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Vintage Television and Video Vintage television and video equipment, programmes, VCRs etc. |
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13th Oct 2016, 10:25 pm | #1 |
Hexode
Join Date: Aug 2016
Location: Inverness, Highland, UK.
Posts: 300
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Philips VR522/05 VCR.
Hi guys,
Had the VR727/05 variant of this machine a couple of years back, identical but this one doesn't have video plus (defunct now anyways) My one of these suffered from the back up batteries leaking and dissolving the tracks on the pcb. Managed to repair and remove the batteries with wires soldered in. This one seems fine so far, no signs of damage to the tracks and no leaking. Pretty decent machine from Philips that doesn't look cheap like some of the newer ones. https://youtu.be/99ORmtMvWJk |
13th Oct 2016, 11:47 pm | #2 |
Heptode
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Luton, Bedfordshire, UK.
Posts: 891
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Re: Philips VR522/05 VCR.
Those on-screen display graphics look almost identical to my VR-712, which is funny as it predates your machine by around six or seven years! Yes, not bad machines at all these mid/ late nineties Philips.
I recall when I was in upper school we had a Grundig machine that sported the same (or very similar) alphanumeric VFD display. As it was in the languages department (setup to record foreign satellite feeds), the teachers had the OSD and language option set to German!
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Regards, John |
14th Oct 2016, 12:11 am | #3 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Madrid, Spain / Wirral, UK
Posts: 7,484
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Re: Philips VR522/05 VCR.
Nice unit. I have the VR 422 which is a strange beast. No OSD or hi fi sound, just mono - but has the stereo RCA in- and outputs on the back!
This series were amongst the first (if not THE first) to use the centre-mount Turbo deck. (Lucy?). In fact the remote is the same as that used with the last Charlies - VR 322 etc. I think they half-laced in fast wind -for the real time counter-, unlike later variants which stayed fully threaded. You may need to change the pinch roller - the original Philips ones go hard and crease tape. For once, the aftermarket spares were better than the originals! Though I did have one case (König?) where the metal bracket's centre bearin/bushing had some burr and would not drop down the shaft in play... caused me a headache till I found what was going on. I just took the roller off the bracket and used the one that came with the deck. They were often supplied with bracket and spring, not just the rubber roller as you might expect.
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Regards, Ben. |
16th Oct 2016, 1:03 pm | #4 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: North Wales, UK.
Posts: 6,882
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Re: Philips VR522/05 VCR.
Hi
These wre the best Turbo decks in my opinion - easy to get out of the machine and work on and built to a better standard. The main problems were the pinchroller as Ben says and the loading worm drive gear which would come loose on its shaft. Odd bits of plastic such as the record protection lever would break off - it was a Philips after all. I had the VR723 which had PDC and teletext timer programming - a great system (far better than Videoplus as it would adjust to the actual length of the programme) but wasn't supported for long. Glyn |
17th Oct 2016, 3:12 am | #5 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Haarlem, Netherlands
Posts: 4,184
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Re: Philips VR522/05 VCR.
Make that 1 year. The VR712 would be a 1991 model (last in its class to use a G-Deck) where the VR522 and VR727 are 1992 models (first models officially sporting the turbo-deck, unofficially the VR512 was the beta test model for the turbo deck).
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17th Oct 2016, 5:48 pm | #6 |
Heptode
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Luton, Bedfordshire, UK.
Posts: 891
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Re: Philips VR522/05 VCR.
I never realised there was just a year in it! Oh that makes sense, now. To be honest, most of the VCR's I've owned have been the older side-loading type. The only exception being a VR6547 which my parents bought in 1994. I recall that one used a JVC mechanism.
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Regards, John |
9th Feb 2017, 4:43 pm | #7 |
Hexode
Join Date: Aug 2016
Location: Inverness, Highland, UK.
Posts: 300
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Philips VR727/05 and VR522/05 vcrs
Continuing from my closed thread titles Philips VR522/05
(Admins please merge if it suits) I have managed to get hold of the VR727/05 variant of this machine after a long time looking. This machine has Video plus, NTSC playback, Video & audio longplay (522 is audio only, no ntsc and no video plus) LFirst thing upon arrival was to inspect the backup batteries as they leak and the acid dissolves the tracks leading to a dead machine. The last couple of these I had I had to solder in bridge wires and remove the leaking cells. This one had furry batteries and the tracks are starting to show signs of damage, continuity was fine so after cleaning the cells I tried the machine and it works fine. Head clean, lubricate moving parts and recondition the pinch roller, which was ok anyways. The machine works perfectly giving a nice clean picture and great stereo sound. Happy with that! |
9th Feb 2017, 7:00 pm | #8 |
Heptode
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Luton, Bedfordshire, UK.
Posts: 891
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Re: Philips VR727/05 and VR522/05 vcrs
Seeing as they've already leaked, I would recommend you bin the cells and replace them with Ni-MH equivalents. Varta V80H will suffice as IIRC the originals are usually two 1.2v cells and these make good drop-in replacements.
I find that the machine is more likely to lock-up when power cycling if the batteries are bad, so it's good practice to either replace or leave them out altogether.
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Regards, John |
9th Feb 2017, 9:59 pm | #9 |
Hexode
Join Date: Aug 2016
Location: Inverness, Highland, UK.
Posts: 300
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Re: Philips VR727/05 and VR522/05 vcrs
Yeah will just remove them, as I won't be using the tuner and it's easy to set the clock from the remote.
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