Oldest VCR you've owned?
 

I currently own a Mitsubishi HS-300U VCR from 1981. It's really heavy and built like a tank. It still works well after 30 years, although one day I need to open it up and do a little TLC.

I don't have a picture of it (it's at home, a long way from here), but the video below has the same model. Surprisingly there was zero info anywhere about this VCR, except for the Youtube video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jH4xylRiBng

Not shown is the optional brick-sized remote and its receiver, which plugs into the back of the VCR and has a few feet of cable so you can position it for best reception. Mine came with both, which I guess is a rare find.

It's a great setup and goes well with my Zenith TV of about the same vintage - also working great, despite my Grandma using it daily for 25 years.


What is the oldest VCR you have? I have yet to find anything that predates this beast.


-Tim

I worked on those when they were current. Not fun to work on! Talk about a rats nest of wires! They have 5 motors: Two reel motors, a loading motor, capstan motor and head cylinder motor. I remember the remote unit that went with those too. Probably some pieces of one in a box at the old shop I worked at.

My oldest VCR is a 77' Zenith jr-9000w two speed Betamax top loader with orig dust cover (the handle on the speed switch was broke off though), bought it at the ARCI donation auction for a whopping 1$. After lubing a stuck (still not too good) motor I was able to get monochrome video with red blue and purple noise which soon disapeared and left me with just mono video and audio .:sigh: I'll start a resotration thread after I finish some projects I have going.

My oldest VTR is either a circa 1975 Sony AV-5000A or a Concord (can't remember the model #) both use the EAIJ reel to reel monochrome video recording standard (hence Video Tape Recorder VTR instead of Video Cassette Recorder VCR), though the Sony has non-standard color capabilities(if you are curious check out this link labguysworld.com/Sony_AV-5000A.htm.

Got some other vintage decks, but I think I'll limit it to the oldest.

Tom C.

I have a 1979 Sharp, bought it recently for cheap just because it's big and old.

My oldest video recorder is a 1967 Sony CV-2100CE 1/2" CV format reel-reel videotape recorder http://www.troysvintagevideo.741.com/cv2100.html . I rescued it from a local scrap metal/vintage electronics recycle centre and it is cosmetically in great shape and powers up and functions well mechanically, once tried to record a picture on it but got no picture playback so I guess it's probably not fully functional. I also have a spare video head for it as well.

I own a 1976 Sony model LV-1901, combination one-hour Betamax VCR and 19" color TV.

I've still got my old Pana-built Quasar that a customer declined an estimate on in the 90's. His loss. :yes:

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/i...H5100QWVCR.jpg

I believe it's the Sharp VC-6800 you mentioned earlier. This one was also the oldest VCR I used to own. Sold it for $330 shipped 4 years ago.

His loss, yes, but 90s VCR had already reached $150, and he thought that a 16 year old VCR reached the end of lifespan (not really for this one).

Sanyo's first Betacord. Knob tuner, BII only, drum servo only (brake), circa 1976, almost entirely discrete components.

At the time, only Beta with built-in electronic/LED clock. Sony's were the mechanical flip-clocks like their clock radios, an accessory that sat on top. Sold in 1981.

The oldest VCR I ever owned was a 1984 top loading JVC with big multi-colored buttons on the front. I got it in 2005. It had several blown fuses in it when I got it. I replaced the fuses but I only got it to play once. Threw it out.:sigh:

My oldest VCR (now long gone, heads failed in 1990) was a 1984 GE top-loading VHS machine built by Panasonic. It had 12-position tuning (thumbwheel-tuned 83-channel electronic tuning system), three speeds, wired remote, and it worked quite well for me the six years I owned it. I'd have kept it a bit longer if not for the fact that a local TV shop gave me a $250 estimate to repair it. :no:

the oldest vcr I ever had was an RCA Selectavision VBT 200 VHS. Hand me down when my father replaced it with one with a Selectavision 650. One of the first with a wireless remote. The 200 Is long gone. but still have several tapes that were recorded on it. Including a 1977 Elvis Concert with 1970's Commercials. Had only 2 Speeds SP and LP would not play SLPor EP tapes. Tank of a unit.

Still have my JVC HR-3300, the very first VHS deck from 1977. It has full width [59 Micron] video heads and still works fine.
Cliff

Oldest deck I ever owned was a Panasonic PV-1200 that my folks bought from Sears in 1980. I had it up to 2004 and it still played fine. Needed to downsize so I gave it away. I wish I still had it.

I rescued a Sony SL-8600 betamax at the shop I worked in 1985. It cost nearly $1200 in 1979. First unit with digital clock. Timer recording had only a start time and ran the X-2 speed only, had knob tuners and a wired remote pause. I got about 5 good years out of it. Worn mechanicals caused speed errors (noise) so I junked it in 2002.

At the time, the Beta SL-HF 400/600/800, Panasonic and Hitachi-made VHS units were so much better, nobody wanted to fix the heavy old tanks.

i have a really early sony toploader vcr from the mid 70s, vhs format, built like a tank.
you know, the ones that work kinda like a cassette deck where when you hit the play button and it mechaniclly puts the tape on the head!! uber cool man. its in nice shape and even has the accesory clock timer for it. no digital crap on it, all analogue and electro mechanical, oh and it has wood sides so it matches most of my other gear!
and yes, it still works!

Vhs? I thought that S0ny only made betamax format machines untill it was clear that VHS had won the format war in the mid 80's.

uh uh. im positive its VHS. and its from the 70s, could be wrong about the brand though, its been in storage for 10+ years, so its been awile since i saw it. but im almost positive its a sony.

Separate timer and wood side panels sounds like Sony, all right, but it will not be a VHS machine then. If it is a VHS machine, though, there were numerous brands of top-loading, mechanical-key machines between 1977 and 1979-80. All of them had the timer built in, though, as far as I remember. (Built-in timer was one of the three advantages of the first VHS VCR over the competing Sony Betamax. Can anyone here name the other two? :) )

Longer record time, and either a built in RF modualtor or more likely the ability to program the channel you want to record instead of leaving a mechanical tuner set to the desired channel.

oldest VHS machine I've owned was a 1981 Magnavox branded top-loader with----KNOB TUNING!---- what a relic. 2 head.

The oldest VHS VCR I currently have is an RCA VBT-200 dated Oct 23, 1977 in pretty good condition. The oldest Beta VCR I've got is an early 1976 Sony SL-7200 with the BI speed only(Then the X1 speed before 1979). I've also got a Panasonic U-Matic video recorder w/tuning(both UHF and VHF) from about 1973 approx. with a wired remote as well. I've got plenty of other pre-1984-85 VCRs as well which also includes a circa 1983 Quasar front-loader VCR.

Yes, longer record/play time is one, and a remote pause control (hard-wired) is the other (well, I am pretty sure that was standard on the original JVC VCR).

The first VCR without a mechanical tuner was the RCA VCT-400 in 1978, with a multi-button varactor tuner. That model was also the first VCR that could record multiple timed programs on different channels (four events in seven days). That feature was yet another where VHS passed Beta early; the first programmable Beta VCR was the Sony SL-5400 not released until late 1979, and it did one event in three days.

Panasonic 1982
 

I rented a Panasonic, top load VHS in 1982 from Granada TV for $24 per month. $1250 was just to much money and with all the moving parts, I figure that just renting it, Granada would keep the repairs up on the machine .
A few years later, Granada closed their business in Canada and I bought the machine for approx $150.
The VCR was plain Jane, no stereo and the remote was a long wire with pause and start .

Mine is an RCA VET250 toploader, I believe it's from 1980. It was sent to me from a generous member of AudioKarma half a dozen years ago, with the provision that I care for it well and use it. I'm all about keeping promises :)

I have a couple of Toshiba Betamax VCRs from the early 80s. I've got a top-load Sanyo betamax from unknown period.

The oldest VHS is probably an old Sharp from the late 80s my father bought "out of necessity", he hated VHS. I also had a couple of VCRs, one was branded Goldstar, the other was RadioShack, both used interchangable parts (because I swapped them out)

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oldest vcr jvc 3300-au auction find
 

oldest vcr jvc 3300-au .. not sure what the au stands for
this is a auction find
anybody know more about it please let me know thanks
bob

Bob-

That's "the one", the first VHS VCR, from 1977. The "U" is for USA, I am pretty sure, and the "A" probably means it is an improved version of the original (HR-3300U). That model only works in the SP speed (the only speed that should be used in any case).

Absolutely. Either go from the Ch 3 or 4 RF out of the converter box to the Ant In of the VCR and tune it in, or go from Video and Audio outputs of the converter box to the Video and Audio Inputs on your VCR. If the VCR is mono there's probably a setting in the converter box's menu to set the audio to mix the stereo audio to mono.

the vcr
 

thanks
i hooked it up today and wow it plays great ...now to see if it can record

Let's see.... I'd have to say a JVC HR-3300 still in the box with all the factory toys, and a Mitsubishi re-badge of the same model. Both are 1976 first-gen VHS but are oddly much smaller than my 1977 RCA VBT-200 (rebadged Panasonic PV-1100 I think?). I think I might have a VCT-400 around here too. For the Beta side I have an SL-7200, an SL-8200, and an SL-8600. I was offered a perfect LV-1901 for free but had to turn it down due to space constraints. Geez I need to thin out the herd as it is!

1977 probably PV-1000. Panasonic's 1st VHS VCR too. Had a separate head amp board behind the head drum. Next PV-1100 had the head amp down on the bottom swing-out video board and the picture wasn't as good.

I held out buying a VCR for awhile, so my first one was a Panasonic stereo VHS with Dolby B noise reduction and varactor tuning.

Sounds like the PV-1780 I bought in late 1982, pre-hifi, linear stereo with Dolby noise reduction, mono tuner. Used it mostly to record stereo off of cable with stereo simulcast on FM.

I thought mine had a stereo tuner. I remember hearing MTV in stereo thru it. It had fairly decent audio on the linear tracks @ SP speed.

If it was made before 1984 it had a mono tuner. They had not settled on a MTS standard for the US yet.

Probably post '84. I remember Joe Jackson's "Stepping Out" and Billy Joel's "Allentown" being popular music videos at the time.

Was unfortunate timing the Panasonic PV-1730 that came out in '83 which was loaded with features, had a die-cast chassis, direct drive reels, hi-fi stereo, AND stereo linear audio with Dolby for backward compatibility with older non-hi-fi linear stereo tapes, but missed getting a stereo tuner by a year.

I'm surprised this machine didn't come with a port to connect an outboard MTS decoder like the Sony SL-HFR Betamax machines.