Sony-Matic Portable Videocorder

[Eric H]

Can anyone tell me what year(s) this is from?

I won it on the Goodwill auction, hope I didn't swipe it from any of you.

I see it has a reel of tape, maybe it'll have lost footage of some vintage TV show, or some Home Movies, or possibly Bob Cranes Home Movies!

[JoeNewberry]

If it's an AV-3400, it would appear to be from about 1969. I base that on it looking almost exactly like the examples here:

http://www.smecc.org/sony_av-3400__avc-3400.htm

As for what's on it, maybe it'll be a missing episode of Doctor Who or footage from the first Super Bowl or a missing episode of the Art Fleming version of Jeopardy! Until you watch it, it's like Schrodinger's Cat. It's all lost television footage until you find out what it really is.

[droptop]

Sony made this machine for several years in combination with a camera. I believe it’s a model AV 3400 and was probably the most popular of the portable machines. In addition to the camera the outfit came with a battery pack and AC power supply/ charger, microphone and other accessories. I think they called it the Video Rover. It certainly is more plentiful than the Panasonic version of which I have two and will hopefully be able to make one complete and working outfit.

I have a sizeable collection of half inch open reel VTR’s from the mid 60’s to the mid 70’s including most of the Sony models and a number of Panasonic models as well in both B&W and color. I picked up a Sony AV 3600 at a school surplus sale in the late 80’s and having worked in broadcast television with an interest in odd audio and video tape formats I was intrigued by the machine. With no tape or other information it sat for a while before I found about 50 reels of tape at a local flea market. Everything was fine until tape was threaded and the play control was thrown. The transport came to a halt and every metal surface was coated with sticky black gunk. Odd thing was the tape was dry to the touch. The machine eventually got traded away and forgotten.

A few years ago I ran across a web article about “sticky shed” syndrome that affects recording tape. It explained the problem with the old tapes as well as the process of tape baking which got me interested in finding another machine to experiment with. Within a month of reading these articles a local estate sale mentioned old video equipment and to make a long story short I brought home 4 machines and a van load of tapes. Instant collection. Now, nearly 3 years later I have 15-16 different machines. Many have been restored and I’ve also done some tape transfers for a couple people. These beasts are temperamental to say the least but I enjoy a challenge especially when the end result is something many folks have never seen before which is what I get the most enjoyment from.

I’m always on the lookout for machines and tapes and always interested in what might be on them. Haven’t found anything like the Bob Crane stuff though….
Rick

[Eric H]

Well I got the beastie today, packed really crappy but it survived, mostly because it's built like a tank.

I took it apart to inspect for hidden damage, it was packed in a couple layers of bubble wrap and put in a box with about 5 inches of empty space on the sides, of course it got dropped hard by Fed Ex, hard enough to leave outward indentations on the side of the case from screws on the inside!

It looks fine though, incredibly even the rubber parts are in great shape, a couple of the small belts may be a little loose but none of them have turned to liquid rubber, the idler tire is nice and soft too.

The 35-40 year old Gel Cel pack is junk of course, I took the connector off it and tried hooking it up to a 12 car battery (+ is on the outside on this one not the center) the battery meter jumps to full when the record lever is pushed to the right, don't know what that means exactly but the unit does nothing at all otherwise. Does it need the external PS as well?

I thought I heard the motor running once or twice but it doesn't move at all when engaged.

There is a connector for a camera on the side, does something need to be jumped to make this run with no camera?

It has the RF output box, I read that this was an optional part for hooking it up to a conventional TV, what else would it have been hooked to? a Monitor?

[Eric H]

Rick, if I can't get this working maybe I can send you the tape for transfer or at least to find out what's on it?

[droptop]

Be glad to help. PM sent.

Rick

[firenzeprima]

If you want, I have a manual service in PDF format.