recording to VCR is officially obsolete

The Navigator is the new interface for Oceanic cable boxes. It looks snazzier and I suppose it has some new features that I'll find useful (e.g. like finding shows).

However to me it's not an upgrade if you can't do something that you could do with the old version.

In particular, they have removed the record to VCR feature (actually I was using it to record to my DVD-recorder). What this feature allows you to do is to record to your VCR while watching another show. So now in order to record, you have to watch the same show that you're recording.

I confirmed that this feature has been removed when I chatted online with one of the Oceanic reps (or whoever he was working with). He said (or read from his prepared responses) that it was not supported because the VCR is "obsolete" technology. [here's the quote: "I am sorry, Mr. Ching, but that option is not available anymore, the VCR is an obsolete technology and we do not work with it anymore."] In other words, it is now obsolete to want to save shows for posterity?

I think it's more like the media companies don't want to kill sales of Blu-Ray disks or streaming video. So they're not supporting anything that might hamper their sales in any fashion.

***

Now I see at the Navigator link above, that there is a link for saving recordings to VHS. And actually it wasn't written in response to the removal of the Save To VCR feature. It was because the Navigator also removed support for external hard drives. So they provided instructions to save the recordings to VCR before the switchover to the new Navigator. So if you have recordings on an external hard drive and didn't save them -- too bad. I guess they are deeming external hard drives as obsolete technology too.

teachparentstech

TeachParentsTech.org is filled with more than 50 basic how-to videos that you can send to your parents, or really anyone who might need a little tech help. These videos cover a wide range of topics from copying and pasting to how to video chat (one that I had to deal with recently). Each video is very brief (less than a minute), so they should be able to sit through them without their eyes glazing over.