VCRs that will last forever

[jhalphen]

Hello again,

I have a question for you, the AK recording community:

In my philosophy of remaining faithful to tape, deeming DVD burning not reliable for long-term storage, i've kept a close watch on the US HD recorder scene.

The machine pictured in the photographs, a JVC HM-DH30000U appears quite frequently in Germany, don't know why (Mil PX sourced?)

Anyway, it can record off-air USA HDTV. Has anyone worked on the idea of making a switchable input switch modification say "Tuner & Aux" where "Aux" could record any HD source.

HDMI would have to be foiled, much like MacroVision in its day, anyone working to solve this?

I know you can time-shift off-air HD to a hard disk recorder or maybe to the just-appearing Blu-Ray recorders (Panasonic) but this is no solution for long term storage.

Additional problem could be that USA HD is 1080i/60 or 720p/60 whereas in Europe we use 1080i/50 or 720p/50. The recorder may not be able to cope with the 50/60 frames issue, which brings us right back to the problem of USA/Europe TV exchanges from the very beginning!

Thanks! for any comment, suggestions, etc.

Best Regards

jhalphen

[ChrisW6ATV]

Originally Posted by jhalphen

Hello again,

I have a question for you, the AK recording community:

In my philosophy of remaining faithful to tape, deeming DVD burning not reliable for long-term storage, i've kept a close watch on the US HD recorder scene.

The machine pictured in the photographs, a JVC HM-DH30000U appears quite frequently in Germany, don't know why (Mil PX sourced?)

Anyway, it can record off-air USA HDTV. Has anyone worked on the idea of making a switchable input switch modification say "Tuner & Aux" where "Aux" could record any HD source.

HDMI would have to be foiled, much like MacroVision in its day, anyone working to solve this?

I know you can time-shift off-air HD to a hard disk recorder or maybe to the just-appearing Blu-Ray recorders (Panasonic) but this is no solution for long term storage.

Additional problem could be that USA HD is 1080i/60 or 720p/60 whereas in Europe we use 1080i/50 or 720p/50. The recorder may not be able to cope with the 50/60 frames issue, which brings us right back to the problem of USA/Europe TV exchanges from the very beginning!

Thanks! for any comment, suggestions, etc.

Best Regards

jhalphen

jhalphen-

The JVC HM-DH30000U (and the next model 40000U, commonly called the "30K" and "40K" here) cannot directly record HDTV signals. Rather, they both have analog TV tuners built-in, and component-video HD outputs built-in. For HDTV recording, they have IEEE1394 (also called "FireWire" and maybe "I-link", I think) connections. These recorders can be used with a few set-top USA (ATSC) HDTV tuners that have the matching IEEE1394 data connection. There are also some HDTV sets that have the '1394 connectors. The tuner or TV set can often also control the JVC VCR from its own remote control.

I do not have a long-term storage solution for my HDTV recordings, but the ones I have on hard disk drives from 2000-2001 are still good.

[Ed in Tx]

No one lusts after the NEC DS8000U? I have two friends that still have running ones that I've kept up for them over the years. Pretty reliable overall except for the typical NEC tape guide issue on both years ago. Had to replace a few electrolytics too.

Was the PV-S4990 the one that had the MTS stereo RF modulator? Seems I recall there was only one Panny that had stereo RF output.

[waltchan]

Originally Posted by Ed in Tx

No one lusts after the NEC DS8000U? I have two friends that still have running ones that I've kept up for them over the years. Pretty reliable overall except for the typical NEC tape guide issue on both years ago. Had to replace a few electrolytics too.

Was the PV-S4990 the one that had the MTS stereo RF modulator? Seems I recall there was only one Panny that had stereo RF output.

NEC DS-8000U is fairly hard to find on eBay, but it's a great, well-made unit and was the most popular NEC SVHS unit. I used to own one 4 years ago. There is also a much rarer, higher-end DS-8500U that retailed over $3,000 when new with all kinds of fancy features found similar to Toshiba SV-F990.

Yes, the PV-S4990 has a MTS stereo RF modulator. It has four coaxial inputs/outputs. I do own one, but I never know what a RF modulator does. Would you care to explain?

This year Christmas, my Sharp VC-H98U 8-HEAD 19-micron Hi-Fi MTS Stereo VCR (yes), which is used only on December 25 every year, will see its FINAL year recording 6 hours of memorable Christmas performances from its original analog tuner. Next year, I will need to connect it with a converter box. What a sad day analog VCRs have been. The analog tuner will never see the light again, although it begs me to work for another 20 years. The Sharp 8-head 19-micron VCRs are by far the best performing EP/SLP recording quality I have ever seen. Most professional VCRs only have 4-head and still don't produce a good picture. Good luck finding one on eBay as they are very rare.

[Ed in Tx]

Originally Posted by waltchan

Yes, the PV-S4990 has a MTS stereo RF modulator. It has four coaxial inputs/outputs. I do own one, but I never know what a RF modulator does. Would you care to explain?

An MTS stereo modulator puts out a stereo encoded signal on ch 3 or 4. Handy feature for people who insist on hooking up their VCR to the TV with a single RF cable! When I was full-time active in the VCR service biz in the '80s and '90s I had quite a few people over the years come in saying the stereo light on their TV wouldn't light up when they played a tape. I had to explain that the RF modulator in their new stereo VCR was actually mono, and for stereo it would have to be connected to the TV with stereo audio-video cables.

My situation in my house here, I bought a stand-alone MTS Stereo RF modulator to run my C-band satellite and VCR through the rest of the house via a single 75 Ohm coax to the stereo TVs in other rooms.

As far as I know there was never an easy cheap way to produce an MTS stereo modulator which I figure is why they weren't included in any more VCRs. Cost to include MTS stereo encoding was the prohibiting factor best as I can tell. Not aware of any single chip ever developed that would do that.

Originally Posted by waltchan

This year Christmas, my Sharp VC-H98U 8-HEAD 19-micron Hi-Fi MTS Stereo VCR (yes), which is used only on December 25 every year, will see its FINAL year recording 6 hours of memorable Christmas performances from its original analog tuner.

Now if you had that DTV converter box A&V plugged into an MTS stereo modulator then you could feed that RF to your Sharp on Ch 3 or 4 and its tuner wouldn't know the difference! Of course direct would be better quality but the stereo VCR tuner would get used at least!



Do you have a picture of an NEC DS-8500? I thought that was the one that used a Panasonic chassis...??? I know there was at least one NEC that did.

I remember working on a few of those SV-F990 Toshibas. Super fancy elaborate high $$$ machine! (EDIT: The machine I was thinking about is the SV-771 with the optical sensors that automatically slide the door down and cassette tray out as you come near the front with a tape, one sold on eBay a earlier this month.)

[jfrog1983]

Regarding that NEC tape guide issue, when my N965U arrives, since its in working condition, anything I can do to prevent the guides from getting screwed up in the first place? I definitely don't have the means here to replace and realign tape guides, I heard its fairly difficult, especially since it's a Hi-Fi unit.

[Ed in Tx]

Originally Posted by jfrog1983

Regarding that NEC tape guide issue, when my N965U arrives, since its in working condition, anything I can do to prevent the guides from getting screwed up in the first place? I definitely don't have the means here to replace and realign tape guides, I heard its fairly difficult, especially since it's a Hi-Fi unit.

It's not real difficult but does require great care since you are working around the heads and drum replacing the guides, then you have to set up and align the tape path and probably the X-value of the A/C head and check and align as needed for smooth tape path forward and in reverse search. Maybe you will get lucky and the one you are getting has had them replaced sometime in its past with the improved guide base ass'ys that have the little set-screw to keep the brass sleeve from moving. I've done lots of these in the past but not one in 5-6 years at least. If not don't know any preventive measure unless you want to try and lock them in place before they do move with glue or epoxy of some sort which I don't recommend and is questionable practice at best. Any I would see like that from a previous repair attempt elsewhere with glue, paint or JB Weld would always get new guide base ass'ys no matter what, figuring they would eventually work loose again. But finding new ones nowadays might be hard to do so there might not be an alternative to doing the glue thing to them hate to say.

[waltchan]

Originally Posted by Ed in Tx

Do you have a picture of an NEC DS-8500? I thought that was the one that used a Panasonic chassis...??? I know there was at least one NEC that did.

No, I don't have any picture. The last one showed up on eBay was somewhere in summer of 2007. This unit has a sliding door tray with double flying-erase-heads. It is made by NEC. The last NEC VCR, made in 1989, was made by Panasonic, and it wasn't SVHS. I saw it on eBay before.

[waltchan]

Originally Posted by Ed in Tx

I remember working on a few of those SV-F990 Toshibas. Super fancy elaborate high $$$ machine! (EDIT: The machine I was thinking about is the SV-771 with the optical sensors that automatically slide the door down and cassette tray out as you come near the front with a tape, one sold on eBay a earlier this month.)

The Toshiba SV-F990 is a super, fancy unit. I bought it (extremely rare) as brand new, factory-sealed, never opened, never used from the box for $500, and the original box is still in new condition after almost 20 years. I had way too much fun breaking its factory sealed for the first time in 20 years.

[waltchan]

Zenith's only S-VHS VCR was relisted and now going for only $25 starting bid. It will be very sad if it fails to receive a first bid, as this is a really good price based on the condition and rarity, and it's AK's most favorite brand.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=250348028944