I am always blown away by the fact that these things were ever conceived of, let alone built. The ingenuity and engineering that went into these behemoths is mind blowing. I just have this yearning to know what’s under that flap,on the front.
Hi! I have an interesting side note about your video. I was born and raised in the Memphis, TN area, and had a VCR repair shop in the back of a video store in the late 80s/early 90s. One day, someone brought in a VCR like that one that was in pieces and in really bad shape. Come to find out, it had belonged to Elvis Presley, and was purchased from his Estate. The story goes that he got angry at something that was recorded on it, and threw it out a second storey window of Graceland, hence it's poor condition. They were hoping that there would be home movies on at least one of the box of tapes they included. I was able to get it somewhat functioning. Unfortunately, everything on the tapes was just stuff that had been timeshifted from WMC Channel 5 in Memphis. Mostly news. Once we found out that fact, they paid for my time, and asked me to just throw it all in the garbage.
I like it. I had a 1978 Panasonic VCR that would shut down if it got humidity in it. You had to wait for a Dew light indicator to go out before it would start again. It didn't have a snappy dehumidifier like the Quasar does to assist!
Brilliantly simple inside. Somewhere an engineer went broke... from not making things complicated enough to make a profit. My initial thought was it was giant 8 track design on the inside, continuous loop. But there was the reverse function. Weird crossover, had Idiocracy on, on the side. Luke Wilson's character was trying to get to the "time machine" to go back. Only to find out it was just an amusement park ride called the Time Masheen.
Amazing! I did not know this was a format back then. Of course I was 7 when this came out so I probably wouldn't have noticed it anyway. Nicely done video and in depth repair.
Oh my god you unlocked some deep hidden childhood memory because I've seen one of these somewhere as a super small child. I remember the piano keys, that weird slider and the little flap with the controls. I also remember the very satisfying channel selectors. I have no idea when or where I encountered it, but yeah... straight up memory excavation here.
Amazing machine! I've personally never seen one before that I can remember. Not surprised that cost just shy of $1k in 1977, that would cost over $4800 these days!
Some fascinating cost-cutting making this seem older than it is. I like the diagonal tilt between the reels creating the helical scan. Plus how they made no mechanical loading arms, but instead increased the labour for assembling the cassettes. I’m sure it brought the entry price down, but probably bit them in the end.
Compared to the N1502 from Philips for the PAL market, this seems quite clunky. The Philips N1502, also 1976, has a LED clock/timer, no need to slide things slowly for loading or unloading, is I reckon a fair bit smaller and lighter. However it has some things in common, the tape starts at the bottom and works to the top of the (much smaller) tape on the Philips machines. The Philips has a two head design and I suspect that the VR1000's limitations mostly stem from that single head design. The N1502 followed from the N1500 (1972) and was replaced by the N1700 (1978) with longer running times. I've covered all these on my channel.
Very cool, I've never seen one of these in action before. For as many boards as that has inside, it's amazingly simple for a video recorder in the 1970s. I'm also amazed how well those recordings still play back, 20+ years later.
No one has worked on as many of these as I have. I worked at the Quasar Factory Service Center in Los Angeles during the entire 80’s decade. Those VR1000 were the biggest pile of junk ever conceived by man and my worst nightmare. No matter how well I repaired them the thing would boomerang back in less than 90 days. I knew those units inside and out and we usually had 20 or more in for service at any given time. Weakest point is the rewind tire. Even engineering knew it. They changed the black neoprene tire to a white silicone rubber replacement and still it would slip. The record/play switch on the servo/audio panel always had to be replaced. Spraying it just meant the set would be coming back sooner. The take-up motor would get dead spots in it and had to be replaced. Then that stupid idea of the head drive belt that is designed to slip via the servo control brake system. There were 3 sizes of belts for that drum. Part number was a 42-0002A, B, or C. You picked the right one to get the servo brake voltage within spec. Rubber always deposited on the head spindle and cause the belt to stick causing a jerky picture. That always had to be cleaned off. I developed a routine on what had to be done to these to keep them working at least through our 30 day repair warranty. If I just fixed what was wrong at the moment then back it would come with a different issue before the 30 days and we had to eat the labor. I hated those units. If a customer complained enough to Franklin Park (corporate) they would take it back and give the customer a new VHS. Those VR1000s never had a good picture. It looked like an oil painting as the high end detail was smeared all together. I coined the phrase “oil painting effect.” A big loser of a unit and Quassr regretted Japan talking them into it. Before Quasar agreed to market them in the US Japan said they had them out in a Japan test market for a year with no issues. The VHS system was still 2 years out and Quasar wanted to get the jump on the market. Yeah right. It was once said the VR1000 was Japan’s revenge for the bomb.
@@WaybackRewind You're better off getting a Cartrivision to work than one of these VR1000. Picture is way better on Cartrivision anyway. Too much oil painting effect on the VR1000.
the quality kind of reminds me of when VHS VCR makers started to cost reduce a lot of models in the early 90's, and you would get a cheap tape from the dollar store, and then set to the 6 -8 hour setting to get the most out of it. So yeah for it's time not bad, but I can 100% see why it failed with VHS, and Beta becoming popular just a few years later.
I'm even half wondering if the blurry picture is really a limitation of the tape/format- or if it is just the video processing from the Machine. Some early decks of all formats really softened up the picture to hide video noise. I guess they thought blurry was less objectionable vs noisy pictures.
Wow! Never knew about this VX format. And I also loved the kinda back to the roots style of this video. I loved your old _shot on iPhone_ videos about ancient VTR machines.
Thanks for sharing; I'm aware of many rare failed early formats, but this was a new one on me. VERY different approach, the way the tape is looped in the cartridge to drop over the head drum, and also a very unusual approach to wrap the tape 360 degrees around the head drum and use a single video head. Also interesting that its tapes used brown oxide, like U-Matic, unlike the black oxide of Beta and VHS. The backcoating instantly triggers fears of sticky-shed syndrome for me, but apparently you didn't have that problem. In the video realm, I've only heard of sticky shed being a problem with U-Matic. Re: the RF modulator, I expect that could be swapped out for a modulator outputting on channel 4 instead of 3, like the first Betamaxes. I'm pretty sure making the unit work with a different TV standard would require a lot more differences.
Ah, I've always wanted to see one of these. One of our customers in our restaurant 20 years ago said he had one of these and had recorded "Ghostbusters" TV show with Larry Storch on it in the '70's.
@@databits I honestly don't consider myself a professional. I do try my best and pour my heart out. Isn't that what really matters beyond the fame, followers or profits? When I think of a professional I think of Richard N. Diehl a.k.a "LabGuy." I have called Richard a celebrity and he denies it. Such humbleness.
If I remember right; those machines came out closely to the same time Sony was marketing their trinitron consoles with a built in beta 1 machine which would have been around 1975 or so. I looked at both but passed them by. I ultimately bought an RCA VBT-200 machine.
Thanks, databits, for posting this video, and for taking the time to restore this rather uncommon format of VCR, one of the many casualties of the Great Video Format War of the 70s and 80s. :) Like your earlier video you posted about the German TeD videodisc format (thanks again, I admire your passion for the rather obscure formats, seeking them out and featuring them in restored action here on YT, you da man!!), I've always wanted to see a "Great Time Machine" in action, and kudos for digitizing and showing us some of the actual recordings on this VCR to show us the recording quality of the machine. As some here have mentioned, the quality is a bit lower than VHS (I'd say it's on-point with LP to EP-speed VHS), but still definitely watchable (and quite impressive for the era).
In the 1970s I saw one of these at an electronics show. The salesman was touting that the tape never left the cassette shell, unlike Beta or VHS. But man, the size of those cartridges! Right away, that was a deal-breaker.
I remember working on these. Very odd cassette, it actually worked well, also Sanyo had a V cord, with its own type of cassette. You had 4 types of VCRs then. Actually five if you counted the first Sony Beta. Which was a little different from its latest beta tape. Thanks for posting
Aside from everything else I loved the Yamaha Virago ad. Years ago a friend tried to get me to buy his Virago from a similar time period. I decided I wasn't interested in a 20-odd year old bike since it would be a daily driver for me.
Thankfully, Benny Boy from “Oddity Archive” made a video about the Quasar VX Time Machine VCR from 1977. I don’t have the VX VCR and VX tapes and it is very frustrating to fix.
Very interesting. Seeing the thickness of the tape cartridge with its stacked reels earlier in the video gave me a pretty good idea of how the machine operated even before you opened it. It looks to be an alpha wrap system which is how it gets full-frame video from a single head. Sony's later Betamovie camcorder was surprisingly similar in construction with its single-motor transport comprised of multiple belts and single-head video drum (though the Betamovie is an omega wrap, not alpha or, as the name would suggest, beta).
According to the service manual, the VR703 "TRACKING" control on that PCB adjusts the tracking for recording. For playback tracking, adjust VR704 and 706.
I presume the lever on the front unscrews the plastic thing hiding the tape then. I thought the tapes for the Philips N1700 were hard to repair, (they also have the take up spool on top of the feed spool.). LOL. For a one head machine it has a great picture. Nice VTR.
Hey Databits I just got my machine and haven’t plugged it in or anything and while inspecting it right off the batt I noticed the REW FF tire was cracked and falling apart so I will need to get a replacement. So that O-ring kit will come in handy for certain. Plus I noticed the controls were a little stiff too.
The little brush you see touching the drive belt for the video head was to discharge any static electricity that would cause noise in the picture. Yes, I worked for a dealer that sold these and have a hazy memory of the training school we attended.
Awesome video, and I can see why this failed against VHS, and even Beta that became popular just a short time afterwards with how complicated it is, but the video quality you showed at least to me is on par with a lower end VCR, so not bad for what it is. 👍
I really wanted to see what was happening on the inside when you slide that thing across. I'm trying to figure out how it gets that protective grey thing away from the tape and cassette so the head can contact the tape. It looks like it has to go *down* below the head, but I can't really figure out what would be happening there. Would love to see a follow-up on that!
I never knew a VX format existed. I think it never came to Europe. Before VHS mostly Philips VCR tapes were used, also with those stacked spools in the VCC cartridges. I remember them from primary school. I remember unsharp pictures with smearing colors...
I'm still struggling to understand where that circular plastic piece goes that allows the head to make contact with the tape? Seems like they would be the same size but the plastic piece must unwide a little bit to drop down below the head? I wish there was a way to that in action.
It doesn't. The tape is completely threded inside the cartridge and never leaves the cartridge. The drum has only one head the tape has a full 360° loop inside the cartridge that is protected by a cover that unscrews from the bottom of the cartridge when you move the lever on the front of the machine from left to right exposing the full wrap of tape around the drum. This is why the drum only needs one head like all original video tape recorders. Only before you had to manually thread the tape from reel to reel by hand and make the full wrap around the video drum. With this new innovative cartridge design the threading is already done in the cartridge the machine never takes any of the tape out of the cartridge. The cartridge is lowered down over the drum and capstan and audio/sync heads already compleatly threaded inside the cartridge.
the auto fine tune can be done manually with the inner black knobs of the silver tuner knobs. as soon as I seen that part of the video I was immediately thinking of my late 90s childhood that my grandfather had both a VHS and beta on top of the woodgrain JVC. I forget the exact brand of VHS VCR but it had a double style knob that looked almost exact to what is in this video. interesting how something can be so similar for what I think was early 80s tech my grandfather had vs this mid/late tech.
is the timer clock you showed at the beginning to record at set times by simply turning the power on? kind of click and bang but i bet it did it and did it cheaper than building one in
Yes. I was 6 in 1976 and we had one very small (used, old) color TV for the living room, mainly because my uncle repaired TVs. I had no idea what a VCR was until I was a teenager.
Holy Cow! Talk about the hard way in the olden days. I grew up in these times as a kid. Later I stopped worrying about the picture and bought VHS Hifi machines to create 8 hour long music tapes all recorded in VHS HIFI tracks as those were done in FM vs. the AM that most audio tape machine recording analog employed. Sounded great.
Vety well done video! Would be interesting to see how the "twisty thing" interacts with the videohead during loading, because it surely has to move out of the way for the tape to touch the head. Does the tape stay inside the cassette’s groove during play? That's a very delicate, small tolerance thing I guess... and the lever on the front that you move to the right „unscrews“ the twisty thing (?).
There are MANY different Videotape formats, like V Cord II (My personal favorite), Cartrivision, U Matic, I could go on! That's only scratching the bilge of the iceberg.
Yes! I have a V Cord cassette, have never found a player in the wild. Our friend Rene (linked in the description) has made videos about V Cord and Cartrivision. I've had a few U Matic machines, plus EIAJ Reel to Reel video. And lets not forget EVR!
I came across a couple of these tapes at an estate sale I have the 120 and a 100. I had no idea what they were so I decided to pick them up. They gave them to me free as it was the last day. One looks brand new (no writing or visible ware) the other appears to have stuff recorded on it. What would the value be on these? Thanks for your help and informative video
@databits I can email you pics of the tapes if you'd like. The VC120 writing doesn't have dates but things listed to be on the tape are....Blues Bros. JAWS 2, Luke and Laura Dance (assuming a General Hospital episode) A star is born pt. 2. There are other things written as well. The VC100 is in brand new condition.
@@Cdub5298 - thank you for the information. I recommend listing these on eBay and selling them. There are many collectors out there who would be happy to take those off your hands. Try listing them for $10 apiece.
Englishman here, so please excuse me! The VHF and UHF tuners. Did they come pre-programmed to the correct frequency? If this were a uk recorder, you would have to ‘tune in’ each of those presets on the dial. Depending on where in the country the recorder was located, would depend on what frequency news used. That doesn’t seem to be the case on this machine?
@@databits thank you for clearing that up. I’ve been wondering about it for ages! And we did. The older 405 line system was VHF, however from the late 60’s/early 70’s, the switchover to 625 lines started, and everything went over to UHF. If memory serves, the last VHF transmission ended in 1985. VHF (FM) was then just used for radio.
The machine is interesting in that it goes against the normal design feature of 2 video heads with head switching allowing a 180 rather than a 360-degree wrap. By the dates, it would appear they were trying to keep going despite there being "Normal" machines around ie IEAJ the U-matic and the N1500 Philips. That head must be extremely easy to wear out. Is the colour downshifted like Beta and VHS? As for the RF modulator, the norm in those days was to have easily removable units and the module would be fitted for the Market ie Pal I and PAL BG use different sound spacing so a specific module was required for UK or Europe. NTSC is used in Japan and South America so the R F modules would prob be different for them. You would not be able to play the NTSC machine on a PAL TV, even with a compatible RF unit it would need to be multi-standard TV. They did exist but were horrendously expensive as they were Pro use only at that time. On the machines I used, the BW switch was to allow a sharper BW picture. Later that changed but originally that was the function.
Why Matsushita has created this abomination when 3/4-inch format had been available since at least 1971 is beyond me. Matsushita did manufacture 3/4-inch machines. Maybe it is 120 vs 60 minute capacity? Sony was smarter to create Betamax as a downsized version of Umatic, and JVC was smart enough to copy Betamax. I guess the only benefit of this system is that the tape is pre-laced. But I still don't get how the gray spiral guide is removed for the head drum to get into contact with the tape. I wish you showed it.
Hard to tell, but it looks like this unit does not divide the color signal down like VHS did on consumer recorders. Is that true? If so, this machine would have looked very good.
hi this is very like the VCR N1500 N1700 tapes i still have a working one i neverseen one in the uk i seen sony reel to reel video decks and EU V2000 decks that i have just belts go soft and glue like i wonder if anybody had a deck come over from the usa i have some reel to reel runs on usa volts only find the same in 240v here is big money
Did this predate the uMatic? Never seen this. The official VCR format has a smaller cartridge and the reels are similarly superimposed, So only one spindle drive with top and bottom hub drives.
Please show how to play the tape without the cassette. I have several tapes I will need to take apart and clean and it may be easier to play them like that.
@@databitsHow did you get the tape to play without the cassette shell? Is it just a matter of threading the tape in the right places and covering up the sensor that makes it stop running? After taking apart tapes to clean them, it might be easier to play them that way.
Would you be able to transfer a video from a tape to DVD. I have a VR1-1000 tape of my appearance on Family Feud and I want to get it transferred to a digital version.
Hi I have the set with about 20-25 tapes. They were very expensive $25 per tape! My machine doesn’t work anymore! I also have stuff recorded from the late 70’s
@@databits I can they are 1 hr tapes and a crapp load of 2 hrs. My machine isn’t working. I replace the video head and has very low hrs on it. The machine is whole. I also replaced the drive motor for the take up reel it wasn’t the motor. The circuit board with the speed pot started to smoke something. Might be a resistor or a capacitor. The stuff on the tapes I recorded was the stuff over the air.
@@databits how’s $10.00 for the 2 hr tapes $5.00 for the 1hrs. I can give you a count sometime tonight or first thing tomorrow. The labels are not even written on. They are peel and past type.
for the price this was back in its day its only right it required two burly men to deliver it to your home plus they had to wade through a few yards of shag pile carpet to install it
In the demonstration, the Yamaha commercial looks better quality than the rest of the footage. Like clearly so, not just a subtle difference. Why could that be the case?
@@databits Yes, they are very rare and valuable now. Just unbelievable to think as a consumer you could have a VCR in 1970/1971, although they were expensive and on a waiting list.
Ha! I did too. Harbor freight sells a case of them (which I might end up buying). I will call them C clips forever I guess. There were a lot of “things” in this VTR.
Good video, but it was a shame that you never showed us what the slidey thing at the front actually did inside the machine which i was really intrigued about. But, considering it only had one head I was amazed how good the picture was.
I had this machine. It wore out head on drum fast. I replaced the head on mine at least 4 times over 2 years. But the machine did make way better recordings. Better than yours by far. And it did it on really poor quality tape. BTW The tapes cost $24 for a 60min maximum time available. The scuew controle adjustment was to change the tape tension. My tunner timer was a separate add on box that was an upgrade.
My machine got stuck and I don’t have any more time to mess with it tonight, wonder if anyone knows why the pinch roller isn’t engaging during playback and stopping it? It’s working when I run it with no tape in the machine (covering up the sensor), hitting Play it runs a few seconds then there’s a click and the pinch roller moves forward. With the tape in, instead of moving forward the machine just stops. Cleaned all the usual spots with alcohol but did I miss something? Sucks when this happens right before bedtime and have to work the next morning.
![CHILE vs. BRASIL [1-2] | RESUMEN | ELIMINATORIAS SUDAMERICANAS | FECHA 9](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/5ObJt_71AYc/mqdefault.jpg)
I am always blown away by the fact that these things were ever conceived of, let alone built. The ingenuity and engineering that went into these behemoths is mind blowing.
I just have this yearning to know what’s under that flap,on the front.
Which flap do you refer to?
@@databits
I just rewatched, and it was explained. My bad.
Hi! I have an interesting side note about your video. I was born and raised in the Memphis, TN area, and had a VCR repair shop in the back of a video store in the late 80s/early 90s. One day, someone brought in a VCR like that one that was in pieces and in really bad shape. Come to find out, it had belonged to Elvis Presley, and was purchased from his Estate. The story goes that he got angry at something that was recorded on it, and threw it out a second storey window of Graceland, hence it's poor condition. They were hoping that there would be home movies on at least one of the box of tapes they included. I was able to get it somewhat functioning. Unfortunately, everything on the tapes was just stuff that had been timeshifted from WMC Channel 5 in Memphis. Mostly news. Once we found out that fact, they paid for my time, and asked me to just throw it all in the garbage.
Did you toss it or keep it?
The hoarder in me would've kept it knowing the source of the estate.
It's all so convoluted, I absolutely love it. It's like they tried to make everything as difficult as possible for themselves and for repair shops.
I like it. I had a 1978 Panasonic VCR that would shut down if it got humidity in it. You had to wait for a Dew light indicator to go out before it would start again. It didn't have a snappy dehumidifier like the Quasar does to assist!
Brilliantly simple inside. Somewhere an engineer went broke... from not making things complicated enough to make a profit. My initial thought was it was giant 8 track design on the inside, continuous loop. But there was the reverse function.
Weird crossover, had Idiocracy on, on the side. Luke Wilson's character was trying to get to the "time machine" to go back. Only to find out it was just an amusement park ride called the Time Masheen.
A fine film
Amazing! I did not know this was a format back then. Of course I was 7 when this came out so I probably wouldn't have noticed it anyway. Nicely done video and in depth repair.
Oh my god you unlocked some deep hidden childhood memory because I've seen one of these somewhere as a super small child. I remember the piano keys, that weird slider and the little flap with the controls. I also remember the very satisfying channel selectors. I have no idea when or where I encountered it, but yeah... straight up memory excavation here.
I saw one as a teenager in a local video rental shop. It was still well beyond my budget then.
Amazing machine! I've personally never seen one before that I can remember. Not surprised that cost just shy of $1k in 1977, that would cost over $4800 these days!
Omg a video machine that uses ferric tape? This is something that i thought was never done!! How cool!!
and pretty decent picture quality, kinda VHS level
Some fascinating cost-cutting making this seem older than it is. I like the diagonal tilt between the reels creating the helical scan. Plus how they made no mechanical loading arms, but instead increased the labour for assembling the cassettes. I’m sure it brought the entry price down, but probably bit them in the end.
Can't believe how far technology has progressed since formats like this 😳. Thank you for another video 🙏
Compared to the N1502 from Philips for the PAL market, this seems quite clunky. The Philips N1502, also 1976, has a LED clock/timer, no need to slide things slowly for loading or unloading, is I reckon a fair bit smaller and lighter. However it has some things in common, the tape starts at the bottom and works to the top of the (much smaller) tape on the Philips machines. The Philips has a two head design and I suspect that the VR1000's limitations mostly stem from that single head design. The N1502 followed from the N1500 (1972) and was replaced by the N1700 (1978) with longer running times. I've covered all these on my channel.
Very cool, I've never seen one of these in action before. For as many boards as that has inside, it's amazingly simple for a video recorder in the 1970s. I'm also amazed how well those recordings still play back, 20+ years later.
check out Rene Gonzolaz (i'm sure i misspelled his last name) on youtube. He has TONS of videos about this format and others.
@@The_Laser_Channel I'll check him out, thanks!
@@The_Laser_Channel - I linked him in the description
No one has worked on as many of these as I have. I worked at the Quasar Factory Service Center in Los Angeles during the entire 80’s decade. Those VR1000 were the biggest pile of junk ever conceived by man and my worst nightmare. No matter how well I repaired them the thing would boomerang back in less than 90 days. I knew those units inside and out and we usually had 20 or more in for service at any given time. Weakest point is the rewind tire. Even engineering knew it. They changed the black neoprene tire to a white silicone rubber replacement and still it would slip. The record/play switch on the servo/audio panel always had to be replaced. Spraying it just meant the set would be coming back sooner. The take-up motor would get dead spots in it and had to be replaced. Then that stupid idea of the head drive belt that is designed to slip via the servo control brake system. There were 3 sizes of belts for that drum. Part number was a 42-0002A, B, or C. You picked the right one to get the servo brake voltage within spec. Rubber always deposited on the head spindle and cause the belt to stick causing a jerky picture. That always had to be cleaned off. I developed a routine on what had to be done to these to keep them working at least through our 30 day repair warranty. If I just fixed what was wrong at the moment then back it would come with a different issue before the 30 days and we had to eat the labor. I hated those units. If a customer complained enough to Franklin Park (corporate) they would take it back and give the customer a new VHS. Those VR1000s never had a good picture. It looked like an oil painting as the high end detail was smeared all together. I coined the phrase “oil painting effect.” A big loser of a unit and Quassr regretted Japan talking them into it. Before Quasar agreed to market them in the US Japan said they had them out in a Japan test market for a year with no issues. The VHS system was still 2 years out and Quasar wanted to get the jump on the market. Yeah right. It was once said the VR1000 was Japan’s revenge for the bomb.
Thanks for sharing. I will give up my dream of having a working one.
@@WaybackRewind You're better off getting a Cartrivision to work than one of these VR1000. Picture is way better on Cartrivision anyway. Too much oil painting effect on the VR1000.
It’s blurry compared to even VHS but for the mid to late 70s, this is incredible quality for a consumer grade recorder.
the quality kind of reminds me of when VHS VCR makers started to cost reduce a lot of models in the early 90's, and you would get a cheap tape from the dollar store, and then set to the 6 -8 hour setting to get the most out of it. So yeah for it's time not bad, but I can 100% see why it failed with VHS, and Beta becoming popular just a few years later.
I'm even half wondering if the blurry picture is really a limitation of the tape/format- or if it is just the video processing from the Machine. Some early decks of all formats really softened up the picture to hide video noise. I guess they thought blurry was less objectionable vs noisy pictures.
to be fair the tape is very old so some degradation will reduce the quality of the playback
Crazy how whoever owned this used it until at least 1981! I would kill for a VCR like this!
Wow! Never knew about this VX format. And I also loved the kinda back to the roots style of this video. I loved your old _shot on iPhone_ videos about ancient VTR machines.
Slowly but surely, more decent info/footage of VX is turning up. Thanks!
Happy to contribute! An acquaintance was going to ship me his machine a while back and then dropped the ball. I was sad.
Thanks for sharing; I'm aware of many rare failed early formats, but this was a new one on me. VERY different approach, the way the tape is looped in the cartridge to drop over the head drum, and also a very unusual approach to wrap the tape 360 degrees around the head drum and use a single video head.
Also interesting that its tapes used brown oxide, like U-Matic, unlike the black oxide of Beta and VHS. The backcoating instantly triggers fears of sticky-shed syndrome for me, but apparently you didn't have that problem. In the video realm, I've only heard of sticky shed being a problem with U-Matic.
Re: the RF modulator, I expect that could be swapped out for a modulator outputting on channel 4 instead of 3, like the first Betamaxes. I'm pretty sure making the unit work with a different TV standard would require a lot more differences.
That design with the removable RF modulator allows to get easily a composite video and audio out as a mod :)
I watched it till the end. Very useful for repairs. Thanks to you, my videos of the same kind have become better. thank you very much.👍
Ah, I've always wanted to see one of these. One of our customers in our restaurant 20 years ago said he had one of these and had recorded "Ghostbusters" TV show with Larry Storch on it in the '70's.
Wow! I've never heard of this format before, I thought I knew it all
Love it. This format deserves more attention and respect. I tried my best to hype this format but i simply can't compete with the professionals.
Rene, you ARE a professional!
@@databits I honestly don't consider myself a professional. I do try my best and pour my heart out. Isn't that what really matters beyond the fame, followers or profits? When I think of a professional I think of Richard N. Diehl a.k.a "LabGuy." I have called Richard a celebrity and he denies it. Such humbleness.
If I remember right; those machines came out closely to the same time Sony was marketing their trinitron consoles with a built in beta 1 machine which would have been around 1975 or so. I looked at both but passed them by. I ultimately bought an RCA VBT-200 machine.
I never had a vcr with mic input. This vcr was a boss
Thanks, databits, for posting this video, and for taking the time to restore this rather uncommon format of VCR, one of the many casualties of the Great Video Format War of the 70s and 80s. :)
Like your earlier video you posted about the German TeD videodisc format (thanks again, I admire your passion for the rather obscure formats, seeking them out and featuring them in restored action here on YT, you da man!!), I've always wanted to see a "Great Time Machine" in action, and kudos for digitizing and showing us some of the actual recordings on this VCR to show us the recording quality of the machine.
As some here have mentioned, the quality is a bit lower than VHS (I'd say it's on-point with LP to EP-speed VHS), but still definitely watchable (and quite impressive for the era).
It’s a “charming” machine. 😃 Thanks for watching and your kind words of support!
きちんと揃えており、大変素晴らしい！😮👌
In the 1970s I saw one of these at an electronics show. The salesman was touting that the tape never left the cassette shell, unlike Beta or VHS. But man, the size of those cartridges! Right away, that was a deal-breaker.
Yes, it was a bit ridiculous
I remember working on these. Very odd cassette, it actually worked well, also Sanyo had a V cord, with its own type of cassette. You had 4 types of VCRs then. Actually five if you counted the first Sony Beta. Which was a little different from its latest beta tape. Thanks for posting
Aside from everything else I loved the Yamaha Virago ad. Years ago a friend tried to get me to buy his Virago from a similar time period. I decided I wasn't interested in a 20-odd year old bike since it would be a daily driver for me.
Never seen this format before. Very interesting! I don't know what's more complicated.... the recorder or the cassette itself! 🤣
I think it’s equal!
I saw that one got sold on a market place site near my hometown. I was like huh? And that brought me to your video! Wow. Very cool!!
Thanks for watching!
Thankfully, Benny Boy from “Oddity Archive” made a video about the Quasar VX Time Machine VCR from 1977. I don’t have the VX VCR and VX tapes and it is very frustrating to fix.
Electro-mechanical wonders, it's amazing they worked as well as they did.
Very interesting. Seeing the thickness of the tape cartridge with its stacked reels earlier in the video gave me a pretty good idea of how the machine operated even before you opened it. It looks to be an alpha wrap system which is how it gets full-frame video from a single head. Sony's later Betamovie camcorder was surprisingly similar in construction with its single-motor transport comprised of multiple belts and single-head video drum (though the Betamovie is an omega wrap, not alpha or, as the name would suggest, beta).
According to the service manual, the VR703 "TRACKING" control on that PCB adjusts the tracking for recording. For playback tracking, adjust VR704 and 706.
Thanks for this info!
We had one back in the day and returned it a week later
I presume the lever on the front unscrews the plastic thing hiding the tape then.
I thought the tapes for the Philips N1700 were hard to repair, (they also have the take up spool on top of the feed spool.). LOL.
For a one head machine it has a great picture.
Nice VTR.
Hey Databits I just got my machine and haven’t plugged it in or anything and while inspecting it right off the batt I noticed the REW FF tire was cracked and falling apart so I will need to get a replacement. So that O-ring kit will come in handy for certain. Plus I noticed the controls were a little stiff too.
The little brush you see touching the drive belt for the video head was to discharge any static electricity that would cause noise in the picture. Yes, I worked for a dealer that sold these and have a hazy memory of the training school we attended.
Fascinating unit! Never knew about them. Excellent video!
Awesome video, and I can see why this failed against VHS, and even Beta that became popular just a short time afterwards with how complicated it is, but the video quality you showed at least to me is on par with a lower end VCR, so not bad for what it is. 👍
I really wanted to see what was happening on the inside when you slide that thing across. I'm trying to figure out how it gets that protective grey thing away from the tape and cassette so the head can contact the tape. It looks like it has to go *down* below the head, but I can't really figure out what would be happening there. Would love to see a follow-up on that!
Same here. I can't figure out what's going on with that plastic piece. Where exactly it goes is a mystery to me.
I never knew a VX format existed. I think it never came to Europe. Before VHS mostly Philips VCR tapes were used, also with those stacked spools in the VCC cartridges.
I remember them from primary school. I remember unsharp pictures with smearing colors...
I'm still struggling to understand where that circular plastic piece goes that allows the head to make contact with the tape? Seems like they would be the same size but the plastic piece must unwide a little bit to drop down below the head? I wish there was a way to that in action.
Nice machine, thanks for sharing this with us, would've been cool to see the Timer in action.
Got it, thank you!
6:20 The best ka-chunk I've ever heard!
How are all the belts in such good condition?
I would have liked to have seen the mechanism for spooling the tape around the head in action.
Got it, thanks!
It doesn't. The tape is completely threded inside the cartridge and never leaves the cartridge. The drum has only one head the tape has a full 360° loop inside the cartridge that is protected by a cover that unscrews from the bottom of the cartridge when you move the lever on the front of the machine from left to right exposing the full wrap of tape around the drum. This is why the drum only needs one head like all original video tape recorders. Only before you had to manually thread the tape from reel to reel by hand and make the full wrap around the video drum. With this new innovative cartridge design the threading is already done in the cartridge the machine never takes any of the tape out of the cartridge. The cartridge is lowered down over the drum and capstan and audio/sync heads already compleatly threaded inside the cartridge.
@michaelshultz2540 where does that plastic piece go temporarily?
I wish I could give 100 thumbs up!!
the auto fine tune can be done manually with the inner black knobs of the silver tuner knobs. as soon as I seen that part of the video I was immediately thinking of my late 90s childhood that my grandfather had both a VHS and beta on top of the woodgrain JVC. I forget the exact brand of VHS VCR but it had a double style knob that looked almost exact to what is in this video. interesting how something can be so similar for what I think was early 80s tech my grandfather had vs this mid/late tech.
What a beautiful machine!!❤
Very interesting early VCR with a very interesting clip starting at 30:05 is he using a Polaroid packfilm camera to make that photo?
BTW i'll possibly get a VX machine soon I hope
Quite an interesting vcr i guess we never got this format in the uk .
Looks like the VCR that we had in my high school in the UK end of 70s early 80s.
It almost certainly was not. Schools in the UK mostly used Sony EIAJ recorders, then progressed to VHS.
Was there even a PAL version of this machine?
is the timer clock you showed at the beginning to record at set times by simply turning the power on? kind of click and bang but i bet it did it and did it cheaper than building one in
That’s correct!
"Believe it or not there were people still in the 70s that couldn't afford a color TV" .... We couldn't afford one until the mid 90s ...
Yes. I was 6 in 1976 and we had one very small (used, old) color TV for the living room, mainly because my uncle repaired TVs. I had no idea what a VCR was until I was a teenager.
Holy Cow! Talk about the hard way in the olden days. I grew up in these times as a kid. Later I stopped worrying about the picture and bought VHS Hifi machines to create 8 hour long music tapes all recorded in VHS HIFI tracks as those were done in FM vs. the AM that most audio tape machine recording analog employed. Sounded great.
Wow, interesting machine, nt seen one of those before.
Getting that mechanism to work smooth as silk after 46 years must have taken a lot of work. Good job!
Thanks! So glad the big motor and belts were still good!
Wow im truly astonished.
Vety well done video! Would be interesting to see how the "twisty thing" interacts with the videohead during loading, because it surely has to move out of the way for the tape to touch the head. Does the tape stay inside the cassette’s groove during play? That's a very delicate, small tolerance thing I guess... and the lever on the front that you move to the right „unscrews“ the twisty thing (?).
The video drum sits up high enough that the "twisty" sits on the bottom of it during playback. Crazy!
VHS VS BETAMAX VS VX
There are MANY different Videotape formats, like V Cord II (My personal favorite), Cartrivision, U Matic, I could go on! That's only scratching the bilge of the iceberg.
Yes! I have a V Cord cassette, have never found a player in the wild. Our friend Rene (linked in the description) has made videos about V Cord and Cartrivision. I've had a few U Matic machines, plus EIAJ Reel to Reel video. And lets not forget EVR!
The colour is really impressive
Gonna have to replace my tire soon, not looking forward to trying to get to it.
I came across a couple of these tapes at an estate sale I have the 120 and a 100. I had no idea what they were so I decided to pick them up. They gave them to me free as it was the last day. One looks brand new (no writing or visible ware) the other appears to have stuff recorded on it. What would the value be on these? Thanks for your help and informative video
May I ask what writing is on them and if there are dates written on them?
@databits I can email you pics of the tapes if you'd like. The VC120 writing doesn't have dates but things listed to be on the tape are....Blues Bros. JAWS 2, Luke and Laura Dance (assuming a General Hospital episode) A star is born pt. 2. There are other things written as well. The VC100 is in brand new condition.
@@Cdub5298 - thank you for the information. I recommend listing these on eBay and selling them. There are many collectors out there who would be happy to take those off your hands. Try listing them for $10 apiece.
Englishman here, so please excuse me!
The VHF and UHF tuners. Did they come pre-programmed to the correct frequency? If this were a uk recorder, you would have to ‘tune in’ each of those presets on the dial. Depending on where in the country the recorder was located, would depend on what frequency news used. That doesn’t seem to be the case on this machine?
Yes, these old mechanical tuners were preset to the numbers indicated. They could be fine tuned. Did the UK have VHF and UHF?
@@databits thank you for clearing that up. I’ve been wondering about it for ages!
And we did. The older 405 line system was VHF, however from the late 60’s/early 70’s, the switchover to 625 lines started, and everything went over to UHF. If memory serves, the last VHF transmission ended in 1985. VHF (FM) was then just used for radio.
The machine is interesting in that it goes against the normal design feature of 2 video heads with head switching allowing a 180 rather than a 360-degree wrap. By the dates, it would appear they were trying to keep going despite there being "Normal" machines around ie IEAJ the U-matic and the N1500 Philips. That head must be extremely easy to wear out. Is the colour downshifted like Beta and VHS? As for the RF modulator, the norm in those days was to have easily removable units and the module would be fitted for the Market ie Pal I and PAL BG use different sound spacing so a specific module was required for UK or Europe. NTSC is used in Japan and South America so the R F modules would prob be different for them. You would not be able to play the NTSC machine on a PAL TV, even with a compatible RF unit it would need to be multi-standard TV. They did exist but were horrendously expensive as they were Pro use only at that time. On the machines I used, the BW switch was to allow a sharper BW picture. Later that changed but originally that was the function.
Why Matsushita has created this abomination when 3/4-inch format had been available since at least 1971 is beyond me. Matsushita did manufacture 3/4-inch machines. Maybe it is 120 vs 60 minute capacity? Sony was smarter to create Betamax as a downsized version of Umatic, and JVC was smart enough to copy Betamax.
I guess the only benefit of this system is that the tape is pre-laced. But I still don't get how the gray spiral guide is removed for the head drum to get into contact with the tape. I wish you showed it.
I thought the same. What was Matstushita thinking?
We had these machines in primary school back in the very early 1980's. They were terrible for reliability.
Beautiful machine!
Hard to tell, but it looks like this unit does not divide the color signal down like VHS did on consumer recorders.
Is that true? If so, this machine would have looked very good.
hi this is very like the VCR N1500 N1700 tapes i still have a working one i neverseen one in the uk
i seen sony reel to reel video decks and EU V2000 decks that i have just belts go soft and glue like
i wonder if anybody had a deck come over from the usa i have some reel to reel runs on usa volts
only find the same in 240v here is big money
Did this predate the uMatic? Never seen this. The official VCR format has a smaller cartridge and the reels are similarly superimposed, So only one spindle drive with top and bottom hub drives.
This came after U-Matic.
Please show how to play the tape without the cassette. I have several tapes I will need to take apart and clean and it may be easier to play them like that.
I sat two record players next to each other and wound one to the other.
@@databitsHow did you get the tape to play without the cassette shell? Is it just a matter of threading the tape in the right places and covering up the sensor that makes it stop running? After taking apart tapes to clean them, it might be easier to play them that way.
Hard to believe this is a contempory to Betamax. It's so clunky. Seems more like from 10 years earlier. What was Matstushita thinking??
Would you be able to transfer a video from a tape to DVD. I have a VR1-1000 tape of my appearance on Family Feud and I want to get it transferred to a digital version.
I can sure try!
Hi I have the set with about 20-25 tapes. They were very expensive $25 per tape! My machine doesn’t work anymore! I also have stuff recorded from the late 70’s
Nice!! Selling any tapes? 😀
@@databits I can they are 1 hr tapes and a crapp load of 2 hrs. My machine isn’t working. I replace the video head and has very low hrs on it. The machine is whole. I also replaced the drive motor for the take up reel it wasn’t the motor. The circuit board with the speed pot started to smoke something. Might be a resistor or a capacitor. The stuff on the tapes I recorded was the stuff over the air.
@@Bagel-the-Beagle-1 - cool! What is your price for the tapes?
@@databits how’s $10.00 for the 2 hr tapes $5.00 for the 1hrs. I can give you a count sometime tonight or first thing tomorrow. The labels are not even written on. They are peel and past type.
@@Bagel-the-Beagle-1 - sounds good! Could you send me an email? Go to my channel page, then about.
Hymie at B&H photo remembers these.
for the price this was back in its day its only right it required two burly men to deliver it to your home plus they had to wade through a few yards of shag pile carpet to install it
Where was the flux capacitors at in this unit I think you forgot to highlight those
🙃
I naively believed that I had seen all kinds of tapes)
I have one on my attic
I think these were sold in Europe under the Philips brand.
Philips had the n1500 and n1700 which were sold in Europe. Never seen this one. they are very rare if they are around in Europe.
In the demonstration, the Yamaha commercial looks better quality than the rest of the footage. Like clearly so, not just a subtle difference. Why could that be the case?
Tape degradation, maybe. So many dropouts on the PBS footage could be due to overuse on that part of the tape.
The Philips VCR (the N1500 was introduced in 1971!) had a much better quality.
Would love to get my paws on one of those sometime! 😎
@@databits Yes, they are very rare and valuable now. Just unbelievable to think as a consumer you could have a VCR in 1970/1971, although they were expensive and on a waiting list.
I feel dumb making this comment but I found out recently those aren't c clips they are E clips, just thought you may find interesting
Ha! I did too. Harbor freight sells a case of them (which I might end up buying). I will call them C clips forever I guess. There were a lot of “things” in this VTR.
Didn't people have VHS? What about cable TV
VHS arrived a few years later. Yup, cable TV was there.
Good video, but it was a shame that you never showed us what the slidey thing at the front actually did inside the machine which i was really intrigued about. But, considering it only had one head I was amazed how good the picture was.
A shame??? Never! Just a great suggestion for video #2!
@@databitsI really want to see that.
ビデオテープは手で触れてしまうと痛むので専用の手袋でお願いします。🙏
It's a piece of 1970s high end Tech furniture. I
I had this machine. It wore out head on drum fast. I replaced the head on mine at least 4 times over 2 years. But the machine did make way better recordings. Better than yours by far. And it did it on really poor quality tape. BTW The tapes cost $24 for a 60min maximum time available. The scuew controle adjustment was to change the tape tension. My tunner timer was a separate add on box that was an upgrade.
Julia Child sounds just like Dame Edna Everage!
Oh my! It's no nice!
Very cool machine but I can definitely see why it failed, like Jesus I thought VHS was complicated with it's tilted play head, wow
so if u hook this up in your car. play a copy of back to the future and get up to 88mph will u see some serious shit.
oh God....so many electrolytics....how is that thing still working....?
Must have lived indoors all of its life and they used quality caps.
My machine got stuck and I don’t have any more time to mess with it tonight, wonder if anyone knows why the pinch roller isn’t engaging during playback and stopping it? It’s working when I run it with no tape in the machine (covering up the sensor), hitting Play it runs a few seconds then there’s a click and the pinch roller moves forward. With the tape in, instead of moving forward the machine just stops. Cleaned all the usual spots with alcohol but did I miss something? Sucks when this happens right before bedtime and have to work the next morning.
WoW!!!!!!!!