Separate components and flashy technology may be the haute cuisine of home entertainment, but the humble TV-VCR combination is selling like the meatloaf special at the local buffet.
Buyers are attracted by the compact size of the TV-VCR, its portability and relative low cost. Sales people take them on the road for presentations, college students put them in dormitory rooms, families use them as second TVs and mobile types like them for recreational vehicles or boats.TV-VCR combos also are easy to set up and operate, important for people who don't want to fuss with multiple hookups of separate components. For those reasons, the TV-VCR was second only to projection TVs - the anchor of multicomponent home theater systems - in sales growth last year.
In fact, the popularity of the double-duty machines is soaring. The Electronic Industries Association said 424,000 TV-VCR combos were sold to dealers in 1990. The figure jumped to 662,000 in 1991 and 936,000 the following year.
The figure was 1.6 million in 1993 and more than 2 million last year. The trade group estimates sales will be 2.6 million this year.
"Their big attraction seems to be that they combine the functions of two of our best-selling products, which is TV and a VCR," said Patti McNeill, an EIA spokeswoman. "There's no hookup and attachments, no cables, anything like that. And it's more space-efficient.
"It's just a very convenient, simple product. It's kind of a no-brainer type of thing."
TV-VCR combos won't knock over buyers with styling or extravagant features. Most of them are boxy - a TV with a videotape slot under the screen - and have an adequate picture, mono sound and basic VCR functions.
Consumer Reports rated combos that cost from $300 to $500 in its December issue. The magazine noted some limitations in the units, including a lack of such amenities as a clock on the VCR control panel, cluttered remote controls and absence of the VCR Plus system that allows one-touch recording.
Harvey Reiver, a project leader in the magazine's electronics division, said that more expensive units have more features. He suggested shoppers look for a brand made by a company that turns out dependable VCRs.
"In general, if a company makes a reliable VCR it can make a reliable TV-VCR combo," he said.
Getting a VCR you can count on is necessary. That's the part of the combo most likely to need repairs and when either half of the machine is broken the entire thing goes to the shop.