Getting back to VCRs...
For those who don't have a DAT deck, I think a VCR can be a pretty decent (and cheap!) way to record (non-critical) live gigs, or practices. Pretty portable and if you drop it or something its not the end of the world. I record most of my band practices on my DAW now, but the nice thing about when I used a VCR was I could just set it up, hit record, and then forget about it for two hours. Now I have to manuver the damn mouse while I'm holding my guitar, constantly moving between the computer and my vocal mic. Kind of a pain.