Casual User Questions - Toshiba SV-970 S-VHS VCR

[mikethemag]

Hi everyone,

I'm new here, and I have some questions about my VCR, Toshiba SV-970

1. How did these hold up over the long term? I recently fired mine up only to find a gooey load belt. Belt replaced, it seems to run fine. Otherwise, does the unit have other common failures?

2. How many "heads" does it have? I don't see anything in the manual where they brag about how many heads it has.

3. It has a "shuttle dial", it seems like this was one of the first "jog" controls - is that true?

4. I'm not a VCR enthusiast, I got this one because a girlfriend told me I needed one if I wanted to Blockbuster and chill. So I got the fanciest, chillest VCR I could find. Where did this unit rank amongst rivals, back in the day?

Thanks,
Mike

[Electronic M]

S-VHS tweaked the monochrome recording signal to roughly double monochrome resolution. Almost no films were offered on S-VHS so most S-VHS tapes are home recordings. S-VHS was a premium feature there were no cheap S-VHS decks...The base S-VHS decks were always priced between mid level VHS and budget broadcast grade decks. It will still play VHS tapes but using that deck to play worn out old rental VHS tapes is sort of like using a bazooka to get rid of a wasp nest or using a Ferrari to cruise gravel roads...

If you still have the lid open rotate the head drum and look at the gap between the rotor and stator of the drum... anomalies there are tape heads which you can count.
Back when the thrift stores here had something like 30 VCRs on the shelf at any time (like 5 years ago) I used to collect S-VHS decks.

[waltchan]

Originally Posted by mikethemag

Hi everyone,

I'm new here, and I have some questions about my VCR, Toshiba SV-970

1. How did these hold up over the long term? I recently fired mine up only to find a gooey load belt. Belt replaced, it seems to run fine. Otherwise, does the unit have other common failures?

2. How many "heads" does it have? I don't see anything in the manual where they brag about how many heads it has.

3. It has a "shuttle dial", it seems like this was one of the first "jog" controls - is that true?

4. I'm not a VCR enthusiast, I got this one because a girlfriend told me I needed one if I wanted to Blockbuster and chill. So I got the fanciest, chillest VCR I could find. Where did this unit rank amongst rivals, back in the day?

Thanks,
Mike

Toshiba built the #1 most-reliable and most trouble-free S-VHS VCRs back in the late-1980s. Studio Sound Electronics CEO (former VCR repairman) also confirmed it too.

SV-970 is a 4-head Hi-Fi S-VHS, while the higher-end SV-F990 is a 6-head Hi-Fi w/ flying-erase-head S-VHS.

Mitsubishi HS-U70 (competitor to Toshiba SV-970) offered Faroudja video playback circuit, with better S-VHS picture quality than Toshiba.

[mikethemag]

Originally Posted by waltchan

Toshiba built the #1 most-reliable and most trouble-free S-VHS VCRs back in the late-1980s. Studio Sound Electronics CEO (former VCR repairman) also confirmed it too.

SV-970 is a 4-head Hi-Fi S-VHS, while the higher-end SV-F990 is a 6-head Hi-Fi w/ flying-erase-head S-VHS.

Mitsubishi HS-U70 (competitor to Toshiba SV-970) offered Faroudja video playback circuit, with better S-VHS picture quality than Toshiba.

I just got a couple of replacement belts (1 for a spare) from Studio Sound Electronics, and I commend them on their excellent service. Thanks for the info, I'm coming up with ad copy for an eBay listing - this VCR needs a new home.

In replacing the belt, I note it is a very tight fit, and IMHO puts too much lateral force on the load motor shaft. While waiting for the replacement, I experimented with a common oring slightly larger than the factory belt, and it worked. If I were keeping this, I might have experimented with slightly larger silicone orings to extend the life of the load motor.

[waltchan]

Originally Posted by mikethemag

I just got a couple of replacement belts (1 for a spare) from Studio Sound Electronics, and I commend them on their excellent service. Thanks for the info, I'm coming up with ad copy for an eBay listing - this VCR needs a new home.

In replacing the belt, I note it is a very tight fit, and IMHO puts too much lateral force on the load motor shaft. While waiting for the replacement, I experimented with a common oring slightly larger than the factory belt, and it worked. If I were keeping this, I might have experimented with slightly larger silicone orings to extend the life of the load motor.

While not a SV-970, I have a brand-new, never used SV-F990 for sale for $3,500 price or reasonable best offer.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/313095782012

Let it stand the time.

[mikethemag]

Originally Posted by waltchan

While not a SV-970, I have a brand-new, never used SV-F990 for sale for $3,500 price or reasonable best offer.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/313095782012

Let it stand the time.

Yes, I saw that, and a used SV-F990 too. Wow, the remote looks amazing. The SV-F990 machine looks like it was made for the serious hobbyist/enthusiast, for guys making feature length films from camcorder footage, like the Blair Witch Project. It has a lot more editing and composing features than my SV-970, so I'm asking only a fraction of $3500.