My latest VHS Player Find
 

Hello everyone today when I was at Goodwill (work) I found a fairly high end JVC VHS VCR that seems to be one step down from their S-VHS machines that they offered, its a JVC Model HR-D630U and this thing came complete with its original remote and owners manual, what a treat! :thmbsp: :D

Anyways I was wondering what all of you guys thought of this model and if any of you guys had any experience with this model, it seems to me like this is a good solid unit that's built like a tank, and considering that a lot of your really nice Zenith VCRs from the 1980s were sourced from JVC I would think that this would have just as good of quality as those JVC Sourced Zeniths from the same time period.

pictures are posted below.

Thanks,

Levi

Wow.Great catch there Levi.As I found my Toshiba DVR/DVD recorder at the goodwill here in town tonight 09/29/2016 .They had a load of DVD players there and not many VCRs.I think they had a 1990's Hitachi there and a couple of camcorders there which I will go down there and look at them later.

Thanks, I actually saw it in the back when it was being processed by the people in the back (as you know I work at Goodwill so I get to see some of the goodies as they come in through the back, and the person doing the pricing was going to just toss it but I told her that its a high end VHS deck and that most people who still like to enjoy movies on VHS will enjoy this deck and told her to put $9.99 because of it being a higher end deck (of course I was thinking of myself when I saw it) but anyways it was the day before yesterday that it was priced and it was put out the day before yesterday and it was still there and I was able to get the machine for $5 (with employee discount) and like I said I was amazed that it still had its original manual and remote with it yet.

Nice find, Levi! According to my files I've never worked on that particular model number. But, it probably uses the same mechanism as that of other similar models. I just don't have a way to cross it.
There were pre-1985 models that had a little problem with the lube drying up. But, if yours is of that era and is working there is a good chance that the issue was addressed in the past and that it won't cause you any problem.

Brian

According to the owners manual the unit I have is from 1987, so it probably never had the dried lube problem. Although it does seem to have an issue with the audio cutting in and out between Hi-Fi Stereo and Linear Stereo Audio when the VCR is set to output Hi-Fi Stereo audio, although I'm not sure if its an issue with dirty heads, faulty tape or what, because I haven't had a chance to try another Hi-Fi Stereo Tape in the VCR yet to see if it does it with other tapes or just the one tape or what.

Oh, yeah, that's newer than the lube problem era. Now you're into what I call the "Top 4" era: Power supply caps, mode switch, loose P2 and P3 tape guides and the tantelum cap on the back side of the capstan motor. Once those are addressed that machine is one to be reckoned with!
Specifically, cleaning and the proper alignment of P2 and P3 may help your switching problem.

What's the FCC ID number on the rear panel?

Very nice buddy!!!!

Since we were an authorized JVC service center, I worked on a few of those back in the day. I knew the unit as soon as I saw the model number. May be the hi-fi heads worn out, or a tape path alignment. IF the electronics are OK. This is where an oscilloscope connected to the head amp RF test points for the video and hi-fi would tell you a lot.

The Hi-Fi functions just fine yet, I tried another tape and it worked fine, I think that the Monty Python tape just must of had a bad audio track or something which might of been why that tape wasn't working right audio wise.
Other than that it, everything else is working fine on it.

FCC ID: ASI9O2035 Hope this helps.

The FCC ID tag should look like the one in the photo.This is used as a example.

Man, that's a sweet place to work. Nice find.

the post before your post was the FCC ID off this VCR, I looked up the ID and it was indeed JVC/Kenwood that made this VCR which means that JVC themselves made this VCR and not some other company for JVC.

Thanks, I thought it was a pretty good find as well because I used to have the JVC S-VHS Equivalent of this VCR a few years back that still worked minus its original remote so some of the special effects were inaccessable to me.

I have an oscilloscope but have no idea how to use it.

Also what if the audio works fine on another tape that's the same vintage?
I'm wondering because I tried another all analog VHS Tape from 1988 that when I played it it had no problems playing Hi-Fi Audio without cutting back and forth between Hi-Fi and Linear Stereo audio like the Monty Python tape did.