Is a VCR player the same as a VHS player?

How easily can a malfunctioning or damaged VCR or DVD player destroy or damage DVDs and VHS tapes?

• how can tell if your old VCR is damaging your VHS tapes or your old DVD player is damaging your DVDs? is there a way to tell? please explain what you can..and how common this ...show more

• Answer:

  If a VCR player is damaging the tapes, then they won't play correctly. That is the best way to tell that there is a problem. It is rare for a DVD player to damage a DVD disc. It would have to be a very cheap and poorly made player to do so. All DVDs are Region coded and split into 9 different numbered zones. This was supposed to allow phased release of discs into different markets. The U.K. and Europe is Region 2 - the U.S. is Region 1. When DVDs came out, you couldn't play a Region 1 disc on a Region 2 player. Nowadays, most DVD players are Region free and can play any disc from any Region. You are very unlucky if you get stuck with a Region 2 DVD player. The noise you can hear on rewind isn't the VHS player - it's the tapes. The whining sound isn't due to the player rewinding faster (because it isn't), but it's due to the tapes getting slack on their drums, because they are old. This affects all audio and video tapes and they will eventually break. This is one of the main reasons that VHS tapes and players are no longer made.