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Vintage Television and Video Vintage television and video equipment, programmes, VCRs etc. |
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1st Nov 2022, 9:56 pm | #21 |
Heptode
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Durham, County Durham, UK.
Posts: 640
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Re: VCR service needed?
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2nd Nov 2022, 9:20 pm | #22 |
Triode
Join Date: Nov 2020
Location: Surrey
Posts: 26
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Re: VCR service needed?
I’ve run a few tapes through it now and it works absolutely fine. That said, the picture isnt great. I’m tempted to purchase a better one to make a better job of the transfers.
Somebody advised me to get one of the panasonic hdmi out vcr/dvd recorder combos. I like the idea as it would be easy to capture to my pc as well to dvd but they're not cheap and Ive read that they're prone to capacitors going bad and other faults. I’m looking at a couple of sharps, ones a 6 head, the other 4, Apparently sharp made decent vcr’s so maybe I’ll put a bid in for one of them. |
2nd Nov 2022, 11:05 pm | #23 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Madrid, Spain / Wirral, UK
Posts: 7,484
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Re: VCR service needed?
My advice is to get an early 1990s machine that has a manual tracking control and if possible a sharpness knob. This will enable you to constantly tweak the picture as needed. These machines were well built before the mid 1990s cheap plastic took over, arguably the start of the format's decline.
However, most will need at the very least new drive belt(s) by now. JVC, Panasonic, Sony would be some of my preferences.
__________________
Regards, Ben. |
3rd Nov 2022, 1:57 am | #24 |
Heptode
Join Date: Mar 2015
Location: Lefkada, Greece
Posts: 969
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Re: VCR service needed?
The Panasonic NV-FS200 and NV-HS1000 are two of the best prosumer machines for digitizing, but be prepared to empty your credit card if you decide to buy one of these in great condition.
Fivos |
3rd Nov 2022, 11:48 am | #25 | |
Triode
Join Date: Nov 2020
Location: Surrey
Posts: 26
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Re: VCR service needed?
Quote:
Thats what puts me off going for the older machines. Anything more than head cleaning and I’m probably well out of my depth. I bought an old sony a couple of years ago and it turned out to have a broken gear, probably other things wrong with it as well, you actually helped me out at the time to work out what was wrong with it. Unfortunately theres nowhere to get these things fixed nowadays. Thanks again for the advice |
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3rd Nov 2022, 11:50 am | #26 |
Triode
Join Date: Nov 2020
Location: Surrey
Posts: 26
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Re: VCR service needed?
And then theres the risk of it breaking down not long after you buy it!
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3rd Nov 2022, 12:19 pm | #27 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: North Wales, UK.
Posts: 6,884
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Re: VCR service needed?
Don't forget the performance of any of these excellent machines is limited by the actual tape you feed into it. Ben's advice on getting one with an manual tracking control is very good as auto-tracking can get things wrong.
Were the originals hi-fi? LP? S-VHS? We often transfer tapes for customers, and very often i've had to tweak the guides and audio head to get it to play acceptably as the original machine was out of tolerance, remembering to bring it back to spec once the tapes had been copied. |
3rd Nov 2022, 12:37 pm | #28 | |
Triode
Join Date: Nov 2020
Location: Surrey
Posts: 26
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Re: VCR service needed?
Quote:
Good point, its been so long since I’ve used vhs that I’d overlooked that. Im guessing they'll mainly be long play, I’ll have to look into this. Presumably its the older machines that have manual tracking? |
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4th Nov 2022, 4:38 pm | #29 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: North Wales, UK.
Posts: 6,884
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Re: VCR service needed?
Yes, generally speaking. You can't beat being able to twiddle a manual control to get it right. Some machines did offer a remote control based tracking adjustment but these tended to have severe lag and annoyingly would go back to 'nanny knows best' on content changes.
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10th Nov 2022, 11:55 am | #30 | |
Pentode
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Ipswich, Suffolk, UK.
Posts: 136
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Re: VCR service needed?
Quote:
The anti-static brush on the top of the head drum needs regular cleaning to avoid interference on the picture. When the brush gets dirty, you get a white "speck" on the picture, resembling a tape dropout, but it tends to stick in the same position on the screen for a while, then suddenly jump to a new position and stay there for a while. It's a very distinctive effect, and I've seen it on broadcast TV programmes when they show material from VHS tapes. |
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11th Nov 2022, 12:45 pm | #31 | |
Pentode
Join Date: Sep 2017
Location: Ceredigion, Wales, UK.
Posts: 243
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Re: VCR service needed?
Quote:
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11th Nov 2022, 1:10 pm | #32 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Haarlem, Netherlands
Posts: 4,185
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Re: VCR service needed?
I'm not sure whether late model Sharps were still made by Sharp, so look very carefully and when in doubt, maybe post the model numbers.
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12th Nov 2022, 3:29 pm | #33 |
Triode
Join Date: Nov 2020
Location: Surrey
Posts: 26
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Re: VCR service needed?
I missed out on the sharps unfortunately, just waiting to find something else thats in good working order.
I was going to get a panasonic es10 as well and transfer straight to dvd as the capture card and pc digitising isn't easy to get right. That said, I’ve been advised that they are only good for using as a pass through for capture and dont record to dvd well. What dvd recorders did you guys use for vhs transfer? Apparently recorders with an lsi chipset are needed for vhs transfer? |
12th Nov 2022, 5:05 pm | #34 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: North Wales, UK.
Posts: 6,884
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Re: VCR service needed?
Not sure what you mean by the LSI chipset - I'd have thought they all had that. I've never had an issue with transferring VHS tapes for customers. They are nearly always personal recordings originally transferred form a camcorder so aren't usually of the highest quality.
I normally use a Panasonic VCR/DVD simply because there are a couple on the shelf and they have a dubbing button. The results are pretty acceptable and certainly no worse than the original. |
12th Nov 2022, 6:53 pm | #35 | |
Triode
Join Date: Nov 2020
Location: Surrey
Posts: 26
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Re: VCR service needed?
Quote:
ES10 is great for passthrough, a POS for recording. Panasonic and Sony are the noisiest recorders made. All the "new" gear is Funai-made garbage. Several brands, same unit. The quality stuff is used, and only used -- unless you find a unicorn "new old stock" unit, which does sometimes still happen.” That quotes from someone on a video capture forum. Im going to go with a Panasonic recorder, most people seem to be very happy with them. And as you say my recordings are mainly transferred from camcorder to tape so not of the highest quality. |
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13th Nov 2022, 10:52 pm | #36 |
Pentode
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Ipswich, Suffolk, UK.
Posts: 136
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Re: VCR service needed?
A few years ago, I used a Panasonic DVD recorder for some slightly nefarious activity I won't go into here, and was disappointed. It seemed to have a rubbish comb filter, and dubs from composite PAL sources looked poor.
By contrast, my Sony RDR-HXD890 (which I believe to be a rebadged Pioneer model) makes composite PAL (and NTSC) sources look really, really good. It supports recording with LPCM audio as well. If you can find one, I can heartily recommend it. My local charity shop had one in a few weeks ago priced at £50, and I stupidly didn't buy it there and then, and when I went back later it was gone. That said, I usually use my Panasonic NV-FS200 playing S-Video into a Canopus ADVC-100 for capturing VHS. |
17th Nov 2022, 12:36 pm | #37 |
Triode
Join Date: Oct 2016
Location: Madrid, Spain.
Posts: 28
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Re: VCR service needed?
Those specific Panasonics DVRs are recommended strictly for passthrough video "stabilization" ("TBCish") to use with a capture card... it is well-known they're "a POS for recording" (as already quoted).
On the other hand, that Pioneer series (and its rebadges) DO record quite well indeed. |