80's VCR that is Holy Grail ??

[mr_fixer]

It wasn't a S-vhs, but it was a good one. I bought it used from a pawn shop in 1992-3. I think that it had a shuttle knob on the right side for fast foward and reverse. and it had a door that flipped down so you coould adjust the audio levels with 2 slide faders. It was along time ago. so my memory might be a little fuzzy.

[Lady Ayeka]

Originally Posted by mr_fixer

It wasn't a S-vhs, but it was a good one. I bought it used from a pawn shop in 1992-3. I think that it had a shuttle knob on the right side for fast foward and reverse. and it had a door that flipped down so you coould adjust the audio levels with 2 slide faders. It was along time ago. so my memory might be a little fuzzy.

huh. i know of no PIONEER VCR with a JOG/SHUTTLE. i do not believe they ever made one that did. it probably wasint a PIONEER after all.the only two VHS format VCRs pioneer ever made were "me too" unremarkable OEMs from unremarkable companies. definitely not of the caliber of this;


MITSUBISHI HS-U70 S-VHS VCR (1988)

[Red October]

I've got two of the decks mentioned -The JVC HR-S5500U (This is exactly a 5000U with an advanced remote... that gobbles batteries, mind you) and one of the substantial JVC commercial units, a BR-6400U, identical to a certain panasonic one. It has Dolby, backlit VU meters, a wired remote with infinitely variable speed playback WITH SOUND (good for fooling about, this) and numerous other features. The load mech has gotten a bit tired and needs to be helped along with a finger in the front but it does work just fine. Another fantastic deck is the Sony SL-HF-900, rated best VCR ever made by Consumer Reports... it's a Beta, but if you're making new recordings with it it doesn't matter (we're all smart people here and order out tape on-line, right?) as they use standard Betacam tapes (NOT SP, those are metal oxide tapes suitable for ED Beta decks but will grind down the heads of ordinary VCRs rather quickly... could be good for sorting out a nicked head but don't even mount one otherwise and only if you're sure it's a nicked head and it does't work). I've seen some fantastic Mitsubishis such as the HS-U80 but as a previous poster pointed out they can be problematic, and parts are not easy to find. Nippon Electric decks, while some were very nice, also had mech problems. My Marantz (Rebadged NEC) is a very iffy thing in its operation.

[andy]

000

[Red October]

The caution against using Betacam SP tapes in standard machines is an old one indeed; I've known about it for at least ten years and never thought to question it until now. I'm really not sure where the notion that they'd grind down the heads came from but I'll have to look further. Still, keep the Metal Oxide tapes out of the regular machines.

[andy]

000

[ChrisW6ATV]

Originally Posted by andy

Do metal audio cassettes wear down audio heads faster than oxide?

When metal-tape cassettes were first sold, the decks that could use them all had sendust heads due to the wear issue. Later, there were "super-hard permalloy" heads that were considered OK for metal-tape use. I would expect that ED Beta (and Betacam SP) heads are harder than standard heads as well.

Metal tape, that brings back memories. They sure sounded good, but the first Sony metal tapes cost US$10 each! That one had a metal frame with clear front and back; later Sony metal cassettes were lower priced and had more standard shells.

[ChrisW6ATV]

Originally Posted by Lady Ayeka

huh. i know of no PIONEER VCR with a JOG/SHUTTLE.

Pioneer made at least one Beta VCR with a jog/shuttle dial, the VX-90 which is a Sony SL-HF900 twin. In fact, there is one on the big auction Web site right now.

[Lady Ayeka]

Originally Posted by ChrisW6ATV

Pioneer made at least one Beta VCR with a jog/shuttle dial, the VX-90 which is a Sony SL-HF900 twin. In fact, there is one on the big auction Web site right now.

OOPS! i ment to say that i know of no PIONEER VHS VCR with a jog shuttle! i have known for a while now about most all of PIONEER's VHS/BETA VCRs. in fact, here's all the ones i know of;
VX-50 SUPERBETA 1985
VX-90 SUPERBETA 1985
VH-900 VHS 1985
VH-930SD S-VHS 1989
VE-D70 video8 8mm 1985

[wa2ise]

Originally Posted by AU20K

If you can find a good Mitsubishi stereo hifi 4 head vcr, that is what I recommend. I bought a model HS423UR in mid 80's, I still use it a lot and it has not even had a hickup.

I bought a Mitsubishi VCR in 1987 or so, and it never did work right. It would intermittantly go blurry on playback of a tape. As if the higher video frequencies were getting displaced a little in the picture, so edges were no longer sharp, but you'd see soft edges, and 1/4 inch to the right, the sharpness that would have made the soft edges look right. 4 warrenty trips still didn't get it right...

It had nice features, like a switch you could change to allow better playback of a tape that you could feed a second VCR to make a copy and have the copy not look like crap.

[wbain]

I have to admit, I still have my SONY SLHF-750. Excellent machine!