TV/VCR combo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A TV/VCR combo (sometimes known as a televideo) is a television and VCR built into a single unit. These devices have the advantages (compared to a separate TV and VCR) of saving space and increased portability. Such units entered the market during the mid-to-late 1980s when VCRs had become ubiquitous household devices. By this time, the VHS format had become standard; thus the vast majority of TV/VCR combos are VHS-based.
Though nearly all TV/VCR combination sets have monaural (mono) sound, there are a large number of TV/VCR combos with a stereo TV tuner, but a mono VCR (some may even include a mono sound input alongside a composite video input. A major exception to this convention is TV/DVD combos, which can have a stereo VCR included in the unit (i.e. a TV/VCR/DVD combo). One of the major drawbacks of a TV/DVD/VCR combo is that the integrated VCR can sometimes activate the CSS programming on the DVD player portion, making it impossible to watch DVDs on the unit.
Modern televisions tend to be mostly solid state machines, while VCRs require mechanical manipulation of VHS tape and require occasional servicing. For this reason, it is not uncommon for the VCR component to cease functioning or to become unreliable years before a similar fate befalls the television component. This leaves many households with only "half" of the set in operation.
In recent years, flat-panel TVs with integrated DVD players have appeared on the market, and integrated TV/DVD sets are overtaking the TV/VCR market. This is due to both the low price and overwhelming availability of DVDs, as opposed to the increasingly rare video cassettes.
