When Neil Armstrong walked on the moon in 1969, you were either in front of your TV set when it aired, or you missed it.
Today – or, let’s say, if we ever return to the moon – you could save the moment using a cell phone to set your home digital video recorder from work.
Almost exactly halfway between those two technical wonders, something called VCR+ (or VCR Plus) was invented to help tape television broadcasts.
In the late 1980s, VCR+ was the brilliant new way for those of us who were technically inadequate to program videotape recorders to capture shows to watch later.
All one had to do was read a numeric code in the newspaper and enter the code using the VCR remote. And, voilà, the show would be taped.
Digital video recorders have made capturing programs much easier, and the June switch to all-digital television signals has made VCR+ all but obsolete.
Even with digital converters connected to his antenna, Bob Mazur of Folsom found he couldn’t record using the codes in the newspaper, so he contacted The Bee.
If Mazur had cable or satellite, his codes might still work, said Michael Wan, service manager at Sacramento’s Paradyame Sound & Vision.
Even Macrovision – which works with manufacturers and provides codes used in newspapers – says there will be problems for those working with old technology.
The codes built into controls may not correspond with DVRs, and “code alignment” may still be a problem with older VCRs trying to interface with modern converters.
Still, there are VCR+ die-hards.
“The people that use it are unbelievably loyal,” said Simon Adams, Macrovision’s senior vice president of marketing.
If people can find their VCR manuals, there may be ways to reprogram the recorders to use the codes, but Adams said the solution is “not very elegant.”
In other words, trying to use a labor-saving code may require extra mental labor.
Macrovision, in an e-mail statement responding to questions from The Bee, said this: “With the switch from analog to digital and the huge proliferation of cable and satellite DVRs available, the best method to avoid this issue is for the consumer to upgrade their devices/ systems.”
Because few consumers still use the codes, some newspapers have already quit publishing them. The Bee discontinued the codes in 2007, then resumed printing them after readers complained.
Following the digital switch, however, the codes are an endangered species.
They’re still useful in Europe, though, Adams said, because cable and satellite transmission is not as widespread there.
For the die-hard loyalists, codes may still be found with diligent Internet searches.
Technical information can also be found at Macrovision’s site, www.vcrplus.com.