IVC 700 1" Reel to Reel Video Recorder

[Eric H]

I just picked this up from the same place I got the other recorders.
It seems to be in excellent condition, it came with a case of brand new tapes still wrapped in plastic and in boxes.

It powered up so I loaded a tape and it does all the functions, fast forward play etc, I don't have a monitor to hook up at the moment but it seems to have a built in speaker, there's probably nothing on the tape since all I get is a bit of hum at full volume.

I also picked up a tape cartridge for the Quasar mentioned in the carload of VCRs thread, it has some writing on it so I would guess it does have something recorded on it.

[W3XWT]

We had one of those when I was in high school in the 1970's. It was a dog compared to the two Bell & Howells we also had.

[Dave A]

More from Labguy on the IVC 700

http://www.labguysworld.com/IVC-700.htm

Somewhere in the attic I have an IVC 816XA needing a hetrodyne color board for color playback. It did work when I was young and hauled it up there.

[Eric H]

I haven't tried this one to see if it will work beyond powering up and transporting the tape, I did however test the Quasar VR1000 and it works fine!

Check out the other post I made in this forum on it.

W3XWT, what do you mean when you say the IVC 700 is a dog, performance or reliability, or both?

At this point it's really not an issue, I'm not planning on using it for anything other than a toy to fiddle with but I did want to keep it from going to the recyclers.

[Eric H]

I hooked this machine up tonight to see if it would work, it does but the playback is in B&W with brief flashes of color.

The source is a DVD player, hooked it to the Video in and Audio in, there's also a connector labeled Color In so I don't know if it has to have a seperate connection for Chroma?
The video passes through the machine in color while recording but the playback is in B&W so I don't know if there's an issue with the recorder or if I'm just not doing it right.

Made a video and posted it on my site, it has a short clip of music so I didn't want YouTube yanking it.
This is 30 Mb: http://vintagetvsets.com/videos/IVC700.wmv

the first ten seconds are in color, that's the recording phase, then I rewind the machine and it starts playback at 15 seconds.

[ppppenguin]

A possible explanation. The bandwidth of these machines is just about wide enough to record the entire composite colour signal. Assuming the E-E route goes via the FM mod/demod (often true for machines of that period) this suggests the bandwidth is indeed wide enough. The problem on replay is inherent mechanical instability taking the subcarrier frequency outside the locking range of a monitor.

This was also true of quadruplex VTRs where the highly complex "Colortec" timing corrector was designed to overcome the problem. A very few external timebase correctors could do the necessary correction for helical scan VTRs. I have seen similar effects with PAL colour on the highband version of the Ampex VR7003. This too was specified for colour but I didn't have the colour timing correction board for it nor a suitable TBC.

Most helical scan VTRs used a "colour under" method where the chroma information was separated and recorded as an AM signal at a much lower frequency. The replay processing included circuitry that heterodyned the colour back on to a stable subcarrier.

[ChrisW6ATV]

Two thoughts:

-Rather than a DVD player, hook up a digital TV tuner ("converter box"). DVD players often have anti-copying signals and it seems possible that such signals could even mess up a VTR like that one.

-You could try rigging up the "S-video" output from a device (Super VHS VCR ideally, or a DVD player remembering the anti-copy comments above; if you are realy lucky you would have a Channel Master CM-7000 digital tuner that has S-video out) into the video and color inputs on that VTR.

Years ago, I played with one of those one-inch reel-to-reel VTRs, and if I remember right, it recorded and played in color by itself OK. I do not remember the brand, but IVC does sound familiar.

[Eric H]

The DVD was home made so I know it had no copy protection.

I have a Channel Master converter box, not sure what model.

What I thought said Color Out on the recorder actually says Video Color so I'm not sure what that means, perhaps it can be fed Component video?

[Penthode]

I believe you are missing the point Jeff made. The machine was made in 1971. A component video interface did not exist in 1971.

The problem is, as Jeff pointed out, an inherent mechanical inability to record a full composite color signal via helical VTRs in 1971 prior to the introduction of a digital timebase corrector. The velocity error without timebase correction is too great. To overcome the velocity error, a color under technique was employed. This meant the chroma was hetrodyned under the FM luma on the tape. I suspect the video color connector was for a separate heterodyne unit to facilitate color under recording. Without the unit, you will only be able to record monochrome video. The flashes of color is caused by trapped chroma in the luma channel which occasionally will cause the TV chroma demodulator to lock. But the extreme velocity errors won't allow the chroma demodulator to lock for long.

The unit you have is likely incomplete and can only be used for monochrome recording. If you have the manual you can check for sure.

[ppppenguin]

if you have enough bandwidth there's no problem RECORDING colour. The problem is playing it back. The term "velocity error" is usually taken as meaning timing variation within a line. This will cause SC phase to vary along a line, causing hue errors, especially in NTSC. The high inertia of a helical drum means that velocity errors are small on helical VTRs. Unlike quadruplex where they were significant. Conversely helical has much larger timing variations on a longer timescale. Look at the hooking effects you can get on replay when the receiver's line sync can't follow the variations.

Colour under, as used on VHS, Betamax etc was a fix for lack of basic bandwidth. Some of the VR5000/7000 series Ampex and 1" IVC VTRs had sufficient BW to record colour directly and I think the colour replay add-on remodulated the chroma on to a stable subcarrier. Just as in a colour under machine but without changing the basic SC frequency.

SECAM could be recorded and replayed without problems as it's not sensitive to this sort of timing variation.

[Eric H]

Here's a picture of the inputs and outputs.

The Audio goes to the middle connection of that three prong connector.

There is a knob for "Color Phase" on the front panel.

I found this on a site "All IVC 600/700/800 series machines could accept an optional hetrodyne color adaptor"
So it would seem you are correct about needing this to record in color?

They also had this to say: "The IVC 700 was a low cost basic record/play machine, introduced later on in the life of this format. It was developed an attempt to compete against the Sony VO-2850. It was a step down from the IVC 800. It's construction was similar to the 800, but cheaper parts were used. Bad machine! Nothing else is known about it"

Well I'm not going to go looking for accessories for this thing, might still play around with it, maybe record a B&W movie on it or something. I have a whole case of NOS (dated 1977) tape for it.

[Dave A]

I would have to dig out my IVC but IIRC mine has a flip down front panel and you can see where the color hetrodyne board would insert. Not sure if yours does the same or if it needs an outboard unit using the Video Color port and the Video Out port. And an outboard TBC usually needed some kind of reference connection. Vertical interval reference? Been a while.

I also wonder if an analog frame syncronizer could capture the signals.

[Eric H]

Hi Dave, I can see a hinge on the bottom front of mine but since it's mounted in a wood cabinet (think Turntable on Steroids) there's no access to what I assume would be the door?

Edit: Picture attached.

[Dave A]

I looked a Labguy's pic and I see what you mean. Your unit is much more shallow than mine. You may have to lift it from its wood perch to go any further. I will go to the attic tomorrow to examine mine and have some info. Have you contacted Labguy for any help?

[centralradio]

I have 2 IVC VCR100's in my collection .One works and other is for parts plus I got the service manual too.

For a small machine .You need a forklift to pick it up.
The 1 inch supply tape reel goes into a cartridge and it will self thread into the built in takeup reel inside the recorder.