VCRs that will last forever

[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.