Hi William,

William Sommerwerck wrote:
How many VCR's blink 12:00? Do you have to be a rocket scientist
to set the clock on a VCR???

In some cases, yes. Some had setting procedures that went beyond
unbelievable.

I don't think that applies to anything manufactured in the last
20 years... :

Rather, I think it is a tradeoff of value for effort. E.g., my
TV has a clock in it. I've never set it. Reasoning: it's not
normally visible (I would have "to turn it on" to see it and
then it would interfere with the picture displayed; setting it
requires navigating through four or five screens of settings
(i.e., a bit of effort); and, it doesn't offer me any value
(that I can't get just by looking over my shoulder to the clock
that displays time REGARDLESS of whether or not the TV is on!).

I suspect most VCRs were used for watching movies instead of
timeshifting. In that case, there is no value to having the
correct time set (it may not even be visible while the movie
is playing!). And, since most VCRs wouldn't *retain* their
time settings in the face of power interruptions (power
outages, unplugging the set, etc.), it doesn't take long for
a clock to fall into the "ignored" category.

Finally, too many timepieces in a home ends up relegating most
of them to "un-maintained" -- how many of us have *a* clock
that we consider The Authority in our homes (i.e., we expect
some amount of error in all the others -- intentional or
otherwise)