We had one with the wood grain case. Wish I still had it. Unbelievable sound quality, near CD quality virtually no tape hiss. Manual audio level slides for recording.
I think this device is very beautiful. It is really interesting how it is built. Not like the other VCRs, but completely different. Good idea from Zenith
I have a 1965 Zenith color TV console and that was built in the day when it was genuine Zenith built down in Chicago. I was looking for one of those sideways load Zenith branded VCRs but have yet to find one. Yes- a lot of wires and circuit boards. I repaired VCRs through the 80s into the 90s. When the manufacturers started making the machines as cheap as possible with the fewest boards and individual components thus dropping prices below $100 that put me out of business. When I was in the business I never came across one of these VCRs nor did I ever come across an RCA Dimensia VCR but I found the latter machine and posted a video of my repair which was just replacing the idler assembly. Nice videos. I watch most of your videos. Gary
Zenith also had a Hi-Fi version that came out with this one. Look up the Zenith VR3300 to see the Zenith re-badge of yours and it had the soft-touch buttons located on the inside of the door. Zenith also had at least 2 4-head vertical units that were released about this time, one was monaural and the other was Hi-Fi.
@@selfishone6634 Both of mine came to me non-working, but the JVC came to me after I fixed the Zenith (it had bad lytic capacitors on the power transformer board) so I have yet to fix the JVC to compare it in operation. The JVC appears to have more features and does not use the membrane buttons the Zenith used (I've heard those membrane buttons are failure-prone, but haven't seen a bad one). These are really more interesting novelties than the pinnacle of VCR design....If you just want to watch old pre-recorded movies on VHS with a CRT TV these are plenty good for that (as good as any VHS-HiFi deck of their day). But if you want to record anything I would go with S-VHS or S-VHS-ET (the ET means it can record the superior SVHS mode on more affordable VHS tapes). If you want to transfer to digital or playback to an LCD, Plasma or similar modern TV and not have it look terrible, then you want to look for either a DVD-recorder/VHS combo (some even have HDMI out like my Toshiba D-VR5) or an older SVHS deck with a digital frame buffer/Time Base Corrector/video noise reduction system such as some top-end models by Sony, NEC, JVC, Marantz (the one I had was a rebadged JVC)...D-VHS decks usually have this capability when playing VHS tapes but with how expensive/rare they are its a waste to use one for anything but D-VHS tapes IMO. Those digital frame buffers will do averaging between frames and eliminate much of the noise that makes VHS look especially bad on flat-panel TV sets, and make it look more DVD/LD like.
*480 lines of resolution The vertical resolution of VHS is no worse, possibly better even (because of no inter-line compression), than DVD. It's the horizontal resolution where it starts to hurt. That's one smooth freeze frame, single frame advance and fast wind btw. The only one I've seen better is the _six_ head JVC (with jog dial goodness, even) we had in the 90s, which cost my parents probably even more money as a bundle deal with a new "big" (25 inch!) TV... I still have it awaiting some servicing and future reuse (the belts and rollers need doing I think) as it's about the best quality I've ever seen from both prerecorded and home made tape, DVD actually had a fight on its hands to prove a genuine upgrade...
brickson98moto That’s why I always preferred DVD playback on the computer. At least on the Mac, the DVD player app does perfect scrubbing back and forth with no lag. Meanwhile, fast forwarding and rewinding on blu-ray and streaming kinda makes me wanna kill myself...
It is a JVC made product (I have the JVC version). Before Zenith switched from Beta to VHS they rebadged Sony Beta decks (I have 3 including Zeniths first model)...There were Zenith badged versions of the Sony Watchman monochrome TVs with the lollypop/paddle CRT during that time. Later there were Zenith badged JVC HIFI components too...Which reminds me that you have the stripped-down side loader...There was a HiFi model with more features (I have one), and also a rarer version of the side loader that was designed to fit into a vertical slot in one of Zenith's console TVs (picture your unit sitting on its side with the face tilted back slightly). Zenith also backed CED for a while and rebadged RCA CED video disc players (I have one). By the early 70's Zenith had given up on making any consumer electronics other than TVs contracting thier radio/audio products out to LG. They made TVs in the USA until around 1977(then moved to Mexico, then eventually had LG build everything). Japanese dumping had basically killed eaten and started wearing the skin of all domestic consumer electronics with the exception of higher-end TVs by the early 70's...So Zenith being a higher-end TV brand focused on TVs and held its own into the 90's by contracting non-TV products to other makers. LG eventually became their VCR supplier after JVC. A service note on these side loaders: If the picture goes to snowy crap and back (HiFi audio tracks will follow suit) at an ~11-second repetition rate like mine did when I got it then you need to change the big electrolytic capacitors on the back PCB that the power transformer connects to. IIRC the bad one on mine was something like 2200uF 35V. These decks use a 60Hz linear supply (as opposed to a 17KHz switch mode supply common in newer decks) and the 60Hz beats against the 59.9Hz vertical rate creating an 11sec beat in the video when the filter caps stop working.
I assume the Base TAC / V Sync connector that is missing is for a higher end version of this unit that would allow frame accurate editing between 2 units. The Time Base Correction hardware would be too expensive for the mono model there, but would probably be based on a daughter-board on the unit's main board or a swap out of that small board in the rear with the tuner and I/O connectors.
I have 1987 Sears SR 3000 vcr i found at goodwill a year ago it has a few repair stickers on it but still works and works pretty well too. its missing the front faceplate and i had to find the remote off ebay though
The mechanism looks very JVC to me, very similar to a Ferguson Videostar I have and I know that was made by JVC. If this had used a C load (which was quite rare for VHS but some of them had it) it would have been the icing on the cake!
I have 4 or 5 of those in storage that I picked up over the years in thrift shops .. They were made by JVC.. There's also a HiFi model.. I have 2 JVC HiFi models also.. They are very good VCRs and I think all the ones I found all work.. I don't see 80s VCRs in thrift shops anymore.. They are becoming rare...
Before QVC acquired them, I remember seeing this or similar model on the Cable Value Network (CVN). I thought that it was a smart space saving idea to have the tape load sideways. It was also a six head vcr, which I had never heard of before.
The purpose of the aux input was not so much to hook up a external tuner, but to hook up something like a camcorder. So that you could record stuff from your camcorder to the VCR.
Scott Strang I think you hit the nail on the head. That’s almost certainly the reason why most VCRs used regular loading instead of this, since the labeling on the tape is intended for that.
The people who I bought my first house from in 1986 had a £600 Panasonic HiFi VHS VCR in their £24000 house. I have no idea if they thought it was a bargain but I was envious at the time. I still can't resist a bargain VCR the best being a Panasonic SVHS machine at the thrift store for £12.
As comedian Lenny Henry said you should have bought a Betamax. No one ever steals Betamax :-) I think that sketch convinced Sony to start making VHS VCRs.
I have a slightly different hifi Zenith side loader like this and a JVC model. Yay! In fact, I used to have two of the JVC. What are the odds? Hope the JVC got a good home. Needed some work from what I remember.
Yeah, JVC/Victor was always the stubborn oddly designer of all. When you look at JVC/Victor cassette tape deck, a cassette is always loaded on the right side, while all the other manufactures kept it on the left side. Also, the volume knob on the JVC/Victor amplifier was always at the center of the panel while most of manufactures placed the knob on the right side... As for the VCR, they had the front load VHS/C-VHS combo VCR back then. I am not sure who was the supplier of this Zenith oddly VCR, but I suspect it was JVC/Victor. Anyway, thanks for sharing this engineering marvel that most of us has forgotten!
The aux, or line input has been there a while. You can use it to dub tapes from another VCR or record from a camera. I'm not sure who actually made the digital tuner you've got but zenith is Lucky Goldstar LG now.
AUX input. I have not seen a VCR that did not have it, that goes for VHS as well as for Betamax, used for copying the tapes, or to Connect a camera to Edit Home Video.
This design would come in handy for narrow spaces. Our original Toshiba VCR was made in 1987, and it had an AUX composite input. They were generally used for dubbing tapes, but you needed another VCR to do so. People were copying copyrighted tapes with it so Macrovision was developed and used with certain pre-recorded copies. The Macrovision can effect video quality and interfere with certain TVs so it wasn't always being used. Mostly Disney used it so you had to buy a new copy if the kiddies abused the tapes. It is still in use today to prevent copying of DVDs and BDs onto VHS. It is kind of pointless to copy BDs onto VHS because composite video never had the capability to store HD video. Also, who wants a pirated movie on VHS any more? It's so easy to copy copy protected DVDs and now BDs that it's ridiculous to worry about VHS piracy any more! Fair use allows for backups and play back on different formats because you buy a license to view the content. The important thing to remember is that it is illegal to share, distribute, and, God forbid, sell copyrighted works that are not your own. With digital copies (Digital Millennium Act), you are not allowed to possess copyrighted works that you didn't purchase unless they are your own or you don't have permission to possess so you should retain the original media as proof you can view it.
I'm kind of surprised this side-loading mechanism wasn't more widely used. It seems like a more efficient use of space in your A/V cabinet, there's more's space on the front for a screen and controls with the smaller slot, and the loading mechanism actually seems simpler and therefore less prone to technical failure than with the traditional front-loading mechanism.
Databits, where do you find all these unusual VCRs, like this one, the drawer loading VCR and the 1979 Sears Betamax VCR? And, that's pretty cool this sideways loading VCR. You can visit my channel, I review VCRs.
Very neat. I like how they saved some space by putting the tape in sideways, but the entire left side of the machine is empty and only has a small display window.. Doesn't make much sense.
Hmmm, how about if I offer you 1,000 cents? :-). Cool machine. Cool channel. Miss those old days when everything was mostly mechanical and you can see what's happening, unlike these days, only invisible bits and bytes running around. Thanks for all the videos and your great channel.
I have an upright Zenith VRD-230 from around 1991 or so. it has some button damage from the buttons being overused, and needs a little bit of help loading the tape into the mechanism probably due to needing a heavy lube job done in the right areas (something I failed at doing once seeing as it still needs help) but it does work. it's a mono-only output on composite, but I believe it's stereo on the coax. someone said it's a 4-head unit... I don't know how much of that is true, I seriously forget at this point. but for what it was, and the niche it marketed to, it's a very interesting unit. if you ever get your hands on one, I highly suggest you do a video on it. since mine isn't in full working order mechanically in the aspect of needing help, I'm not at liberty to make a video about mine, and, you seem to do these weird niche VCR videos better, anyway.
I dunno about V-lock (maybe a vertical hold adjust?) but I bet Base TAC would have been an optional connector (only filled in higher grades of that model range) for a timebase corrector... Timing Accuracy Corrector?
4-head VCR playback is no better than a 2-head. The only difference is the picture quality when paused, and you can step-frame with usually perfect picture quality.
What's the name of the junk shop you mentioned? I'm always looking for a good one, and if it's in the greater St. Louis area, I'd love to check it out.
Just picked one of these up at an estate sale. Plays great, and was able to set the clock, but unfortunately none of the soft touch controls work (except the “clock/lap/counter”). Nor do the power or eject button. I did manage to program an old universal remote to control the tape, but it has no eject button. So I guess this is just going to be our Alice in Wonderland VCR from now on. Lol
The side-load was to make case much smaller for some people. The normal front-loading VCRs have all almost same width, and not all people has room for VCR in the TV cabinet.But market is small for such special VCRs, also they have higher prices due extra technology inside. Such VCRs will not sell very well. People want cheap machines.
i think this VCR is build for a Japan Living room because they don't have enough space there in there City's. This idea came not from the Stars - during i worked in Belgium at a Company that are manufacture Video projectors there was a Japan Guy that asking there for a Lens with a Fish eye. With this Lens he would like to mount a Video projector near at the Reflected wall and the reason was that the Flat is so small in Japan - we remember the Vertical standing VHS Recorder from Sharp it solve also the Space Problem in Japan too. This VHS Videorecorder are also exist as a double Deck VHS Recorder to make a VHS2VHS copy. I think that was from Sharp or JVC it was in the mid of the 80s. During this time where the Film "Wired Science" was in the Videoshop.
I bought the JVC version of this about 10 years ago off ebay as a toy... I always thought they were the coolest thing back then, so I wanted to see how they worked.. I was actually a little disappointed to see that it was nothing but a regular VCR turned sideways with a slightly different loading mechanism.. Shoulda known!
I saw one of these at a thrift store about 5 years ago....they wanted $25 for it....but with no way to test it, I wasn't about to pay $25 for a VHS machine......but, i did pick up some CEDs that same day :)
I never new the made a VCR like that. my Grandma had zenith but broke and was replace with a Magnavox form the early 90s I think. The VCR works OK but needs a belt I think for it work 100%. quality goes in before the label goes on
Buenas, he quedado sorprendido con otro sistema de VCR CVC VÍDEO de 240 líneas de resolución. Me ha parecido muy buena imagen y colores. Es un sistema Japonés de principios de los años 80', me parecieron colores suaves y muy nítidos. Por lo que se ve este que se puede observar en su vídeo es un VHS. No hay nada extravagante en la carga del cassette. Solo eso es. Un VHS más, no vale la pena gastar dinero en una cosa ya vista. Le agradecería si pudiese mostrar más vídeos de sistemas raros en Video cassettes. Gracias por su explicación excelente su comentario ✌🙋🐧👍. Saludos desde Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Zeniths Japanese built VCRs were very high quality built to Zeniths high standards until Zenith closed down in the US and sold their storied Zenith name to LG who destroyed their excellent reputation.
You said that switch was there for programming because this was before on-screen programming, lol, no, do you have the remote? on-screen programming was there in the 80s, but, you had to have the remote for that, the fact this one has all those buttons on it means it has functions you can do without the remote. On-screen programming was available, but, it was both simpler and more complicated in that you could only program times and channels, but, of course, you didn’t see what was playing, so, if you put in the wrong time or channel, you’d miss that show.
VCRs all had 2 FF/RW modes, a slower speed (or multiple speeds) where you could see the video, then, press stop it puts the tape back in and FF/RW much much faster
I have a Zenith VCR/DVD combo in my room. Silver. And it still works. (EXCEPT THE DVD PART DOESN'T WORK BUT IT DOES WHAT I WANT IT TO DO) (AND I DON'T NEED THE DVD PART BECAUSE I ALREADY HAVE A DVD PLAYER)
One of life's imponderables. (Probably because LP or sometimes called SLP had the worst of video and audio quality so some manufacturers didn't offer it).
KozenaDrzka Many VCRs skipped the LP setting because people tended to use either SP for top quality, or SLP/EP for maximum capacity. But if they were going to sacrifice quality for capacity, then they just went for it. Note that a VCR without an LP setting can still **play** an LP tape, it just can’t record it.
Of coarse I can imagine paying that much...People are paying that much for 4K today. Years from now we will be saying the same thing...can you imagine paying 500$ for a 4K TV but they are. New tech is always expensive. This would be high tech at the time...I remember buying a Sony D35 Discman in 1992 and it was around 600.. I still have it.
Kind of random but since you know a lot about VHS tapes I thought I would ask recently I got a VHS at a thrift store and the quality is far too bright!? I assume there's no way to fix it but I thought I would ask. Thanks
![BABYMONSTER - 'DRIP' M/V REACTION [WAS NOT EXPECTING THIS!!!]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/t0Lpgr1jo3Y/mqdefault.jpg)
We had one with the wood grain case. Wish I still had it. Unbelievable sound quality, near CD quality virtually no tape hiss. Manual audio level slides for recording.
I think this device is very beautiful. It is really interesting how it is built. Not like the other VCRs, but completely different. Good idea from Zenith
I have a 1965 Zenith color TV console and that was built in the day when it was genuine Zenith built down in Chicago. I was looking for one of those sideways load Zenith branded VCRs but have yet to find one. Yes- a lot of wires and circuit boards. I repaired VCRs through the 80s into the 90s. When the manufacturers started making the machines as cheap as possible with the fewest boards and individual components thus dropping prices below $100 that put me out of business. When I was in the business I never came across one of these VCRs nor did I ever come across an RCA Dimensia VCR but I found the latter machine and posted a video of my repair which was just replacing the idler assembly. Nice videos. I watch most of your videos. Gary
Can you believe this, my good friend The VCR King found a JVC HR-D470U, the HiFi version, at Savers. That was last year.
I have two of those
Zenith also had a Hi-Fi version that came out with this one. Look up the Zenith VR3300 to see the Zenith re-badge of yours and it had the soft-touch buttons located on the inside of the door. Zenith also had at least 2 4-head vertical units that were released about this time, one was monaural and the other was Hi-Fi.
This was made by JVC and there was a hifi stereo version, the HR-D470!
Fivos Sakellis If I try to find one of these, I'll go look for that hifi version. Thanks for letting us know...
Which you know I've bought about 3 weeks ago
I've got the Zenith HiFi model and the JVC version.
Tom Carlson Which model do you like the best?
@@selfishone6634 Both of mine came to me non-working, but the JVC came to me after I fixed the Zenith (it had bad lytic capacitors on the power transformer board) so I have yet to fix the JVC to compare it in operation. The JVC appears to have more features and does not use the membrane buttons the Zenith used (I've heard those membrane buttons are failure-prone, but haven't seen a bad one).
These are really more interesting novelties than the pinnacle of VCR design....If you just want to watch old pre-recorded movies on VHS with a CRT TV these are plenty good for that (as good as any VHS-HiFi deck of their day). But if you want to record anything I would go with S-VHS or S-VHS-ET (the ET means it can record the superior SVHS mode on more affordable VHS tapes). If you want to transfer to digital or playback to an LCD, Plasma or similar modern TV and not have it look terrible, then you want to look for either a DVD-recorder/VHS combo (some even have HDMI out like my Toshiba D-VR5) or an older SVHS deck with a digital frame buffer/Time Base Corrector/video noise reduction system such as some top-end models by Sony, NEC, JVC, Marantz (the one I had was a rebadged JVC)...D-VHS decks usually have this capability when playing VHS tapes but with how expensive/rare they are its a waste to use one for anything but D-VHS tapes IMO. Those digital frame buffers will do averaging between frames and eliminate much of the noise that makes VHS look especially bad on flat-panel TV sets, and make it look more DVD/LD like.
*480 lines of resolution
The vertical resolution of VHS is no worse, possibly better even (because of no inter-line compression), than DVD. It's the horizontal resolution where it starts to hurt.
That's one smooth freeze frame, single frame advance and fast wind btw. The only one I've seen better is the _six_ head JVC (with jog dial goodness, even) we had in the 90s, which cost my parents probably even more money as a bundle deal with a new "big" (25 inch!) TV... I still have it awaiting some servicing and future reuse (the belts and rollers need doing I think) as it's about the best quality I've ever seen from both prerecorded and home made tape, DVD actually had a fight on its hands to prove a genuine upgrade...
Hey, that VCR loads videos like an old car takes cassette tapes. I dig it.
That’s exactly what I thought
I miss the non-crap fast-forward and rewind of VHS
no chopping and freezing like a dvd
brickson98moto That’s why I always preferred DVD playback on the computer. At least on the Mac, the DVD player app does perfect scrubbing back and forth with no lag.
Meanwhile, fast forwarding and rewinding on blu-ray and streaming kinda makes me wanna kill myself...
I had this vcr. Was fantastic. Lasted forever. Great picture quality for recording. Good times.
It is a JVC made product (I have the JVC version). Before Zenith switched from Beta to VHS they rebadged Sony Beta decks (I have 3 including Zeniths first model)...There were Zenith badged versions of the Sony Watchman monochrome TVs with the lollypop/paddle CRT during that time. Later there were Zenith badged JVC HIFI components too...Which reminds me that you have the stripped-down side loader...There was a HiFi model with more features (I have one), and also a rarer version of the side loader that was designed to fit into a vertical slot in one of Zenith's console TVs (picture your unit sitting on its side with the face tilted back slightly).
Zenith also backed CED for a while and rebadged RCA CED video disc players (I have one).
By the early 70's Zenith had given up on making any consumer electronics other than TVs contracting thier radio/audio products out to LG. They made TVs in the USA until around 1977(then moved to Mexico, then eventually had LG build everything). Japanese dumping had basically killed eaten and started wearing the skin of all domestic consumer electronics with the exception of higher-end TVs by the early 70's...So Zenith being a higher-end TV brand focused on TVs and held its own into the 90's by contracting non-TV products to other makers. LG eventually became their VCR supplier after JVC.
A service note on these side loaders: If the picture goes to snowy crap and back (HiFi audio tracks will follow suit) at an ~11-second repetition rate like mine did when I got it then you need to change the big electrolytic capacitors on the back PCB that the power transformer connects to. IIRC the bad one on mine was something like 2200uF 35V. These decks use a 60Hz linear supply (as opposed to a 17KHz switch mode supply common in newer decks) and the 60Hz beats against the 59.9Hz vertical rate creating an 11sec beat in the video when the filter caps stop working.
Zenith also had a VCR that was made in a vertical design similar to a computer.
bought one of these today, theyre hella rad and take up less space on my desk :D
I assume the Base TAC / V Sync connector that is missing is for a higher end version of this unit that would allow frame accurate editing between 2 units. The Time Base Correction hardware would be too expensive for the mono model there, but would probably be based on a daughter-board on the unit's main board or a swap out of that small board in the rear with the tuner and I/O connectors.
I have 1987 Sears SR 3000 vcr i found at goodwill a year ago it has a few repair stickers on it but still works and works pretty well too. its missing the front faceplate and i had to find the remote off ebay though
The mechanism looks very JVC to me, very similar to a Ferguson Videostar I have and I know that was made by JVC. If this had used a C load (which was quite rare for VHS but some of them had it) it would have been the icing on the cake!
CoolDudeClem it is a JVC. All 80's Zenith VCR's were made by JVC
JVC invented VHS. They were the OEM manufacturer for many brands.
So that's why some tapes came with label sheets that included half length edge labels... they were meant to go on the side...
I have 4 or 5 of those in storage that I picked up over the years in thrift shops .. They were made by JVC.. There's also a HiFi model.. I have 2 JVC HiFi models also.. They are very good VCRs and I think all the ones I found all work.. I don't see 80s VCRs in thrift shops anymore.. They are becoming rare...
My father worked at the Zenith Plant in Springfield Missouri I saw this at the Zenith plant plus we had one in our home
Before QVC acquired them, I remember seeing this or similar model on the Cable Value Network (CVN). I thought that it was a smart space saving idea to have the tape load sideways. It was also a six head vcr, which I had never heard of before.
The purpose of the aux input was not so much to hook up a external tuner, but to hook up something like a camcorder. So that you could record stuff from your camcorder to the VCR.
"takes better care of your tapes"
*slams to a stop in rewind*
I actually found a Operating Guide VHS for this VCR (or at least for one very similar) at a thrift shop not too long ago.
I always wondered how many people jammed the cassette in those with the tape opening facing right.
Scott Strang I think you hit the nail on the head. That’s almost certainly the reason why most VCRs used regular loading instead of this, since the labeling on the tape is intended for that.
1,000 dollars?! For this?!
What a bargain! :-)
The people who I bought my first house from in 1986 had a £600 Panasonic HiFi VHS VCR in their £24000 house. I have no idea if they thought it was a bargain but I was envious at the time. I still can't resist a bargain VCR the best being a Panasonic SVHS machine at the thrift store for £12.
I have an Amstrad DD9900, which I believe was made by Funai, which has two of these side loading transports side by side.
That doily goes perfectly with that VCR
There was a hi-fi version of this, which was the Zenith VR 2300.
Banana Boy Welp, it's better to get the hifi version anyway. But free rare VCR? What a deal.
Had a JVC machine that loaded sideways. It was stolen when we had a break in.
As comedian Lenny Henry said you should have bought a Betamax. No one ever steals Betamax :-)
I think that sketch convinced Sony to start making VHS VCRs.
I have a slightly different hifi Zenith side loader like this and a JVC model. Yay! In fact, I used to have two of the JVC. What are the odds? Hope the JVC got a good home. Needed some work from what I remember.
Yeah, JVC/Victor was always the stubborn oddly designer of all. When you look at JVC/Victor cassette tape deck, a cassette is always loaded on the right side, while all the other manufactures kept it on the left side. Also, the volume knob on the JVC/Victor amplifier was always at the center of the panel while most of manufactures placed the knob on the right side... As for the VCR, they had the front load VHS/C-VHS combo VCR back then. I am not sure who was the supplier of this Zenith oddly VCR, but I suspect it was JVC/Victor. Anyway, thanks for sharing this engineering marvel that most of us has forgotten!
The aux, or line input has been there a while. You can use it to dub tapes from another VCR or record from a camera. I'm not sure who actually made the digital tuner you've got but zenith is Lucky Goldstar LG now.
Loads in a way like a tape rewinder.
AUX input. I have not seen a VCR that did not have it, that goes for VHS as well as for Betamax, used for copying the tapes, or to Connect a camera to Edit Home Video.
This design would come in handy for narrow spaces. Our original Toshiba VCR was made in 1987, and it had an AUX composite input. They were generally used for dubbing tapes, but you needed another VCR to do so. People were copying copyrighted tapes with it so Macrovision was developed and used with certain pre-recorded copies. The Macrovision can effect video quality and interfere with certain TVs so it wasn't always being used. Mostly Disney used it so you had to buy a new copy if the kiddies abused the tapes. It is still in use today to prevent copying of DVDs and BDs onto VHS. It is kind of pointless to copy BDs onto VHS because composite video never had the capability to store HD video. Also, who wants a pirated movie on VHS any more? It's so easy to copy copy protected DVDs and now BDs that it's ridiculous to worry about VHS piracy any more! Fair use allows for backups and play back on different formats because you buy a license to view the content. The important thing to remember is that it is illegal to share, distribute, and, God forbid, sell copyrighted works that are not your own. With digital copies (Digital Millennium Act), you are not allowed to possess copyrighted works that you didn't purchase unless they are your own or you don't have permission to possess so you should retain the original media as proof you can view it.
I'm kind of surprised this side-loading mechanism wasn't more widely used. It seems like a more efficient use of space in your A/V cabinet, there's more's space on the front for a screen and controls with the smaller slot, and the loading mechanism actually seems simpler and therefore less prone to technical failure than with the traditional front-loading mechanism.
That's different. Reminds me of how audio cassettes load into car stereos
EP is probably better off for recording only on the audio tracks (yes, you can do that on VCR. Not entirely sure how, as I've never done it).
Databits, where do you find all these unusual VCRs, like this one, the drawer loading VCR and the 1979 Sears Betamax VCR?
And, that's pretty cool this sideways loading VCR. You can visit my channel, I review VCRs.
i had one of these growing up it was a lighter stereo model had it iin the shop mutiple times over the years
Very neat. I like how they saved some space by putting the tape in sideways, but the entire left side of the machine is empty and only has a small display window.. Doesn't make much sense.
Does this only have mono audio?
Hmmm, how about if I offer you 1,000 cents? :-). Cool machine. Cool channel. Miss those old days when everything was mostly mechanical and you can see what's happening, unlike these days, only invisible bits and bytes running around. Thanks for all the videos and your great channel.
Cool just like a car radio type cassette slot
I have an upright Zenith VRD-230 from around 1991 or so. it has some button damage from the buttons being overused, and needs a little bit of help loading the tape into the mechanism probably due to needing a heavy lube job done in the right areas (something I failed at doing once seeing as it still needs help) but it does work. it's a mono-only output on composite, but I believe it's stereo on the coax. someone said it's a 4-head unit... I don't know how much of that is true, I seriously forget at this point. but for what it was, and the niche it marketed to, it's a very interesting unit. if you ever get your hands on one, I highly suggest you do a video on it. since mine isn't in full working order mechanically in the aspect of needing help, I'm not at liberty to make a video about mine, and, you seem to do these weird niche VCR videos better, anyway.
one of the chips on the PCB does say "JVC" sooo, probably true that they made it :-)
I noticed that too. The inventors of VHS.
Which explains the lack of the 4 hour LP mode. JVC hated the LP mode.
Brent Fisher I didn't know about that. I'm pretty sure my JVC has it though.
Paul Potter
It'll play back LP mode recorded tapes but won't record them in the LP mode.
Brent Fisher Interesting. I'll have to check mine out.
Standard VHS loading, for complex loading look ar the Beta format
for even more complex see the Sony portable that loads the opposite way to standard
I dunno about V-lock (maybe a vertical hold adjust?) but I bet Base TAC would have been an optional connector (only filled in higher grades of that model range) for a timebase corrector... Timing Accuracy Corrector?
4-head VCR playback is no better than a 2-head. The only difference is the picture quality when paused, and you can step-frame with usually perfect picture quality.
I remember seeing those, quite the bizarre design.
Matte clear coat the top to get rid of those scratches. It should work nicely. Especially if the scratches arn't deep.
Just picked one up at goodwill for $5.99
What's the name of the junk shop you mentioned? I'm always looking for a good one, and if it's in the greater St. Louis area, I'd love to check it out.
Sweet loading set up 👍
Just picked one of these up at an estate sale. Plays great, and was able to set the clock, but unfortunately none of the soft touch controls work (except the “clock/lap/counter”). Nor do the power or eject button. I did manage to program an old universal remote to control the tape, but it has no eject button. So I guess this is just going to be our Alice in Wonderland VCR from now on. Lol
what is V lock on panasonic VCR models such as NV-FS90 and other models
Pretty cool! I have never seen one of those.. You have the coolest stuff :-)
The side-load was to make case much smaller for some people. The normal front-loading VCRs have all almost same width, and not all people has room for VCR in the TV cabinet.But market is small for such special VCRs, also they have higher prices due extra technology inside. Such VCRs will not sell very well. People want cheap machines.
i think this VCR is build for a Japan Living room because they don't have enough space there in there City's. This idea came not from the Stars - during i worked in Belgium at a Company that are manufacture Video projectors there was a Japan Guy that asking there for a Lens with a Fish eye. With this Lens he would like to mount a Video projector near at the Reflected wall
and the reason was that the Flat is so small in Japan - we remember the Vertical standing VHS Recorder from Sharp it solve also the Space Problem in Japan too. This VHS Videorecorder are also exist as a double Deck VHS Recorder to make a VHS2VHS copy. I think that was from Sharp or JVC it was in the mid of the 80s. During this time where the Film "Wired Science" was in the Videoshop.
I bought the JVC version of this about 10 years ago off ebay as a toy... I always thought they were the coolest thing back then, so I wanted to see how they worked.. I was actually a little disappointed to see that it was nothing but a regular VCR turned sideways with a slightly different loading mechanism.. Shoulda known!
That’s a very nice tv.
I saw one of these at a thrift store about 5 years ago....they wanted $25 for it....but with no way to test it, I wasn't about to pay $25 for a VHS machine......but, i did pick up some CEDs that same day :)
i saw one of those top loaders once. it was 12 euros and i couldnt test it but the clock worked.
man i should have gotten that.
I used to have a top loader....i loved them...I guess b/c they were not as common as front loaders
I never new the made a VCR like that. my Grandma had zenith but broke and was replace with a Magnavox form the early 90s I think. The VCR works OK but needs a belt I think for it work 100%. quality goes in before the label goes on
Buenas, he quedado sorprendido con otro sistema de VCR CVC VÍDEO de 240 líneas de resolución. Me ha parecido muy buena imagen y colores. Es un sistema Japonés de principios de los años 80', me parecieron colores suaves y muy nítidos.
Por lo que se ve este que se puede observar en su vídeo es un VHS. No hay nada extravagante en la carga del cassette. Solo eso es. Un VHS más, no vale la pena gastar dinero en una cosa ya vista. Le agradecería si pudiese mostrar más vídeos de sistemas raros en Video cassettes. Gracias por su explicación excelente su comentario ✌🙋🐧👍. Saludos desde Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Zeniths Japanese built VCRs were very high quality built to Zeniths high standards until Zenith closed down in the US and sold their storied Zenith name to LG who destroyed their excellent reputation.
You can remove those scratches by giving the metal case a respray
The tape went in before the cover came off.
I have Zenith and JVC side loaders like this, both hifi!
Love the Moiré pattern on you CRT. =D
What does the instant record button?
I normally recognize all your gadgets on your channel, but I have never seen this VCR in my life.
The way it loads reminds me of a car tape player
In Deutschland gab es den glaube von Amstrad oder Schneider.
War aber prinzipiell dieses Gerät als PAL-Version.
Never seen one of these before :o)
Yaaaaay, you know how to say Matsushita!
I had a JVC HR-D470U with the same mechanism.
I just got one Friday
I never seen a VHS tape which could be loaded sideways.
I actually really want this thing
You said that switch was there for programming because this was before on-screen programming, lol, no, do you have the remote? on-screen programming was there in the 80s, but, you had to have the remote for that, the fact this one has all those buttons on it means it has functions you can do without the remote. On-screen programming was available, but, it was both simpler and more complicated in that you could only program times and channels, but, of course, you didn’t see what was playing, so, if you put in the wrong time or channel, you’d miss that show.
If it unthreads while fast forwarding and rewinding, how does it show you the video while doing so?
VCRs all had 2 FF/RW modes, a slower speed (or multiple speeds) where you could see the video, then, press stop it puts the tape back in and FF/RW much much faster
Don't know it made by JVC ... but it is actually JVC Logo every where inside the VCR ..
I have a Zenith VCR/DVD combo in my room.
Silver.
And it still works.
(EXCEPT THE DVD PART DOESN'T WORK BUT IT DOES WHAT I WANT IT TO DO)
(AND I DON'T NEED THE DVD PART BECAUSE I ALREADY HAVE A DVD PLAYER)
the DVD players on those break easily
was the second set for sound
That's weird. It's like a VCR player meant for cars but released for home use instead lol.
That is really cool.
Thanks, Paul.
why is there SP and EP but no LP?
One of life's imponderables. (Probably because LP or sometimes called SLP had the worst of video and audio quality so some manufacturers didn't offer it).
When I had Sencor VCR the EP was the worst quality
KozenaDrzka Many VCRs skipped the LP setting because people tended to use either SP for top quality, or SLP/EP for maximum capacity. But if they were going to sacrifice quality for capacity, then they just went for it.
Note that a VCR without an LP setting can still **play** an LP tape, it just can’t record it.
10:30 wow, you could REWIND, TH-cam just get stuck when you do this.
Nice video i already seen an another video with the same vcr
btw the loader look like a cassette deck radio
Thanks Michael.
Now you pay $500 for these machines due to rarity and collectability , the irony
A good VCR in general really. A good Sony VCR is about $70-$100 now in 2020.
Cool !!
Of coarse I can imagine paying that much...People are paying that much for 4K today. Years from now we will be saying the same thing...can you imagine paying 500$ for a 4K TV but they are. New tech is always expensive. This would be high tech at the time...I remember buying a Sony D35 Discman in 1992 and it was around 600.. I still have it.
6:34 The ICs labelled JVC are a big clue that JVC probably made it.
i looked up base tac and somethings came up mentioning SSVR scrambling whatever the f*** that is/means
i have that same tuner/converter box lol
I thought it had loss on the screen for a second
Kind of random but since you know a lot about VHS tapes I thought I would ask
recently I got a VHS at a thrift store and the quality is far too bright!? I assume there's no way to fix it but I thought I would ask. Thanks
The picture quality is bright compared to other devices attached to you TV? Perhaps you can adjust the brightness for the input you are using?
i was more wondering if there was a way to fix the tape itself
it wasn't a vcr it was a vhs
pinata .time VHS is the format that a VCR plays
What’s the advantage?
The machine is shorter than a regular vcr, so it can fit in smaller spaces.
VCR model year.
Nice
I repaired one of these before !
I saw this VCR in someone’s home in the late 80’s. It’s interesting But, The Sony Betamax SL-HF750 is a lot cooler.