Philips VCRs - OEM models

[ben]

Split from this thread.

We were racking our brains trying to ID those Philips VCR which had decks OEM'd by others.

So far we have noted:
VR 6585 (1990) Panasonic G mech.
VR 6920 (1986?) - Panasonic Dº Mech, seems to be an NV-850.
VR 813 (SVHS, 1992?) - Panasonic Gº mech (late, cue/review motor)

The one I recall with the Sharp innards was in fact the VR6448. Pictures attached, I even found one of the innards.

The 6448 front panel looks very similar to the aforementioned VR 6585 Panny (also pictured, sourced from internet) and VR 6290 (Charlie), which I had earlier mistaken for the Sharp job. All three were from late 1989-1990.

Any others to add?

[Clydeuk]

Back in the mid 80's I rented a Philips. I think the model was VR6542 (the number was memorable because it was the combination of a bike lock I had)

I think this used a Sharp mech but being a rental I never had the lid off. It was definitely quieter and smoother in operation than the Charlie and the earlier Philips mech (forget the name of that one). I think it was one of the first models to make a big thing out of "HQ"

[ben]

Originally Posted by Clydeuk

Back in the mid 80's I rented a Philips. I think the model was VR6542 "

Think that's the mystery 'early sharp' RedtoBlack mentioned- see more details in this thread

[Outrun_uk]

VR6460? I had one of these - was it a G deck?

Kev

[ben]

D deck I think, Kev. I once had one badged Pye pass through my hands, had forgotten about it.

[Maarten]

I think it would be best to differentiate between bought in decks and full OEM machines and even then there are some nuances.

- The VR502, VR702, VR813 were Philips machines with a Panasonic deck.
- The VR412 was a full OEM machine (Marantz) with a bought in deck (Panasonic), but most OEM machines have a matching deck.
- The VR512 was a Philips made machine with a Philips deck that at the time of release would have repairmen stumped.
- The VR6920 and VR6948 were full OEM machines by Panasonic
- The VR1500 was one of the last products by PJVM (many before that, but we only occasionaly got to see some). PJVM used mostly full JVC design but sometimes with a Philips drum, I think.
- The VR833 was one of the first iR3 made machines, basically Grundig electronics with a Philips deck at the time, the Grundig design influences in high end Philips machines lasted for quite some years

[AC/HL]

We had a Goodmans one some years ago. No idea which one, but it was unmistakeably Philips. It had a tuner mode which displayed the frequency, not just the channel number.

[jayceebee]

Originally Posted by Outrun_uk

VR6460? I had one of these - was it a G deck?

Kev

VR6460 used the Echo deck.

[Maarten]

Originally Posted by jayceebee

VR6460 used the Echo deck.

It didn't. Maybe you're thinking of the VR6560 or the VR6462.

I suspect that there was some internal competition going on in 1984 between Krefeld and Vienna for developing the first Philips VHS videorecorder.

Both the Vienna model (VR6560) and Krefeld model (VR6460) were based on existing V2000 models developed at the respective locations. Vienna was the only location with deck development and did most of the set development while Krefeld only did original development on the fourth generation cost down V2000 models VR2414/2424. The VR6460 somewhat resembles a VR2414 but with a front loader. To achieve that, they bought in D decks from Panasonic.

Vienna developed the Echo deck and used it in a top loader set resembling their third generation V2000 models. Soon after they also made a front loader version of the same deck and Philips didn't have to buy Panasonic decks for their follow up models.

P.S. Note about the generations of V2000 machines. It's somewhat arbitrairly. I consider the VR2020-VR2024 first generation, the VR2220 second generation, the VR23xx/VR2840 third generation and the VR24xx fourth generation. There are other criteria that could be applied and result in other generation numbering.

[Welsh Anorak]

Don't forget the VR6520 which was a Panasonic NV370 in disguise.
Which was the very small machine with an Echo deck - was that the VR6560?
The Goodmans you refer to (#7) was a very basic Turbo deck.
Some Charlies could be very hard to tune in as they displayed the frequency which (to us) was unusual.
There was a Pye 2SB11 which was a very late basic Charlie deck which was exclusive to us retailers. It was very reliable, amazingly.

[Maarten]

VR6520 as the small brother of the VR6920, there might have been more, Philips entered the VHS market with a bang and stayed one of Europes largest suppliers up to 2002.

The smallest Echo deck machine was probably the VR6560, a top loader in the same dimensions as the V2000 bricks.

[ben]

Just found this note from a 1993 Television letter page. Another model for the list - Thanks Dave!

[Red to black]

Hi ben, sorry for not replying sooner.
There was at least two early Sharp machines branded Philips, one was all Sharp both mechanics and electronics, the second one had a Sharp deck but with some Philips electronics, certainly the front panel.
I don't recall the model numbers of these as it was such a long time ago, the one thing I do recall was the deck had two main cams underneath the deck that drove the mechanism, the common one to fail was the one that drove the loading arms.
The later Sharp deck that you kindly showed was a much later deck, with the single main cam above deck along with the mode switch, very similar to say the Sharp VCA105 or relatives.

Maarten is also quite right in that Philips sometimes bought in entire machines or sometimes only bought in the decks and interfaced that with their own electronics. I think only Philips was really big enough to do this, smaller firms would have simply either badged up the OEM machine, or if a bigger midsized firm (such as Thorn et al) maybe asked the OEM to do a custom job specifically for them.

[Maarten]

Grundig did it as well in the period between producing their own (clunky) decks and joining turbo forces with Philips. They used Panasonic G decks. They even made OEM machines for Sony using those decks.

One of the reasons (just as with Philips using D and G decks) may have been the presence of Panasonic production in Germany so decks and support could be obtained easily.

Also, Standard Elektrik Lorenz used bought in Japanese decks for their short time producing their own VHS machines (they also made one or two models for Blaupunkt).

[dj_fivos_sak]

Here's a Panasonic-made Philips S-VHS VCR from 1987. It's an NTSC model and as far as I can tell, it uses the G deck. Photo sourced from the net.

Fivos

[ben]

Yes, that display panel is like the Panasonics (NV-G21) from circa 1988

[Maarten]

Philips USA almost exclusively sourced their machines from Panasonic. until they switched to Funai. I don't count those when discussing rest of the world Philips models I feel strongly that Philips should have never bought out Magnavox but stay a premium brand from Europe instead.

The model number in the picture name is a dead giveaway that it's indeed a USA model. Because of their heritage (or not invented here morale) they did everything differently.

[stevehertz]

I had 'inside information' at the time from someone within Philips that having lost the video format wars with both VCR and V2000, that they now planned to build the best VHS sets in order to claim the market. I haven't really followed the story, but funny now to read that they used other companies' decks! Out of interest, did they build a good VHS deck themselves? Or was their modus operandi to use known good decks and add market winning features and performance levels?

[dj_fivos_sak]

Originally Posted by Maarten

Philips USA almost exclusively sourced their machines from Panasonic. until they switched to Funai. I don't count those when discussing rest of the world Philips models I feel strongly that Philips should have never bought out Magnavox but stay a premium brand from Europe instead.

The model number in the picture name is a dead giveaway that it's indeed a USA model. Because of their heritage (or not invented here morale) they did everything differently.

Just found out that the original Panasonic model is the PV-S4880. At least it looks identical to that Philips I posted earlier. Why do US/Canadian consumer Panasonic models start with "PV" while on the rest of the world they start with "NV", just like the industrial US/Canadian models?

[Welsh Anorak]

Re post #18 - I can hear groans from those of us who had to repair early Charlie decks with their rack sliders, endless modifications and disintegrating plastic runners. The first time I replaced a rack slider kit it took the best part of a day! I soon worked out what to do, luckily.
Later ones weren't too bad, and I quite liked the Turbo. However they were never that popular so replacement heads meant genuine parts, with their little shims and speciual tools. That usually meant the machine was scrapped because of the cost.
And that was it for Philips VHS - Echo, Charlie, Turbo.