Akai 3" VTR Monitor Becomes a TV

[jhalphen]

Hi to All,

The Akai VT-100/VT-110 quarter inch VTRs were quite popular in western Europe and in France. This little machine usually includes a cute little 3" B&W monitor. For decades i had been toying with the idea that it would make an original TV, so i finally got down to business.

Not being a VTR collector, i did not want to bungle a perfectly good VTR + monitor combo which is nice to keep complete as a collector item. A few months ago a "Sidecar" VM-100 Akai monitor appeared on E-Bay France, so i purchased it.

Essentially the transformation is easy: you need to find the pinouts of the specialized docking connector used by Akai to connect the monitor to the VTR, so i purchased on E-Bay US the service data for the VTR.

Once the connections were identified, i installed a video input socket, an audio input socket and a power supply connector (12VDC).

Here are the results. The VM-100 monitor is connected to a Shinco/IT'S standalone A/V receiver which receives my PAL B/G transmissions or NTSC transmissions for US NTSC monitors.

After changing a few caps, i was pleasantly surprised by the high quality, razor-sharp B&W pictures. This is a quality Japanese monitor made in the late 70s and no cheapo 10$ Chinese TV.

Just a fun little project to display again pictures on this tiny collectable monitor. For you guys in the US, just connect to the 525 output of a small ATSC receiver box.

Last picture shows the little Akai with "friends" including a 5" Audiosonic color set and a Panasonic CT-101.

*To be complete, a standalone tuner was made by Akai (see last pix) but only for the US & Japanese markets, to my knowledge.

Best Regards

jhalphen
Paris/France

[AUdubon5425]

Neat - I've never seen one of those.

[JB5pro]

That is a great looking machine and the sort of thing I would collect too.
Am I seeing what I think I see? Is that standard 1/4" magnetic tape also used for audio reel to reels? Does the system work?
Best Regards,
John
Boca Raton, Florida

[Sandy G]

That is just Kewl as all get out, Jerome ! Good job !

[jhalphen]

Hi John,

The Akai VTRs VT-100, VT-110, VT-150 (color) all used 1/4 inch tape.

It is definitely NOT audio tape: use that and your video heads will be guaranteed destroyed within minutes. That is why so many of these machines are useless now as unknowing owners did precisely that.

Akai tape can be found as vintage media, they are quite difficult to find.
I'm not entirely sure, but i think Sony offered for some time 1/4" video tape for these machines. Sony never used 1/4" tape for video.

See more pictures of the Akai VTR deck.

Best Regards

jhalphen

[leadlike]

I love those 1/4" Akai machines. I always lusted after one of those during the time I collected old home video equipment, but I never found any R to R video gear, just oddball cartridge stuff. I can understand your frustration in finding the pinout for that cable-EVERY machine uses oddball cables with different pinouts. I used to have a book that tried to ID every manufacturer's pinout. Glad you could find a use for that teeny monitor, though.

[jhalphen]

Hi Leadlike,

LabGuy's World has interesting data about vintage VTR connections:

http://www.labguysworld.com/Connectors.htm

Best Regards

jhalphen
Paris/France

[Theseus]

Originally Posted by jhalphen

*To be complete, a standalone tuner was made by Akai (see last pix) but only for the US & Japanese markets, to my knowledge.

I´m from germany. The tuner-unit was also available at europe (at least germany). I sold one same years ago at Ebay.