The purpose of my guide is to inform the average non-techy person the main differences between the DVD and VHS tape, and what to look for when purchasing a new DVD Player and VCR.  I am confident that after reading my guide, most of your questions will be answered and you will be much more knowledgable when you go to buy.

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Most of all of us watch movies, most of all movies anymore are DVD's but a lot of us still have some old VHS tapes laying around the house that we watch periodically.  First let's clear up differences between DVD's and VHS tapes.

• VHS tapes don't have as good of quality of a picture that DVD's do.  But if you have a standard CRT TV set or a console VHS tapes can look about the same as a DVD.  When renting films at a Video Store usually VHS tapes have less problems.  The Cons to a VHS tape is the quality on a newer and more updated TV, the need to rewind when you are finished watching it, and they have less features than a DVD.  Many people today still use VHS tapes to record TV shows.

• DVD's are the latest movie formats, the have excellent picture quality and although they aren't as user friendly as VHS tapes, once you learn how to use them you will love them.  DVD's are offered in Widescreen and Full Screen formats, so if you have a Widescreen TV you can get the full picture that was originally recorded after the editing of the movie.  Full Screen DVD's cut off the edges a little bit but not enough to notice.  If you use a Widescreen DVD in a conventional TV, there will be black bars on the top and the bottom of the TV, this is so the whole picture can fit on the screen without the picture being shrunk.  You can now record TV shows and copy non-copyrighted material onto DVD's, DVD-R discs are more expensive than average VHS tapes and you cannot record onto DVD's off of a conventional DVD player.

Now to the DVD player and VCR...

• My favorite VCR was recommended by Consumer Reports as one of their Best Buys.  This VCR is the RCA VR637HF.  Some features include Auto-Clock set, Hi-fi, front inputs, auto-tracking, and has 4-heads.  Click here search for this VCR on eBay.  This is the VCR that I recommend but there are a lot of other good ones too.  Second on my list is the Sony SLV-N71.  Click here to search for the Sony SLV-N71 on eBay. Some other manufacturers that make quality VCR's that I recommend are Sony, Toshiba, Panasonic, and Sanyo.  When you go to look for a new VCR you want to make sure the the VCR has these important features: Auto-Tracking, Hi-fi, HQ, and at least 4-heads.  Having front AV Inputs (the red, white, and yellow jacks) are a recommended feature but not necessary.  Make sure that you get a remote for your VCR, programmed recording and some other features are hard to do without the manufacturer's or universal remote.  Since VCR's are now considered old technology prices have gone up, DO NOT BE TEMPTED TO BUY THE CHEAP THING!  GET SOMETHING GOOD THAT WILL LAST!

• Since there are so many DVD players out there it is hard for me to have a favorite or recommend a certian model.  Lately some popular DVD players that have been popular are the smaller mini DVD players (I'm not talking about the portable ones with a built-in screen).  Most of these are cheaper (in price and quality) and most of them are generic or re-named brands of larger companies, if you want these to last you need to make sure you take good care of it.  The only one that I will recommend is the COBY brand because that is the only one I have experience with, every other brand that I have seen has been over-priced or a really low brand that I wouldn't trust.  Click here to search for the COBY mini-dvd player on eBay.  If you are searching for a regular sized DVD player with more features and more conventional, some brands that I recommend are Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic.  When you are searching for a DVD player, features that are important are progressive scan (probably the most important feature), some recommended features but not necessary are an S-Video connection, component video (recommended if you have a digital TV), DVI and HDMI (recommended if you have a digital TV), and surround sound port (recommended if you have or plan on getting surround sound).  Make sure you get the remote that comes with your DVD player or a universal remote, sometimes it will be more difficult without a remote.  As long as you get one of my recommended brands with the progressive scan you should be fine.  Progressive Scan is mainly important for newer digital TV's but most of all DVD players come standard with it anymore.

• Combo drives have become very popular over the years.  There are also many of these out there.  I recommend the one shown here, this is the Samsung DVD-V4600.  This includes all of the features that I listed above.  I recommend the other brands for combos as I did for the DVD players.  When looking for these look for both of the features that I recommended in both the VCR and DVD player.  These have A LOT OF CHEAP BRANDS, please do individual research on each one you look at.  This unit includes the recommended features in both the VCR and DVD player, some include: Progressive Scan, 4-head hi-fi, auto-tracking VCR, auto-clock set, it is also very user friendly.  Click here to search for this unit on eBay. 

• With a DVD-Recorder you can record TV shows and non-copyrighted material onto a DVD.  This is recommended for people that have HDTV TV sets.  If you do not have an HDTV set, these are not recommended because of the price.  One unit is the Panasonic DMRE50S DVD-Recorder.  I recommend this model for DVD recoreders because of it's features which some are: VCR+, DVD-RAM compatible, and one-touch recording.  It is compatible to record on DVD-RAM, the newest in DVD recording technology.  DVD-RAM offers the largest amount of space.  Click here to search for this unit on eBay.  I also recommend Toshibas and Sony's along with this model.  DVD Recorder/VCR combos are also made but are too new for me to recommend, if you go to purchase one of this please look for the brands that I recommended in the DVD Recorders and VHS.

I hope this guide helped you to further understand VCRs and DVD players.  I also hope you will make a good decision when you go to purchase a new