This is a thread I opened to discuss anything about vintage VCRs made from 1975, the beginning, with Beta, 1977 with VHS, to 1990 before VCRs became disposable, light, and unreliable. What did you like about them, and what did you miss from your old VCR you bought 25 years ago.

I mainly collect all the VHS VCRs made in the 80s, and it is unbelievable how reliable they are, and they tell me they want to run forever (if parts are available). Unlike the VCRs made from the 90s, the 70s and 80s used stronger power supply that were linear (excluding Panasonic after 1984) and were much heavier.

I have many more things to say once people start joining in.

I just remember using my first VCR starting in late 1979, and then thinking 'this is so fundamentally how video viewing should be from now on', that I had to come up with an analogy to explain it to people, comparing to reading books, that went like this:

"Imagine that you only have the choice of a few different books to read at any one time. There will be a list of these books available to choose from. At certain times of each day, each book will open and its pages will start to turn at a fixed rate, whether you are ready to read it or not. You will not be able to make the books wait if you have to use the bathroom, and reading one book means you will lose out on other books you might also like. Book publishers will intentionally try to set them up so you have to miss some good books when you choose others. Every book will have pages of ads that have to pass by before you can read the next chapter. Once the book's last page goes by, the book will close, and you may not get the chance to read it again for months or years, if ever. How asinine would it be if books were presented to the public this way? Well this is how TV-watching works."

Early VCR's were built alot like broadcasting VTR's were made... heavy and tough.

I loved the early Betamax machines... SL-5000 was the model of one with a clock on top. It was almost as large as the 3/4" U-Matic machines of the day.

A friend of mine bought the first Betamax sold in Nashville, TN. It was actually written up in the paper, with a picture! He learned incredibly fast how to do edits on his machine.

I still have a beta copy of Gone With The Wind that he recorded from the first broadcast of the movie on NBC. Believe it or not, its very watchable, and we just have to change tapes at commercial breaks!!

I recently purchased a 1987 Toshiba DX-900 PCM VCR that I mistakenly thought it is smaller-sized to put on my bookcase next to my LCD TV. Surprisingly, it came to me as really ultra-large, and it weighs 23 pounds, the largest and heaviest VCR you could buy in 1987. I had to set it aside, sell it on eBay for profit, and purchased another 80s VCR. There's a PCM audio feature. What is PCM, and is there any use for it?

It is to my knowledge that Toshiba VCRs made in the 80s tend to be the fattiest, largest, and heaviest, because Toshiba tend to put more metal parts inside to increase unnecessary weight than other manufacturers (even today in new products). How can I forget that!!! :drool:

(oh, see the attached pics). Look at this gorgeous beast.

What is your opinion with Toshiba VCRs made in that era?

PCM is Pulse Code Modulation, the method of digitizing audio signals into fixed-bit-rate data streams. This is how the CD Audio format is encoded, as well as Digital Sound on laser discs, Wave files on computers, etc.

On that VCR, the PCM setting would turn it into a very-high-fidelity stereo audio tape recorder, by using the bandwidth of the video space on VHS tapes for the encoded audio instead of recording video. Sony first made add-on PCM encoder/decoders for some of its Beta VCRs in the early 1980's. These add-ons cost more than the VCRs themselves, if I remember right. If that Toshiba has the circuits built in, it is an unusual machine indeed.

Id rather have a VCR with alot of metal support in it than a plastic lightweight machine. How often do you need to move one?

That said, my first Hi-Fi VHS machine was a Fisher (sanyo) FVH-840. Very large, very lightweight, and ate idler tires yearly. It was stolen from my home, and in a way, I was glad it was out of my hands. It caused more tape damage than any I have seen before or since!!

I recently purchased a 1987 Toshiba DX-900 PCM VCR that I mistakenly thought it is smaller-sized to put on my bookcase next to my LCD TV. Surprisingly, it came to me as really ultra-large, and it weighs 23 pounds, the largest and heaviest VCR you could buy in 1987. I had to set it aside, sell it on eBay for profit, and purchased another 80s VCR. There's a PCM audio feature. What is PCM, and is there any use for it?

It is to my knowledge that Toshiba VCRs made in the 80s tend to be the fattiest, largest, and heaviest, because Toshiba tend to put more metal parts inside to increase unnecessary weight than other manufacturers. How can I forget that!!! :drool:

(oh, see the attached pics). Look at this gorgeous beast.

What is your opinion with Toshiba VCRs made in that era?

I remember those when I was in grade school! Its been years! I also remember the ones that were top loading. I think Motorola made them. Brings back some memories. Not to mention that we used audio records to read books to, and slide projectors. And this was all in the mid-90's. Makes me wish I was a kid all over again.

Speaking of using VCRs in school, I remember in junior high, one particulary imposing teacher had a top loading early model VCR, old enough to have rotary UHF/VHF tuners on the front, and a wired remote control. He would walk around during movies, and whip the remote control wire over the students in their desks as he walked back and forth around the room.

I think the 80s and early 90s were a low point for quality in school movies, stuck between the superior large picture of 16mm films, and modern day digital sources and video projectors. I don't at all miss watching a grainy VHS tape, with the tracking going in and out of sync, 20 feet away from a cheap 20 inch RCA tv, with terrible blaring mono sound struggling to keep up with a class of 30 people half paying attention. This is about as far from ideal movie watching conditions I can possibly imagine.

Speaking of using VCRs in school, I remember in junior high, one particulary imposing teacher had a top loading early model VCR, old enough to have rotary UHF/VHF tuners on the front, and a wired remote control. He would walk around during movies, and whip the remote control wire over the students in their desks as he walked back and forth around the room.
The earliest and oldest VCR I know of was in my high school years, a 1984 Panasonic PV-1225. When I first saw it, I never knew VCRs were made so long ago. When I was in elementary school, the oldest VCRs were the 1988 Panasonic AG-1240 with G-chassis. In 1995 every, classrooms have its own TV and VCR unit, both a Zenith.

The first generation VHS VCRs were pretty much all top loading, and came in two styles. Either the whole thing was one large component, similar in size to a large stereo receiver, or they would be split, with the tuner/power supply in one component, and the VCR itself in the second half, which also could be carried around and used with a video camera. Connecting the two were cables with DIN connectors on them. Set next to each other on top of a TV, the split design looked and functioned the same as the combined models.

I received my first VCR, a 1977 vintage AKAI split type, with camera in about 1989 as a hand me down from a family memeber who always bought first generation technology. It was will built, with the controls (play, stop, etc) set up like piano keys, like an old audio cassette deck. I connected it to my stereo through it's earphone jack, and watched plenty of movies on my Zenith TV I'm currently talking about in another thread. Also had a lot of fun making 'movies'. The camera started to die, as its tube aged, and eventually became unusuable, producing a blurry green image.

A nice, gorgeous, looks to be never used, 1982 JVC HR-7100U top-loading 4-head VHS VCR listed on eBay right now. It probably needs new belts or tire cleaning, based on the description.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&_trkparms=algo%3DLVI%26itu%3DUCI%26otn%3D4%26po%3D LVI%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D6481350276382190634&_trksid=p5197.m7&afsrc=1&category=3318&item=350430795386&nma=true&rt=nc&si=JXDgJ2Bf0mJjHW08wT1e3%252FDI8ao%253D

Panasonic or any brand that they made. They were tough as nails. From the top loaders through the late nineties, they were the king of the hill as far as reliability went. Hitachi was also very dependable, my personal favorite, but the mechanism used SIX! different belts. Almost always was the only problem they would ever have though.

Sanyo/Fisher units were trouble prone, like anything else they made at the time but the worst were the early Korean machines, Funai and Goldstar. The Zenith branded Goldstars looked like a million bucks but were real pieces of crap.

I worked on VCR's from 1990 to 1999 and was amazing to see how the quality of the product downgraded. Even then, we were repairing old nice machines instead of buying new ones. The best ones had already been made.

Sorry if this is posted in the wrong category. Maybe should be 1990-2000.

I love my VCR with a passion and i feel sad there is getting less and less GOOD QUALITY i can record on my tapes..... (I AM VERY THANKFUL THOUGH I HAVE AS MANY MOVIES IN ANALOGUE AS I DO!!)

Hitachi was also very dependable, my personal favorite, but the mechanism used SIX! different belts. Almost always was the only problem they would ever have though.
Hitachi is "dependable" with 6-belts! I don't think so. :no:. It's the least dependable. Correct English word should be "durable". :yes:

Consumers actually hate it. If they had to spend $75 average for new belts every 5 years (or even 1 year if loading and unloading tapes 25 times a day), they would be furious, and they would unkindly dump them to trash. Plus, it was really slow for each mechanical function.

Durable as it may sound, in actual, most had already been trashed, and there are fewer Hitachi units still around today than Panasonic, based on number of units posted on eBay. I see more mid-90s Hitachi VCRs on eBay than 80s Hitachi VCRs, despite the 80s Hitachis sold in much higher number.

I had problems with the 6-belt chassis, with loading belts that snap out for no reason if loading and unloading tapes repeatedly for about 25 times a day in a 24 hour period. Sometimes I love a video scene so much, I would hit stop, rewind a little, and push play again. And then I found out it shuts down for no reason because a loading belt snaps out. Imagine me buying it new for $1,000 in 1986 for the 7-head Hi-Fi version (VT-1805A), plus $75 for belt replacements every year for the next 15 years from a repair center. It would cost me $2,125 plus gas, time, 3 days without a VCR every year, and effort in operating expenses. THAT'S NOT DEPENDABLE. I would be much better off in the first place with a Emerson, JVC, Mitsubishi, NEC, Panasonic, Sanyo, or Sharp for lower operating expenses than the Hitachi.

These eight companies do better in heavy-use, tape loading reliability than Hitachi, with Panasonic being #1 here (1986-1987, MBK-36), Mitsubishi being #2, Sanyo being #3 (1988, MBK-09), Toshiba being #4 (1990-1991, MBK-76), NEC being #5, Sharp being #6 (1988-1993, MBK-16), JVC being #7, and Emerson being #8, all in order from my expert eyes. Only three companies that did worse than Hitachi are Funai (1986-1988, MBK-66, flat loading belt every year), Toshiba (1986-1989, MBK-52 and MBK-26, loading motor every year), and Fisher (idler).

For extreme commercial/heavy use environment, the 1986-1987 Panasonic chassis does the best and rates #1 by me of all time, but it eats power supply that drags down the long-term reliability. If it ever had a linear power supply, it would be a big dream for me. For extreme longevity (not reliability), the 1981-1982 JVC chassis does the best and rates #1 by me of all time. It was designed to run for 500 years (if parts are available), but there's only 15 year parts availability, so they get trashed with 99.9% lifespan left. All gears inside are completely metal (no thick plastic), only VCR I saw. For a perfect balance between reliability, dependability, and longevity, the 1992-1993 mid-90s Hitachi chassis with linear power supply is the winner.

Sanyo/Fisher units were trouble prone, like anything else they made at the time but the worst were the early Korean machines, Funai and Goldstar. The Zenith branded Goldstars looked like a million bucks but were real pieces of crap.
The Fisher brand is indeed very trouble-prone, and it actually was rated the most unreliable VCR brand according to the vintage 80s Consumer Reports. Fisher's rating was completely off the charts. I've never owned, bought, or serviced a Fisher VCR, based on the dumpy rating. Mid-80s Fishers were the first mass-marketed VCRs to go extinct and non-existent in people's home today.

However, the Sanyo brand is a different animal here, with different electronics and chassis. They are much more reliable mechanically. The best Sanyo chassis ever built is the 1988 one: http://www.studiosoundelectronics.com/mbk-09.htm. Consumer Reports even rated Sanyo as the most reliable VHS (not Beta) VCR brand of the 80s with a linear power supply.

Sanyo and Fisher has the largest gap of reliability difference made by a single manufacturer. I never understand why. :dunno:

A very nice, super-rare looking 1982 General Electric VHS VCR with wooden panel trims all around it. This unit will look best to put over on top of your console TV. I think this unit was made by Hitachi, if I'm correct.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-General-Electric-VCR-1VCR-1012W-VHS-Player-/130493513161?pt=VCRs&hash=item1e6204fdc9

A very nice, super-rare looking 1982 General Electric VHS VCR with wooden panel trims all around it. This unit will look best to put over on top of your console TV. I think this unit was made by Hitachi, if I'm correct.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-General-Electric-VCR-1VCR-1012W-VHS-Player-/130493513161?pt=VCRs&hash=item1e6204fdc9
So sad, 4 ad relists without a single buyer. I assume it got e-wasted. This is such a nice looking unit, especially the wood-trim appearance on top.

Hmm no bids!! (Probably cause he says it doesnt work ("for parts",etc (AT LEAST HE IS HONEST))

Heres a good site for VCR lovers like us :)

http://vhs.myfreeforum.org

I have a early mechanical tuner Zenith Beta model jr-9000w.
It has some electronic bugs that I need to fix, but appears to be very well built(the mechanics remind me of some reel to reel audio machines I've worked on).
I also have two EAIJ video decks which are esentially profesional consumer units(which would have been their market seeing as they predate Beta).

I don't keep any pre 90s VHS(with the exception of two top loaders) because they often lack features that I must have on the units I use for time shifting/archiving, such as HiFi stereo, and S-VHS/S-VHS-ET recording.

Though all my beta equipment is pre 1990.

Tom C.

Tom, I think that Zenith is the first Zenith Beta VCR, the same as a Sony SL-8200 basically. From 1977-78.

This should just fit into the age range here.
Just finished repairing an old NEC N9052A from about 1989. Seriously heavy unit, fairly simple mechanically. According to my parts sources this was most likely made by NEC themselves, and was probably one of the last to do so. Later on they used Daewoo for a short while then switched to Goldstar/LG for the remainder of the time that NEC sold VCRs, at least in this country.
The main item of note is under the deck with the mechanism for the tape threading, it is like no other VHS machine that I have come across with the two full circle gears, kind of like a beta machine.
Unit works well now, only a mono machine but I find mono machines better for jumping ads with as they are quicker to get sound back after picture search than most HiFi machines.
http://videokarma.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=171111&stc=1&d=1311221023
http://videokarma.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=171112&stc=1&d=1311221023

Compare that to some of the '84-'88 model JVCs like this bottom view of a HR-D725.

http://videokarma.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=171121&stc=1&d=1311376003

I always thought NEC copied the mechanism from JVC. Don't recall any of of the parts were interchangeable but the basic mechanism and loading system is very similar.

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Marantz-VR-550HQ-VR-450HQ-VR-250-VHS-VCR-brochure-/350029812249?pt=Vintage_Electronics_R2&hash=item517f671219:drool:http://www.ebay.ca/itm/NEC-1986-VHS-VCR-camcorder-POSTER-brochure-/190173070338?pt=Vintage_Electronics_R2&hash=item2c4732c402

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Marantz-VR-550HQ-VR-450HQ-VR-250-VHS-VCR-brochure-/350029812249?pt=Vintage_Electronics_R2&hash=item517f671219:drool:http://www.ebay.ca/itm/NEC-1986-VHS-VCR-camcorder-POSTER-brochure-/190173070338?pt=Vintage_Electronics_R2&hash=item2c4732c402

https://web.archive.org/web/20190218035319/https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEC-N965U-VHS-VCR-1987-4-HEAD-HI-FI-MTS-dbx-w-Remote-Manual-for-Parts-Service-/302904242761?_trksid=p2047675.m43663.l10137&nordt=true&rt=nc&orig_cvip=true