VCRs that will last forever

[waltchan]

Originally Posted by wilkes85

Electrohome is (well, was) a Canadian electronics manufacturer. Mitsubishi bought it out in 1984.

And I think I'm gonna open this thing up and give it a good cleaning at least. It's never needed servicing, and has never been opened up in 20 years. it's about time lol

Your Electrohome is probably made by Mitsubishi. Since you said it has never been opened up before, you will need to order new belts and pinch roller, as well as idler tire.

http://www.studiosoundelectronics.com/mbk-29.htm

The tire is extremely hard to change, but you will get an instruction manual to put it in.

[wilkes85]

Originally Posted by waltchan

Your Electrohome is probably made by Mitsubishi. Since you said it has never been opened up before, you will need to order new belts and pinch roller, as well as idler tire.

http://www.studiosoundelectronics.com/mbk-29.htm

The tire is extremely hard to change, but you will get an instruction manual to put it in.

if it's extremely hard to change, I think I'll save that until it stops working totally lol

[Ed in Tx]

Originally Posted by waltchan

Your Electrohome is probably made by Mitsubishi. Since you said it has never been opened up before, you will need to order new belts and pinch roller, as well as idler tire....The tire is extremely hard to change, but you will get an instruction manual to put it in.

Yep you have to disassemble the whole reel drive assembly that is that black piece referred to. I can do one in about half an hour. I've done many of these. I always replaced the idler arm assy, not just the idler tire, with a genuine Mitsubishi part. Probably no longer available. Have fun!

[John Hafer]

My first VCR was a Panasonic PV-1500 in 1979. I still have tapes I made back in 1979 and 1980 including the original 1980 NBC '50 Years of Television' special complete with commercials, a NOVA special on the DC-10 from 1980, and 4 hours of recordings from the 1980 Winter Olympics from Lake Placid, with ads. I always made all of my recordings at SP for the best quality.

I recently played these tapes on my current VCR and they all played back perfect, after almost 30 years!!!

So, who wants to bet my DVD recordings I made on my DVD recorder using DVD-R disks will still play 30 years from now. From what I am reading, the film used in the DVD blank disks will fade within several years and will cause digital errors to the extent the disks will not even play.

Kind of ironic in that my original intent of buying a DVD recorder was to archive my non-commercial (home recorded) VHS tapes to DVD. Now I am finding that I need to keep the VHS tapes as archives and use the DVD copies for watching!

John

[Ed in Tx]

Originally Posted by John Hafer

My first VCR was a Panasonic PV-1500 in 1979. I still have tapes I made back in 1979 and 1980 ...

So, who wants to bet my DVD recordings I made on my DVD recorder using DVD-R disks will still play 30 years from now.
John

My thoughts exactly. My first VCR was a Panasonic PV-1000 and I too have old tapes from '78-'79 on, that still play fine.

Another thought.. all the TV captured on tape from the '70s, '80s, and '90s up until DVRs took over, and that kind of archiving won't exist in the future with no more VCRs and all hard drive based DVRs...

[bgadow]

Originally Posted by John Hafer

My first VCR was a Panasonic PV-1500 in 1979. I still have tapes I made back in 1979 and 1980 including the original 1980 NBC '50 Years of Television' special complete with commercials, a NOVA special on the DC-10 from 1980, and 4 hours of recordings from the 1980 Winter Olympics from Lake Placid, with ads. I always made all of my recordings at SP for the best quality.

I recently played these tapes on my current VCR and they all played back perfect, after almost 30 years!!!

So, who wants to bet my DVD recordings I made on my DVD recorder using DVD-R disks will still play 30 years from now. From what I am reading, the film used in the DVD blank disks will fade within several years and will cause digital errors to the extent the disks will not even play.

Kind of ironic in that my original intent of buying a DVD recorder was to archive my non-commercial (home recorded) VHS tapes to DVD. Now I am finding that I need to keep the VHS tapes as archives and use the DVD copies for watching!

John

I love to find stuff like that; I have some Beta tapes I found from '82 or so. Some of them look as good as live. I've thought about getting a DVD recorder but I really don't trust that they will be permanent. Heck, I've got some paper-backed R2R tapes that must be no newer than 1950? Sound great! (to my tin ear, at least)

[AUdubon5425]

Originally Posted by bgadow

I love to find stuff like that; I have some Beta tapes I found from '82 or so. Some of them look as good as live. I've thought about getting a DVD recorder but I really don't trust that they will be permanent.

I hadn't planned on buying a DVD recorder. but I did so recently just so I could copy some things I taped years ago.

My tapes were always stored in a closet out of the heat until Katrina. For about 2 years afterward they were in a non air-conditioned workshop. When I brought them back into the house, some of them had visible mold (white dust) on the tape reels looking through the top. Many of them (with or without the mold) have suffered serious degradation of the video quality. I am also having to run the head cleaner through the VCR way more often than before.

We didn't get a VCR until Christmas 1991, and I recorded a lot of stuff up until 1997, so I'm talking about tapes that are 12-18 years old, all name brand, recorded at LP & SP.

[Dennman6]

My oldest VHS tapes are from June, 1983, when I rented a Sharp VC-9500 VCR to tape my brother's high school graduation in Reston, VA. We attended the ceremony, & our local cable company played the tape of this several times over that weekend on the public access channel.

The tapes cost me about $10 EACH(Maxell T-120s), & I filled up the second tape with Looney Tunes & Walter Lantz cartoons off of WDCA. I have always used the SP speed for best picture quality, & those tapes look quite good today. The sound is only average, as VHS Hi-Fi hadn't been introduced yet(that came in 1984) & the Sharp had the usual mono linear audio track.

I have found that nearly all of my circa 1,000 VHS tapes play well today, for the simple reason that there are too many of 'em for any one tape to get played too often-so wear is minimal. And I do burn various VHS tapes to DVD-R for friends & family, on my Pioneer DVD recorder. I have no illusions about any DVD-R or CD-R discs lasting 20-50-100 years, regardless of any "aging tests" by the manufacturers. This why I still use a VHS Hi-Fi VCR for tapings off of TCM, IFC, etc.(as well as 'events' like the recent election). I feel IF you get good tape stock(current fav is Sony), a viewing copy on DVD-R will suffice for distribution & the VHS "master" gets stored away til needed again. I had wanted to get a nice JVC SVHS VCR for better picture resolution, knowing that digital TV & DVD-Rs would take over, but by the time I started waving money around retailers no longer had any in stock

[waltchan]

Originally Posted by Dennman6

My oldest VHS tapes are from June, 1983, when I rented a Sharp VC-9500 VCR to tape my brother's high school graduation in Reston, VA. We attended the ceremony, & our local cable company played the tape of this several times over that weekend on the public access channel.

I've been looking for a Sharp VC-9500 for more than 5 years on eBay but with no luck so far.