VCRs that will last forever

[reggaenaut]

I recently bought a vcr Sony Slv-n750, because I have lots of old tapes(documentaries, concerts) that I love. I had to shop hard to find this one. Pretty soon vcrs will be unavailable.

[Magnat10]

Still have and use my SL-HF300 Beta, thinking about selling it lately

[dr*audio]

I used to have to work on these old soldiers. They had an idler wheel which would go bad, clutches which had to be rebuilt, and a gazillion belts in them. In my opinion the Panasonics of the late 1980's, which had what they called the "G" mech, were far superior. You got VHS Hi-Fi, NO friggin' idler wheel to wear out, and I think 2 belts. They wre built very well. They had a cast / machined aluminum chassis for the mechanism. I have one I picked up for $10 at a garage sale 10 years ago. My kids played the crap out of it and it's still working great.

[andy]

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[dr*audio]

Originally Posted by andy

I never cared for the "G" chassis Panasonics. They were VERY slow to change modes because they used the capstan motor as the loading and mode motors. I also saw lots and lots with gears that jumped a tooth or two rendering the VCR unusable. It was possible to reset the gear timing, but they tended to jump again after a while. I see the G chassis as the beginning of the end of quality VCRs.

Panasonic's previous mechanism was great though. Only two belts, no idler tire and separate loading and mode motors. I've never seen a serious mechanical failure in one of those. Even the belts were made of very good quality rubber.

Hmm, that must be the chassis I was thinking of, because mine has the separate motors for loading and functions. (But I had thought that one was the "G" mech.) And it has the aluminum chassis, right?

[andy]

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[dr*audio]

Now that I'm home I took a look at the service manual. My VCR is a PV-4361 and it has one separate loading motor, not 2 as I had thought.It has that rack gear on the bottom and the capstan motor is used to drive the reels and move the rack to apply the brakes, and determine which reel is driven. Whatever, it's been a good soldier.

[Grainger49]

Every five years you can replace the head. I did on mine, 2 screws after opening and drop it in place.

Well, that is if you can find a head.

[superdeez]

Back in about 1999, I found an ancient JVC VHS unit, and an ancient Sanyo Beta unit! The tag said $20 for both but I haggled and got it down to $15. (Which, coincedentally, was my allowance at that time, me being only 14).

Both units top-loaded, and both had apparently had remotes that plugged into the front, however, only the remote for the Sanyo was still there. One thing I really found odd about this JVC unit was that it had one of those "push-button" tuners that was common to the first digital units and it only got VHF! Apparently, the reason the beta unit was still around was because the people who sold it were using it as a tuner for the VHS unit. The other thing I thought was odd was that the power switch was manual, and it resembeled a light switch with three positions for OFF/ON/TIMER.

The whole reason for this couple selling both units was that the JVC had stopped playing/recording tapes, so I took it apart when I got home (not even knowing if it worked yet), and found that I could stretch three large rubber bands I found in our kitchen in place of the broken belt! Slipshod work yes, but I was only 14. That unit played/recorded perfectly after that for two years.

The Sanyo powered up just fine and had knob-type VHF/UHF tuners, with backlit channel displays and a digital clock on the front that almost looked like someone had pasted it on as an afterthought. It only had 300 ohm input/output jacks, while the JVC had A/V jacks and a coax plug. Unfortunately, I was never able to test out the Sanyo's tape deck as I never had access to any beta tapes. If connected to antennas, however, it worked great!

My whole reason for purchasing them was because my RCA TV had been taken away by my parents, and I could eaisly hide this setup in the closet and connect it to my 17" Colour Commodore Monitor that my folks thought I just had my old NES connected to.

The VCRs were killed by lightning striking their antenna in late August, 2001. That same month, my folks waited till i had left for school and put my NES, all my games (Zelda, Mario 1/2/3, Kid Icarus, Maniac Mansion, etc.) and that Commodore display out at the curb. Both the display and the NES worked fine. Such a shame.

[kx250rider]

Originally Posted by superdeez

Back in about 1999, I found an ancient JVC VHS unit, and an ancient Sanyo Beta unit! The tag said $20 for both but I haggled and got it down to $15. (Which, coincedentally, was my allowance at that time, me being only 14).

Slightly off topic, but I have to say that I'm pleased that more younger people are interested in old TVs. Without new hobbyists, this whole vintage TV thing could disappear.

I always thought I was the only kid who was the least bit interested in old TVs & stuff, as I'd show up at the SCARS (Southern CA Antique Radio Society) swap meet in the early 80s at age 14, and everybody else was 65 it seemed (no, Colortel and SteveD, not referring to you).

Welcome to this board, and the hobby!

Charles

[Hi Ho]

I have an old Tatung VCR from th early 80's that worked until a couple years ago. The problem it has now seems to be simple but I haven't bothered to fix it. There are a couple videos in the PhotoBucket gallery showing what it does.

Back in 1996 I upgraded to a Sharp VCR with all the bells and whistles. I have been using that almost daily since then and it is still as good as new. I really like the fact that the clock sets itself.

I will soon be transfering all of my old home movies onto DVD and when I finally get a DVR, I won't have much use for a VCR. However, I will probably keep it around soley for its self setting clock.

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

BTW, I don't think DVDs are quite as cheap as VHS cassettes yet; at least they aren't at the stores I frequent. I can get RCA and other brands of blank VHS tapes at Big Lots for 98 cents apiece; I haven't yet seen blank (recordable) DVDs that cheap anywhere. I can get CD-Rs designed for data storage at dirt-cheap prices as well (I bought a spindle of 30 Imation CD-Rs at Big Lots last year for something like $3.99), but I wouldn't try to record video on them. I am not really sure what the difference is, if any, between CD-Rs designed for data storage and disks meant for video recording, although I have successfully transferred still images (jpeg) to CD-R from my computer's hard disk.

I just bought a 50 pack of Verbaitim DataLife+ DVD+R's for $20 at Newegg. That's about 40 cents per disc. Those are among the best discs you can buy.

[waltchan]

This topic may be old, but in general, 2-head mono VCRs usually last the longest. If I have to choose a VCR that will last forever, it would be Panasonic AG-2100.

[Kiwick]

Originally Posted by andy

Panasonic's previous mechanism was great though. Only two belts, no idler tire and separate loading and mode motors. I've never seen a serious mechanical failure in one of those. Even the belts were made of very good quality rubber.

The one from 1986 with the orange toothed capstan belt, right?

I used to have one, the loading motor had a plastic thingy which coupled the motor shaft to a longer shaft with a brass worm gear on it, the plastic thingy cracked in half, i managed to glue it back together only to find that the whole loading mechanism was jammed, i finally had to junk the VCR.

[jhalphen]

Hello Gentlemen,

Maybe you are a little bit interested in what we used on the other side of the pond, in Europe, France to be specific.

- The JVC HR-7600S, a SECAM single standard VHS VCR, JVC's flagship model in 1982, costing around US $2000.00 back then. One of my Broadcast customers stopped its duplication activities and were selling them off at 20% of list price. Nearly everyone in the office wanted (and got) one.
Well, believe it or not, 2 out of the 3 units i purchased are still going strong. Every 3 years i sent them in for maintenance (belt, capstan idler change) + drum check, and these 25 year-old machines just keep on working.

- Next, a big jump in time with the Sony SLV-767B, a beautiful high-end deck produced in the early 90s. Full editing with a flying erase head, full Jog/Shuttle on the deck and the remote, Hi-Fi Stereo recording and dual standard PAL/SECAM compatability. Have two, regular maintenance, both work fine.
Around 2005, a heck of a lot of purple electrolytics to change. For those who know, same caps as in the Indextron TVs with 100% bad caps guaranteed!

- Next, another jump in time, this time to S-VHS technology with the JVC HR-S7600E. Another high-end deck, purchased new in Germany last year, apparently S-VHS was a big hit there. The machine has Jog/Shuttle on the deck, but not on the remote, full insert/assemble editing, a Time Base Corrector,...

Now, why did i buy a tape deck in 2007 when you can record digital video onto a hard disk, a DVD, etc.?

Simple! the life span! My first VHS tapes, best-quality then, Fuji Beridox were recorded in 1976. 30 years later! i replay them with just an occasional long dropout. I was seriously considering a DVD burner/HDD combo, but 4 friends who have experience with these products reported difficulties playing back recordings as early as 2-3 years old, so NO WAY! for me.

Last machine is highly original: the Panasonic AG-W1, a VHS machine with built-in full standards conversion, so for instance you can dub an NTSC 3.58 525/60 USA tape to Euro PAL or SECAM 625/50 or vice-versa.
This machine came out in the late 90s before cheap digital standards conversion was available and was immediately embraced by the corporate world as the solution for solving tape/format standards problems in offices worldwide.

The one i acquired saw minimal use, and after changing 12 caps, works like new.

Hope i haven't bored you,

Best Regards

jhalphen
Paris/France

[jhalphen]

Hello again,

I have a question for you, the AK recording community:

In my philosophy of remaining faithful to tape, deeming DVD burning not reliable for long-term storage, i've kept a close watch on the US HD recorder scene.

The machine pictured in the photographs, a JVC HM-DH30000U appears quite frequently in Germany, don't know why (Mil PX sourced?)

Anyway, it can record off-air USA HDTV. Has anyone worked on the idea of making a switchable input switch modification say "Tuner & Aux" where "Aux" could record any HD source.

HDMI would have to be foiled, much like MacroVision in its day, anyone working to solve this?

I know you can time-shift off-air HD to a hard disk recorder or maybe to the just-appearing Blu-Ray recorders (Panasonic) but this is no solution for long term storage.

Additional problem could be that USA HD is 1080i/60 or 720p/60 whereas in Europe we use 1080i/50 or 720p/50. The recorder may not be able to cope with the 50/60 frames issue, which brings us right back to the problem of USA/Europe TV exchanges from the very beginning!

Thanks! for any comment, suggestions, etc.

Best Regards

jhalphen