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I saw a few of those 1985 Panasonics with the shorted loading motor drive IC, burnt out loading motor and the heat from the motor melted the loading mechanism.
Those Panasonics with everything running off the capstan motor were a real step down from the older ones. I think Panasonic had just about perfected their VCRs by 1986 when they switched to an idler gear.
They did eventually work out the bugs on the ones that ran everything off the capstan motor. Their top of the line prosumer SVHS deck (AG-1980) used the same basic transport with a separate loading/mode motor to speed up editing. I think the early ones had gears that slipped too easily, but they improved tolerances later on. It's funny that they used an old consumer transport for much more recent pro decks. That says it all about the decline in VCR quality.
While we're talking about Panasonic VCRs, did anyone else notice that Goldstar used a tape transport throughout most of the 80's that was clearly based on Panasonic's from the early 80's? I always wondered if Goldstar bought the design from Panasonic, or if they reverse engineered it. The Goldstar certainly never worked as well, or was as reliable. I even replaced a broken main cam gear in a Goldstar with one from a scrap Panasonic. Panasonic and Goldstar head drums were also often interchangeable.
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