Panasonic intruduces a VHS / Blu Ray combo player?

VHS............... come on Panasonic

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=76790

VHS is dead......commiting any new resources to something that has widely died off shows a lack in judgement IMO......especially if they're touting that thing as their TOTL model......(didn't read the pages/specs)

your grandparents might not be around for the next release.....the 8 track to cassette converter........hold on tight everyone.......full circle is a ****.

From the Net..........The DMP-BD70V, like Panasonic's other Blu-ray players, can process 15 billion pixels a second. And it will use those smarts to convert VHS video to something akin to high-definition TV. I only worry that all that firepower could melt the humble tapes.

It is good for homemade **** on vhs from amateurs!

well, the article doesn't say anything about this so it probably doesn't- but maybe it allows you to burn your vhs tapes to blu? I know they're still selling pretty modern vhs/dvd decks that let you burn your vhs tapes to dvd- and that can be useful for those who grew up taping many of your favorite shows, etc. If it could do that for blu-ray that wouldn't be a waste of resources IMO.

That said- I'm in my 20's and I still watch my old vhs tapes and listen to old cassette tapes. I haven't found time to convert them to digital formats yet, so old tech is still useful to me

^ i agree i think it will sell well. But i think its a step back... why integrate old and new technology??? VHS tapes look like CRAP on a HDTV and i honeslty dont see upscaling helping out that much. Nice feature though.

The thing is the majority of people that STILL watch VHS tapes are
1.) Mainly Old
2.) Dont have a HDTV
3.) Only using it because they think thats the only way to record TV..(have yet been introduced to DVR hehe)

Sure people have lots of them, but i know people with hundreds of casette tapes that never play them anymore. This is technology, its supposed to advance.

everyone has really good comments on here..but, what happens if the vcr craps out, will anybody really get it repaired..im sure its more than just a VHS player. Just a thought.

VHS blank tapes are still widely available - esp. in the corner CVS or RiteAide.
Although I no longer buy a VHS tapes, I do have about 20 titles in my collection, most of which you cannot buy on DVD or BluRay.........Like the original Star Wars movies - before they were messed with - it's funny - Darth Vader's suit is dark navy blue.......

Someone did some research on marketability before releasing a new product, no?.......

bigred7078 wrote: »

4 people who use their VCR daily??? Have they heard of a DVR? lol...

And FYI when someone uses the term "stepping to the side" thats because they are comparing to equal products where going with one or the other does not give you an advantage... Comparing Blu-Ray to VHS is a definite step back.

And if you really enjoy VHS tapes that much and dont see the need to see extreme clarity then why even invest in a HDTV? lol. Let alone get a VHS/B;u-Ray combo.

Thats like buying a ferrari and only using it to back out of the driveway to get the mail out of the mailbox. If your going to spend the money, then freakin take that puppy for a spin! :cool:

I didn't say they used their VCR's for recording, they use them for watching movies. DVR would fall into the "have to spend money to get it" category. That's not really an option for a lot of people. You can go get a VCR at a garage sale for 50 cents. What's the cheapest DVR out there?

How is this a step back in any way? As I said before...it's not as if integrating a VCR into it made the Blu-ray any worse. It's a Blu-ray player that just happens to have a VCR built into it. That's not a step back at all. No one is "comparing" the two. Blu-ray is obviously superior to VHS...but that doesn't mean that there's anything wrong with VHS.

Also...as I said before, there are hundreds upon hundreds of movies that will never even be released on DVD, let alone Blu-ray. They'll be able to market the thing...otherwise they wouldn't have made it. There are still plenty of people with old VHS tapes that are going to keep wanting to watch them. My parents for example. They have somewhere in the neighborhood of 700ish VHS tapes that they've accumulated over the years. Are they supposed to go out and replace every single one of these movies with the DVD? That would cost over 8000 dollars...figuring 12 bucks a DVD...which is a low estimate.

There are still plenty of reasons to buy an HDTV even if you don't have Blu-ray. A lot of people get HDTV's because they can hang them on the wall...or put them on a little stand. They don't take up nearly as much room, and to a lot of people that's a big issue.

Not everyone out there has to be on the cutting edge of technology...some people really don't even care. I've had friends over before, and I'll be talking about my stereo equipment, and talking about the speakers I want to get. Some of them can't understand why anyone would ever spend more than like 100 dollars for their stereo. "Why do you need all that? I got this boom box at Walmart for 50 bucks...and it sounds great!" What they don't realize is that it sounds like complete crap. Like I said though...to some people, it's just not a big deal. Same with VHS.

One of the great things about VHS now too is that you can get movies brand new for like a dollar. I just picked up all three of the Austin Powers movies the other day on VHS...for like 2 dollars altogether. how much would that cost on DVD? Probably more like 40-50 dollars. It's not better by any means...but makes more sense for some people.

danger boy wrote: »

chances are if a person is interested in BD movies... they aren't going to be very interested in having a player with a built in VHS VCR

even though most everyone here in Polkland is on top of most things audio and video wise... not everyone has embraced Blu Ray yet. WE're just on the cutting edge still, but the mass market of people are still happy with standard DVD's.

Could BD remain a videophile type of format? Much like SACD for the most part is only used by audiophiles.

debate

I think there are plenty of people that would be interested in it. A lot of people would like to get a Blu-ray player, but are still going to watch their VHS tapes. A lot of people also don't like having 50 bajillion components under their TV like some of us do...lol...for people like that this makes perfect sense. It gives them the ability to watch a movie on any format, all in one unit. I'm sure they've researched it, and found that their would be a market for it. I don't think they would have produced it otherwise. It's the same as the combo DVD/VCR's. Those have always sold great. I know tons of people that have those. This isn't any different.

I've thought the same thing before...it could end up as a Videophile format. There are plenty of people out there that can't even visually tell the difference between a Blu-ray and a DVD's picture quality. Some people are just more interested in watching the movie for the story line...and well...the movie. Being able to see the individual arm hairs and pores on someones skin isn't really a big deal to a lot of people. Video quality isn't really a big issue for me personally. I'm perfectly happy watching SD DVD's on my old school CRT TV. Video qualities fine with me. I still plan to upgrade to a plasma TV, but a big factor in that is that it takes up less space. I won't get a Blu-ray player until I can get one for like 150-200 bucks though. It's just not that big of an issue to me.

Sound quality is more important than video quality for me.

Who knows...maybe Blu-ray will just end up as a videophile format. It's still WAY WAY to expensive for most people to even consider upgrading. I think a lot of people are restisting it to just because of the concept of it. How long have DVD's been the mainstream? 10-12 or so years? Probably not even really that long. That's not very long for something that was supposed to be the end all video format. A lot of people are still upset over the fact that they bought all of these DVD's...and what? They have to replace them all now? That kinda makes me mad myself...

Just wait until they make the combo VCR/DVD/Blu-ray/TV set...lol