VHS VCR 15-year average reliability data (1978-1993)...

[waltchan]

Originally Posted by Ed in Tx

At least some of those JCPenney VCRs were made by Matsushita Panasonic. They would come into the shop out of warranty, usually with worn out heads and other wearing parts from heavy usage.

So, did you actually replace a lot of worn out video heads when the Panasonic VCRs were only 1 year old (eekkk...)?

[Ed in Tx]

Originally Posted by waltchan

So, did you actually replace a lot of worn out video heads when the Panasonic VCRs were only 1 year old (eekkk...)?

Didn't say anything about time.. out of warranty, yes. I'd guess on a heavily used machine playing lots of Blockbuster tapes and time-shifting soap operas, maybe 3-5 years before record quality starts going downhill first from worn heads, or maybe first sign's a flutter in the hi-fi audio from worn hi-fi heads.

[Ronald1973]

I've never been big into just sitting and watching tapes but I used it mainly for archival purposes of stuff I figured I'd never see again. Case in point is WMC in Memphis had the last live wrestling program in the nation. I recorded some of its last incarnation (Power Pro Wrestling) on tape and then when it died, Jerry Lawler, along with Jimmy Hart, Dave Brown and Lance Russell, hosted clips of classic matches entitled Memphis Classic Wrestling. I recorded 4 tapes of that but other than that, it sat dormant. Came in one day to use it and it was DOA. Quite a good machine and I hated to part with it but I knew it would be an arm and a leg to repair it IF I could find someone to do it even.