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#1
09-11-2010, 03:50 PM
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I have an 8-year-old Panasonic Omnivision VCR that still works every bit as well as the day I bought it. Also have VHS videos I recorded from TV (old TV series and movies from the '50s through the '80s, plus a few professionally-recorded movies and travelogues) that still play well today, most of them (except the professionally-recorded ones) now at or approaching 25 years old. I do not own a DVD recorder, although I do have a Memorex DVD player I bought some 2.5 years ago that still works very well (despite a warning I read on one of the TV repair websites that recent-vintage Memorex DVDs have a capacitor that will swell and split open within nine months of initial purchase; the one in mine hasn't yet, knock on wood
 ).
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Jeff, WB8NHV Collecting, restoring and enjoying vintage Zenith radios since 2002 Zenith. Gone, but not forgotten. 
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#2
09-12-2010, 02:07 AM
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It's good to see others have the same mind-set when it comes to VHS. Surprising enough the vast bulk of my VCR's have come from the local dump or "tip" as we call them in the UK. Many people are now buying those PVR machines with HDD units in them and that includes SKY Plus satellite units as folks just throw their VHS machines.
Another thing I love about VHS is that you don't have to tell the machine how many hours recording you want on a disc as there are only 2 speeds SP/LP (or on Panasonic VHS machines EP) never used it myself but I understand that it slows the tape to a THIRD of normal speed enabling 9 hours recording on an E-180 cassette. No finalising needed either. Some people I know have actually laughed at me for still having VHS in use, but I like to see it this way. All those with the fancy DVD recorders will probably cry their eyes out when the laser dies and all they can do is throw it away.  Whereas my VHS recorders will still be running like a dream.  By the way, has anyone noticed the rising prices of blank VHS tapes - a conspiracy I think!
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#4
09-30-2010, 11:05 PM
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The battered, beaten and bruised yet still working JVC BR1500U. Found upside down in a pile of dirt, I took it home expecting it to be fried, however this machine refuses to die. And it has possibly the niftiest remote I've ever seen.
 Click here fore some other pictures I've got three other cheap VCR's but I love the old JVC. I've got no clue to the age but from what I can figure from the dates on back it's about 25+ years old.
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#5
12-21-2010, 03:50 AM
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#6
01-25-2014, 01:27 PM
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Quote:
Al
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#7
10-10-2010, 12:43 AM
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Yes, I use a couple VHS camcorders, except that I installed BNC jacks and standard DC power jacks so that I can use them as cameras only. Then I run the cables to my VCR's. I do this because I need to record time code in order to sync the video to my ADAT machines for multitrack (24 track) audio capability. Poor man's production studio.
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#10
12-17-2010, 12:57 PM
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I had a Panasonic-built GE top-loading VCR in 1984. I'd probably still have it today if the heads had not worn out after six years. Today, 26 years and several VCRs of various makes later, I have another Panny VCR, model PV-4022, which hasn't given me five minutes' worth of trouble and still works amazingly well for its age (eight years), except that it makes a loud screeching noise in rewind or fast forward -- but not in forward or reverse search mode.
 I also had a Panny VCR with VCR Plus (my current VCR's predecessor), but I had to trash that one when it ate a cassette. I nearly had to wreck the VCR to get the tape out.  BTW, speaking of VCR Plus, whatever happened to it? I think that was one of the best things to happen to VCRs since the machines first came on the market.  I think as well that this feature would be useful with today's DVRs, as it would allow viewers to set the machines for recording simply by entering a three- to five-digit code, as VCR Plus for VHS worked. Some local newspapers, such as the Cleveland Plain Dealer, had VCR Plus codes in their TV listings as late as the 1990s.
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Jeff, WB8NHV Collecting, restoring and enjoying vintage Zenith radios since 2002 Zenith. Gone, but not forgotten. Last edited by Jeffhs; 12-17-2010 at 01:01 PM.
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#11
12-17-2010, 03:26 PM
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We bought our first two Beta-Maxes, one new and one used, in 1978.
One of 'em (I think it was a Zenith) had metal piano keys on top. We must still have hundreds of Beta tapes, and I bought a Sony Super Beta Max off Flea-bay to watch 'em a few years back, but it gets little use, since I am always on the internet, and the wife likes to channel-surf, lol. We also have two VHS machines, each bought -I dunno, within the last 15 years- that as well get little use, a Panasonic and a Sharp. Beta always had the superior picture though.
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#12
12-17-2010, 10:34 PM
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#13
12-17-2010, 11:04 PM
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Not really that uncommon to wear out heads. Those old mechanisms would go many more hours than the heads might last. I used to replace a lot of VCR head assemblies back in the heyday. Ordered a lot of them from a company called ASTI Magnetics (which surprizingly is still in business) aftermarket at a fraction of the OEM price so the repair cost would be affordable, and performance as good or better than original.
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#14
07-01-2011, 12:29 AM
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Hybrid Mode
