That is not glue! That is grease which is needed for it to run a long time and well. The more that’s in there, the better

The best vcr’s came out of the early to mid 80s. Later they stripped down all the extras. The lit up panel was gone and hi fi. You got this so that’s good.

I have to say, I cannot BELIEVE how many of you guys found this video!!!! These comments have been so fun to read, and I can’t wait to make more videos. I have a few in the works, but if you see this comment please let you know what you’d like to see from me💖

Few years ago (soon after Covid restrictions were off), I came across an add where this sweet old lady wants to get rid of her VHS cassette collection for dirt cheap, so I went to see her, she had about 50 tapes in their original housings. She's not stating a price and asking me to do so. So I shot an arrow in the dark and said 20 bucks, and she agreed, not only that, she said she has a VCR that she doesn't use anymore and she'll throw that in as well for the same price, and it was this exact VCR with the original remote. I have it as a spare as in my stack I have two Sony Hi-Fi high end VCR's connected already. Guess I hit the jackpot. Nice VCR and nice video by the way.

I recently inherited a VCR from my great uncle. I didn't even think VHS tapes were a big thing still but I looked on Ebay and it seems like the VHS scene is alive and thriving! And also here on KZfaq. Glad to see that. Haven't really touched any VHS tapes in DECADES but I always loved the look and feel. Anyway, great video!

I feel nostalgic! I had one of those around the years 2000-2001! Thank you so much for sharing!

I bought this exact VCR used at Goodwill a couple years ago for 10 bucks. I wanted a single unit as I also have three VCR/DVD combos and I needed this one to fit on the shelf under my projector. So far it works great. Nice video.

Love to see these old school stuffs. It takes me back in my mid ‘80’s. One of the most complex cassettes mechanism which cannot ever be compared with these days confused geeks. Appreciate for uploading this.

In this digital age it's nice to see that some people are still interested in good quality VCRs and VTRs.

No matter how the age of technology evolves, the VCR will remain the most fascinating. I love it because of the complexity and the perfection of the execution. I have two video recorders that work like the first day. -- A Toshiba player and an Aiwa recorder. -- Young people have no way of understanding it because they haven't experienced it 

I love this video so much! Subbed!

Thank you for this informative video. I think I will try this cleaning technique with my VCR in the future.

I don't quite know how to say this, but first off I'm an old timer who grew up with those devices, I always chased excellence, better picture quality and in the end we went with the 6 heads VHS machines (often S-Vhs, because of the better resolution) and it was always to have the latest best, high fidelity movie experience at home. At that time as you pointed out, sound was ahead of the picture quality and you could even use it as a HiFi means to CD replacement if you did not mind the rewinding process. Had DAT too when it came. But here's my point, I too had a fascination on my older days with my nostalgic devices, I think partly because we where so fond of them, spent so much money, time, and restoration efforts in order to have the top notch stuff and remember good times with it, kind of like older people and Hi-Fi if you like. Same for video games and older computers. It was just a part of our evolution back then. That said - I'm still with the latest and greatest, which means today high end graphics card, superfast computers and high speed fiber internet. It's essentially the same game as before but in quality we never even dreamed of in our youth. For example, your high end Smartphone today makes better video than broadcast gear 15 years ago - and that fits right in your pocket. How amazing is that? I find it it interesting that young people like yourself are fascinated with these historical devices, for me they are just a part of history now and highly impractical, but it's fun to see you and others appreciate history and try to see and relive what we experienced, albeit with todays bias you already know the better stuff we have today.

Beautiful ❤

Glad you made a video on this! I enjoyed the CRT videos, and now that I got a rad Magnavox CRT from 2005 and refurbished Panasonic camcorder from 1998-2000 ish, all I need now is a VCR!

I love your enthusiasm for retro tech. I would love to see more. I would also look forward to unique not very common gems.

A few things - the 'battery' is the main power supply smoothing capacitor and is on the DC side of the line voltage (after it's rectified) so will have over 100v across it. Panasonic are good with their bleed resistors but it could still have that potential across it after the power is removed. It also has 'HOT' right beside it meaning it's the line voltage 'live' side of the power supply. Others have said this but the glue is grease and shouldn't be removed. You cleaned the head chips but nothing else in the tape path. It is a clean machine but really cleaning everywhere tape touches is the way to go including the ACE (Audio Control Erase) head and especially the capstan and pinch roller. I never use chamois cleaning sticks now as the quality can be dubious. Using the filters t clean them risks adding lint. These days I just use a cut (not ripped) piece of paper soaked in 99% isopropyl to clean the video heads. The higher the percentage isopropyl the less residue so I'd say no to 70%, maybe at a push for 90% but go for 99%. The first tape you tested appears to have either been right at the start with a long lead-in or at the end as you could see a slightly miss-tracked portion at the bottom of the blank playback. The thumb was misleading too as you have 'unboxing a brand new VCR' when it really isn't - it's just a low-hours unit but it worked I guess as I wouldn't have watched it if it was just a 'low hours VCR unboxing'. Really hope your channel takes off and it's great to see someone so young loving this kit too - it would be so great to keep this kit going for as long as possible especially as you can get so much media for so little money and actually own it. PS - It's a video recorder and not a player 😊

This is taking me back to my childhood all over again. I love it and can't wait for more of your content ❤

I actually have the Magnavox VCR/DVD combo you show at the beginning but mine was actually manufactured in 2013 (which is really good considering VCRs in general were completely discontinued in 2016), and I got a really good deal on it at Goodwill for $13. I will say it’s always a good idea to stock up like you have on VCRs as what’s left out there is all we have. Great video and awesome find! You struck gold!

Woah this is a really great video for someone just starting out on youtube!

Came across one of these 6 years ago at my local thrift store that still had the remote for 10 bucks. Needless to say it's been my go-to since then. I also got gifted that Magnavox combo you showed in the beginning a few years ago, but the DVD player didn't work, had no remote, and yeah the VHS quality was kinda trash. Great channel, and I love seeing people collection old and physical media in this era. I hate that so much is reliant on being online, and in my opinion that's a total negative. You've got a new sub!

Whoa ❤ the unit is beautiful 🤩 like new!!! Wow I love old stuff 💯

Totally Awesome😎 I remember when VCRs came out in the 80s .very nice find and very well done video. Keep up the great work.😁

Good taste in Panasonic for a VCR. They made some of the most reliable units back in the day. Even RCA used to contract Panasonic to make their late 70's and 80's VCR's.

I love old tech stuff too, keep it up and have fun! 🤣👍

I have one of these! It has served me well and seen a ridiculous amount of use, besides the typical watching movies and TV stuff it did in my childhood, i stream and speedrun old video games on twitch and use it as a lagless video splitter for my TV with RF out and streaming capture device with composite out since 2012. Still cranking! Great VCR! Funnily enough the LCD digits on the front are extremely faded but it is working as good as ever.

Panasonic in my opinion made the highest quality VCRs. I recommend this brand to anyone that’s new to VHS. This isn’t to say that there aren’t other companies that haven’t made good VCR’s, but Panasonic was definitely one of the best companies to make them

Well done on this video blowing up for such a young channel! Came to me in the KZfaq Recommended sidebar. Big fan of Panasonic machines here in Australia and agree, up to 2000 is the best units when still made in Japan - then they take a huge nose dive. Your tape head cleaning technique was on point too (though I keep a tiny amount of alcohol in an old jar and dip into that, easier than pouring a big bottle!), so many people use cue tips and kill their heads. The picture on the second Roku TV looks great via composite; never seen a TV auto-resize aspect ratio automatically like that, I fully blame the HDMI converter lol

I really admire you for your knowledge of maintaining VCRs I've done a lot of them in my time, very well done indeed, ❤️❤️👍😃 Leighton Pickering from South Wales UK

Congrats on your new VCR. Panasonic makes pretty nice units. A few years ago I upgraded to a Panasonic DMR-ES46VS VHS / DVD unit. It has composite video, s-video and wait for it, HDMI video, so I can connect it up to modern LCD TV's. You can also use it to convert VHS tapes to digital since it's a recorder.

Excellent video, very cool to see old things that should never have gone out of style. Hug from Brazil

Nice VCR :D Subbed!

Awesome video! I'm about to get a Sony VCR this week :) Love from Argentina

I HAVE THAT SAME VCR LOL, also those panasonic vcr's are really good, i've heard alot of awesome things about them especially this model.

That's a nice VCR you have there. I even remember that "Principles of Design" with Gerald F. Brommer tape that my old middle school art class used to have back in the early 2000s. That brings back so many memories.

Nice to see young woman to be interested in analog technic. A hint: you shouldn't clean metal casing beneath sliders which pulls the tape. They should be greased, otherwise through time will deteriorate and make problem.

Hi, I just wanted to interject regarding the "Made in Japan" sticker. I'm actually old enough to remember a time when that term would have been a big mark against the product. Back in the 60s, and the 1970s to an extent, we viewed Japan much as we do China today. However looking back we realize that Japanese stuff, for lack of a better word, was never as bad as the typical Chinese garbage today. Also, Japanese audio equipment of the 1970s was some of the best in the world, so there you go lol.

Congrats on 700 subs. KUTGW!

We had one of these Panasonic Omnivision VCRs from around 1995 or so. The remote actually had a scroll wheel (or two) on it.

Fantastic unboxing, thanks for sharing

I woman that knows that how to clean a VCR's heads, Priceless!! :)

Great video, best of luck with your new channel. Greetings from Rio, Brazil.

In cleaning VCR head(s). i used bond paper (those shiny ones-cut them into little pieces maybe in finger sizes) soaked in lighter fluid.

The problem with new electronics in storage for a long time like that is that you have to recap them (to replace all the electrolytic capacitors with the correct ones). Brown, green, blue ones are low ESR types and black are regular ones. If you want to keep a collection of them, then is better to replace all electrolytic capacitors with aluminum polymer capacitors, electrolytic capacitors are wet inside and they dry out over time, polymer types are dry, last longer and are also a bit expensive in comparison with regular ones.

As a kid growing up we had two VCR's both of them branded National Panasonic. Awesome stuff.

Very nice 📼👍

Excellent video! I was shocked to see that your channel was created so recently. I thought for sure you must be an established KZfaqr I'd never heard of before. Anyways, keep up the good work.

Thank you. I enjoyed this a lot. And boy do I have a lot of old original tech...still working. Some I have had to buy or repair. I think I also noticed your new machine has the commecial feature. After your show is recorded it scans the video and places markers in the DARK SPACES (usually happens when going to a commercial, a fade to black. ) Then on playback, your machine fast forwards itself to skip past the commercial break. But there are times where the marker could be wrong, but by pressing play will stop the fast forwarding commercial skip feature. I love it all. - Toronto, Canada.

Just a suggestion, when removing dust, it's better to use a vacuum cleaner and a small brush, put the vaccum nozzle right up to where you want to clean and use the brush to agitate the dust and dirt, the vacuum will keep everything nice and clean, if using a can of compressed air like you did, all this is doing is blowing dust everywhere, some of that dust might get past your hand and into the head drum, or into another mechanism causing wear, I personally use 99% IPA, this evaporates so quickly that there's no need to wait a day for it to dry, as for the remote control, when I service them I take them completely apart and clean everything except the PCB in Windex and a tooth brush, this gets rid of all dirt and makes the buttons like new again, this is also a good time to clean the contacts on both the PCB and the rubber buttons, the Windex won't affect anything, if you're looking for retro goodness, try finding a HiFi VCR which has audio recording level control, I used to use units like that back in the early 90s for recording music to, could get many hours listing time, great for parties! units like the Pioneer VH-780D or the National NV-H70

Amazing !

I just found this video on the yt home page. Vhs Is one of the best formats ever created. For one you can record or over record on any time. With DVDs you can’t just pick up any and record over them.

Great buy you have there! I loved VCR's back in day and still have a boxed JVC HRS6955 SVHS Video Recorder. It did everything and remember the great picture quality though have not used it for years

cleaning the heads was very delicate i used to work in a hifi repair shop etc , take the time cleaning and dont use q tips cotton buds also heads can go out off alignment "azimuth" so they need to get adjusted , brings back memories to that time. good stuff

Great video! I'm in the process of converting older rock and metal concert bootlegs on vhs to digital files. I bought a multimedia converter on Amazon, because I had issues through the years burning to blank dvds, then having my computer be picky reading certain types. Retro electronics are tons of fun.

Lol, i have this vcr, bought in 2001. It still works bcuz im a very good care taker of electronics. Its funny & cool seeing you open a brand new model in 23'. 👍😉😁

I remember buying that one for $49.99 I still have it like new it works

I have something similar to that model. Mine is duel recorder/player that accommodates CD, DVD, and VHS compatible. It’s still usable.

i remember back in tha day when my parents was gettin a VCR, i begged them to make sure it had a red white and yellow cables not just yellow and white! thankfully they listened and they ended up gettin' a Hi-Fi VCR which i still own till diz day! there was many day i was tryin' to play DDR on many TVs without an AV input or a stereo input/output through a friggin' Hi-Fi VCR lol

I’m really sorry you had such a horrible week while filming this but very very cool that you were able to find one in such good shape! I can’t tell you how much I’m nostalgic for stuff like this myself but I have a disability and I physically can’t set up electronics on my own so even if I can find them, I then have to pay a fortune to have someone help me set them up properly so I haven’t really pursued finding one too much but it’s good to know that it is possible to get one that’s in really good shape! I like you had a combo player for years until it quit recently. I’ve always wanted a standalone VCR, though! When I was in high school, I actually edited a lot of film class stuff on VHS that I still have.

Great video - loved watching and reading the comments. Love the Wiggles, too! I remember getting a VCR with VideoPlus+ here in the UK sometime in the 90s. I don't think we had any success with it in all honesty - it might have recorded the odd programme but invariably schedule changes or late running events just messed things up and you always seemed to miss recording some part of it. I think you could have it record a bit either side of the published start time, or the codes may have had that inbuilt - but I just remember it being really rubbish. Thanks for sharing this and looking forward to more videos!

Very good

Great video, hit with a sub. Makes me want to dust off my family's old VCR to play around with it too!

Bravo!

I’m surprised how well this video has done.I’m guessing VHS is a hot topic right now.I still have a couple as well as a Sealed Mitsubishi VCR so I may have to get a few videos up.Thanks i enjoyed that.👍

This is an insanely common VCR these days. I actually have two of them, both picked up at garage sales over the course of 2 years.

Aaawwsome!!!

I want this...from where can i buy this? This VCR looks so beautiful

Great 👍 VCR, National VCR also good..

I still have my JVC SVHS VCR that I bought new in 1998. Still works.

These were the last really well-built VCRs before DVD completely took over. The previous generation (PV-9450) was slightly better but also slightly bigger. I've had a 9450 and a V4520 from new and they are both excellent machines in terms of performance, reliability and features. I also had the excellent AG-1980 professional machine, with lots of controls, and the picture quality (in standard VHS mode) was very close. Only things I miss on the consumer machines are the manual level control and jog/shuttle dial.

In Australia VCR Plus was called G-Code. The only problem with using it was if your show ran over time you would miss the end so you would have to manually add some recording time to what the code programmed the VCR for.

Very cool....Nice pin up !!!

The only VCR i ever had broke when it came home used lol. Nice video

Great video! You could wear latex gloves for opening/investigation...you just never know what might be lurking/gunge...

I like certain kinds of vcrs!!!

i used to own a very lookin like VCR like this one in early 2000 ! i am not sure if was the same model but I remember it was looking like this , I moved out and leave it behind .. but was working well I didn't use it alot !

I was lucky enough to get a Panasonic DVD Recorder with VHS and TV tuner. Along with HDMI. I also have a Sony unit with the same things. These units now go for more than I bought them new for! And I don’t plan to ever sell them. 😁

I have a Panasonic PV-7670 VCR From 1997. I still own that, and I took very good care of it.

Very neat video. I currently have a GoVideo VCR/DVD combo (which is built like a freakin' tank by the way, considering it was made in 2004), as well as an Admiral VCR (which I use for cleaning off moldy tapes) and an Admiral TV/VCR combo (which I use for watching movies)

Good Job

Not sure if this has been commented, but the cleaning that is necessary other than heads, is tape path, so that's guides capstan and ensuring the pinch roller isn't too shiny and has a nice satin finish. Never clean remotes with Isopropyl, use something like water based baby wipes for remotes that are 20+years old

Nice brand Panasonic. I found one almost the same model and look as yours at a Goodwill in a higher class area. This unit was mint condition with remote. I have took it apart and serviced it using same products and yes no Q-tips ever on any heads. I like vintage electronics. The Panasonic was like $10.49 and same week same Goodwill I found a mint working JVC super VHS/DVC unit. These were made in 2000 or so as mine is a 2001 date. These retailed around 2K back then. I got it for $12.49 what luck I got.

Damn, i though quick flashback to 2000's when i was kid. Good old memories.👍😁

My family and I used VCR+ for years, getting the codes out of the Radio Times. Still used to put ten mins on the start and end times in case the station was off-schedule...

A trick to get better image: put the video format in 4:3, not 16:9 or zoom, image gets distorted and blurry

I still have that VCR around, but mine is from 1999. I haven't used it in probably 4 years, but ti was still working the last time I used it

Its nice to see other people my age that like old tech like this. As for the batterycompartments where batteries have leaked. If u come across one of those u can clean it using something acidic like lemonjuice. This is because the stuff leaking from batteries are alkalic and can be solved in acid.

Great video👍. Especially when the first video wouldn’t work…I thought YES…..it’s not only me it happens too. Lol. Can I just say if you get yourself a good A/V or an Amp to plug the vcr into and a good set of speakers you will be amazed with the sound quality you get from it. I record so much music on to my vcr’s from all different devices. Laptop, open reel deck, cassette deck, mini-disc, cd, vinyl, tuner, tv, streaming boxes and they sound great. Also you can get 4 hour hi-fi quality tapes really cheap. I’m a Scotsman so when I say cheap I mean cheap lol. PS… forget about bluetooth😵‍💫🤢🤮🤬🤯😱 give me a wired plug connection every time.

Panasonic is the best! A few years ago I found my dad a Panasonic VHS/DVD combo with an HDMI output for both formats so he could connect it to a modern TV without a converter. I remember seeing "VCR+" on VCRs back in the day, but never knew what it meant, so thanks for the explanation. And yes, VHS tapes sounded pretty good! So did LaserDiscs. But obviously neither looks so great these days, haha. Your unit is making those tapes look pretty decent, though. Great find.

Nostalgia of the 90s and 2000s 📼

I had that VCR, I remember the picture quality was not that great, and when I recorded it had a slight buzzing sound when i played it back. The Sylvania VCRs always were Superior

What about cleaning the audio/erase head , the guides and pinch roller ???

Great glasses!

That is odd about the aspect ratio. It’s like wide screen signaling is being triggered somehow. Is there some auto aspect function on the TV that can be disabled?

I didn't know for a long time that they made VCRs with HDMI out . Here is the model I use and others made some as well . SANYO Year 2016 NO. FWZV475F , this is a VCR/DVD Rewritable Combo and I absolutely love it, the only thing that puzzles me about it is they decided not to include auto tracking, but other then that it's a very nice unit . I've owned many Combo units over the years and they all had HDMI for the DVD side , but never both so I was blown away when I found this at Goodwill and was even more surprised that it worked perfectly.

Here is a link to the VCR chamois swabs for head cleaning: www.amazon.com/dp/B008OA80LY?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1

I am happy when i see a Lady cares about old original devices . perfect

You got to take the account of interlace scanlines as well because new TVs are progressive and would accommodate interlace through post-processing which does a bad job at that. Turning off Film Mode might help a little, but still not the best picture quality. CRT TVs are interlace base from the get-go, so of course you already know that VCRs work best with CRTs.

Happy for you to finally get a good vcr. It can be a rabid hole to get into in how to hook up a modern tv, since few buy crt tv for that.

She'd love all my old tech sheeesh