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Vintage Television and Video Vintage television and video equipment, programmes, VCRs etc. |
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19th Sep 2020, 10:58 am | #21 |
Octode
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Harrow, London, UK.
Posts: 1,493
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Re: VHS Machine Brands - Tops and Flops
I wonder RR if you have copies of Gordon J Kings reviews on Video Recorders?
I have a couple and also a copy of Video Choice's "Video." Introduced by Barry Fox and authored by Rod Snell, it follows Gordon's technical assessment of video recorders using photo's of the video sweep together with Test Card F to show the reader just how good and how bad the machines were. The JVC 3300 is pushing a response to 3.2 MHz!! A Mitsubishi just makes around 2 MHz. Chris |
19th Sep 2020, 11:05 am | #22 | |
Dekatron
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Haarlem, Netherlands
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Re: VHS Machine Brands - Tops and Flops
Quote:
The Sanyo P90 machine was also built by Sanyo. |
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21st Sep 2020, 5:31 pm | #23 |
Heptode
Join Date: Mar 2015
Location: Lefkada, Greece
Posts: 969
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Re: VHS Machine Brands - Tops and Flops
I love JVC, Panasonic and Hitachi VHS decks from the late 70s to early-mid 80s. My National (Panasonic) NV-7500 runs really well after filing down the idler tyre with some fine sandpaper to remove its glaze and restore rewind/fast forward functionality. A big issue with Panasonic decks of this era is that the back-tension is set too great from the factory and that causes the drum and heads to wear faster than in VCRs from other manufacturers. My AKAI VS-10 which is the same as the JVC HR-7700/Ferguson 3V23 has many big boards inside and to me it seems like they built it like a broadcast machine. It's a massive, over-engineered machine that still works nearly 40 years later, apart from the DC-DC converter for the VFD that failed (Does this remind you of Sony SL-C9 trouble? ).
Regards Fivos |
21st Sep 2020, 5:33 pm | #24 |
Heptode
Join Date: Mar 2015
Location: Lefkada, Greece
Posts: 969
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Re: VHS Machine Brands - Tops and Flops
Here's another interesting thread by the American friends.
http://www.videokarma.org/showthread.php?t=254206 |
21st Sep 2020, 7:00 pm | #25 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Haarlem, Netherlands
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Re: VHS Machine Brands - Tops and Flops
I call BS on the survey in the topic start, probably typical for consumer reporting magazines shoving all models in a single category. Fisher cannot be last at 15 while Sanyo is firmly in the top middle at 6 as they are identical machines. Also, while Funai was the most sold it surely can't be 3rd in reliability. Magnavox being 4th alongside JVC is also strange, as they were bought in from Panasonic (1), Funai (3) and JVC (4).
Last edited by Maarten; 21st Sep 2020 at 7:12 pm. |
22nd Sep 2020, 1:59 pm | #26 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Haarlem, Netherlands
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Re: VHS Machine Brands - Tops and Flops
After reading said thread, the strange positions of brands would mostly be caused by variations between models and OEM's. For example, Funai is high in the list because of the Shintom mechanisms which only needed a new dumper rubber and a few belts sometimes. Magnavox would be relatively low on the list because they switched to Funai after Funai stopped sourcing their mechanisms from Shintom. Panasonic is high on the list because their weak point (electrolytics) doesn't show up until they're already written off by most users.
I still don't understand the difference between Sanyo and Fisher, though. Maybe they stopped using the Fisher name after they gradually increased reliability? |
22nd Sep 2020, 4:16 pm | #27 | |
Nonode
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Location: Gloucester, Glos. UK.
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Re: VHS Machine Brands - Tops and Flops
Quote:
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Oh I've had that for years dear!! |
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22nd Sep 2020, 6:58 pm | #28 | |
Dekatron
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Re: VHS Machine Brands - Tops and Flops
Quote:
Fisher actually started out as a respectable US brand I believe, in the pre-Sanyo era.
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Regards, Ben. |
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22nd Sep 2020, 11:53 pm | #29 |
Triode
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia.
Posts: 24
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Re: VHS Machine Brands - Tops and Flops
I liked JVC HR7200 which was top loading (put out in UK under different brands) - We had some motels using these and we recommended that they didn't upgrade to later machines. They had a sensor lamp that blew occasionally and a mechanical paddle damper on the popup cassette compartment that would pack up but you couldn't kill them. In a motel they needed an annual grease and oil change. Flat out getting a year's life out of a later machine, the old one went for more than 20 years. Some of the modern machines that boasted six heads were fine when new, but with six heads trying to touch the tape, it didn't take much wear before some of them didn't touch anymore.
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23rd Sep 2020, 7:43 am | #30 |
Dekatron
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Re: VHS Machine Brands - Tops and Flops
The HR7200 was usually found as the Ferguson 3V29 here. There's an excellent article about servicing them (when they were already pretty old) from Television: https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...2&d=1401009755
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25th Sep 2020, 4:27 pm | #31 | ||
Heptode
Join Date: Mar 2015
Location: Lefkada, Greece
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Re: VHS Machine Brands - Tops and Flops
Quote:
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25th Sep 2020, 10:45 pm | #32 |
Nonode
Join Date: Sep 2017
Location: Stockport, Cheshire, UK.
Posts: 2,002
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Re: VHS Machine Brands - Tops and Flops
I remember my Uncle had a Fisher stereo system in the late 1980s which had some strange auto detect system for switching functions.
Unfortunately he bought a Philips CD player which didn't generate the right signal, & he couldn't find a Fisher one, so the shop he bought it for had to make a box of tricks to get the stereo to switch to CD mode.
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Hello IT: Have you Tried Turning It Off & On Again? |
25th Sep 2020, 10:52 pm | #33 |
Dekatron
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Location: Oxford, UK.
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Re: VHS Machine Brands - Tops and Flops
More about the original Fisher here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avery_Fisher
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26th Sep 2020, 11:30 am | #34 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: North Wales, UK.
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Re: VHS Machine Brands - Tops and Flops
Has no-one mentioned the late Funai models? A reasonable budget design, I suppose, BUT someone decided a pluggable deck was un-necessary. So for anything but the simplest repair you have to remove two soldered ribbon cables, one of which was never designed for soldering in the first place.
Hitachi used them and the capstan motor used to fail under warranty. I complained to the service rep about the difficulty of the repair and he admitted he'd never been able to fix one himself! |
26th Sep 2020, 12:00 pm | #35 |
Nonode
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Gloucester, Glos. UK.
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Re: VHS Machine Brands - Tops and Flops
Lucky Goldstar/Goldstar AKA Now LG.
Reasonable machines in their time when i used to sell them. Pricewise one up from the Matsui/Saisho/Osaki/Amstrad ranges. Not the worse one ive ever sold.
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Oh I've had that for years dear!! |
28th Sep 2020, 5:56 pm | #36 |
Pentode
Join Date: Jan 2018
Location: Portsmouth, Hampshire, UK.
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Re: VHS Machine Brands - Tops and Flops
Best VHS machine I had was a Ferguson 3V43 which was fairly high up in the range. I used it a lot for its hi-fi recording facility. Used to use it for purely audio. Also when BBC Radio 3 did simulcasts.
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29th Sep 2020, 1:03 pm | #37 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: North Wales, UK.
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Re: VHS Machine Brands - Tops and Flops
Two duds I'd forgotten.
One was were the Samsung machine, ironically named Winner. Nice machines for a while, then an under-specced power supply capacitor changed value and kaboom! Capstan driver, motor, drum driver IC, front panel assemble burnt out - if you were lucky. And as they were quite new it was necessary to do the repair. The other was the Akai VS23 which had an odd power supply - part linear, part switchmode. When it died, you got a big mod kit with a sub panel and lots of wire links and capacitors to change. A sigh of relief when it worked, then a sigh of another kind when you realised the expensive fluorescent display had died due to the high voltage. In fact the later models also had displays that were over-run, and when you changed the capacitors and diodes they supplied it was too dim. |
30th Sep 2020, 6:30 pm | #38 | |
Hexode
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Lowestoft, Suffolk, UK.
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Re: VHS Machine Brands - Tops and Flops
Quote:
When Sanyo finally started to make VHS models under their own name (around 1986) the Fisher ones were slowly phased out ,like their Beta format models.The latter down to rapidly declining Beta format model sales. The ironic thing is down to the flood of Chinese cheap crap into the UK,(and other countries) Sanyo started to struggle as most of their marketing was aimed at the lower to mid level area and then Panasonic decided to buy 51% shares and were keen to take control over Sanyo's highly successful rechargeable battery and solar panel business making Sanyo a subsidiary of Panasonic around 2011.Like Sanyo did with Fisher. The Sanyo brand still exists but only in countries like the USA and India, especially in the LED tv market and these are now partially designed buy Panasonic. It is sad to see so many reputable Japanese manufacturers go to the wayside. Sharp is another one. ......Kevin |
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1st Oct 2020, 5:06 pm | #39 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: North Wales, UK.
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Re: VHS Machine Brands - Tops and Flops
Well, you learn something every day (the Sanyo - Panasonic connection).
Of course to add to the confusion, Sanyo flat screen TVs were made by Vestel but seem to have all but vanished - for the time being. Sharp TVs? Oh dear. UMC, and not very good UMC at that. |