[net.video] VCR complexity

ajs@hpfcla.UUCP (ajs) (02/04/85)

Learning how to use a better-model VCR is more intimidating than I
thought.  The instruction book for a Panasonic PV8600 is 40 pages and
not very thorough at that.

Just for fun I counted the widgets on the combined tuner and recorder,
which together occupy less than 0.36 cubic feet.  Depending on how you
count them, there are something like:

	48 controls
	31 indicators
	12 inputs
	 6 outputs

(Some of the controls are multi-position, of course, and some only make
sense in combination, and some are overloaded in function.  Same for the
indicators.)  Anyway, wow, that's significantly more complicated than,
say, your typical automobile or hi-fi.  There are controls on every face
of the unit except the left side, including the top and bottom!

Alan "bells and whistles" Silverstein