My flea market friend came by to pick up the Zenith "new horizons" TV and I noticed a box of VCR's in his vehicle. I asked him if they worked and he said "yes". The top VCR was a late '90's Philips-Magnavox (pass), the second was a Sony from the same time period (pass), and the third one was this June, '86 GE model 9-7120. It's a basic mono VCR with a 14 position varactor tuner. It actually says "cable compatible" on the front; but, that means that you can tune in up to 13 of the 36 channels that were available on most cable systems back then. I have not actually tried it yet; but, it should be worth the $10 I gave for it if it works.

We had a Magnavox that looked very much like this when I was growing up. I think it lasted longer than any VCR that we've had since.

Since this is an '86 model, wouldn't it still be a "decent" unit. Wasn't it '87 when Panasonic switched to the new style chassis.

http://i538.photobucket.com/albums/ff341/radiotvnut/DSCF0001-7.jpg

Those are pretty good VCRs.

Be careful. While a good portion of the 80's GEs were indeed built by Panasonic, some of the later (especially after ±1990) stereo models were actually rebadged Samsungs, with a lot of breakable plastic gears and levers. I had a superb later one that I had to trash because one tooth broke off a transport gear and parts weren't available at any price. :gigglemad

Well, I fired it up and it seems to work OK. I will clean it out before I put it into full use. We had an early '90's GE that took the place of the Magnavox and both were junk. They only lasted maybe two years before they started giving trouble. The reason the Magnavox was replaced is because when a tape was recorded, there was constant popping and static, especially at the beginning, when that same tape was played back. Pre-recorded tapes and tapes recorded before the VCR messed up would play fine. It still played tapes fine when we finally got rid of it in the late '90's.

EDIT: What I meant to say was we had two early '90's GE's and both were junk. One replaced the Magnavox and the other was used so my Mother could copy tapes that she made on the camcorder to give to other family members. The only thing I can say for the newer GE is that it had a digital tuner and we didn't have to fool with those presets.

...

I tried mine and it will go up to 37 on cable. On our old Magnavox, we kept one preset open and would adjust it to the required channel before recording. This didn't happen much as most of what we recorded back then was on a channel between 2 and 13. I'm not worried about the tuner in this one, as it will probably be fed from a DTV converter box.

...

Since this is an '86 model, wouldn't it still be a "decent" unit. Wasn't it '87 when Panasonic switched to the new style chassis.

http://i538.photobucket.com/albums/ff341/radiotvnut/DSCF0001-7.jpg
No, it was 1988 that Panasonic began the new G-chassis. 1987 was the final year.

You should keep an eye out for some of the high end models from that year. They made ones with hi-fi stereo sound, and tuners that go all the way to 99.
The flagship, highest-end model by Panasonic in 1986 would be AG-1950. For consumer model, it would be Canon VR-HF720. Both use linear power supply. For Panasonic PV models, it would be PV-1742.

1986 was Panasonic's best year for VCRs in my opinion. Sylvania, and Philco are two other brands that were made by Panasonic in 1986.
In my opinion, I think the 1984-1985 were slightly better as the power supply lasted slightly longer.

Here is a pic of an '84 General Electric 1VCR5002X I picked up at an estate sale last Thursday. Paid 5$ for the beast. This is a poor picture. Looks very nice in person. Works, but does need the heads etc cleaned. Belts are only fair, so I'll order some replacements. And of course it is missing the wired remote.

Seems like all of these "early" vcr's can take abuse and still keep on going.

I wish I could stumble upon a couple of the old RCA SelectaVision VCR's from this era to go with my 70's and early 80's RCA consoles. They pop up on the bay from time to time, but the shipping is always too damn much.

...

The G chassis came out in mid 1987. Even so, I prefer the controls of the 86 models than the 87 models which started to depend on the remote for everything.
Oh yes, you were right, but it was only in the higher-end models that had the G-chassis, like Panasonic PV-S4764, AG-1820, and Canon VR-HF800. The mass-producing of the G-chassis didn't begin until January 1988.

Seems like all of these "early" vcr's can take abuse and still keep on going.
My #1 choice of all time would be a video cassette player (VCP) as the greatest chance it will last forever. This would be GE 1VCP6020X. This baby will outlast all your VCRs you collected due to its simplicity. It has no record, no clock display, no remote function, no front-load, no timer, and no tuner. What makes it even better is it has a linear power supply, which adds bigger gain.

The flagship, highest-end model by Panasonic in 1986 would be AG-1950. For consumer model, it would be Canon VR-HF720.

Hmmm. I passed on a Canon VCR in a thrift store several weeks ago. It would power on then shut off after about five seconds. Looked like a high-end unit.