I'm looking to buy a machine to play video (reel-to-reel) movies (more than to record, although that would be nice). I'm hunting on Ebay, and need to know what some of this terminology is so that I buy the right item.
VCR is an acronym for Video Cassette Recorder, the word cassette part of this terminology already clues you in that it isn't of reel to reel design.
VHS is an acronym for Video Home System, but it is often used as a slang standard for the type C cassettes used in standard VCR's, its true meaning is to govern the standard for Video Cassettes in analog format and little else.