Great vid Adrian, I used to sell VCRs in the mid 80s, so popular, loads of different manufacturers, and expensive back then! We had an inhouse mechanic, who said if you encounter a visual problem (cheap tapes sometimes), pop open the flap and take a good look at the heads. This explains so much more about the transport system! Modern day tech is so dull compared to this and Hi-Fi, so it's great to see an enthusiast explaining, thanks !
I have taken apart many a VCR in my time for recycling (I was volunteering at a charity). Some of them were real works of art, especially the older ones.
2:05 I had several of those Sony branded VHS tapes, but with the newer packaging design from 2007. TDK was my go to brand for VHS tapes when used to record shows at the time.
Even though these late Panasonic VCRs have cheap cases and (compared to the aluminum diecast chassis of older generations) cheap mechanisms, they are shockingly reliable. I have never experienced a Z mechanism (like the one shown) that failed over time. Of course it does happen, but if you compare that to Funai or Samsung models, they are excellent. As for the squeeking noise, like every other VCR it needs lubrication on the plastic gears that drive the mechanism. This is definitely not a belt issue. I am more of an expert for the K-mechanisms, but if I remember correctly, the Z-mechanisms only use a single belt that goes from the direct drive motor of the capstan to the reels, this belt then drives the takeup, the fast forward and the rewind. I am about 99% sure this noise comes from plastic rubbing on plastik at the gear on the bottom side that drives the state of the mechanism. (You will recognise that gear as soon as you see it, it looks really weird.) Also, the magnetic pickup on Panasonic units is superior to most I've seen. Even on the last HiFi VCRs they made, they hardly ever produce audio glitches on HiFi tracks, even when the tapes weren't recorded on a good machine or the tape is worn. Also, it is just not correct that these late units were made as cheaply as possible. As you can see, the pinch roller first moves down and then moves to the capstan. This is a really complicated way of designing it. Most manufactureres just had the capstan on the back side of the tape and the rubber pinch roller on the metal particle side of the tape where the information is saved. Doing it that way, a failing pinch roller can contaminate a tape with dirt. Panasonic never did that.
You sold me on the Panasonic... it must be a company tradition. Looking at vintage cassette decks I had the same feeling for Technics (both are brands of the Matsushita Electric). I bought one on eBay... DECK A has played so long the head on top as a noticeable wear sign and still it plays beautifully and the belts are from 1993! Unbelievable...
I agree 100% - They always work when i get lucky and pick them up. They need nothing. as simple as it seems to be - it's reliable and obviously well designed.
I try to fix vcr players, we still use them because my mentally disabled sister refuses to go to anything newer, also it would be too hard for her. So I have sometimes fixed them by just adding grease or by just getting the videos out of the player! Most of the time the belts are getting stretched out : I can't find any good belts they're all for cassette tape players. Grrrr!
on a Panasonic VCR NV-HS900 what are the functions about the adjust buttons soldered on the left vertical card ? ( what does mean " PB " ? ) VR5 REC C ? VHS REC Y ? S VHS PB LEVEL 1 ? VHS PB LEVEL ? S VHS REC Y ? VHS REC Y ?
Vhs tapes were phased out by 2005 with a handful made in 2006. Vcr's i think were still made till 2016 by Funai. But most major brands stopped by 2010. But yea amazing little machines
i love vcr's i used to repair them and crt tv's for over 20 years shame they died out try find a panasonic G deck very complicated loading mechanism underneath
The G Deck was vastly superior to the above K series mechanism, which was notorious for wearing heads prematurely due to back tension issues. Rather cheap and nasty and a taste of things to come...
is there any reason why the tape needed to be read in a housed environment? im surprised ive never seen like a gimmick vcr where you can see it reading the tape.
I've had very good luck with DVD recorders, the quality is excellent compared with every capture device I've tried, especially at the highest speed and you can rip the files onto a PC. However, doesn't that camera you showed off at the beginning have a video input? I think my wife's similar camera does.
I have a Philips 6443 from 1989. Visually its in great physical condition. I opened the cabinet and its looks VERY clean. But when I put a VHS in, the rewind is slow, the forward is slow and when i press play, the spools drag the tape half way, and cant go any further, and tries a bit, then the VCR goes to standby. (maybe a protect mode)? I was looking for grease and its looks empty...whatever is there is dry completely. Is that the reason? from 2 decades or so of no use? I dont hear any bad noise or anything...just seems like the VCR struggling to rewind, forward and play. The head spins effortlessly however.
I just bought something similar from 08.2000. Philips VR600. There was need to replace cog and set aligment, but after that it run smooth. I am planing record old home movies and then record new movies on tapes and also Hi-Fi audio. :)
instead of connecting the vcr to the computer get your hands on a dvd recorder with hard drive then you can record the vhs tapes to the hard drive then you can play it back to see if its ok and you can edit aswell and depending on the size of the quality dump it to a dvd then put the dvd into the laptop or pc then convert the dvd to mp4 or avi or just leave it on the hdd or dvd
This has to be a later model. 80s vcrs were tanks. Especially the ones built by Matsushita(panasonic, GE, Sylvania, Maganavox, some RCA's, etc.) Toshiba, Hitachi, and JVCs were tanks as well. Hitachi made a really good machine.
I know what you mean. Our first ever VCR was a Ferguson (rebadged JVC) from 1987, and it carried on working well into the 2000s. It finally died when the tape movement sensor failed, causing the VCR to immediately stop whenever you tried to play, fast forward etc. Too fiddly to replace, so got trashed.
Funai made vcr's till 2016 but other major brands stopped around 2005. I still have my Panasonic and jvc vcr's from late 90's and both still going. Craig actually made vhs tapes in 2017 and 2018 ... so those will be the newest made.
@@mctv6486 not sure if you know this but they did make S-VHS which was 60% higher resolution over standard vhs. Believe it was 440 lines of resolution where dvd was 480 lines, they were very close in quality.
My JVC has been recording as late as yesterday. After watching the playback, all went well and i shut if off. This morning I went to take the tape out and after it did come out, i accidentally hit it and shoved it right back into the vcr, which in turn has completely keeps ejecting it as i tried to reinsert it Anyone know why this is happening?
Just wondering why my Philips DVP3150V vcr/dvd player has suddenly stopped accepting vhs tapes.😭 The vcr starts to accept the cartridge, but does not completely take the cartridge in (it's about 3/4 in the machine). You can hear the machine hum that it's trying to load in the cartridge. Luckily, it ejects out perfectly. Wondering why the vhs tape is not completely loading into the vcr. I have almost 100 great vhs movies so that's why I'm bothering to find out if it's fixable. Thanks much!
I’m no expert but there’s maybe a small LED light inside the tape cavity which detects the presence of a tape & turns on a motor which then “Collects” the tape & laces it up. If the machine isn’t taking the tape from you, maybe it’s the light or the motor which is defective. However as I said I’m no expert.
Your better looking for a vcr with TBC or buy a separate one on its own. I use to repair a lot of vcrs. I got a high end deck with very low hours on it and it’s got TBC on it and does a clean job on transfers, also has FireWire on it with is handy. So look out for a SVHS deck with TBC on it.
Hello Adrian I bought a VHS video in August of 2001 and lost the command, and there is no longer for sale. However the video was blocked, "SAFE" I tried to solve but without any success, I have the hope that someone can give me some indication to eliminate SAFE mode Thanks for listening.
Haha so did I - that Panasonic from '01 is actually a very modern single board design. I have a lot of early to mid 90s RCAs (mid drive, single main board with a few sub boards) that were considered modern then and even now . . .
Yeah, I agree they could have made it much smaller.. wonder why they didn't? I mean, it's cheaper. Could it've made ⅓ of another unit? 🤔 I remember the lock button on the side that would open the cassette also breaking that little square plastic off on the corner of the vhs tape you couldn't record over it.. But put a litter sellotape over it you could..
That happened to me we had an old vcr I put in a tape played it for a minute then ejected it got stuck the tape was crumpled it broke. We got a new tape out same thing but that one did not Break it still got stuck but we fixed it. We put it in again but left it in until it ran out then we ejected it a it was fine😀
Yeah they freeze at random times without warning and scratch VERY EASILY. With VHS. You just shouldn’t touch the magnetic tape through it’s spring loaded door.
VCRs are just super cool in the way they function. The pulling the tape out and wrapping it around a spinning head is impressive to watch.
Great vid Adrian, I used to sell VCRs in the mid 80s, so popular, loads of different manufacturers, and expensive back then! We had an inhouse mechanic, who said if you encounter a visual problem (cheap tapes sometimes), pop open the flap and take a good look at the heads. This explains so much more about the transport system!
Modern day tech is so dull compared to this and Hi-Fi, so it's great to see an enthusiast explaining, thanks !
I have taken apart many a VCR in my time for recycling (I was volunteering at a charity). Some of them were real works of art, especially the older ones.
nice video man! and it was smart that you test that VHS VCR first before you put your tape in it!!
thanx for sharing!!!
2:05 I had several of those Sony branded VHS tapes, but with the newer packaging design from 2007. TDK was my go to brand for VHS tapes when used to record shows at the time.
Even though these late Panasonic VCRs have cheap cases and (compared to the aluminum diecast chassis of older generations) cheap mechanisms, they are shockingly reliable.
I have never experienced a Z mechanism (like the one shown) that failed over time. Of course it does happen, but if you compare that to Funai or Samsung models, they are excellent.
As for the squeeking noise, like every other VCR it needs lubrication on the plastic gears that drive the mechanism. This is definitely not a belt issue. I am more of an expert for the K-mechanisms, but if I remember correctly, the Z-mechanisms only use a single belt that goes from the direct drive motor of the capstan to the reels, this belt then drives the takeup, the fast forward and the rewind. I am about 99% sure this noise comes from plastic rubbing on plastik at the gear on the bottom side that drives the state of the mechanism. (You will recognise that gear as soon as you see it, it looks really weird.)
Also, the magnetic pickup on Panasonic units is superior to most I've seen. Even on the last HiFi VCRs they made, they hardly ever produce audio glitches on HiFi tracks, even when the tapes weren't recorded on a good machine or the tape is worn.
Also, it is just not correct that these late units were made as cheaply as possible. As you can see, the pinch roller first moves down and then moves to the capstan. This is a really complicated way of designing it. Most manufactureres just had the capstan on the back side of the tape and the rubber pinch roller on the metal particle side of the tape where the information is saved.
Doing it that way, a failing pinch roller can contaminate a tape with dirt. Panasonic never did that.
You sold me on the Panasonic... it must be a company tradition. Looking at vintage cassette decks I had the same feeling for Technics (both are brands of the Matsushita Electric). I bought one on eBay... DECK A has played so long the head on top as a noticeable wear sign and still it plays beautifully and the belts are from 1993! Unbelievable...
I agree 100% - They always work when i get lucky and pick them up. They need nothing. as simple as it seems to be - it's reliable and obviously well designed.
I try to fix vcr players, we still use them because my mentally disabled sister refuses to go to anything newer, also it would be too hard for her.
So I have sometimes fixed them by just adding grease or by just getting the videos out of the player!
Most of the time the belts are getting stretched out : I can't find any good belts they're all for cassette tape players. Grrrr!
Well you can't stay at old forever,you will have to show your sister how to use Modern Technology
I could swear that was Edina from Absolutely fabulous! Great video! All the best
on a Panasonic VCR NV-HS900 what are the functions about the adjust buttons soldered on the left vertical card ?
( what does mean " PB " ? )
VR5 REC C ?
VHS REC Y ?
S VHS PB LEVEL 1 ?
VHS PB LEVEL ?
S VHS REC Y ?
VHS REC Y ?
Thank you Adrian. Your channel helped my grandson write a report for his high school fixit project. Our VHS is eating tapes.
Vcr's dont eat tapes.
Our first VCR was a Symphonic made in 1985 or 1986. Heavy metal case, dozens of buttons, etc. By 2000, they were so light and cheap.
Vhs tapes were phased out by 2005 with a handful made in 2006.
Vcr's i think were still made till 2016 by Funai. But most major brands stopped by 2010.
But yea amazing little machines
@@ACommenterOnRUclips these days there are Video Cameras that use SD Cards
@@stephensnell5707 ok and what does a video camera and sd cards have anything to do with VCR's ??
i love vcr's i used to repair them and crt tv's for over 20 years shame they died out try find a panasonic G deck very complicated loading mechanism underneath
The G Deck was vastly superior to the above K series mechanism, which was notorious for wearing heads prematurely due to back tension issues. Rather cheap and nasty and a taste of things to come...
Technology changes over time and people follow .. Few stay behind
is there any reason why the tape needed to be read in a housed environment? im surprised ive never seen like a gimmick vcr where you can see it reading the tape.
They were all made like that eventually. Still a nice VCR. HiFi Stereo and such...
Hi Fantastic Video, Very Informative Thanks For This Upload
I've had very good luck with DVD recorders, the quality is excellent compared with every capture device I've tried, especially at the highest speed and you can rip the files onto a PC. However, doesn't that camera you showed off at the beginning have a video input? I think my wife's similar camera does.
I have a new VCR I bought a year ago at my local Wal-Mart and I use it a lot.
Super cool thanks for sharing!
I have a Philips 6443 from 1989. Visually its in great physical condition. I opened the cabinet and its looks VERY clean. But when I put a VHS in, the rewind is slow, the forward is slow and when i press play, the spools drag the tape half way, and cant go any further, and tries a bit, then the VCR goes to standby. (maybe a protect mode)? I was looking for grease and its looks empty...whatever is there is dry completely. Is that the reason? from 2 decades or so of no use? I dont hear any bad noise or anything...just seems like the VCR struggling to rewind, forward and play. The head spins effortlessly however.
Those Mini-DV cameras sometimes had a setting where you could switch the composite video output to an input, and capture composite video to firewire.
that's the most 2000s thing i've read 😁
I just bought something similar from 08.2000. Philips VR600. There was need to replace cog and set aligment, but after that it run smooth. I am planing record old home movies and then record new movies on tapes and also Hi-Fi audio. :)
Please tell me you followed up with how to get the vids off the tapes?
Same as mine i got today, I am glad to get lessons
instead of connecting the vcr to the computer get your hands on a dvd recorder with hard drive then you can record the vhs tapes to the hard drive then you can play it back to see if its ok and you can edit aswell and depending on the size of the quality dump it to a dvd then put the dvd into the laptop or pc then convert the dvd to mp4 or avi or just leave it on the hdd or dvd
Thta's a LOT of steps - I'd just put them on a jump usb drive. USB is here to say!
Good idea normally the belt would be the first thing to go (or is it the eject in the case of my Panasonic VCR pv-4651)
So mine is accepting the tape, but the film isn’t being pulled to the spinning head. It’s just sitting there. Can’t seem to figure it out.
This has to be a later model. 80s vcrs were tanks. Especially the ones built by Matsushita(panasonic, GE, Sylvania, Maganavox, some RCA's, etc.) Toshiba, Hitachi, and JVCs were tanks as well. Hitachi made a really good machine.
I know what you mean. Our first ever VCR was a Ferguson (rebadged JVC) from 1987, and it carried on working well into the 2000s. It finally died when the tape movement sensor failed, causing the VCR to immediately stop whenever you tried to play, fast forward etc. Too fiddly to replace, so got trashed.
its funny, Im currently transferring tapes myself right now. I even offer to do it for a few friends and family for a low price.
VHS was such a Success the VHS VCR's outlived the tapes themselves
Funai made vcr's till 2016 but other major brands stopped around 2005.
I still have my Panasonic and jvc vcr's from late 90's and both still going.
Craig actually made vhs tapes in 2017 and 2018 ... so those will be the newest made.
@@ACommenterOnRUclips oh, true ig
@@mctv6486 not sure if you know this but they did make S-VHS which was 60% higher resolution over standard vhs. Believe it was 440 lines of resolution where dvd was 480 lines, they were very close in quality.
@@ACommenterOnRUclips this i know, however i have not ben able to find a S-VHS VCR that i can afford
My JVC has been recording as late as yesterday. After watching the playback, all went well and i shut if off. This morning I went to take the tape out and after it did come out, i accidentally hit it and shoved it right back into the vcr, which in turn has completely keeps ejecting it as i tried to reinsert it Anyone know why this is happening?
Mode switch - clean it up. but getting at it? LOL jvc? LOL - Best of luck to you
Squeal seems to come from the top motor bushing, When it squeal, we see the top right motor move a bit in its assembly. Lube and should be good to go
Just wondering why my Philips DVP3150V vcr/dvd player has suddenly stopped accepting vhs tapes.😭 The vcr starts to accept the cartridge, but does not completely take the cartridge in (it's about 3/4 in the machine). You can hear the machine hum that it's trying to load in the cartridge. Luckily, it ejects out perfectly. Wondering why the vhs tape is not completely loading into the vcr. I have almost 100 great vhs movies so that's why I'm bothering to find out if it's fixable. Thanks much!
I this the chip might be out on your VCR but if you want me to look at it for you I'll do it.
I’m no expert but there’s maybe a small
LED light inside the tape cavity which detects the presence of a tape & turns on a motor which then “Collects” the tape & laces it up. If the machine isn’t taking the tape from you, maybe it’s the light or the motor which is defective. However as I said I’m no expert.
Your mechanism's timing is off. You would have to take the whole mechanism apart and re time it.
Your better looking for a vcr with TBC or buy a separate one on its own. I use to repair a lot of vcrs. I got a high end deck with very low hours on it and it’s got TBC on it and does a clean job on transfers, also has FireWire on it with is handy. So look out for a SVHS deck with TBC on it.
Good information sir
Hello Adrian
I bought a VHS video in August of 2001 and lost the command, and there is no longer for sale. However the video was blocked, "SAFE" I tried to solve but without any success, I have the hope that someone can give me some indication to eliminate SAFE mode
Thanks for listening.
António Cavaquinho press power 10 seg with power off
Well, your VCR works congratulation, but what that has to do with fundamentals, I guess I had expectations too high
old VCR? I expected a recorder from the late seventies... you show a quite new recorder, it's less than 20 years old.
Like those top loaders with the piano keys? I have some of those. :D
Haha so did I - that Panasonic from '01 is actually a very modern single board design. I have a lot of early to mid 90s RCAs (mid drive, single main board with a few sub boards) that were considered modern then and even now . . .
@@crashbandicoot4everr search for Sony SL-C7 the anthracite casing - that was the unreachable one
Thank you
Nice video, glad you got your old tapes working, lovely to look back. Did you solve the transfer to pc problem? Keep safe you and yours.
6:44 7:18 7:23 7:30 7:42 Sounds like a bunny from minecraft.
Hi can you help me
I have lg vhs player
When i put it on
It reads safe
And does not play video
Thanks
Yeah, I agree they could have made it much smaller.. wonder why they didn't? I mean, it's cheaper. Could it've made ⅓ of another unit? 🤔
I remember the lock button on the side that would open the cassette also breaking that little square plastic off on the corner of the vhs tape you couldn't record over it.. But put a litter sellotape over it you could..
Hello sir
How to make DVD
sony 6 hrs???
Sir please the vcr is sale
Slp was great cause when you paused it, the screen shot would be clear. If you recorded in sp, when you paused it, it would be scrambled.
Yea because the slp records slower so when you pause it, the frame rate is cleaner.
That happened to me we had an old vcr I put in a tape played it for a minute then ejected it got stuck the tape was crumpled it broke. We got a new tape out same thing but that one did not Break it still got stuck but we fixed it. We put it in again but left it in until it ran out then we ejected it a it was fine😀
Check the tape back tension then remove and throw away the auto head cleaner...
I guess we all wanted to know how you look nowadays .....
That squeaking from the VHS player in this Video did not sound good
Where
There
@@ACommenterOnRUclips Underwear
@@rommix0 Idiot ?? Moron ?? Stupid ?? Special Needs ?? Retarded ?? Dumb ??
Which one are you ?
That squeaking sound sounds very bad indeed
Vcr price
Rhetorical
CD dvd and all digital recording are full of crap...
Yeah they freeze at random times without warning and scratch VERY EASILY. With VHS. You just shouldn’t touch the magnetic tape through it’s spring loaded door.
You know he checked those tapes first.. just in case he recorded something over it..
😌😌🫢
thank you