VCR Wanted (maybe even in disrepair)

Back in the 80's, just as an experiment, I wired an extra Panasonic deck to dub compact discs, just for the hell of it, to hear how it would sound. At normal speed, a virgin tape dubbed just once with audio played back very well; what's more, I could dub video onto it, whether from broadcast or other sources like VHS or Beta tape. The sound, while not exactly equal to digital audio quality via CD, was darn close. But use the 'long play,' six-hour mode and you got what was essentially a 'scrunched' sound,' something not exactly bad (unlike the video image, which royally sucked) but not anywhere near a 'normal' audio sound.

Which probably indicates I had way too much time on my hands during that decade.....

ED

John Svensson said:

Wow, you have the patience of Job in waiting to see those concert videos.

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You have no idea John. I've been through 2 PV-1730s from ebay that were damaged in shipping or seller didn't test fully already.

The first one, my tech said the capstan motor was about to give out and since no replacement was available, he would not do further work on it. It sits in the stack of gear in my closet now.

Just got a second one. It has problems playing SLP sometimes and even worse the linear stereo plays a tone in the right side instead of the right side audio. Probably is fixable if something like a cap is causing the amplifier to oscillate. We'll see.

But I have no luck, no luck at all with these.

I have other VCRs, but I have decided that this is the only one I will ever be satisfied with, so the hunt for Moby Dick continues.

Ed Bishop said:

Back in the 80's, just as an experiment, I wired an extra Panasonic deck to dub compact discs, just for the hell of it, to hear how it would sound. At normal speed, a virgin tape dubbed just once with audio played back very well; what's more, I could dub video onto it, whether from broadcast or other sources like VHS or Beta tape. The sound, while not exactly equal to digital audio quality via CD, was darn close. But use the 'long play,' six-hour mode and you got what was essentially a 'scrunched' sound,' something not exactly bad (unlike the video image, which royally sucked) but not anywhere near a 'normal' audio sound.

Which probably indicates I had way too much time on my hands during that decade.....

ED

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Theoretically VHS HiFi should be near CD quality (from Wikipedia):

"Around 1984, JVC added Hi-Fi audio to VHS (model HR-D725U, in response to Betamax's introduction of Beta Hi-Fi.) Both VHS Hi-Fi and Betamax Hi-Fi delivered flat full-range frequency response (20 Hz to 20 kHz), excellent 70 dB signal-to-noise ratio (in consumer space, second only to the compact disc), dynamic range of 90 dB, and professional audio-grade channel separation (more than 70 dB). VHS Hi-Fi audio is achieved by using audio frequency modulation (AFM), modulating the two stereo channels (L, R) on two different frequency-modulated carriers and embedding the combined modulated audio signal pair into the video signal."

and

"The sound quality of Hi-Fi VHS stereo is comparable to the quality of CD audio, particularly when recordings were made on high-end or professional VHS machines that have a manual audio recording level control. This high quality compared to other consumer audio recording formats such as compact cassette attracted the attention of amateur and hobbyist recording artists. Home recording enthusiasts occasionally recorded high quality stereo mixdowns and master recordings from multitrack audio tape onto consumer-level Hi-Fi VCRs."


Now Linear stereo is another story. Starts off bad and gets worse with slower speeds.

It has been quite a while since my last visit to QQ forums. But I found this thread which is timely.

I have aNEC VHS tape deck that I bought new in 1984-85 era. List was $1000 I got it for somewhat less from an authorized dealer. Model is N965u

This was a superb unit for its day, great picture, excellent slo-mo and pause control. And the sound was incredible when hooked up to my stereo. I remember playing Tombstone and was thunderstruck by the audio when the picture transitioned from b&w to color. When I later got a DVD player that same soundtrack was dreadful and threadbare.

I recall it started eating tapes so I sent it to an authorized repair facility. It ran OK for a few years and the tape eating started again, but intermittently. I don't recall if I did another service or called it a day. Digital was arriving anyway.

So this deck sits on the shelf next to my elpees (which I play again in favor to any and all digital formats).

I haven't fired it up for years. I haven't the heart to toss it or sell it. And then I found this forum.

I may have the original box and perhaps the manual. I hang on to that stuff "just in case"

Btw, I am 99% confident this player has linear stereo tracks with Dolby -switchable- as well as 4 head hifi sound

g e

G E said:

It has been quite a while since my last visit to QQ forums. But I found this thread which is timely.

I have aNEC VHS tape deck that I bought new in 1984-85 era. List was $1000 I got it for somewhat less from an authorized dealer. Model is N965u

This was a superb unit for its day, great picture, excellent slo-mo and pause control. And the sound was incredible when hooked up to my stereo. I remember playing Tombstone and was thunderstruck by the audio when the picture transitioned from b&w to color. When I later got a DVD player that same soundtrack was dreadful and threadbare.

I recall it started eating tapes so I sent it to an authorized repair facility. It ran OK for a few years and the tape eating started again, but intermittently. I don't recall if I did another service or called it a day. Digital was arriving anyway.

So this deck sits on the shelf next to my elpees (which I play again in favor to any and all digital formats).

I haven't fired it up for years. I haven't the heart to toss it or sell it. And then I found this forum.

I may have the original box and perhaps the manual. I hang on to that stuff "just in case"

Btw, I am 99% confident this player has linear stereo tracks with Dolby -switchable- as well as 4 head hifi sound

g e

Click to expand...

I also had an NEC deck that cost me a grand and started getting a little zip-zag picture noise that never got fixed after several tries. I gave up and got two Mitsubishi decks that performed much better in the long haul. Sold the NEC for dimes on the dollar just to get over it emotionallly if not financially.

Yes that NEC had great sound, made some VHS Hi-Fi music tapes that I still have.

oh, man I used my HiFi VCR to do bouncedowns from my Yamaha cassette 4 track w dbx at high speed.. it was sweeet... and YES, I STILL have a few 6 hour audio tapes from my Berklee roommates' collection!!!.. I get a kick from watching them and watching the VIDEO only from Boston's UHF channels from the late 80s...(I learned early in the game that you HAD to have a video image so that the audio did not wow...interesting tech!!)

Ahhhh....VCR's....I've been collecting old technology for 20 years, mainly because when I was young, I saw all of the vcr's, laserdisc's, amps, preamps, cassettes, reel decks etc and they were all priced out of my league. My journey began in pawn shops and went from there to the thrifts. I have several Sony Betamax units and a load of Betamax movies I got for free from an old video store. Its strange because I have always looked for SVHS decks, but never found any until abut 2 years ago, when I spotted a Mitsubishi and a JVC sitting next to each other in a Goodwill! Then about 6 months later, I went into an Arc in Denver and there was a JVC HRS 7600U (which has a digital time base corrector in it) and Sony's top of the line DVD player from the late 90's (S7700). Total bill about $10. This JVC is one of the last SVHS decks made and it makes great looking copies from bluray discs and it will record 400 lines resolution on SVHS or regular tape. I have about 30 SVHS tape's I had collected in the past and was just waiting for a deck to try them. I have 3 prerecorded SVHS movies and these puppies are really scarce (Last Crusade, Red October and a sealed City Slickers). Why do I want a VCR....To play VHS music video's and an occasional movie (usually if they are still sealed and I've never seen it before) and because VHS Hi Fi movies are so cheap or free. I watch my tapes and laserdiscs on the last of the SONY XBR HI DEF CRT's. I found a 30" and a 34" and bought them both because I remember seeing them in an electronics store and they were priced at $2000 and $3000 each. That Sony 30" was sitting in a Goodwill right next to some other junk TV's and they all had the same price of $34 on them! These XBR's have so many adjustments, they can even make video tape look good.....

Those old Sony CRTs are amazing. I have a 27" vega that dies the anamorphic squeeze at the touch of a button. No need to go into the service menus to do it.

It sits in my basement doing nothing.

Great black levels!