I have a Panasonic F65.. great machine. Same chassis. The drum motor has the same bad bearing. Noisy as and effects the picture. Can these drum motors be repaired or is replacement the only way?
AG1980 luckily doesn't have any printed ceramic boards, so those are fairly reliably repairable if you're willing to invest the time - Main TBC board needs to be recapped (due to presence of SMT caps), front timer board (which has an area that gets warm in normal operation and is also warm while just plugged in and not in use since the display is still on), and the deck mechanism usually needs re-lubrication and replacement of the plastic loading motor coupler.
Just received my brand new in box, never used Panasonic AG-1960. After opening up the cover, the electronics are a completely different design from AG-1970. There are surface-mount caps on video board with standalone ICs that is less likely to overheat, and don't leak at all, unlike AG-1970 and AG-1980. It does not use the chroma IC module. What do you think?
As I watched this, I look down at my JVC 4 head stereo VCR that has been flawless sense I got it from a thrift store. Odd how things age...Just wish the picture looked better on the flat panel TV
REAL "Abysmal Garbage" Funai 2001-2016 VCRs and their clones should also be put in the trash! Every time I hear the name "Funai", I swear! Because I absolutely hate those machines! They are even MORE complete piles of shit than the AG-19x0s! I have a bunch of Funais, and if I send one to you, DO NOT EVEN TRY TO FIX IT! No, do not get them fixed because they all have more problems than an AG-1970!
Can you explain to me why many consumer European-market Panasonic VCRs were sold as "commercial/industrual" VCRs over there in North America, and consumer North American models start with "PV-" instead of "NV-"? For example I have an NV-FS200 which is identical to the Absolute Garbage-1970 and mine was sold as a consumer high-end machine. I have also noticed that the circuit board part numbers of consumer American models start with "VEPS" instead of "VEP". Panasonic really did some weird things...
I think a big part of it had to do with the presence of the time-base corrector (TBC) built in. With that component, the deck would defeat macrovision copy protection on movie tapes. The time base corrector improves picture stability while editing between decks by replacing the sync signals recorded on the tape with new, electronically generated sync signals. Macrovision works by recording slightly distorted sync signals on the tape, that will not properly transfer to another generation when copied. The TBC will replace the sync signals and make copying possible, so the way to get by hollywood lawyers and sell these decks were to put stickers and different model numbers on them designating them for commercial/professional use only.
Very interesting info, excellent video and proof that whatever the price, the quality of building and design, when things fail massively, you're not the invincible serviceman, the knight of transistors! Every technician knows these "professional" machines are generally abused and used beyond limits, and when they are sold or disposed with labels like that, they have generally spent their time copying tapes 24/24 and 365/365. With modular conception and we'll known troubles on unavailable boards, high density components with leaky caps, but also brown baggy hybrid encapsulated raiser modules, most chances are you have nothing to repair there in these chassis. Most importantly, as these machines generally share the same troubles, keeping them for parts is a waste of time and precious space. I've seen that multiple times in labs: with consent of fellow technicians, I've thrown literally tons of junk identical machines, tons of spare boards awaiting machine that have systematically failed elsewhere... Some service station have also heavily invested in parts for maintenance contracts long finished, and like your head and drum assembly, will never find their place in any old (20 or 30 years!) or recent machine, when the technology even exists anymore (the same problem in Computers!). And I personally say I'm participating in this process, as I still have pricey HT transformers (who uses CRT today?), IC boards for maintenance of early PayTV decoders, remote controls...
Picked one up for $5 this week. Out of the gate E.T. stuck in the deck. Got that out and the mechanism working without assistance. Bad picture to start, but cleaned everything up and ran it for a couple hours - picture now quite good. Recording quality is variably not good to fair at best. Aside from adding to the e-waste pile, any thoughts on where to start? I'm not a tech - just a decent e-tinkerer...
you could do that pdmillar did and throw a drop of oil in the drum. Got his garbage pick AG-1970 working. One thing the 1970 has thats different from the 1980 is vastly less surface mounted capacitors. The 1980's Y/C board alone has over 30 of the damn things. One thing I like about the K-Mech is that its transport functions are lightning quick compared to JVC SVHS decks. They are a pain when the get misaligned though. Its too bad they never made an equivalent deck with the SuperDrive mech. The only reason why I have a AG-1980 laying around is that its an absolute beast at tracking difficult EP recordings.
Drum has fluid bearings, not ball bearings. Fluid dries out after all those years and drum starts to hum and vibrate. You can remove upper drum and disassemble the motor itself by unscrewing three fastners on top of the drum motor (even if service manual tells you to never do that). Remove upper part of the motor, add some ATF fluid into the bearing and put it all together and you'll have smooth working drum again.
That head drum sounded exactly like a cheap computer fan I had fail. Lubricating it gave it a few more months of life. I also did the same for the high-speed rotating mirror in a laser printer. But here I don't know how well that will work. If there's runout won't it still vibrate?
@@eDoc2020 I have seen several Panasonic NV-180 (portable full-size-VHS full-DD machine) that has the same style of drum bearings. Those computer fans you are talking about have another type of bearing, while it seems the same. Computer fans usually have sleeve bearing, just steel shaft inside a bronze sleeve, that has some lubricant in its pores. Sleeve worns out, loses its shape, clearances increase and fan starts to vibrate and produce noise. You can put grease inside fan bearings to fill voids and prolong life for month or two, but it will not repair the sleeve. In these drum motors there is hydro-dynamic bearing, that means that when rotating, oil under pressure gets between shaft and outer shell of the bearing and suspends shaft, so no real wear occurs for the bearing itself. There are special angled grooves cut on the bearing parts to generate oil pressure when rotating. Problem is that oil dries out or gets contaminated and turns into goo, oil cushion disappears, drum starts to vibrate and wear itself or it locks up. Just disassemble it, clean remnants of old oil, put new one in (ATF will be a good bet, never put silicone oil or grease inside!). I have been re-lubricating those NV-180s and those still last after at least a year. Oils is refilled, it can support motor shaft again.
Hello, i have a LG RC389H DVD VHS recorder. The problem is when i insert a cassette into the vcr and just after 3 seconds stops playing the cassette. FF and Rew also the same problem. I have replaced the vcr drive with one from a fully functional LG RC389H but the problem is still the same. Thank you for your help :)
I think Dave already covered a vcr with this problem. You should check the tape spindles, see if they turn when they're sopposed to (especially the take up one for playback), and if so check the sensors that are underneath the mechanism. Maybe one of them has gone bad.
@@enzoperruccio The tape spindles Turn. That problem is not from the mechanism. I have taked another mechanism from another fully functional vcr for make sure where that problem is. I think the problem is at the sensors like you said. Thank you for your help.
I always loved this machine back in the day but never had the opportunity to own one. Thank God I never did acquire one. Also, I worked for Panasonic back around 1993-94 and had such a bad experience that I vowed I would never buy a Panasonic product ever again. So glad to know you cheated them out of head drums as I think they deserve it for some of their practices (e.g.: the incident regarding DVD laser pick's up that burned out in their first gen players and they hid it from the consumer).
Lets not forget the VHS power supplies that when a cap failed the frequency went into the resonance of the transformer and the 12v rail went to about 70V and blew every transistor and chip off the board and they covered that one up.
@@12voltvids Never heard that one but good to know. Yup.... now I have an even bigger reason to stick to my guns about Panasonic. What year were those bad VCR power supplies from if you don’t mind me asking? 🙂
@@MovieGuy846 It was 1983 when Panasonic started using switching power supplies in their VCRs for the US/Canadian market. They continued to use standard tranformer-based linear power supplies for the rest of the countries for a few more years.
hi you are very right about the cards that pull out this why iam a super betacam fan the way they come apart and so easy to change over parts from a spares deck time is counting down very right you are
Back in 1993 I bought new Blaupunkt RTV635 (Panasonic J35, PAL), A few years later I stopped using it because the recording was starting to look like the playback on this AG1970 (at that time it would still playback fine).
@@12voltvids Been watching for a month or so; totally forgot to subscribe. DONE! (and selected for notifications). I even only skip the minute or longer ads; and sit through the others. Yes, trading said time of mine for a half cent for you lol
That is why I did chose the 1990's to 2000's VCRs that is easily to fix the issues from the board (but not include the head drum that they are no longer available unless you may have to salvage the head drum from the VCR that is beyond repair and so-on and so-forth) and get it up and going again. The Chinese made VCRs now days are trash and Thai made and Japanese made VCRs are great. Korean made, Malaysian made, and Indonesian made VCRs, not so much. However the vintage 80's VCRs use the special type parts that used to make one until then no longer producing special type parts. Painted resistors is not made to change at all which it's a throw-away parts, and for SME, totally 999T% garbage they are not meant to last long. It's very shameful where the companies is pushing forward to produce cheap and non-serviceable parts that it is meant to be a throw-away while making money for the business. Look how we get a spotlight LED fixtures out there in the hardware store, same thing, I am equally despised that product that is not designed to change to a new light bulb, it is designed to fail and change a whole LED spotlight fixture, and it's really observe and totally disgraceful. Used to be that we get the one it is designed to be service, now not any longer. What a shame. =(
Dave,when you get to work in the other machine, even if not serviciable, could you please show how to get into the mode switch step by step? I havent found any video on these mechanisms on how to do it. Thank you so much in advance! Your biggest fan from Argentina!
Well, the AG 1980 has an amazing picture when working well, it's been tested and compared on video restoration forums through the years. Are you sure the 1980 is the same ?
Ha yup. That's my feeling about all those garbage machines.
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Dave, I've recently acquired a Garrard DQ100 which has unbearable levels of WoW, I tried some basic tests, gave up and sent the unit to an older repairman which tested the PSU for ripple, recapped it and it still has it. It's a quartz lock machine with a JVC MDC-943 Direct Drive motor, same one used in the DDQ650 and 550. Any other possible leads?
Hi I have the 1980p model ... if the video output is quite dark/dim what should be the cause of it? can it still be fix by adjusting the brightness of the television?
It's going to be those shitty leaky capacitors. Quit while you are ahead. Give it a decent send off. Don't spend money on it because any money you send won't be enough it will always want more. You have been warned.
@@peachpuppy4 unfortunately old stock and Panasonic ag series vtr don't go together. They ate old the capacitors had a 10 year self life used or not. Actually shorter if unused. Incidentally it was Panasonic that made all those defective surface mount caps used in all those Sony, canon cameras that all leaked. They didn't use them much in their other products but the peo gear got them. The pH of the electrolytic is slightly caustic when they sit discharged. So if they 1980 was plugged in and turned on and left turned on or used a few minutes Avery few days, something that would keep a charge on the caps they probably would be fine today.
Head Drum you can easily repair. Unscrew 3 small screw on top of the head drum (under ground brush) . Take off small plate. Be carefully, before unscrewing put paper strips between cylinder and base. You risk head damage after seating cylinder on base. Take of safety ring from shaft. Pull up cylinder. Clean bearing and put new oil. Reasembly cylinder, an apply grease on top of shaft. Last step return small plate and 3 screw.
Doesn't last. I have another machine that uses that type drum. Bearing failed. Took it apart, cleaned and lubricated. By the time the drum gets noisy like that the bearing is toast. Will only last a short time before going bad again. Mine actually seized up. It's a moot point anyway because with the bad comb filter this unit has and no available parts. There are other more reliable VHS machines around. The 1970 and 1980 were dogs. You can hear them barking a block away.
This Machine looks similar to a Panasonic FS90 if so the Headrum needs new oil it drys up, it's a sleeve not a bearing you have to remoove the head assy or you break it then remove the top plate with the 3 screws then you can remove the sections oil & grease it & reassemble good to go . Those porcelain thickfilm modules i recaped them the main 1 on the FS90 was a little board with 3 little round smd caps. Been ages since i have done these i was very good a doing the gearsets. Cheers Michael
More than that. It needs oil for sure but the comb filter module is totally shot and that part is NLA. Power supply needs recapping too, and a bunch of other caps.
My old NV-FS90 still in good working condition though VFD a bit foggy end I had to replace a 1uF capacitor in servo pack. Indeed head drum it is a sleeve but to grease it I do not think it will work, tried it once years ago with a machine but once oil is lost the sleeve became worn, same goes for Philips Head drums with same technical solution. The thing is, smoothness in operation it is a must on 7 Heads HI-FI machines achievable only with sleeve bearing though I recall JVC using bearing instead.
It had macrovision on it. Featured BNC connectors for the video ports. When they worked they worked great, but the problem is all those surface mount caps on the modules that have leaked. Even if you were able to find a new module, it was made 30 years ago, and as soon as power is applied you know what is going to happen.
Commercial use only meant that they didn't have to be certified for home use. For example those commercial cameras could spew xrays out of the eye piece and they did not have to be certified by the cosmetics and radiation emitting devices act. Every device used in the home that deals with RF energy has to be FCC certified. The wording is alwsys the same. This device may not cause harmful interference when used in a residential installation, and this device must accept any interference that may be received, including interference that may cause undesired operation. Every device had to be tested and certified as to being below that limit. Devices designed for commercial use do not require this certification as long as there is a sticker or warning that the unit is not certified for use in a residential setting. It is designed for an industrial setting, and therefore all the radiation emitting limits do not apply. I know of a few cameramen that developed brain tumors, that was blamed on the xrays that the little B/W viewfinder tubes emitted on commercial cameras.
@@12voltvids interesting. I have a working 1980, the rs232 version of it without tuner and a 1960 I’ve never tried out. The rs232 model has like 10 hours on it but some bad caps. I don’t have much hope for it.
Shame that these VCRs have such bad quality. They should have built VCRs like the Panasonic PV-1200 I own. Replaced tape just one of the tape counter belts and one of the transport-belts. All other belts are original from 1980. Cooked them in hot water. Also cleaned the tape path and Idlers. Imagine that this machine is 41 years old and nothing electrical is wrong. Just a bit of mechanical work. Everything is metal and the unit weights around 16KG. The first professional Vcr, the Panasonic NV-8200 from 1978 is also built like a tank. But cost cutting made this machines less reliable. Great Video!
@@12voltvids that's a shame but every machine has its special problems. What I forgot to mention is that these blue matsushita caps 10/47uf all leaked a long time ago. Legs show oxidation, but the caps test fine. Is this normal? I have other machines with the same capacitors and there also leaked
I ended up with one because the shop I worked at was a Panasonic dealer and we started carrying their industrial line. We sold the 1970, and the ag455 svhs camera, the edit controller and 14" monitors. I ended up with my 1970 after the new model the 1980 came out. I bought the display model cheap to use as an edit assembly machine to assemble stuff I was editing on the PC. Mine didn't have that many hours on it when it started acting up. If I were to drag mine out and pop a tape in it, the picture would look exactly like the picture on this video. I liked my Mitsubishi HSU82 and I have a JVC HSU9911 for SVHS playback now.
@@chickenfoundation9323 they are pretty much all 4 heads. When you see machines advertised as 6 heads they are counting the audio heads. With few exceptions like the Mitsubishi hsu80 which as a dedicated pair of dynamic tracking heads for special effects. And a pair of flying erase heads. So that would equal 10. For regular record and play there are 4. 2 for sp and 2 for lp/ep speeds.
Those ceramic glass boards are a nightmare, I had to replace the 3 surface mounted caps on one in my Sony VCR as I had no hifi stereo the caps had leaked but only around the cap luckily nothing else was damaged other than the spot the cap was sitting on, it's a ceramic board with about 15 to 20 legs each side that stands about 1/2 " off the PCB it's on, I did it by soldering replacement caps to the nearest component or leg on the trace and using coated wire to rebuild traces as once you take these surface mounted caps off the trace is done it's almost like they paint the traces on, lucky I had tiny little electrolytics to replace the surface mounts caps with, all work well now, I thought this machine was done when I saw that.
Those glass boards were a total joke. Hitachi used them as well. The traces are literally painted on. The entire concept behind them was to make the product cheaper and easier to replace, just buy a new module. That worked when they were available, but as soon as the model was out of productionso were the modules. Thank Japanese manufactures for that one. Can you say planned obsolesce. People are quick to blame the Chinese, mainly thanks to trump, but the Japanese were doing it long before China started making high tech devices. They just copied what the boys in Japan were doing.
Imo Panasonic had three good S-VHS models: as far as consumer/prosumer machines go. Two in their NV-HS range, the 950 and the 1000 and the FS-200 which I believe is the AG-1980 for our friends across the pond. Out of those three I'd get the HS950 - most modern and reliable considering bad caps on the FS-200 and easily worn out heads on the HS1000 and it has some digital picture circuitry to make the quality better on top of the TBC.
I have the three you mention... all in excellent working order. All great machines. The TBC on the NV-HS950 and the NV-HS1000 is considerably weaker than the one built on the NV-FS200. Again... both the AG-1980 & FS200 are excellent machines when they work. But they are so unreliable. The NV-HS950 & NV-HS1000 are much more reliable. No so many things can go wrong with these. The coupling gear on the loading motor can split sometimes. It's a known issue with the K Mech.
I own the NV-FS200 and I should have seen this video before I bought the VCR 3 years ago. However, I recapped all I could in the PSU (the electrolyte was everywhere) and to my genuine surprise the VCR is working good so far. I also accidentally bent the cleaning arm, so I ended up removing it completely.
odd how Panasonic pro units are so unreliable yet there home units that should be cheaper quality work 8 times out of 10 with out an issue. i bought a sony slv-1000 the ones Dave has fixed dozens of times on here and it was sold as not working but it worked perfect even the blue gear hasn't broke as of yet. sure it don't have the fancy tbc but works fine for watching any vhs or svhs movies.
I have an even higher end studio deck with multiple problems I might tackle again. I got the board repaired now just to tackle the bad capacitor issue.
@@leostechnikkanal parts are a problem. No parts available. No interest in fixing it. I don't use tape these days just digitize tapes for people and the machines that I have are good enough for this task.
Panasonic AG-1980 is the only non-broadcast machine I know of with separate outputs for the hi-fi and linear audio tracks. Jvc models are bad. And these are supposedly the best that Panasonic made. So that doesn’t leave a whole lot of options no matter your criteria
It doesn't have seperate outputs. It has a switch to select HiFi or mono linear and a mix position. Svhs was never a broadcast format. It was a home format. VHS video home system. There were industrial models but it was still a home format with horrible color resolution.
@@12voltvids you have to look at the back of an ag-1980 - they do have a separate output labeled “linear audio” and this RCA jack will only output from the linear track regardless of what position the audio switch is set to. It’s still not a perfect machine, as it is a mono output only, with only a mono head for the linear track. Some machines offered linear stereo. So it’s not absolutely ideal for archiving every single tape but at the end of the day there’s no such thing as a “perfect” single do-it-all VCR…
@@MrRom92DAW don't have a 1980 just 1970 but the boards in them identical with those crap modules that were fine by about 10 years regardless if used are not. Mitsubishi had a better picture from my experience using them. My 1970 worked ok when it was brand new but the heads wore down quickly and we're replaced in the first year.
@@12voltvids these days none of the AGs are probably worth the expense. I’m mostly interested in RF capture for vhs-decode (which would solve many of the issues with varied image quality between hardware) however that has its own set of considerations… • for one, not every VCR has accessible test points for video and hifi audio RF. • Of the ones that do have those test points accessible, not all provide a signal of a usable quality (JVCs are known for weak RF output) • For tapes that must have linear audio captured (practically anything out of a camcorder) JVCs are known to have poor quality linear audio output so between those two factors that’s one major manufacturer entirely off the table. •these days you are limited by what you can find that’s still in good mechanical condition without worn heads, a challenge in itself So an AG1980 ticks off a lot of boxes but the question is at what cost and for how long can you use it. Some sony models look promising but are known for mechanical issues. Haven’t looked too much into the Mitsubishis but they very well could be great units for the task
This VCR is absolute garbage like Funai did for their Emerson, Philips, Magnavox (aka Crapnavox), Sylvania, and others. I remember one time, a guy named Brendan Pippin (aka Brendan’s Movie Corner) destroyed the French Canadian VHS of “Fantasia” so many times on one of his VCR’s and most of them were trashed. BTW, this one is a Panasonic AG-1970 VCR without the Omnivision, but it plays standard VHS and Super VHS. I guess this VCR isn’t Funai, but it’s junk than Funai.
When they worked, but they mostly didn't work. About the only thing panasonic made that was really good was plasma TVs. OK a few of their amplifiers, turntables and tape decks were ok, but they were technics branded.
@@12voltvids They also made camera's for Leica, the range finder camera's were made in Germany but the Leica compacts ( for example the C1) were made by Panasonic.
Those ceramic modules are technically ICs. Thick film hybrid ICs. Putting electrolytic capacitors inside ICs is *EVIL*. Planned obsolence at its finest. I'm not a huge conteo fanboy, so I'd rather call it negligence. If enough of these VCRs will be around in dead condition, someone might start to make these modules again, on regular fiberglass boards. The SMD ASICs on the modules hopefully survive the electrolyte bath, so they could be transplanted onto the new modules. But unfortunately plastic packaged semiconductors can sometimes die from electrolyte leakage. I've had ICs and transistors failing due to nearby capacitors having incontinence issues. The goo can creep inside the plastic package, and do funny things with the silicon die (and the silicon dies... ha!).
@@12voltvids But a lot of them already has 40+ pin count SMD ASIC on one side of the hybrid IC :-) . I guess their main point was modularity and space saving.
We had Panasonic videos come back after 6 months or so, no idea what the model number was, but they had minds of their own, just like what this one did. It was always the same place they went to and came back from, nightmare! The manager couldn't understand why they were like that, but he was a numpty anyway! The engineers understood, they said they were crap! Makes me wonder if they were this model or one built to be like them. I know they had the fold down controls at the front and there was a ribbon cable always snapped some of the links, if you moved the flap they would do something and if you moved it again it would either stop or do something completely unrelated to what was asked. The engineer showed us one day, it was just crazy! As I say, I don't know if it was that model or something similar, but they all had a mind of their own. As soon as the word Panasonic came out of someone's mouth I knew it was one of two firms I was going to to either deliver a repaired one, a new one or to pick one up that was delivered and still not a year old. The manager told one of the engineer's he couldn't fix one to save his life. Pillock, they were not good to start with, I thought even that pillock would have come to that conclusion! I have to say I am not a Panasonic lover anyway, but that one model was garbage. Used by an Oil company and some Video Production company. I think a TV company had a few as well, but they stopped and gave up!
@@12voltvids That and caps that leaked at every chance, I think the made them a bit to small for what they did. But they will never listen to the likes of us, we know nothing! We are just the end user that has to put up with their designed built in failure dates and poor electronics and parts. Just to save a few pennies, but it does mount up over a few thousand units, but really, if they made them better they might get a better customer base. Not for that item, it will last to long, but it gets loyalty, People will buy other products of theirs, but this appears to escape their logic these days, make them cheap so we have to buy more. But if it is crap, will we buy from them again, no sir, go to someone else and hope theirs is just that tiny bit better.
@@BoB4jjjjs A wise man once said "The reliability of any electronic device is inversely proportional to the number of electrolytic capacitors it contains" The problem is parts. The manufacture don't make the majority of the parts. Just like cars. We love to blame the car maker for that 5.00 part that failed and requires 4 hours of labour to change but in reality the car manufacturers just assemble cars made from parts from dozens of different manufactures. All it takes is one of them to shave a few pennies off each part and now a sub standard part gets installed and everyone points fingers at the car maker. Look at those Takata air bags. Billions in recalls have to be absorbed. Now if it wasn't a critical safety part guess who would be paying for it down the road. I was at a customer's place yesterday with a brand new Toyota RAV4 already been serviced twice within a year repair cost over $800 each time cause mice chewing the wires the wires have soy based insulation and mice like the taste not covered by warranty
@@12voltvids Yes but it is the manufacturers of the end product that say what they want to pay for the product and in the end they shave and cut a few corners to get it down to a price so they get the business and not someone else. They could build things to last for three times their life, but they don't want to and there are lots of things like compilation between manufacturers of components that dictate the price and quality of parts. I dare say the manufacturers would like a lot of things to last a bit longer, but it is all down to cost of components and it is all done to a price. Maybe just as well, we might not be able to afford some things if they were built to last for three times as long!
I still have (a similar) one working fine. Well that's at least a few years ago I last used it ;). I'm not sure if its the exact same model but I recognize the keypad inside the flipdoor. Does yours have 4 heads too and stereo ? Here's a picture I just took of it: ibb.co/9N7TktH I paid almost 2000 Guilders (we used Guilders back then) for it but it came with a 10years-later-money-back and after a lot of work/calling etc. I did get the money back 10 years later ! Mine came with a remote that had a scanning tool to read codes in TV magazines to program TV shows.
No they don't make tvs anymore. They still have microwave ovens and technics is still around and their industrial gear. I believe i said that, they stopped making tvs.
@@12voltvids interesting, in the uk you can still purchase Panasonic TVs and are very popular. Not sure if they produced by another company and just badged up with the Panasonic logo.
@@nadskhan6250 I'm sure they are rebadged brands. Haven't see a new one here for a quite a few years. They are still very big for microwave ovens and from what I understand the technics brand is coming back. Cameras are also still around. Haven't see. Any dvd or BluRay players in awhile. I havent exactly been having around electronic stores in the past year. In fact i haven't been much of anywhere in the past year. Go to work at my essential service job with full PPE, go home and stay there. Take my Harley out for rides in nice weather.
@@und4287 iI think it depends on where you live. Like many Sony tvs in the USA and Canada are made in Mexico. In Europe most Sony tvs are produced in Eastern Europe. I guess Panasonic works the same way.
I have a Panasonic F65.. great machine. Same chassis. The drum motor has the same bad bearing. Noisy as and effects the picture. Can these drum motors be repaired or is replacement the only way?
Replacement. Good luck.
@12voltvids Hello,I just got a Panasonic AG-1210 is this machine any better quality?
AG1980 luckily doesn't have any printed ceramic boards, so those are fairly reliably repairable if you're willing to invest the time - Main TBC board needs to be recapped (due to presence of SMT caps), front timer board (which has an area that gets warm in normal operation and is also warm while just plugged in and not in use since the display is still on), and the deck mechanism usually needs re-lubrication and replacement of the plastic loading motor coupler.
Just received my brand new in box, never used Panasonic AG-1960. After opening up the cover, the electronics are a completely different design from AG-1970. There are surface-mount caps on video board with standalone ICs that is less likely to overheat, and don't leak at all, unlike AG-1970 and AG-1980. It does not use the chroma IC module. What do you think?
If the thin film resistors still exist on the sample board, get them measured... Unless a schematic exists.
Curious - Would a video head from an AG-1980 work in a AG-1950?
Only if it is the same number. They are all different. Different pinout different head impedance
As I watched this, I look down at my JVC 4 head stereo VCR that has been flawless sense I got it from a thrift store. Odd how things age...Just wish the picture looked better on the flat panel TV
I agree 100% with you on the acetone. I love norcal715 but I would NEVER use acetone to clean the heads or the pinch roller, NEVER.
can it be that bad? i mean it evaporates rather fast....
REAL "Abysmal Garbage" Funai 2001-2016 VCRs and their clones should also be put in the trash!
Every time I hear the name "Funai", I swear! Because I absolutely hate those machines! They are even MORE complete piles of shit than the AG-19x0s! I have a bunch of Funais, and if I send one to you, DO NOT EVEN TRY TO FIX IT! No, do not get them fixed because they all have more problems than an AG-1970!
Can you explain to me why many consumer European-market Panasonic VCRs were sold as "commercial/industrual" VCRs over there in North America, and consumer North American models start with "PV-" instead of "NV-"? For example I have an NV-FS200 which is identical to the Absolute Garbage-1970 and mine was sold as a consumer high-end machine. I have also noticed that the circuit board part numbers of consumer American models start with "VEPS" instead of "VEP". Panasonic really did some weird things...
I think a big part of it had to do with the presence of the time-base corrector (TBC) built in. With that component, the deck would defeat macrovision copy protection on movie tapes. The time base corrector improves picture stability while editing between decks by replacing the sync signals recorded on the tape with new, electronically generated sync signals. Macrovision works by recording slightly distorted sync signals on the tape, that will not properly transfer to another generation when copied. The TBC will replace the sync signals and make copying possible, so the way to get by hollywood lawyers and sell these decks were to put stickers and different model numbers on them designating them for commercial/professional use only.
Very interesting info, excellent video and proof that whatever the price, the quality of building and design, when things fail massively, you're not the invincible serviceman, the knight of transistors! Every technician knows these "professional" machines are generally abused and used beyond limits, and when they are sold or disposed with labels like that, they have generally spent their time copying tapes 24/24 and 365/365. With modular conception and we'll known troubles on unavailable boards, high density components with leaky caps, but also brown baggy hybrid encapsulated raiser modules, most chances are you have nothing to repair there in these chassis. Most importantly, as these machines generally share the same troubles, keeping them for parts is a waste of time and precious space. I've seen that multiple times in labs: with consent of fellow technicians, I've thrown literally tons of junk identical machines, tons of spare boards awaiting machine that have systematically failed elsewhere... Some service station have also heavily invested in parts for maintenance contracts long finished, and like your head and drum assembly, will never find their place in any old (20 or 30 years!) or recent machine, when the technology even exists anymore (the same problem in Computers!). And I personally say I'm participating in this process, as I still have pricey HT transformers (who uses CRT today?), IC boards for maintenance of early PayTV decoders, remote controls...
Picked one up for $5 this week. Out of the gate E.T. stuck in the deck. Got that out and the mechanism working without assistance. Bad picture to start, but cleaned everything up and ran it for a couple hours - picture now quite good. Recording quality is variably not good to fair at best. Aside from adding to the e-waste pile, any thoughts on where to start? I'm not a tech - just a decent e-tinkerer...
These are full of smd caps. The industrial machines were supposed to be better but as it turns out the cheap consumer models lasted longer.
@@12voltvids Thanks for the reply. Will read between the lines and take that as a "bin it and move on".
I thought you were talking about the year 1970. I thought "Hmm, bit harsh. I was born in 1970" 😂
you could do that pdmillar did and throw a drop of oil in the drum. Got his garbage pick AG-1970 working. One thing the 1970 has thats different from the 1980 is vastly less surface mounted capacitors. The 1980's Y/C board alone has over 30 of the damn things. One thing I like about the K-Mech is that its transport functions are lightning quick compared to JVC SVHS decks. They are a pain when the get misaligned though. Its too bad they never made an equivalent deck with the SuperDrive mech. The only reason why I have a AG-1980 laying around is that its an absolute beast at tracking difficult EP recordings.
Is AG-1960 the most-reliable of the three.
Drum has fluid bearings, not ball bearings. Fluid dries out after all those years and drum starts to hum and vibrate. You can remove upper drum and disassemble the motor itself by unscrewing three fastners on top of the drum motor (even if service manual tells you to never do that). Remove upper part of the motor, add some ATF fluid into the bearing and put it all together and you'll have smooth working drum again.
That head drum sounded exactly like a cheap computer fan I had fail. Lubricating it gave it a few more months of life. I also did the same for the high-speed rotating mirror in a laser printer.
But here I don't know how well that will work. If there's runout won't it still vibrate?
@@eDoc2020 I have seen several Panasonic NV-180 (portable full-size-VHS full-DD machine) that has the same style of drum bearings.
Those computer fans you are talking about have another type of bearing, while it seems the same. Computer fans usually have sleeve bearing, just steel shaft inside a bronze sleeve, that has some lubricant in its pores. Sleeve worns out, loses its shape, clearances increase and fan starts to vibrate and produce noise. You can put grease inside fan bearings to fill voids and prolong life for month or two, but it will not repair the sleeve.
In these drum motors there is hydro-dynamic bearing, that means that when rotating, oil under pressure gets between shaft and outer shell of the bearing and suspends shaft, so no real wear occurs for the bearing itself. There are special angled grooves cut on the bearing parts to generate oil pressure when rotating.
Problem is that oil dries out or gets contaminated and turns into goo, oil cushion disappears, drum starts to vibrate and wear itself or it locks up.
Just disassemble it, clean remnants of old oil, put new one in (ATF will be a good bet, never put silicone oil or grease inside!). I have been re-lubricating those NV-180s and those still last after at least a year. Oils is refilled, it can support motor shaft again.
Hello, i have a LG RC389H DVD VHS recorder.
The problem is when i insert a cassette into the vcr and just after 3 seconds stops playing the cassette.
FF and Rew also the same problem.
I have replaced the vcr drive with one from a fully functional LG RC389H but the problem is still the same.
Thank you for your help :)
Could be the mode encoder switch that has dirty contacts.
@@78vinyl97
Thanks, i have already cleaned it, still the same thing
@@nordwinds2561 ah ok not too sure then.those encoder switches can make the vcr do some weird things.
I think Dave already covered a vcr with this problem. You should check the tape spindles, see if they turn when they're sopposed to (especially the take up one for playback), and if so check the sensors that are underneath the mechanism. Maybe one of them has gone bad.
@@enzoperruccio
The tape spindles Turn.
That problem is not from the mechanism.
I have taked another mechanism from another fully functional vcr for make sure where that problem is.
I think the problem is at the sensors like you said.
Thank you for your help.
I always loved this machine back in the day but never had the opportunity to own one. Thank God I never did acquire one.
Also, I worked for Panasonic back around 1993-94 and had such a bad experience that I vowed I would never buy a Panasonic product ever again. So glad to know you cheated them out of head drums as I think they deserve it for some of their practices (e.g.: the incident regarding DVD laser pick's up that burned out in their first gen players and they hid it from the consumer).
Lets not forget the VHS power supplies that when a cap failed the frequency went into the resonance
of the transformer and the 12v rail went to about 70V and blew every transistor and chip off the board and they covered that one up.
@@12voltvids Never heard that one but good to know. Yup.... now I have an even bigger reason to stick to my guns about Panasonic. What year were those bad VCR power supplies from if you don’t mind me asking? 🙂
@@MovieGuy846 It was 1983 when Panasonic started using switching power supplies in their VCRs for the US/Canadian market. They continued to use standard tranformer-based linear power supplies for the rest of the countries for a few more years.
hi you are very right about the cards that pull out this why iam a super betacam fan the way they come apart and so easy to change over parts from a spares deck
time is counting down very right you are
Back in 1993 I bought new Blaupunkt RTV635 (Panasonic J35, PAL), A few years later I stopped using it because the recording was starting to look like the playback on this AG1970 (at that time it would still playback fine).
Hi Dave,which one would you recommend to buy if dont recommend to buy these panasonics?
Late model is best . Something built 2010 and beyond
For a split second I thought you were talking about the album 'Absolute Garbage'
If the AG-1970/1980 is so bad, then what VCRs do you use/recommends in terms of reliability and picture quality?
I would recommend the Panasonic Omnivisions from 1996-1999. I've never seen any of these break down.
@@TheVCRKing Late model Panasonic, and Funai seem to be pretty reliable.
@@12voltvids Funai? I don't know if you're joking but they're one of the worst. 😂
@@TheVCRKing my main vcr since I was a teen was Funai made mono “piece of crap” but it never failed me, never ate a tape or anything
@@dakotaplaysvhs8039 That's rare. You're lucky!
So close to 100.000, Dave!! Congratulations in advance!
Will have that silver play button on my bench soon!
@@12voltvids Been watching for a month or so; totally forgot to subscribe. DONE! (and selected for notifications).
I even only skip the minute or longer ads; and sit through the others. Yes, trading said time of mine for a half cent for you lol
@@justinnitsuj7041 hey those pennies add up.
@@12voltvids OMG I don't doubt!
Just notified Panasonic warranty cops will be knocking at your door shortly.
Panasonic isn't even around these days except for miniwave ovens.
That is why I did chose the 1990's to 2000's VCRs that is easily to fix the issues from the board (but not include the head drum that they are no longer available unless you may have to salvage the head drum from the VCR that is beyond repair and so-on and so-forth) and get it up and going again. The Chinese made VCRs now days are trash and Thai made and Japanese made VCRs are great. Korean made, Malaysian made, and Indonesian made VCRs, not so much. However the vintage 80's VCRs use the special type parts that used to make one until then no longer producing special type parts. Painted resistors is not made to change at all which it's a throw-away parts, and for SME, totally 999T% garbage they are not meant to last long. It's very shameful where the companies is pushing forward to produce cheap and non-serviceable parts that it is meant to be a throw-away while making money for the business. Look how we get a spotlight LED fixtures out there in the hardware store, same thing, I am equally despised that product that is not designed to change to a new light bulb, it is designed to fail and change a whole LED spotlight fixture, and it's really observe and totally disgraceful.
Used to be that we get the one it is designed to be service, now not any longer. What a shame. =(
The only VCR you can get is the 1977 RCA Selectavision VCR. All I want to say is, vintage 1970’s and 1980’s VCR’s are way better than this junk.
Dave would a plasma tv make a digital tv box/recorder receive a bad or no signal as it works on an LED/LCD TV
Dave,when you get to work in the other machine, even if not serviciable, could you please show how to get into the mode switch step by step? I havent found any video on these mechanisms on how to do it. Thank you so much in advance! Your biggest fan from Argentina!
Well, the AG 1980 has an amazing picture when working well, it's been tested and compared on video restoration forums through the years. Are you sure the 1980 is the same ?
It's the same unit. When they worked they worked well. Problem is not many are working well now. Time has not been good to them.
The AG-1980 has the later K mechanism whereas the 1970 has the G2 mechanism. I believe the features and functions are the same.
@@crashbandicoot4everr the G2 mechanism is more reliable than the K mechanism, *BUT* the electronics in the 1970 give more trouble than in the 1980
@@audvidgeek So, is AG-1960 the best-balance with G2 mechanism and, maybe, better electronics than AG-1970?
@@waltchan The 1960 doesn't have a time base corrector and I believe it's identical to the PAL NV-FS90 so it will have the same failing parts.
I'm so glad I sold mine when they still worked years ago
Well at least I now know what the AG in the model number stands for.
Ha yup. That's my feeling about all those garbage machines.
Dave, I've recently acquired a Garrard DQ100 which has unbearable levels of WoW, I tried some basic tests, gave up and sent the unit to an older repairman which tested the PSU for ripple, recapped it and it still has it. It's a quartz lock machine with a JVC MDC-943 Direct Drive motor, same one used in the DDQ650 and 550. Any other possible leads?
It's a severe cogging issue
Hi I have the 1980p model ... if the video output is quite dark/dim what should be the cause of it? can it still be fix by adjusting the brightness of the television?
I plugged it in via RF cable in a 4k sony tv
It's going to be those shitty leaky capacitors. Quit while you are ahead. Give it a decent send off. Don't spend money on it because any money you send won't be enough it will always want more. You have been warned.
@@12voltvids oohhhh I see, Thanks man! I got it from my cousin who has brand new old stock of 1980p …
@@peachpuppy4 unfortunately old stock and Panasonic ag series vtr don't go together. They ate old the capacitors had a 10 year self life used or not. Actually shorter if unused. Incidentally it was Panasonic that made all those defective surface mount caps used in all those Sony, canon cameras that all leaked. They didn't use them much in their other products but the peo gear got them. The pH of the electrolytic is slightly caustic when they sit discharged. So if they 1980 was plugged in and turned on and left turned on or used a few minutes Avery few days, something that would keep a charge on the caps they probably would be fine today.
I want to buy a vcr . Can you please advise . I am from Bangladesh 🇧🇩
Head Drum you can easily repair. Unscrew 3 small screw on top of the head drum (under ground brush) . Take off small plate. Be carefully, before unscrewing put paper strips between cylinder and base. You risk head damage after seating cylinder on base. Take of safety ring from shaft. Pull up cylinder. Clean bearing and put new oil. Reasembly cylinder, an apply grease on top of shaft. Last step return small plate and 3 screw.
Doesn't last. I have another machine that uses that type drum. Bearing failed. Took it apart, cleaned and lubricated. By the time the drum gets noisy like that the bearing is toast. Will only last a short time before going bad again. Mine actually seized up. It's a moot point anyway because with the bad comb filter this unit has and no available parts. There are other more reliable VHS machines around. The 1970 and 1980 were dogs. You can hear them barking a block away.
What's your opinion of the AG-1950? Sure, it's not Super VHS, but is it okay?
This Machine looks similar to a Panasonic FS90 if so the Headrum needs new oil it drys up, it's a sleeve not a bearing you have to remoove the head assy or you break it then remove the top plate with the 3 screws then you can remove the sections oil & grease it & reassemble good to go . Those porcelain thickfilm modules i recaped them the main 1 on the FS90 was a little board with 3 little round smd caps. Been ages since i have done these i was very good a doing the gearsets.
Cheers Michael
More than that. It needs oil for sure but the comb filter module is totally shot and that part is NLA. Power supply needs recapping too, and a bunch of other caps.
My old NV-FS90 still in good working condition though VFD a bit foggy end I had to replace a 1uF capacitor in servo pack. Indeed head drum it is a sleeve but to grease it I do not think it will work, tried it once years ago with a machine but once oil is lost the sleeve became worn, same goes for Philips Head drums with same technical solution. The thing is, smoothness in operation it is a must on 7 Heads HI-FI machines achievable only with sleeve bearing though I recall JVC using bearing instead.
Awesome video man I always love watching this kind of stuff
I like the picture on the AG-1980 when they work. I think the commercial use only sticker was because it didn’t have macrovision in it.
It had macrovision on it. Featured BNC connectors for the video ports. When they worked they worked great, but the problem is all those surface mount caps on the modules that have leaked. Even if you were able to find a new module, it was made 30 years ago, and as soon as power is applied you know what is going to happen.
Commercial use only meant that they didn't have to be certified for home use.
For example those commercial cameras could spew xrays out of the eye piece and they did not have to be certified by the cosmetics and radiation emitting devices act.
Every device used in the home that deals with RF energy has to be FCC certified. The wording is alwsys the same. This device may not cause harmful interference when used in a residential installation, and this device must accept any interference that may be received, including interference that may cause undesired operation. Every device had to be tested and certified as to being below that limit.
Devices designed for commercial use do not require this certification as long as there is a sticker or warning that the unit is not certified for use in a residential setting. It is designed for an industrial setting, and therefore all the radiation emitting limits do not apply. I know of a few cameramen that developed brain tumors, that was blamed on the xrays that the little B/W viewfinder tubes emitted on commercial cameras.
@@12voltvids interesting. I have a working 1980, the rs232 version of it without tuner and a 1960 I’ve never tried out. The rs232 model has like 10 hours on it but some bad caps. I don’t have much hope for it.
Shame that these VCRs have such bad quality. They should have built VCRs like the Panasonic PV-1200 I own. Replaced tape just one of the tape counter belts and one of the transport-belts. All other belts are original from 1980. Cooked them in hot water. Also cleaned the tape path and Idlers. Imagine that this machine is 41 years old and nothing electrical is wrong. Just a bit of mechanical work. Everything is metal and the unit weights around 16KG. The first professional Vcr, the Panasonic NV-8200 from 1978 is also built like a tank. But cost cutting made this machines less reliable. Great Video!
I had a Panasonic built RCA machine from 1979 and the nylon gears split and the unit went in the bin 30 years ago.
@@12voltvids that's a shame but every machine has its special problems. What I forgot to mention is that these blue matsushita caps 10/47uf all leaked a long time ago. Legs show oxidation, but the caps test fine. Is this normal? I have other machines with the same capacitors and there also leaked
Did those machines produce a good image back in the day? (I suppose they had some appeal, since you own one yourself...)
They are fantastic machines when they work, one of the best machines when it works well which is pretty unusual.
I ended up with one because the shop I worked at was a Panasonic dealer and we started carrying their industrial line. We sold the 1970, and the ag455 svhs camera, the edit controller and 14" monitors. I ended up with my 1970 after the new model the 1980 came out. I bought the display model cheap to use as an edit assembly machine to assemble stuff I was editing on the PC. Mine didn't have that many hours on it when it started acting up.
If I were to drag mine out and pop a tape in it, the picture would look exactly like the picture on this video. I liked my Mitsubishi HSU82 and I have a JVC HSU9911 for SVHS playback now.
What Panasonic models for 80s to 90s do you recommend?
None. Go for 2000s. I'm not a fan of any of the 80s vcrs. Not very reliable by comparison. The picture on late models much better
@@12voltvids ah ok which ones with hifi stereo 4 or 6 head do you recommend?
@@chickenfoundation9323 they are pretty much all 4 heads. When you see machines advertised as 6 heads they are counting the audio heads. With few exceptions like the Mitsubishi hsu80 which as a dedicated pair of dynamic tracking heads for special effects. And a pair of flying erase heads. So that would equal 10. For regular record and play there are 4. 2 for sp and 2 for lp/ep speeds.
Does the AG-1960 suck as well? I know someone who has one.
Don't know about the 1960. The 1970 and 80 have been dreadful as has the agw1
Those ceramic glass boards are a nightmare, I had to replace the 3 surface mounted caps on one in my Sony VCR as I had no hifi stereo the caps had leaked but only around the cap luckily nothing else was damaged other than the spot the cap was sitting on, it's a ceramic board with about 15 to 20 legs each side that stands about 1/2 " off the PCB it's on, I did it by soldering replacement caps to the nearest component or leg on the trace and using coated wire to rebuild traces as once you take these surface mounted caps off the trace is done it's almost like they paint the traces on, lucky I had tiny little electrolytics to replace the surface mounts caps with, all work well now, I thought this machine was done when I saw that.
Those glass boards were a total joke. Hitachi used them as well. The traces are literally painted on. The entire concept behind them was to make the product cheaper and easier to replace, just buy a new module. That worked when they were available, but as soon as the model was out of productionso were the modules. Thank Japanese manufactures for that one. Can you say planned obsolesce. People are quick to blame the Chinese, mainly thanks to trump, but the Japanese were doing it long before China started making high tech devices.
They just copied what the boys in Japan were doing.
This was the beginning of lower quality and reliability.
Is it possible to desolder from board and open this comb filter component and try to change caps?
He said the cap leakage destroyed the board.
Deader than 1940's mens tank tops.
Who remembers when the video was called "Absolute Garbage?"
Is this identical to the Panasonic NV-FS88b ?
NV-FS200 which has a built-in time base corrector. I have one and mine is broken.
Imo Panasonic had three good S-VHS models: as far as consumer/prosumer machines go. Two in their NV-HS range, the 950 and the 1000 and the FS-200 which I believe is the AG-1980 for our friends across the pond. Out of those three I'd get the HS950 - most modern and reliable considering bad caps on the FS-200 and easily worn out heads on the HS1000 and it has some digital picture circuitry to make the quality better on top of the TBC.
I have the three you mention... all in excellent working order. All great machines. The TBC on the NV-HS950 and the NV-HS1000 is considerably weaker than the one built on the NV-FS200. Again... both the AG-1980 & FS200 are excellent machines when they work. But they are so unreliable. The NV-HS950 & NV-HS1000 are much more reliable. No so many things can go wrong with these. The coupling gear on the loading motor can split sometimes. It's a known issue with the K Mech.
I own the NV-FS200 and I should have seen this video before I bought the VCR 3 years ago. However, I recapped all I could in the PSU (the electrolyte was everywhere) and to my genuine surprise the VCR is working good so far. I also accidentally bent the cleaning arm, so I ended up removing it completely.
@@speed_rider362 I always remove the cleaning roller on all my machines. They put dirt on the heads.
odd how Panasonic pro units are so unreliable yet there home units that should be cheaper quality work 8 times out of 10 with out an issue. i bought a sony slv-1000 the ones Dave has fixed dozens of times on here and it was sold as not working but it worked perfect even the blue gear hasn't broke as of yet. sure it don't have the fancy tbc but works fine for watching any vhs or svhs movies.
Hey Dave! I sent you a message on Patreon regarding a Sony SVO-1500 - did you receive it? Thanks again for the great content!
I haven't checked messages lately.
Okay, looking forward to hearing back when you have a chance. Thanks!
5:28 sounds like a sci-fi spaceship drive or something
Panasonic still exists but only focus on Pro equipment customers
Microwave ovens and rice cookers ,😁
I HAVE SAME PROBLEMS WITH MY PANASONIC NV-S200..
FS200? I have one and mine is beyond repair...
@@crashbandicoot4everr HOW DO YOU FEEL PANASONIC NV-S200
I have a very similar one to this, with a shit ton of problems. Good to know its crap, so I can finally throw it away.
I have an even higher end studio deck with multiple problems I might tackle again. I got the board repaired now just to tackle the bad capacitor issue.
@@12voltvids Mine used to work incredibly great, so I assume your studio one will be incredible once all fixed up!
Good luck if you try to fix it!
@@12voltvids Oh really? I can't wait to see it!
@@leostechnikkanal parts are a problem. No parts available. No interest in fixing it. I don't use tape these days just digitize tapes for people and the machines that I have are good enough for this task.
Thoes bundled caps remind me of Roland synths..
Panasonic AG-1980 is the only non-broadcast machine I know of with separate outputs for the hi-fi and linear audio tracks. Jvc models are bad. And these are supposedly the best that Panasonic made. So that doesn’t leave a whole lot of options no matter your criteria
It doesn't have seperate outputs. It has a switch to select HiFi or mono linear and a mix position.
Svhs was never a broadcast format. It was a home format. VHS video home system. There were industrial models but it was still a home format with horrible color resolution.
@@12voltvids you have to look at the back of an ag-1980 - they do have a separate output labeled “linear audio” and this RCA jack will only output from the linear track regardless of what position the audio switch is set to.
It’s still not a perfect machine, as it is a mono output only, with only a mono head for the linear track. Some machines offered linear stereo. So it’s not absolutely ideal for archiving every single tape but at the end of the day there’s no such thing as a “perfect” single do-it-all VCR…
@@MrRom92DAW don't have a 1980 just 1970 but the boards in them identical with those crap modules that were fine by about 10 years regardless if used are not. Mitsubishi had a better picture from my experience using them. My 1970 worked ok when it was brand new but the heads wore down quickly and we're replaced in the first year.
@@12voltvids these days none of the AGs are probably worth the expense. I’m mostly interested in RF capture for vhs-decode (which would solve many of the issues with varied image quality between hardware) however that has its own set of considerations…
• for one, not every VCR has accessible test points for video and hifi audio RF.
• Of the ones that do have those test points accessible, not all provide a signal of a usable quality (JVCs are known for weak RF output)
• For tapes that must have linear audio captured (practically anything out of a camcorder) JVCs are known to have poor quality linear audio output so between those two factors that’s one major manufacturer entirely off the table.
•these days you are limited by what you can find that’s still in good mechanical condition without worn heads, a challenge in itself
So an AG1980 ticks off a lot of boxes but the question is at what cost and for how long can you use it. Some sony models look promising but are known for mechanical issues. Haven’t looked too much into the Mitsubishis but they very well could be great units for the task
0:54 lol "slightly newer...same day"
Well it was 20 units newer so it likely rolled off the line the same day.
This VCR is absolute garbage like Funai did for their Emerson, Philips, Magnavox (aka Crapnavox), Sylvania, and others. I remember one time, a guy named Brendan Pippin (aka Brendan’s Movie Corner) destroyed the French Canadian VHS of “Fantasia” so many times on one of his VCR’s and most of them were trashed.
BTW, this one is a Panasonic AG-1970 VCR without the Omnivision, but it plays standard VHS and Super VHS. I guess this VCR isn’t Funai, but it’s junk than Funai.
When were these 2 manufactured?
February 1994 according to the serial numbers.
@@crashbandicoot4everr wow that old?
@@austinthevhsvideogamelover5265 Yeah. My NV-FS200 is dated February 1992 and it's identical to the AG-1970.
Shame, as I remember them being good quality in terms of sound and video back in the day.
Pro deck, Panasonic we had a few for dubbing and editing tape to tape. Ag1980
When they worked, but they mostly didn't work. About the only thing panasonic made that was really good was plasma TVs. OK a few of their amplifiers, turntables and tape decks were ok, but they were technics branded.
@@12voltvids They also made camera's for Leica, the range finder camera's were made in Germany but the Leica compacts ( for example the C1) were made by Panasonic.
Those ceramic modules are technically ICs. Thick film hybrid ICs. Putting electrolytic capacitors inside ICs is *EVIL*. Planned obsolence at its finest. I'm not a huge conteo fanboy, so I'd rather call it negligence.
If enough of these VCRs will be around in dead condition, someone might start to make these modules again, on regular fiberglass boards. The SMD ASICs on the modules hopefully survive the electrolyte bath, so they could be transplanted onto the new modules. But unfortunately plastic packaged semiconductors can sometimes die from electrolyte leakage. I've had ICs and transistors failing due to nearby capacitors having incontinence issues. The goo can creep inside the plastic package, and do funny things with the silicon die (and the silicon dies... ha!).
Yes they are an IC. A hybrid. Saved them the cost of designing an ASIC. Just use off the shelf parts to make a module.
@@12voltvids But a lot of them already has 40+ pin count SMD ASIC on one side of the hybrid IC :-) . I guess their main point was modularity and space saving.
I don't think AG-1960 was affected, and it could be the most-reliable of the three.
oh Panasonic - nevermind. only thing panasonic i own is a toughbook cf-20 and a bunch of sl-1210mk2's
We had Panasonic videos come back after 6 months or so, no idea what the model number was, but they had minds of their own, just like what this one did. It was always the same place they went to and came back from, nightmare! The manager couldn't understand why they were like that, but he was a numpty anyway!
The engineers understood, they said they were crap! Makes me wonder if they were this model or one built to be like them.
I know they had the fold down controls at the front and there was a ribbon cable always snapped some of the links, if you moved the flap they would do something and if you moved it again it would either stop or do something completely unrelated to what was asked.
The engineer showed us one day, it was just crazy!
As I say, I don't know if it was that model or something similar, but they all had a mind of their own.
As soon as the word Panasonic came out of someone's mouth I knew it was one of two firms I was going to to either deliver a repaired one, a new one or to pick one up that was delivered and still not a year old.
The manager told one of the engineer's he couldn't fix one to save his life. Pillock, they were not good to start with, I thought even that pillock would have come to that conclusion!
I have to say I am not a Panasonic lover anyway, but that one model was garbage.
Used by an Oil company and some Video Production company.
I think a TV company had a few as well, but they stopped and gave up!
Panasonic VCRs had their share of issues. Bloody cheap power supplies.
@@12voltvids That and caps that leaked at every chance, I think the made them a bit to small for what they did. But they will never listen to the likes of us, we know nothing! We are just the end user that has to put up with their designed built in failure dates and poor electronics and parts. Just to save a few pennies, but it does mount up over a few thousand units, but really, if they made them better they might get a better customer base. Not for that item, it will last to long, but it gets loyalty, People will buy other products of theirs, but this appears to escape their logic these days, make them cheap so we have to buy more. But if it is crap, will we buy from them again, no sir, go to someone else and hope theirs is just that tiny bit better.
@@BoB4jjjjs
A wise man once said "The reliability of any electronic device is inversely proportional to the number of electrolytic capacitors it contains"
The problem is parts. The manufacture don't make the majority of the parts. Just like cars. We love to blame the car maker for that 5.00 part that failed and requires 4 hours of labour to change but in reality the car manufacturers just assemble cars made from parts from dozens of different manufactures. All it takes is one of them to shave a few pennies off each part and now a sub standard part gets installed and everyone points fingers at the car maker. Look at those Takata air bags. Billions in recalls have to be absorbed. Now if it wasn't a critical safety part guess who would be paying for it down the road. I was at a customer's place yesterday with a brand new Toyota RAV4 already been serviced twice within a year repair cost over $800 each time cause mice chewing the wires the wires have soy based insulation and mice like the taste not covered by warranty
@@12voltvids Yes but it is the manufacturers of the end product that say what they want to pay for the product and in the end they shave and cut a few corners to get it down to a price so they get the business and not someone else.
They could build things to last for three times their life, but they don't want to and there are lots of things like compilation between manufacturers of components that dictate the price and quality of parts.
I dare say the manufacturers would like a lot of things to last a bit longer, but it is all down to cost of components and it is all done to a price. Maybe just as well, we might not be able to afford some things if they were built to last for three times as long!
Fry this VCR shaped object with the microwave transformer, it would makes for some fun content
0:09 RIP LG TV
I popped it.
what is it? a Sony?
panasonic
Panasonic is still around I am watching this on a older Panasonic Toughbook CF-19 lol
Computers yes but not tv.
OH NO..NOT AGAIN PANASONIC VCR,,,
Was going to say 1970 wasn't that bad, but you meant THAT 1970.
We’re talking about the Panasonic AG-1970.
I still have (a similar) one working fine. Well that's at least a few years ago I last used it ;). I'm not sure if its the exact same model but I recognize the keypad inside the flipdoor. Does yours have 4 heads too and stereo ? Here's a picture I just took of it: ibb.co/9N7TktH I paid almost 2000 Guilders (we used Guilders back then) for it but it came with a 10years-later-money-back and after a lot of work/calling etc. I did get the money back 10 years later ! Mine came with a remote that had a scanning tool to read codes in TV magazines to program TV shows.
Sony makes a great VCR
They were good but they did have a few problems. Plastic gears breaking were common.
13:30 “Panasonic don’t exist any more do they”.
No they don't make tvs anymore. They still have microwave ovens and technics is still around and their industrial gear. I believe i said that, they stopped making tvs.
@@12voltvids interesting, in the uk you can still purchase Panasonic TVs and are very popular. Not sure if they produced by another company
and just badged up with the Panasonic logo.
@@nadskhan6250 I'm sure they are rebadged brands. Haven't see a new one here for a quite a few years. They are still very big for microwave ovens and from what I understand the technics brand is coming back. Cameras are also still around. Haven't see. Any dvd or BluRay players in awhile. I havent exactly been having around electronic stores in the past year. In fact i haven't been much of anywhere in the past year. Go to work at my essential service job with full PPE, go home and stay there. Take my Harley out for rides in nice weather.
@@12voltvids to my knowledge the cheaper ones are imports from turkey
@@und4287 iI think it depends on where you live. Like many Sony tvs in the USA and Canada are made in Mexico. In Europe most Sony tvs are produced in Eastern Europe. I guess Panasonic works the same way.
I just realize we use the same toothbrush for cleaning parts! i have the exact same model and color!
Dentist gives them away. Never use them. I have an expensive Oral B electric, that the dentist also gave me.
WOW THATS THE NOISIEST HEAD I HAVE EVER HEARD IN MY LIFE!!!!!
I love absolute garage!
They go for hundreds $$$ on ebay... go figure
looks like a lot of shit inside.
They look pretty but suck. Agreed have had several different types in this range and all have weird problems. Like some of the Pro-Sumer Sony's .
You should of zapped it,would of been more fun :o)