European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - January 20, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Home High tech continued associated press camcorders High technology s abbreviation far a Vid Rolape camera and recorder in one were i petted to have leached 1.6 million sold to the United slates by the end of 1987. According to the electronic industries association sales of the hand held sch camera combination units which Cost an average of $1.040 were up about �0 percent Ovet the previous year 1. And just when you think it s Sale to buy a Var. Manufacturers come up with an alluring enhancement for example one special feature available with Vera is High Fidelity stereo sound useful to those with external stereo speakers or a stereo television set but not to those who have Only a conventional television set equipped with Only a single speaker. Buying a Var with Lour or six Heads instead of two adds irom about $100 to $200 to the Cost. Since the Var needs Only two Heads to operate the others Are Lor special Elf Ecla or to record in extended play modes which slow Tho Speed of the tape to provide four to six hours of rerecording time off a cassette lha normally delivers two hours of recording Lime. Since two head chs will also play at slower speeds and most Var owners will tape programs for later viewing and Walch rented movies they probably do not need the extra Lour Heads. Those no receive Cable signals should be Suie to Purchase one of the Vars that receives Cable channels. Ii you buy one that Only receives the Standard channels it win limit the Var s flexibility. Ii the Cable service requires a converter Box the Hookup Between television set and Vars is More complo than if there is no converter be to to set this permits you to watch one Channel White you Are taping another. Tape recording while not at Home is no More Complex than setting an alarm Eta. The sat does not have to be turned on. A Lime is set to Start recording at the proper time and then to Stop at the end of time period Var timers Lake two approaches scrolling and direct entry. With scrolling you press a Button and Wail Loi the right number to scroll into Tow like clock car of with electronic time displays. The problem is it s easy to scroll past the number you warn and then you have to work to gel it Back again. With direct entry you punch in the number you want on a number pad consisting of 10 buttons of course it s possible to punch in Tho wrong numbers now Var manufacturers Are making 11 even easier by introducing bar code programming. The bar coding involved cards with bar cedes representing different dates times of Day and channels. The codes themselves look like the Universal product codes found on supermarket merchandise. To schedule a program you simply run a Small wind Over the codes. With a push of a Button the Inlo Rolion is Transfer Rcd into the Var. Virtually All now limes can record at least Lour shows on different channels Over the course of a week or More. With some of the More Complex bar code setups you can program up to eight events a year in Advance. Page 16 the stars and stripes wednesday january 20,1988