Just found a Sharp VHS from 1979
 

In really good condition too but it has a problem or two.

This is a model VC-6800, brought it home, powered it up and couldn't get it to do anything except power on.

I spent an hour or so under and over the chassis and found several levers that were gummed up solid, cleaned and lubed them, also cleaned the belts, which are somewhat dry but still in decent shape.

Now it's still somewhat balky but it'll play a tape, the picture is snowy on half the screen because there isn't enough tension on the feed reel to keep it snug against the head, if I put a little drag on the tape with my finger I can get the picture to come in clear, I'm guessing another gummy lever somewhere keeping it from working right.

Surprisingly the FF and REW work OK.

This thing weighs 39 freaking Lbs!

It's really primitive, you open the door, push the tape in, then you press the Load button which causes the tape to drop down into position.

I remember these arriving on the maket...they were about the front front loaders!!

man, thats technology. what happened?

Wow, can you imagine how much that bad boy was new?

Mark

I had a Panasonic Omnivision IV from early 1980-About 2 months after I got it, they came out w/the 6-hour speed. Anyhow, it was built like a BATTLESHIP, too-weighed about 40 lbs, as well as I remember. I gave it to my church about '85, they still have it, & I think it still works. I oughta go & reclaim it, I don't think they've used it in years...

$1395 MSRP according to this source:
http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2008/...portable-vcrs/

Or about $1390 depreciation over 30 years.

Sandy, I can picture that conversation..


Dear God,

I want my f***in VCR back!!!

I promise I'll be good...

Sandy

just kiddin with ya, you know we luv ya

Erin and Eric

Nah, its prolly gonna be somethin' more along THESE lines-
Sandy-
What do you mean, you cheap, ungrateful..giving your church a wore-out, junky, clunky VCR ? Just you wait..In 2004, I'm gonna send you a little "Thank You" note in the way of a Stroke...-Gabriel, for the Big Guy....

Everything went down the tubes :(

Nice looking deck, the 70s was the era of plastic wood grain laminates for TV, video and audio equipment, got to love it! :)

Its sad how stuff has gotton SO CHEAP AND DISGUSTING over the years...

WHY DO PEOPLE PUT UP WITH THIS CRAP WHEN THEY KNOW HOW GOOD IT USED TO BE??

Nice deck, I was just playing around with my '77 RCA VBT-200 the other day wondering what some of the other machines looked like. Yours looks cooler than mine IMO. I just ran across a VDT-600 from '79 but the top was all busted, I guess I could have picked it up for the mechanical parts for the two bucks. It's the same as my older version as far as the mechanism, or at least that's what the book says....

If the way people approach politics is any indication, they put up with it because they have -VERY- short memory spans. :nono:

Any new technology soon becomes a race to the bottom as parts and manfacturing improve and cheapen. Quality costs money, and the world economic landscape was much different when the VCR appeared, as opposed to when the VCR disappeared. :scratch2: :no:

Back on topic, love that spiffy LCD display. I think I have only seen one other VCR like that. Is it backlit?

People "put up with" cheaply-built equipment because they do not want to "put up with" paying $900 for a VCR anymore, as this model probably cost. Would you "put up with" paying $1900 for a 19-inch color TV today? (That is my guess of the equivalent value of the $450 cost of a color TV in 1964.) If you want to spend that much, I bet you could find someone who would hand-rebuild a set and put in a newly-rebuilt CRT for you.

Yeah, that 1980 VCR was something like $1k back then...As I said, it weighed a TON, looked to be a SLIGHTLY downgraded industrial/commercial type machine. ..I took the top cover off of it, and it had a cast-aluminum chassis, & the parts all by & large, had that "Substantial" look to them that commercial stuff has. The 2nd VCR I got in '85 was a strereo/Hi-Fi model, but by then, they'd figgered out how to crank 'em out good 'n' cheap...It was maybe a fifth the size of the 1980 model, & was a real liteweight by comparison. It lasted til '90 or so, the one I got then was an el-cheapo that just recorded. No hi-fi, stereo, nada. Think I gave under $100 for it.