enough if I could locate a part number and a vendor. I’ll wait, thank you very much.
I only brought that up because it IS advanced enough that it has an “auxilliary” jack through which I pipe the audio of said DVD/VHS. I’ve got one eye on that jack, one eye on the disposable $30 DVD players at Target, and still another eye on a Harmon Kardon DVD/MP3/CD/BFD unit which would take care of both problems in one swell foop.
'course, the kids…I’m surprised I still have CDs left. Oy. << 5 minute grumble about the awesome destructive power of little kids >>
Maybe if I could somehow rig the HK player into my Panasonic Car stereo…the car stereo? Works great. Makes my eardrums throb satisfactorily while I bop on down the road in my 83 Corolla (Panasonic had nothing to do with the 83 Corolla, a major reason, I suppose, that it still bops)…just fine…except the display doesn’t light up. Which really doesn’t annoy me much because, hey, what’s there to read while you drive (DVD players in cars is a whole nother rant)? Radio stations tell you what you’re listening to and the display for a CD is just worthless because it doesn’t put lyrics out for you. It’d be nice if it could be my clock though. It DOES have a clock feature but, you know. Display doesn’t work. Panasonic…fuckers.
Now I think of it, Panasonic DID do the electrical for my 90 Nissan Pickup. Have I mentioned that it died a couple years ago? That’s why I’m rollin the fly whip I got now.
Seriously. Can you imagine the power of a weapon that could harness that?
(I used to have an ancient 13" TV. I loved it. It fit anywhere and worked well, good picture. About a year ago, I turned it on and heard pop. Sad day, but the TV had a good run - about 20 years I think. Yet, most DVD players seem to have a user life of 1-3 years. I think it’s more complex than a tv, but still!)
I’ll second the suggestion to ditch the DVD/VHS gizmo and buy a new DVD player. I’ve seen them for $29.95 at Target, too. I honestly don’t see any difference in visual quality in my expensive Toshiba 5 disc CD/DVD player and the cheap-o $30 DVD player we bought for the kids. So get ye to Target for one of the $30 DVD players, hook it up to some great speakers, pop yourself a tub 'o popcorn, and enjoy your movie.
