So I've recently expanded my business to offer media training. I work with retired news producers and anchors and we sit down people about to do interviews and press conferences, grill them on camera, critique, and so forth. Some days we do up to 10 people in the same day.

I've been recording these on VHS because its a public medium and once the tape is popped its done. These tapes are for the subjects to take home and watch a few times before their interviews to help prepare. A problem I'm starting to have is ... no one has a vcr anymore.

Can anyone think of another instantaneous way to get this out? Cost really is no object, and truthfully neither is viewing quality. Digital videos need to be burned to cds, dvds need to be finalized ... I just can't think of anything as versatile as a vhs tape as funny as that sounds.

How about one of these?

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=abcat0403001&type=category

Is it possible that you could purchase a hard-drive based video camera and transfer the video footage onto a thumb-drive that the client can return? Sounds like a good idea to me.

Hard drive camcorders are not that straight-forward. I wish they were :mad:

The easiest thing to do is go with one of San's recommendations. Pop the DVD out and it is done.

The DVD Camcorders each take a few minutes to finalize per disk before they can be viewed in a standard DVD player. The thumb drive idea isn't a bad one, but it still requires a second person to transfer the footage from the camera to the laptop to the thumb drive while we're setting up the next one. Oh well, hopefully one day someone invents something as revolutionary as the VHS tape :)

The DVD Camcorders each take a few minutes to finalize per disk before they can be viewed in a standard DVD player. The thumb drive idea isn't a bad one, but it still requires a second person to transfer the footage from the camera to the laptop to the thumb drive while we're setting up the next one. Oh well, hopefully one day someone invents something as revolutionary as the VHS tape :)

As cheap as VCR's are now, you could buy a gross at a time and give them to your customers as a perk for giving you their business (ala toasters for savings accounts). Easy enough to offset by just increasing your fee slightly. This way the customer gets the tape and a player, and sees you as dedicated to providing the service you offer.

Also, sticking with VHS might well be best, as it allows fast forward and reverse that are not available with DVD; DVD's are segmented while VHS allows for smooth movement forward or backward to a specific point in the tape. If the customer is wanting to review certain spots in the presentation they might not like having to watch a lot of extra stuff to get to it. At least, that is how I see it.

Have you tried one of those DVD camcorders lately? The reviews for the Sony (http://www.amazon.com/Sony-DCR-DVD610-Handycam-Camcorder-Optical/dp/B00123Q8YQ/?tag=encosia-20) said finalizing only takes a minute. Probably comparable to rewinding a VHS tape?

I'm not sure. I've never used one. The idea always seemed clunky to me, but might work well for this.

Finalizing takes hardly any time at all, I did a couple discs over the July 4th holiday weekend and we're talking maybe 5 minutes total finalizing. Just start the finalizing process, get a cold drink, and boom! You're done!

I could have sworn that dvd players allow ffwd and rwd features on screen, mine does. But I will admit to spending way too much on it and probably got that ability as an "upgraded" feature.

I could have sworn that dvd players allow ffwd and rwd features on screen, mine does. But I will admit to spending way too much on it and probably got that ability as an "upgraded" feature.

The ffwd and rwd features on all of my DVD players only move to the start of a scene, or segment, rather than allowing you to view the movement and stop at a precise point like VHS allows.

Of course, I am an old antiquated user of old antiquated stuff. :p

Every DVD player I've ever had did 2, 4, 8, 16, 32x FF and RWD. I didn't know they made them without. That must be infuriating.

Also, sticking with VHS might well be best, as it allows fast forward and reverse that are not available with DVD;

What? I fast forward and rewind all the time with dvds. Check your remote Byl, you probably have two buttons to forward and rewind. One is for search, and one is for skip. Usually one will have one or two arrows (for the search) and the other will have one more arrow than the other button (to skip scenes).

In some cases, pressing the button lets you skip between chapters, while holding down the button lets you fast forward or rewind.