> Is anyone interested in backing up data to a standard videorecorder
> using a PC parallel port and a special designed interface with PIC16c84

Such a concept would have been useful a few years ago.  Nowadays, however,
reasonably-priced tape drives can back up data faster and more reliably
than a consumer-grade VCR.  While there may be some merit in the low media
cost, VCR backup solutions are a pain in the tusch to use.  If you want to
make the thing work at all reasonably, you'll need to have a fair amount
of RAM on your encoder/decoder board for buffering [e.g. 1MB] and have it
incorporate enough intelligence to read/write large amounts of data unatt-
ended.  Then you'll have to have the data on type subdivided into some size
blocks, with some blank space between blocks to allow the VCR to be paused
if needed.

Basically, what you'll need to do is have the device be able to read data
off the tape into the buffer while spooling the data to the PC, and have it
be able to pause the tape at a block boundary if the PC isn't processing the
data fast enough.  If your net data rate is 1mpbs and your block size is
128K (about a second), then you can have the device stop the tape when all
eight blocks of buffering are full and restart the tape when seven are
empty.  With any luck, you should be able to manage a nice consistent flow
of data without too much starting/stopping of the drive.