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Old 19th Sep 2020, 10:58 am   #21
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Default 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.

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Old 19th Sep 2020, 11:05 am   #22
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Early Sony used Panasonic G-decks and also the aforementioned Sanyo P90.
The G-decked machines were built entirely by Grundig, at least the ones I know of. This includes all of the the 220u 25V electrolytics leaking all over the power supply. A tradition they continued into the early I3R era (i.e. some Philips models suffer from this as well, such as VR632, VR833,VR948).

The Sanyo P90 machine was also built by Sanyo.
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Old 21st Sep 2020, 5:31 pm   #23
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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? ).

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Old 21st Sep 2020, 5:33 pm   #24
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Default Re: VHS Machine Brands - Tops and Flops

Here's another interesting thread by the American friends.
http://www.videokarma.org/showthread.php?t=254206
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Old 21st Sep 2020, 7:00 pm   #25
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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).

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Old 22nd Sep 2020, 1:59 pm   #26
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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?
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Old 22nd Sep 2020, 4:16 pm   #27
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Default Re: VHS Machine Brands - Tops and Flops

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Originally Posted by Maarten View Post
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?
Wasnt Fisher meant to just be a luxury brand name invented by Sanyo for retail purposes?
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Old 22nd Sep 2020, 6:58 pm   #28
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I still don't understand the difference between Sanyo and Fisher, though. Maybe they stopped using the Fisher name after they gradually increased reliability?
I may well be wrong but I don't recall seeing a Sanyo badged Fisher FVHP-715 /720 (though I did see a Siemens one). Later models I have seen both Fisher and Sanyo. Maybe some models were produced separately?

Fisher actually started out as a respectable US brand I believe, in the pre-Sanyo era.
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Old 22nd Sep 2020, 11:53 pm   #29
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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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Old 23rd Sep 2020, 7:43 am   #30
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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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Old 25th Sep 2020, 4:27 pm   #31
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Quote:
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Maarten View Post
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?
Wasnt Fisher meant to just be a luxury brand name invented by Sanyo for retail purposes?
Fisher was an American high-end audio manufacturer until they were bought by Sanyo in the mid 70s. After that, Sanyo started manufacturing equipment under the Fisher brand name.
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Old 25th Sep 2020, 10:45 pm   #32
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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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Old 25th Sep 2020, 10:52 pm   #33
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More about the original Fisher here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avery_Fisher
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Old 26th Sep 2020, 11:30 am   #34
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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!
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Old 26th Sep 2020, 12:00 pm   #35
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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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Old 28th Sep 2020, 5:56 pm   #36
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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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Old 29th Sep 2020, 1:03 pm   #37
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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.
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Old 30th Sep 2020, 6:30 pm   #38
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Maarten View Post
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?
Sanyo used the Fisher brand ,which they bought/took over in the USA as a high quality audio manufacturer and used that name to make VHS models whilst the parent company Sanyo made Betamax. This was ,to a point a clever marketing strategy as Sanyo was in two video format camps.They continued making Hi-Fi for the masses under this name too.
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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Old 1st Oct 2020, 5:06 pm   #39
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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.
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