h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

My grandmother once had (probably still has) a Panasonic video recorder with some complicated bar code programming thing on it.

Newspapers, for a very very short time, printed these bar codes next to programmes - and the video came with a large plastic sheet covered in the things, and a special remote which had a sensor in it.

How complicated can you get?

I didn't have one of those vcr's but I remember reading about them and I nearly bought one thinking Wow that would be great, this is how video's will be in the future. fourtunatly I didn't have enough money at the time to buy one when they came on the market.

I have owned a Panasonic FV-65 for 10 years and find the bar code system is the easiest way to program a VCR - and that's including the much overrated VideoPlus system which needs a copy of today's paper and can still go wrong due to incorrect codes.

In fact, I like it so much, that I am paying to have new heads put in rather than buying a new one.

Earwig

I owneed one made by panasonic but it broke down every year because of design fault which lasted five years when the gaurantee ran out. BEWARE sONY video plus as it ended in 2008 on our sony video so the codes published by the BBC no longer function!