Hey Charles, I need you Sony expertise!

[Eric H]

What did I get here?

I picked up a Sony SVO1630 Hi-Fi VCR, the Thrift has had it for months and since they dropped the price from $20 to $10 I bought it!

Seems to work great, smooth and quiet, only drawback I see is it uses BNC connectors for the video output.

What does the Key Inhibit switch do? is it something to do with AGC keying, (perhaps it turns off Macrovision? )

[Eric H]

P.S. I can get a new remote for only $112.00 http://www.remotes.com/store/sony/svo1630.html

[andy]

Originally Posted by Eric H

What does the Key Inhibit switch do? is it something to do with AGC keying, (perhaps it turns off Macrovision? )

It just disables the front panel controls to prevent accidentally interrupting it when it's doing something important.

Those VCRs are internally identical to the consumer VCRs of the time, but with an industrial looking case and BNC connectors.

[dr.ido]

It may ignore Macrovision as is. These industrial VCRs were often used for copying tapes. I had a JVC industrial deck that made perfect copies of Macrovision protected tapes without needing an external video stabiliser/TBC/macrovision removal box.

[kx250rider]

Originally Posted by Eric H

What did I get here?

I picked up a Sony SVO1630 Hi-Fi VCR, the Thrift has had it for months and since they dropped the price from $20 to $10 I bought it!

Seems to work great, smooth and quiet, only drawback I see is it uses BNC connectors for the video output.

What does the Key Inhibit switch do? is it something to do with AGC keying, (perhaps it turns off Macrovision? )

That's a nice machine! All you need is a BNC to RCA adaptor... The only thing I ever see wrong with those is one of the threading arms getting stuck. If it eats tapes, that's probably it. Easy to fix; just remove, clean with a Q-tip, and reinstall with spring. (this is the RVS arm that pulls the tape over between the capstan and pinch roller). It gets stuck in the loaded position, and won't let the tape back into the cassette when you eject.

Charles

[Eric H]

Thanks for the info guys.
I just picked it up because it was a bit different and I wanted an extra VCR that was pretty solidly built.