"streamlining" or "cost reduction"? A lot of the effort to simplify mechanisms and integrate circuits were for cost reduction reasons. Thus the reliability if an older unit can be terrible but the repair-ability is higher even though more involved as you have a lot to check.

It's a Panasonic so doesn't surprise me that it's fixable. Later RCA went with Hitachi for most of their vcrs.

True

Yep that's right I've seen a few rotary transformers go bad because of the circuit glue. I'm actually quite surprised that this one worked because at the age of it it shouldn't be working but it does.

Well the newer models had far fewer moving parts and had all the circuitry integrated into a couple of chips. Much more reliable than the old models. About the only thing that goes wrong with them is power problems and mode switches. The old ones with all those discrete parts and all the wiring harnesses and many boards have many points of failure. As a serviceman i liked the older ones because they kept me busy and making a living. I do regret however going into the consumer electronics business. I wasted 20 years of my life working in an industry that had no future. What I was 20 and right out of school I didn't see that, I figured like everyone else in that business at the time that this would go on forever and things would always break and always need to be fixed but it was pretty apparent by the time the late 90s rolled around that wasn't the case and I started making plans to get out. That day came in the summer of 2003. I stayed away for 10 years and then have the idea of starting a KZfaq channel and that got me back into repairing this old crap, which is now fun because I'm not under any pressure to do it, don't do it make a living just do it to make the videos to try and help others solve their problems because these days there are fewer and fewer repair techs around. As they say we're a dying breed because most of the guys I knew when I was in the business are six feet under now.

@@12voltvids I got out of my TV and VCR repair business (in Australia) in 2005, when I couldn’t make a proper living anymore. Went into broadcasting until I retired a couple of years ago 🙂.

@@paulsi1234 i left in 2003 and went to work for the phone / internet / cable TV / security company where i still am today and counting the months till retirement.

Tape speeds between PAL and NTSC are different. PAL SP is close to NTSC LP and PAL LP is close to NTSC SLP/EP. A T-120 tape is almost of the same length as an E-180.

@@crashbandicoot4everr I suppose thats one of the benefits of having 10 fewer fields per second

Well first of all pal and secam tape speed isslower than ntsc the Head drum rotates slower 1500 RPM versus 1800 for ntsc. Your SP speed is right in the middle between the SP and LP speed for ntsc. That's why a t120 tape becomes an e180 tape on the pal and secam system. The lp tape speed on pal is the same as the SLP or EP speed on ntsc, 6 hours. Your e240 tapes were the same as our t160 which could record up to 8 hours. We also had a t200 and we had t180s as well. I actually have some and I should do a video to show off some of the really long tapes that I have. I used to use them in a time lapse security recorder and to log radio stations for audio in hi-fi because I could record 10 hours on one tape.

@@12voltvids I have an E-300 tape. I suppose it's the same as the T-200.

They weren't very reliable in the day. What amazes me is the pedestal that people put these old dinosaurs on that aren't old enough to remember them. Anyone that owned one of these things back in the day would not praise it like people are praising them today. I used to love these old machines because I made a lot of money fixing them, belt kits idlers that stupid light bulb in the tape compartment that would burn out. Made a lot of money off these things. The ones that are still working are ones that haven't been used probably in the last 35 years. Most of these old mono machines that people bought in the early 80s were replaced by cheap Hi-Fi machines and delegated to the basement or put in a closet and forgotten about that's why when we haul them out now and plug them in for the most part they're still in pretty good shape it's not that they were built particularly well it's just they don't have the hours on them and that's why they're still working.

@@12voltvids Idler pulleys and end sensor lamps made us lots of $$ in 1983.

@@fflynnful yes i know. I bought a house fixing broken VCRs.

I've had a RIFA cap explode in my bedroom. Yeah that was fun! :D

Could be the old loose tape guide problem.

@@12voltvids I read that my VCR has some sort of optical sensor(s) instead of a mechanical mode switch, but I don't know where those are. I did see two tiny things that looked like they could be optical sensors of some kind, mounted on each side of the loading tray directly across from each other, and I cleaned those with some residue-free, safe-on-plastic electrical contact cleaner, and everything has worked perfectly since, but since the problem was intermittent to begin with, I don't know yet if cleaning those things actually accomplished anything or not. I'm not sure what the tape guide is or consists of. The tape wraps around the head drum and various posts/rollers when it's playing, and it all seems normal.

No, they haven't been operating for 41 years. They have been in storage for 41 years. My bet is this unit hasn't seen power probably since about 1986, because by the time hifi VCRs hit the stores people upgraded. This machine was in a box from a 1986 year RCA vmt285. So my guess is they bought a new VCR and and stuck this one in the box and to the basement it went till the house was cleared out and I got it. Most of these dinosaurs were scrapped relatively early because everyone wanted the new wireless remote VCRs and full cable tuners. When i was in the business we saw very few of these from about 1985 on because people were just buying new, the price started to drop big time by the mid 80s. I remember buying a cheap he branded Panasonic hifi machine for 333.33 at Krazy Krazy in 87.

@@12voltvids I'm glad you give me all this information. The unit is while customer; is it yours? and added it to your collection?

@@amatorev this one is mine. Dead guy gave it to me. Same dead guy gave me Edison phonograph and 2 betamax and a bunch of other stuff.

These old ones had constant trouble. One thing after another. The new ones were more reliable and much easier to service due to reduced parts. The problem was the parts were harder to source when needed.

"It's not television, it's Selectavision"

@@12voltvids I don't australia had much in way of any rca stuff.

@@12voltvids lol, nice marketing tosh! Apart from the vinyl video disc (named SelectaVision), what did it offer with other gear?

Keep your fingers out of switch mode power supply.

That's because it is a Panasonic-made machine. I too have a National Panasonic which is almost identical to this RCA.

Yep. I had the US Panasonic model of this machine....PV-1750, IIRC

@@morrisonAV If it had a wired remote then it would have been the 1750 (VET650). If it was wireless then it would have been the 1770 (VFT650).

@@crashbandicoot4everr Yep, wired remote. The 1750 cost me $1000 in Dec. of 1980

1800 for ntsc machines 1500 for pal. If it's fast or slow the horizontal frequency will be incorrect on the video.

No they put it in a box and forgot about it.

If it had dedicated heads for lp it could. The machine has so heads 68micron and slp heads 22 micron. When recording in lp speed you have a 22 micron wide track and. 24 microns of blank tape. So when you stop it there is really nothing to see, half the picture would be snow. In sp and SLP the track width matches the head width.

There are plenty of ic on this one. Not LSI but plenty of ic. You have a free running 3 phase motor generator and drive circuit. An fg circuit to establish a speed loop. The frequency coming out if the fg pickup is compared to the oscillator that drives the circuit. The frequency is locked to the oscillator. On record the speed and phase locked to the incoming vertical sync (or a local osc if no video) on playback the control track is used for the reference. The tracking control just changes a delay on the control track pulse going into the capstan seevi circuit. Capacitors are used in the osc and sample and hold circuit. All analog. Newer sets went all digital.

@@12voltvids Is there a book somewhere or any resources out there that you read/studied back in the 70s/80s when you worked as a technician on these machines? I know some service manuals have some information but most of the stuff I've found is for the PAL system and rare formats like the Philips N1500 which never made it to NTSC land. Does that Sony seminar from 1985 go over servo circuits?

@@KylesDigitalLab I believe he went over a bit, but it was mostly superbeta stuff. I took several courses in the 80s. Forgot most of it these days.

Sure there was

Actually i left them on. I want it to snap every tape that goes in it.

Some get sold some go in my collection.

Thank God they don't make them anymore.

Early machines were made by Panasonic then then went to Hitachi for severl years then back to Panasonic and finally funai or daywoo. I was out if the game by that time.