My mom is looking to buy a DVD for my stepfather for Christmas. However, their electronics cabinet is jam packed, and there isn’t much room. Now, they have an alternate TV in their sitting room which they could attach the VCR to (they rarely tape anything, and seldom have people tape things for them).
I suggested they might get a DVD/VCR combo, but I want to check with the experts to see if the Teeming Millions have any experience with a creature. So, any insights?
We have one, and like it a lot. I think the only thing I would do differently, though, is buy one that will play more than just the manufactured DVDs. It would be nice to have some of my old videotapes put on DVD-R and be able to play those, but this DVD player won’t play those. For a little more $, you can buy one that will.
My only insight is: if one of the two players goes bad, you probably lose both. You send the unit off for service, and lose use of both.
What else is in their media cabinet that they can’t fit a DVD?
I case it hasn’t occurred to anyone - VCR’s and DVD’s can be stacked (the residential-grade models - commercial ones are a bit heavy).
I don’t know much, but I bought this DVD player on sale recently at Target for $129 because we were tight on space for all the electronics and it can go vertically. The discs go in/out the slot much like a car cd player, so there’s no drawer that opens up. And it is supposed to play the other DVD/CD media files.
http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/ref=br_1_8/601-4046840-9247314?asin=B00006HI4H
An Apex dvd player can play pretty much any format, they are under $50 today at Circuit City…
I thought of one of those dual units, but I couldn’t figure out if I could use both at the same time, so I didn’t get one. They cost a bit more too.
I’ve got to second this. Multifunction machines are great concepts, but the reality is, one part of the machine will almost always fail before the other part does. Think about a car: when was the last time you had a car whose fuel system, electrical system, engine, cooling system, transmission, suspension, steering, brakes, and tires all failed at the same time? Never, obviously, because you’d be dead now and not reading this. But still, you get my point.
Still, and because I know that Munch has an ulterior motive for wanting to unburden his parents of their VCR, Consumer Reports this month has their gift guide and their top rating went to the Samsung DVD-V2000 combo player.
Good luck, buddy!
Christ, what don’t they have.
All they have room for now are CDs to slide between the components. It’s a 3-shelf cabinet (an actual cabinet), with width for 2 components, and no room to stack.
KtK, what makes you think that I would ever want to unburden them of a VCR? 
I’d much rather unburden them of their Dolby receiver, and spend $30 on a new VCR…
Here’s a thought: If that’s a single-drawer CD player, the DVD player will almost certainly do its job just fine. That would be a better choice than a multipurpose device, IMHO.
Also, doesn’t that subwoofer get a little, um, boomy sitting inside the entertainment center?
Why don’t you get them a new cabinet?
I saw one today at Circuit City for $119. I Read the box as I fought off clerks wanting to tell me stuff about it. One thing it has thats like real special is a RF adapter, which they inform you of on the box. Almost no dvd player has that. wow.
Because it’s an actual cabinet, attached to the wall - it’s not an electric component cabinet that you pick up at Office Depot or Best Buy. I’d rather not spend several thousand dollars to have their living room refunished and re-cabineted.
KtK, the CD player is a 5 disc carousel. Believe me, I thought of that. Plus, if I can’t convince them that they need to get rid of the laserdisc player, they’re sure not going to pry their hands off of something they actually use.
The woofer does get a little boomy, but only when they figure out how to turn on their surround-sound speakers (i.e. never). I mean, it is pretty tough, considering that they have to go through the entire process of pressing the “AUX” button on the receiver…
Well, push came to shove today, and they went with the combo. There were $60 worth of rebates on the sucker, so if anything goes wrong with one of the parts, I’m sure they’ll just replace it.
Next step, TiVO. SERENITY NOW!
Is it ok to do that? I’m planning to get a DVD for Christmas but it would have to sit on top of the VCR, am I’m worried about them overheating.
Sparrow, the simplest rule of thumb I ever came up with is, if there are vents on that side, leave clearance. So if your VCR has vents on its top (few do in my experience, but one of mine does), you might want to be careful about that. However, most single-tray DVD players are much shallower than full-size VCRs, so you may not have a problem.
Munch, just remember: serenity now, insanity later.