I got a little manic yesterday after helping my Aunt hook up her new DVD/VCR combo. Jesus god.. what a cheap plastic piece of crap that was, and of course she wanted to record, and since they have no tuners anymore I had to pull my head out of my a**, to figure it out. (RCA jacks from the output of the cable box, to the input of the combo unit.... more RCA jacks from the output of the combo unit to the input of the TV)
Anyway.... got home and looked on Craigslist for VCR's to add to my stash. Picked up a mint Sony SLV-799HF with instruction book for $8.00, and then.. saw a top-loader with 15 movies for $10.00. What a beast, but it works great. It's a Quasar model number VH5032WQ with a wired remote... and it works! I saw a repair sticker on it from 1994, so I imagine that's the last time it saw new belts. The guy even had the remote. Hooked it up to my Zenith 4 tube hybrid, and surprise.. no horizontal tear.....

That's a good machine. I have one very similar, probably one or two rungs down the ladder from yours. The wired remote for mine (which I do not have) contained one button - "pause." I think it may have been a 2-way slide switch, can't remember.

Woah, my Panasonic top loader shares the exact same VFD!

well.. Quasar, by that time was owned by Pansonic, so I bet they're the same machine.
Oh... and my Aunts crappy Magnavox combo unit that I hooked up Saturday, which prompted me to buy these... broke already.

well.. Quasar, by that time was owned by Pansonic, so I bet they're the same machine.
Oh... and my Aunts crappy Magnavox combo unit that I hooked up Saturday, which prompted me to buy these... broke already.

It's probably a Funai built unit. Not very reliable. :sigh:

It's probably a Funai built unit. Not very reliable. :sigh:
Unless it's made from the 1980s. :yes:

Yup.. Funai. I knew they were horrible from past experiance, but gee whiz.. it broke in 2 days. (it sucks in the tape crooked and now one is stuck and it won't come out). I have never had good luck with combo units tho. In 2004 I bought 2 Toshiba combos and 1 Sony. The Toshiba's were never happy reading DVD's. and 1 of them flat out let out a spark as I was trying to program a tape. The Sony was a bit better, but always went into auto track when playing ANY tape. Just enough to be a pain in the a**. Even on Studio tapes... you'd be watching something, and then radomly the auto-track logo would pop on the screen. I DO have a JVC combo unit that's been pretty good thus far. I'm going to give the Aunt an old VCR, altho I hinted and am trying to have her get DVR service. She is just at that age where it is NOT a joy explaining how to operate a new device. I think I will give her an old RCA VCR as even "Timmy!" from "South Park" could program one of those........

Yup.. Funai. I knew they were horrible from past experiance, but gee whiz.. it broke in 2 days. (it sucks in the tape crooked and now one is stuck and it won't come out).
Funai used to build VCRs that were one of the most-reliable out there during the 1980s. It's a real shame that Funai has taken this path today.