VCRs that will last forever

[dr*audio]

Those were the G mech Panasonics, right? The ones with the cast aluminum transports, and no idler wheel to wear out, they were gear driven, or had reel motors, I forget which. I have one, still working, though I hardly use it.

Originally Posted by andy

I grew up fixing and selling used VCRs.

1985/1986 (and early 1987) Panasonics last forever after the power supply is recapped and the pinch roller is replaced. The high end ones (4 head + hi-fi) have tuners that can get all 2-99 cable channels and receive stereo broadcasts. Panasonic VCR quality went to crap in late 1987. GE, Sylvania, Philco and Magnavox were also made by Panasonic.

A 1985-88 JVC or Zenith (made by JVC) is another good choice. JVC was more generous with its tuners and was very reliable. Most could get at least channels 2-99 and received stereo broadcasts. The later ones even had a real time counter which is very unusual on a solid 80's transport.

I never cared for Hitachi/RCA because they insisted on using a belt driven capstan that meant it could only do a frustratingly slow 3x visual search. They also had an unreliable DC-DC converter powering the display and tuner control.

Fisher is another one to avoid. They made a few high end ones, but they were never very reliable and stuck to a slow 3X search speed even though they were direct drive.

Sharp, Sanyo and Mitsubishi were also nothing special.

also, don't bother with anything Korean like Goldstar and Samsung. They were the Durabrand of the 80's and 90's.

[waltchan]

Originally Posted by dr*audio

Those were the G mech Panasonics, right? The ones with the cast aluminum transports, and no idler wheel to wear out, they were gear driven, or had reel motors, I forget which. I have one, still working, though I hardly use it.

No, that was the previous Panasonic chassis. The G-chassis decks were made in 1988-1990.

[jfrog1983]

The G chassis is the only one I've seen that uses only 2 motors, the video head motor and the capstan motor, which basically operates the whole deck through a complex system of gears and a solenoid.

I prefer VCR's with at least 3 or more motors simply because they are much faster to respond!

The PV-1730 is at the other end of the scale, has 6 motors and is the fastest responding VCR I've ever seen! Mine works but is pretty beat up and needs new heads, but hey I got it for $2!

[waltchan]

Originally Posted by jfrog1983

The PV-1730 is at the other end of the scale, has 6 motors and is the fastest responding VCR I've ever seen! Mine works but is pretty beat up and needs new heads, but hey I got it for $2!

It was a unique chassis only available for 1 year in 1984 for Panasonic's first flagship 4-head Hi-Fi stereo VHS VCR model. After that, it became only available for Panasonic AG Pro-Line units. AG-1950 and AG-2400 also used the same chassis. The successor model of the PV-1730 was the PV-1740, released in 1985, but it switched back to the regular 2 belt chassis. The PV-1730 is rated by me the most reliable 4-head Hi-Fi ever made by Panasonic. Since then, the power supply has got smaller, more surface-mount caps were used, and more plastics in the chassis. PV-1740 is not any better than PV-1730, and the newer 1986 PV-1742 is not any better than PV-1740.