Part 2 is on patreon now. Soon to all

That's because they couldn't get the ced player to work. Even once they released it, it didn't work.

Aha, 2 favorit Tubers in one comment 😀👌. Both your work matters a lot in my daily life. If i had a milion to give i would.

Also, people mistake the CED format as "SelectaVision", when in fact SelectaVision VCRs were first released in 1977, long before CED.

@@crashbandicoot4everr RCA marketed both VHS and CED as "SelectaVision". The name was originally meant for CED, but it was delayed so long that they used it on their VHS VCRs first.

Plus it's way more fun to watch in action than a DVD or streaming media player. 😉 AND... it's fixable.

That would have been a 1983 model.

#me too

I had a 1979 model, mine was about 2000. Plastic gears finally split.

"....in this country." ? You're kidding, right?

I have actually fully finished this one. The video will be going up tonight for patreon viewers and released to everyone at a later date.

See if you can find a National/Panasonic NV-7000/7200/7500/7800 or Blaupunkt RTV-200/222/224. They are all PAL and very similar to this RCA.

The unit is fixed. If you are a patreon viewer you will see it before anyone else. Going up tonight. 1 capacitor, just a point of find 1 cap out of 400!

@@crashbandicoot4everr thanks, i'll give those a search out. Currently in the process of trying (once again!) to identify the Pioneer seperates system I had handed down from my dad (and him from his dad previously) as a kid. So far I've got that the amp looked very similar to an SA-520 but it was brushed anodized black & I don't recall it having a VFD just LED selector lights. If I ever get back out of this rabbit hole though, that's very much appreciated info! Dave, wish I could afford patreon as I'd join for sure to help support the madness lol Glad it's sorted though, sounds like fun, finding that cap must have been a bit like finding this damn amp model!

Does it still work? This one does, fully now.

It is a beast. Some day someone will offer me something that I can't refuse and then it will be their beast. I had another one, an old JVC that was in my collection and one day out of the blue one of my viewers wanted to buy it. They made me an offer, I didn't take it, they came back with a higher offer I still didn't take it they made a third offer and then I thought to myself I'm stupid to keep saying no what the hell do I want this for and took it. Collector got what they were wanting and I got a stack of cash for it. That's what will happen with this one eventually I'm sure.

It's out. For patreon viewers.

Well I was in the area. I worked for Sony in 83 and went on to work for a large servicing dealer for full factory authorization accreditation. I made big time money fixing TVs VCRs and Stereo equipment. The shop I was at did about 400,000 a year in service. There were 3 of in the shop for years, then 2, then it was just me and I had to get out because I just couldn't afford to work there anymore. Lot of money though, my friends were jealous. I actually worked for 2 shops. I worked for the large shop, and did work at home for the competition across the street. The guy from that shop would bring me VCRs every night and I would fix them at home, and he would pick them up the next day. My boss never found out about me double dipping working for the competition. I did it because it was the competition that I had worked at when I was in high school, and the guy in there had taught me everything he knew about tube TVs as there were still plenty of them around in the late 70's and into 80s but he wasn't busy enough to hire me full time. So I got a job at Sony for a year and then ended up across the street from the guy that taught me so much, I returned the favour by doing his VCRs right up to when he sold the shop. The new owners ran the shop into the ground an closed within a year.

But on a reliability scale they were about a 3 out of 10. Newer machines were more like 9. When something broke the old machines were easy to get into which was a good thing because they were always breaking. The newer ones just kept on going. Eventually something would break and many times it was due to someone slamming a tape in, or a kid putting something in it (chicken bones. Grilled cheese sandwich) thank you American Express commercial. Alsop wet cleaners did a good job breaking machines. However, the newer machines were far more reliable despite plastic parts because there were so few mechanical and electrical parts compared to the old models that were full of machanical parts circuit boards completely loaded with parts and a few pounds of copper wire connecting everything. These museum pieces are good for show and that's about it. I bet if I hold this machine out and plugged it in something would be wrong with it they game despite it not being used since the video was made.

@@12voltvids Actually, those three Panas so far turned out to be among the most reliable gear I have here. I've had to replace a cap in the audio section of the NV-332, plus some belts in all three, but that's about it. Granted, I don't use them regularly. I also have two solid U-matics, but those are in another league. By contrast, I have two identical JVC S-VHS decks from the 90s which are fantastic _when_ they work, but when they fail -- which happens very often -- they're absolute dogs. I've also had lots of agro with pricy but cheaply built 90s junk from Philips (notably "Turbodrive" models) and Grundig. I didn't even bother to repair those; they were tossed out after developing the same faults over and over within months. In general I noticed the newer stuff has more PSU issues. I haven't had any such problems with the older Panas. Again, I don't stuff powered up for extended periods anymore, so YMMV.

@@NuGanjaTron I'm just going back to when my repair days when I was in the repair business. All those old machines were always coming in. Belts. Idler tires, incandescent tape end sensor bulbs, capstan motors (Hitachi) alignment (Mitsubishi). JVC were always junk. We called them junk very cheap. These old machines had so many parts compared to a modern one. Yes they would take more abuse but those that were in heavy use tended to spend more time at the repair shop. That was fine with me at 60 bucks a pop to repair them. They were easy to get into.

@@12voltvids Agreed, and experience is always appreciated. Was there anything that stood out in terms of reliability? Any particular models, brands or tape formats?

I've also got a specific (and slight OT) question: where are the magnets located in a capstan servo? I have one in a Mitsubishi that uses 3 hall effect generators (and 3-phase motor judging by the schematic). I see what appears to be either dust or a magnetic oxide coating on the rim of the motor flywheel -- is that a control track or are the magnets embedded in the plastic rim itself? The reason I'm asking is because I'm not sure I should clean that. Thanks!

Yes best transfers came from the VCR that made the transfer though every few years the equipment would get upgraded or repaired if a fault arrised. The upgrades were due to features that the VCR had. Commercial released tapes were copied on a stack and they could copy 10 or more tapes a time, with a big stack it could copy lots more but took alot of room. The equipment was not for consumers but publishing houses. It would cost you alot of money to buy one, around $12,000 it was a beast but had lots of functions and features you would not see on a normal VCR. You could get a VCR stack that could dub a 3 hour tape in high speed in 20 mins, a 4 hour in 40 mins. These weren't used until years later in the late 80's.

Well this is how i get paid. I certainly don't make any money actually fixing stuff. I Al lucky to break even on the physical repair.

Sounds like the Panasonic PV-1200. Quasar was owned by Matsushita when this machine was made.

Yes that was the prior unit, and both were made by Matsushita (Panasonic). I had the RCA VCT201 myself. Bought it in 1979. Crank tuner and multi colored piano keys. I have a couple of piano key Sony Beta in my collection.

Smd components came a few years after this beast.

No that one is not finished. It is a work in progress. I have a few of them. Lots of problems with it.

And in 9 years your warranty will be done.

The mitsubishi units did have their daemons. Dried grease that broke the plastic pinch arm that rode up and down the pole. I have several of their decks. HSU52,55, SVHS 62, 65 and 82. A few were branded electrohomo AVRJ04 and 05. Same as HSU 62 and82 if I remember. I have done videos on those. Also the explody capacitor in the linear power supply. Fish oil caps.

My old 201 went in the bin years ago when nylon gears split. Oldest one i have now is this one.

Wow, wonder how much it cost RCA to make the VCR's much have been way less than a $1000 dollars. Must have cost at least £350 or less to make still they made millions of dollars over the years.

Unfortunately those purple and blue Matsushita capacitors tend to leak and corrode the boards. My NV-8600 and 7500 are loaded with them.

@@crashbandicoot4everr Oh yes that is true, but i expected the machine to have dead caps everywhere, but they cant be open circuit. I have some pcbs from the old piano key machines and they dont seem to be leaking Yet! lol.

Any idiot can replace all the caps. Even though they will eventually fail. typically only 1 or 2 will cause trouble. This is where experience and troubleshoot skils come in. Finding that needle in a hayatack. For the amateur just go buy a bag of caps and replace them all.

​@@12voltvids My Technics SU-Z1 integrated amp and NV-7500 VCR have plenty of visibly leaking caps but I don't really care because those machines still work and I don't think I will gain anything by replacing them lol.

Does the tape counter move? The rotation sensor is on many reading the rotation of the tape counter pulley, and if the counter belt breaks it doesn't detect the reel turning and the machine goes into emergency shut down.

It's an 8 volt bulb. Any 8 to 9 volt incandescent pilot lamp with leads can be soldered into the base.

Idler tire or clutch depending if it is gear driven or idler driven.

@@12voltvids Thanks. I cleaned the idler tire with isopropyl alcohol, along with the surface on the left-hand spindle that it engages when rewinding, and RW/search works now, though it's still on the slow side, about 2x speed. Maybe that's just the speed it's supposed to be, because FF/search, which has been working all along, is about 2x speed too. I wish I could get the top cover off this thing but it refuses to come off, and I have no idea why. There are only 2 screws in the back holding it on, and when I remove them I can easily pull the right-hand side of the top cover backwards and then up off the locking tabs, but the left-hand side will only move backwards about 1/8" no matter how hard I pull on it, not enough to free it from the locking tabs.

@@MaximRecoil hidden screws.

@@12voltvids There aren't any hidden screws; something just seems to be jammed on one side. If there were hidden screws, the right-hand side wouldn't be about to move, but I can easily slide it back and up off the locking hooks, and the left side wouldn't be able to move either (I can move it back about 1/8" before it won't go any farther). Also, I asked someone about it who did a video on a rebadged version of my VCR, and he confirmed that there are only 2 screws to remove and his top cover comes right off with ease.

Guaranteed to NOT be an IC at fault. More likely the level from CTRL head to the and or gate.

@@12voltvids Yeah ICs rarely fail, but the AN6350 drum servo IC went bad on my NV-7500 and caused the picture to wobble on NTSC (it was fine on PAL). Luckily I had a replacement from a scrap machine.

@@crashbandicoot4everr really? The servo ic does the same on ntsc and pal. Only difference is the speed and that is selected by resistors. Generally it is capacitors that fail. Namely the sample and hold cap.

@@12voltvids Yeah it's quite bizzare. I'm now wondering if I somehow reformed a bad cap with my soldering iron when I was replacing the chip. It's been 10 months since I did this and the machine still works fine though. I remember that the drum free run adjustment trimmer for the NTSC system was doing nothing, but the PAL adjustment was affecting the drum's speed as it should.

Does the light in the tape compartment light up? It's an incandescent bulb and if it burns out everything shuts down.

@@12voltvids Yes. That works. Big motor looking thing spins too.

It's an 8 volt bulb

Well I wouldn't spend $180 on a machine like that but what do I know. I sold a service working JVC top loader a couple years ago and got $150 for it but that was including shipping it down to Seattle. I thought it did okay I think out of the out of the money I made maybe $75 and the other 75 was for the shipping and I thought it did okay making 75 bucks on an old machine. If someone came and offered me a hundred bucks for this one it would be sold so fast.

@@12voltvids thank you so much for the information I appreciate it you just save me some money I'll sell it for parts on eBay

Is the detection lamp lit?

@@12voltvids yes

1

Same thing happened to my vct201 and that is why i threw mine out.

Have no idea.

It didn't fix itself. Watch part 2 to find our.

A Sanyo top loader...now that would be a Betamax, right?

@@crashbandicoot4everr correct, Vtc9300.

@@ilanurielilanuriel I have a 9350 which is almost identical. There are many adjustments in the luminance signal circuit that will affect the picture and should be set using a scope and the service manual. You can usually eyeball the adjustments but it will take you some time to do it.

@@crashbandicoot4everr I have the service manual Can you specify which one of them relates to a pail picture? Btw, how do you get hold on these multi system vcr versions? I never see them on ebay

@@ilanurielilanuriel If the picture is too bright, try reducing the level with the playback level adjustment. Multi system machines were sold officially here in Greece. The 9350 is just a PAL/SECAM version of the 9300. The 9455 supports NTSC playback.

Hq did nothing to improve horizontal frequency response. Sp speed could manage about 230 lines and ep was closer to 200. Betamax did 240. It is the FM carrier frequency and deviation that sets the resolution. Hq just added extra white clip overshoot and cranked up the sharpness. It didn't increase the actual detail. Svhs and svhs et did. But this also made the recordings incompatible with standard equipment.

@@12voltvids _"Hq did nothing to improve horizontal frequency response."_ I beg your pardon, but I never said that it did. HQ did help apparent picture quality, but it obviously could not record more picture information beyond what VHS was technically capable of, nor could it add any more information than what's already recorded on the tape. With VHS, I find that it looks better with HQ than without it. Ironically, one of the best looking VHS HQ machines I owned was a Sony SVO-160. But, of course, Beta had a better picture, and did it without something like VHS HQ.

@@Watcher3223 that's right. On record it clipped the white level harder and on playback cranked up the top end. It actually degrades the picture if you copied the tape. Machines came out with an edit switch to disable it.

@@12voltvids Yep. My old SVO-160 had an edit switch and it did disable HQ. My old SLV-R1000 also had such a switch. Thinking of my R1000, I kind of wished I kept it because it did work great once I got it repaired. But after a while, I wanted S-VHS ET.

I'm not up on JVC model numbers as the shop i worked at was an RCA Panasonic and Sony dealer. We became a Toshiba and JVC dealer after RCA went down the crapper. (Thompson acquisition )

It is made by JVC, I have some of the UK models.

@@markpirateuk this is most definitely Panasonic.

@@markpirateuk It's actually a Panasonic. It's very similar to the NV-7000 and 7200 sold in the UK. The Ferguson machines of the same vintage were all JVC.

@@markpirateuk Concurring with others here, this one is a Panasonic. A crap ton of stuff in this machine has Matsushita part numbers as well as Matsushita branding all over the parts and boards. And the VHS transport in this machine is a Panasonic, through and through. All early generation RCA machines were made by Matsushita Electric. JVC never made an RCA machine, at least not in the 70s and 80s. Although this specific machine being serviced is a 2-4-6 speed machine (SP/LP/SLP or EP), the very first RCA VHS VCRs were 2 and 4 hour speed machines. JVC would never make those because the 4 hour speed was not developed by them, despite being "the Inventor of VHS." At the time RCA expressed interest in VHS and JVC wasn't open to developing a longer tape speed when inquired, RCA would go around JVC to their corporate parent at the time, Matsushita, and got the cooperation of Panasonic/National to develop the 4 hour speed for NTSC VHS. As such, the first RCA VCRs were all made by Matsushita, and they continued to make VCRs for RCA until they started having machines made by Hitachi. This is why JVC refers to the 4 hour speed as "the bastard" and begrudgingly supported the speed for playback only later on, and only with very limited utility (pause/still as well as visual search functions would blank the picture out on a lot of JVC-made machines). Eventually, JVC would develop the 6 hour speed and the electronics industry, including RCA, would incorporate that speed in their VHS models. AFAIK, in North America, RCA Corporation had machines manufactured for them by Panasonic, Hitachi, and Samsung. With RCA under Thomson, you had those three along with some machines from the 90s incorporating Toshiba VHS transports.

And yet sata is basically a scsi drive.

@@12voltvids - Well... actually that would be SAS (Enterprise) vs SATA (Desktop). But sure, I get your point. ;-) SCSI was an enterprise protocol/standard with better performance, reliability, expandability and durability while IDE was designed for desktop with less performance and expense. The same goes for SAS vs SATA, albeit with a bit less of a difference.

@@RustyTheGeek my first non linear editir used uw scsi drives. 5000 for a 9 gig drive, 10,000 rpm. Scsi small computer serial interface. Sata serial ata. Ide intelligent drive electronics which was a parallel direct memory access protocol if memory serves correct. Then there were the ancient mfm and rll interfaces from the 80s.

@@12voltvids Yeah, I still remember most of the acronym stuff too. SAS actually evolved from SCSI and uses some of the same fundamental protocols. SATA is very similar to SAS but lacks many of the advanced features SAS offers. IDE was renamed PATA after SATA came out to help differentiate them. The connector for SATA was a massive improvement!

Exactly why should i if they are working? Not every caoacuitr will fail. Amateur's do because they don't know battery. The pros know which ones cause trouble and have test gear. It's not like this is being put back in service. After the shoot it was put back in the box where it remains. It's a collector piece these days. How many can say they have a VCR of this vintage that still works? I'll haul it out some day and make a comparison video to compare the record quality vs newer machines, betamax, 8mm, hi8 DV betacam SP, 3/4 umatic ect.

WTF did I say?

This was the first year they used direct drive capstan motors.

Well in 1981 they had this VCR.

Well 1 anyway.

@@12voltvids I knew that ;-)

I've had so many of those go flying, cut washers too...

It's a JC.

Matsushita made all the early RCA sets. In the early days it was speculated that RCA was going to go with Sony and have beta format but zenith their main competitor in the USA beat them to grab Sony. Had RCA gone with the beta format many in the industry speculated that beta would have been the winning format. Back in the late 70s and early 80s RCA was that big. They had the tv market cornered and early on it was predicted that because of RCA going with VHS, it would dominate the market. This brute of a machine is an example of one of the heaviest and we'll built machines. This one is also in fine shape and if someone offers me enough for it, that is if I get it fully functional I will sell. Otherwise it will go back in the box and go into my collection because a unit of this age now will only do one thing, go up in value as there are probably not many of these beasts around anymore.

I have a National NV-7500. Mine is basically an NV-7000 but with a wireless remote and PAL/SECAM/NTSC 4.43 recording/playback.

@@crashbandicoot4everr We never got the NV-7500 in OZ only the 7000 n 7200 which were both wireless ir, We obviously never saw any U.S. models/brands only asian stuff & the 7000 n 7200 were only a 2 head unit the next model we got was the NV-300 (horrible model) then the NV-370 in the early 80's.

@@preston963 My NV-7500 is a 2-head machine too but the still frame, half speed and double speed playback functions are almost noiseless. I really love this machine. It's in my opinion the best VCR chassis that Panasonic produced.

@@12voltvids There was also the story that RCA was interested in Beta but couldn't accept the X-1 speed providing only 1 hour of recording time on a K-60 (L-500) cassette. RCA had asked Sony about developing a longer recording speed. In response, Sony basically told RCA to take it or leave it. RCA then went to JVC about VHS, seeing more promise with the 2 hour speed on a T-120 cassette. They were still wanting a longer recording time but weren't willing to take "no" for an answer that time. When JVC wouldn't budge at the request to RCA's satisfaction, they would go over JVC's head to their corporate parent at the time, managing to co-develop the four hour speed with Panasonic. JVC wasn't happy about that, but there wasn't much they could do about it.

Its a work bench. It's meant to look like a mess.

You are welcome to come over and clean it.

@@12voltvids I like it just the way it is 👍

It is when it is a VCR. Now if it was a record player no, but the 1916 Edison I have certainly is.