A 1977 RCA VBT-200 playing on a 1954 RCA CT-100

[Penthode]

No modifications needed. The output of the VBT-200 is remarkably stable and causes no bending with any tape I play.

[Kevin Kuehn]

That is interesting. Back in the early 90's I still had my folks early Sony(Zenith branded) Batamax, that also never showed any stability issues on old sets.

[John Marinello]

I had the exact machine, VBT-200. I gave it to my neighbor. What do you suppose they are worth? I seem to remember the bearings in the head motor started howling. I disassembled it, cleaned & lightly oiled the bearings & it worked fine again. You could set the timer to start only, then would continue until the end of the tape. Don't forget to press the mechanical play + rec buttons first though. 2 speed only. The only picture issues that I recall is when the record timer was used. The unit would start recording before the heavy head was up to speed, LOL.

[Penthode]

The interesting thing I found after I got it to play SP tapes was it would not play the LP tapes I had. It played LP tapes too fast.

What I found was Panasonic made the VBT-200 not long after JVC established the format. Panasonic on it's own without consulting JVC added the LP mode which is it would record/play half speed so a 2 hour SP tape would record 4 hours.

JVC was not happy and refused to adopt the Panasonic LP and instead put into their standard their own LP mode which was one third speed so a 2 hour SP tape would run 6 hours. JVC insisted other VHS makers as part of their licence agreement only use their LP mode (initially called Extra Long Play or ELP mode). JVC did however concede that licenced VHS machines would play the Panasonic LP mode tapes only.

Because all other VHS makers were on board with the licenced JVc long play mode, Panasonic was the one man out of step. Panasonic quietly dropped their LP mode in the mid 1980s although from 1980 to 1985 I believe they may have included the three record speeds eg SP, LP and ELP. I have a 1994 Panasonic VHS machine with an LP switch which is in actuality an ELP speed switch. It is however labelled LP!

So the VBT-200 records half speed which suggests higher quality and the VBT-200 LP tapes will play on all later VHS machines including machines that cannot themselves record the half speed format!

[old_coot88]

First one we ever got in the shop was in '79, a Zenith top-loader, with a seized motor. One of the shop goofballs, having never seen inside one before, said "hey the video head's on catty-wampus." ,
Disassembled motor, cleaned & oiled bearings, and sent it home, cattywampus head notwithstanding.