Had this up yesterday but some footage was missing; just found the missing footage so put it back in. Here's a quick tour of my living room's video system- the place is a complete mess, but I don't own a video camera and had the brief use of one today so had to shoot it while I could and didn't have time to clean up.
The 8-track tapes you can see here all all quadraphonic, I have a 4-channel 8-track player but my receiver doesn't have discrete analog inputs so I don't have it hooked up right now. One of the DVD players on the left can play SACD and DVD-Audio, but I can't hook that up to my receiver either; hopefully I'll be able to get a new one soon. I got the Sony shown here because it was the first affordable model to have both DTS and Dolby Digital (AC-3). Next to it on the TV is a Philips DVR-985 DVD recorder, which I use to transfer all my old stuff to DVD. This model is famous for failing; I had to send it to the shop a while ago and they seem to have fixed it.
The RCA DIVX player works fine, although it shows a "read error" message on the DIVX discs I have including the in-store demo disc. (I bought a few for my dead format collection when they were clearing 'em out.) Not sure if it's really an equipment problem or that it hasn't been able to call the 'home base' in a few years. There's billing info on it from the previous owner's viewing of "There's Something About Mary" which I'll have to put up soon. This machine also has a unique talent- it can play audio CDs BACKWARDS!
I didn't think to point out the Sega game systems on the left both of which I got when they were new, the Genesis (with CD and 32X; last time I tried to use it the CD drive wouldn't read the disc) and Saturn, which I got for the NetLink internet function which let me surf the internet on the big screen from my couch for a while. This was a great idea but support for the product was awful; it wouldn't be of much use with most websites today. I finally gave up and got a real computer though I still play games on the Saturn sometimes. I have a PS2 which you can't really see here, I got it mainly because I needed a 2nd DVD player when my DVL-909 had to go to the shop and the PS2s were just starting to become widely available. I mainly use it for pinball games and adaptations of old games like the Namco Museum discs, I was a video game freak 25 years ago but I just can't get into many of the new games.
The junk on the floor includes 2 more SGT-250 CED players, one I'm using to check condition of duplicate disc titles I have, the other needs a bit of alignment which I'll get around to doing someday. Next to those are an old Pioneer top-loading laserdisc player and a Magnavox VHS deck with linear (not Hi-Fi) stereo- I use this one to transfer all old (pre-1984) VHS tapes to DVD; 99% of VHS Hi-Fi decks won't play the older linear sound track in stereo which has bugged me for 22 years! The NEC shown earlier plays both soundtracks in stereo, but it sometimes eats tapes and keeps developing new problems so I may have to give up on it. Among the debris on the floor is old tapes I have yet to check to see what's on them, and some DVDs I've received from some kind people which I also haven't had time to look at yet. If you think this is messy, you should see my computer area!
The 1977 newscast playing on the TV can be seen in its entirety on Google Video or Divx Stage 6- just search for WJKW.
