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Show (Domsoninmiimg Eimttoirestt Buying video tape recorders, Part II by selling tapes at rock-bottom prices. Buy brand name tapes, and if you're fussy about the quality of your recordings, try one tape of several brands and see how you like the quality. Ask the store personnel what they would recommend and then use your machinery and check to see if the tape is up to your specifications before you buy a number of them. Most companies offer several grades of tape, including one designated "HG," meaning high grade. HG tapes seem to improve picture definition and the amount of snow you'll see. On older TV sets you may not be able to detect the difference, however, so again, it's good to try several types of tapes before you settle on some that will meet your needs. You also, may wish to buy high-grade tapes for special programs pro-grams you'll keep and use poorer quality tapes to record programs you'll see once and erase. Video discs provide excellent picture quality, and the discs themselves cost considerably less than the same programs on pre-recorded tape. However video discs have not been a popular as video tapes and the industry seems a little unclear about what direction video disc players will take. If you are considering investing in a player, do some research in current literature, and ask store personnel - before you invest in equipment. Several manufacturers have offered of-fered decidedly different systems that would be worth checking out. Dr. Clark is the consumer education specialist . in the Utah attorney general's office. Christmas is a good time to buy video recorders. Technology is shifting so rapidly that this medium offers options unavailable several years ago. One consideration is program-mability, program-mability, which varies enormously among machines. Some give you a great number of programs in a week or 10-day period; others have a very limited capacity. Depending upon your need, buy a machine that will suit your lifestyle. It is unnecessary to buy a machine with huge programming capacity if it's unlikely you'll ever use it. You are throwing money away, unless you are a soap opera addict or otherwise know you will regularly record programs. Visual search is an extremely useful feature that allows you to scan programs quickly. It's almost standard stan-dard equipment now, but some VCRs still don't have it. Since this is one aspect of the video recorder that makes its use easier and more pleasurable, you might consider it. Portable video recorders provide other options that add to the creativity and fun of VCR use. Components can be split apart and even operated on batteries. VCRs in component pieces are costly However, How-ever, if you want to film your own videos the component concept may be worth the extra money. Videotapes themselves have proliferated pro-liferated to the point where it is possible to get terrific prices on good to excellent tapes. Watch for tapes on sale, or better yet, tapes on sale that also have a manufacturer's rebate. In some cases retailers use videotapes as loss leaders; that is, they're getting you into their store |