I forgot to add as well, my grandparents used to have a VCR which was made by a company called "Goldstar" or something similar, and eventually, they had that VCR replaced, because even though it played VHS tapes OK, it refused to record onto VHS tapes of any brand! The ended up buying a newer VCR, (can't remember the exact brand name), but they don't even have that any longer. My grandad has two old VHS VCRs in his shed, but the electricity plugs on them appear to be a bit unsafe due to being loose! (The VCRs were from the days when the consumer had to fit the plug onto electrical items themselves).
Why not just pop a new plug on to it and test it? ( if you're interested in that kind of thing)
The Akura's I've seen were just the cheapest foreign junk, and any claims of 'British built' were laughable - perhaps the tops were screwed on in the UK?
It's not really the point though.
This particular VCR utilised a Funai mechanism (Akura VXR100, also sold under the Alba/Bush/Goodmans/Saisho/Thorn and various other names at the time -- the machines were sold to Akura by Funai in CKD form and pushed out into the field in huge quantities); not the best in the world but any half-decent technician would be well-versed in how they worked.
That, coupled with the fact that I managed to obtain a copy of the service manual simply by asking Akura for it, meant that there was no excuse whatsoever for a shop to refuse the work.
Too many people in that industry were lazy -- they were quite happy to take money for easy work, and simply turn away anything that looked like it might be tricky. If I wanted a tech like that, I'd do the work myself.
Remember - many techs (myself included) had to do a certain amount of repairs per day if working for someone. I used to enjoy a tricky fault but drop below 20 cleared repairs per week and the boss got ratty. I had one unit that I spent all day on (a Sony micro system) but it just kept blowing a tiny diode. My boss got quite angry and said I was not doing my job and got threatning. I ended up nearly pleading for help so I understand why some repairers were loathe to take on suspect jobs. Not right mind - but the repair industry was hard at times. As to my Sony HiFi the boss failed to fix it too, bridged the diode with wire to see what blew further on in the circuit but blew a hole in the PCB. Oh how I sniggered!
Me or Soundbox might be interested in having those!
Well, my grandad did say at one point I could have them if I wanted so that I could do anything I wanted with them, but I said not at the moment. However, I might ask him again, and then because there are two he has got, you and "Soundbox" can have one each of them!
Bought my first SVHS JVC in 2003 - retired it from daily use 4 weeks ago after 10 years of constant use. Still using it for archived recordings however. Never had any issues - always works perfectly (although the standby power consumption is high compared with most HDD boxes).
That was pretty late on - VCR was pretty well dead by then.
I'd have to disagree. For prerecorded use, definitely- when DVD took over there, it took over very quickly. But I'd have assumed that VCRs were still in widespread use for recording (i.e. mainly timeshifting) at that point, if only because the alternatives hadn't really taken off then.
DVD recorders still weren't cheap enough that most people had them (and were a red herring anyway), and DVRs were nowhere near being every-man-and-his-dog mass market items at that point.
That said, you could see the writing on the wall. I considered buying a low-end DVR to replace my broken VCR in early 2004, but its 20 hour capacity seemed pretty limited. Though I bought another VCR (for a third of the price) instead, I only ever intended that as a stopgap- it was obvious that DVRs *were* going to get cheaper and bigger in the near future.
Ours chewed up the tapes on us and nobody could watch anything. It would eat them for breakfast. I was about 10 at the time and I had loads of video tapes I couldn't watch. It couldn't record either as it would even chew up blanks! :eek: We still have one now but it's gathering dust under the TV. I probably should get rid of it.
Ours chewed up the tapes on us [..] It couldn't record either as it would even chew up blanks! :eek:
If anyone knows better, feel free to butt in-- I'm no expert on this!- but AFAIK the mechanical action of the mechanism and the physical path followed by the tape are identical whether it's recording or playing, the difference being how the heads are powered up and signalling. So a mechanical fault should mess up the tape regardless either way...
If anyone knows better, feel free to butt in-- I'm no expert on this!- but AFAIK the mechanical action of the mechanism and the physical path followed by the tape are identical whether it's recording or playing, the difference being how the heads are powered up and signalling. So a mechanical fault should mess up the tape regardless either way...
I'm no expert either, but having opened up VCRs and watching them in action, (in my younger, more curious years) i would have to agree with you on that
The only reason VCRs have gone on for so long is because DVD recorders are not that common. If they were then VCRs would go completely. Even VCR tapes are hard to come by.
I got two SVHS machines around 1999, which are still in a boxroom upstairs and both did work last time I tried them.
The previous one was a Mitsubishi M1000 which stopped working properly after quite a few years - I took it to a couple of shops to see if they could fix it but neither could.
Prior to that was a Toshiba (all your money back in three years deal) which lasted a while - don't remember why it failed though.
Tape got jammed in the machine and/or chewed up the tapes. Very annoying as it was a rare one only available on import from the US... had to end up buying all teh DVD sets as a replacement.
Some modern TV's are quite fussy about the signals they work with, VCR's aren't very accurate, and won't work on some modern sets.
Likewise pattern generators often have problems on modern TV's, again, not accurate enough.
It seems strange that modern TVs would be *more* fussy about correctly handling poor quality signals than older ones, though this may be related to the fact that they're ultimately processed quite differently(??), effectively being digitised for display.
I've heard that modern TVs have problems with some "classic" home computers like the Sinclair ZX81. This is because it took some liberties with the spec of the TV signal for the sake of keeping the design simple (apparently it goes straight from sync to the mainly white picture itself where a strictly standards-compliant would be expecting the black level, so the latter TVs assume the white level represents black and the picture goes dark). The question is why this didn't cause a problem on older CRTs in the first place though
It seems strange that modern TVs would be *more* fussy about correctly handling poor quality signals than older ones, though this may be related to the fact that they're ultimately processed quite differently(??), effectively being digitised for display.
I've heard that modern TVs have problems with some "classic" home computers like the Sinclair ZX81. This is because it took some liberties with the spec of the TV signal for the sake of keeping the design simple (apparently it goes straight from sync to the mainly white picture itself where a strictly standards-compliant would be expecting the black level, so the latter TVs assume the white level represents black and the picture goes dark). The question is why this didn't cause a problem on older CRTs in the first place though
Depends how old you mean, but if you're talking 1981, then not enough circuitry to do this and not necessary anyway.
The video detector detects the current of the video signal as it is supposed to be - none of this "expects" rubbish, it expects a video signal, including black level or any other kind of level. Unfortunately, a modern TV is programmed to be much more standards compliant for the sake of being a pain in the arse with including something no-one gives a shit about.
Comments
Goldstar was LG (Lucky Goldstar elsewhere in the world, but Goldstar in the UK).
Why not just pop a new plug on to it and test it? ( if you're interested in that kind of thing)
It's not really the point though.
This particular VCR utilised a Funai mechanism (Akura VXR100, also sold under the Alba/Bush/Goodmans/Saisho/Thorn and various other names at the time -- the machines were sold to Akura by Funai in CKD form and pushed out into the field in huge quantities); not the best in the world but any half-decent technician would be well-versed in how they worked.
That, coupled with the fact that I managed to obtain a copy of the service manual simply by asking Akura for it, meant that there was no excuse whatsoever for a shop to refuse the work.
Too many people in that industry were lazy -- they were quite happy to take money for easy work, and simply turn away anything that looked like it might be tricky. If I wanted a tech like that, I'd do the work myself.
That was pretty late on - VCR was pretty well dead by then.
I'd have to disagree. For prerecorded use, definitely- when DVD took over there, it took over very quickly. But I'd have assumed that VCRs were still in widespread use for recording (i.e. mainly timeshifting) at that point, if only because the alternatives hadn't really taken off then.
DVD recorders still weren't cheap enough that most people had them (and were a red herring anyway), and DVRs were nowhere near being every-man-and-his-dog mass market items at that point.
That said, you could see the writing on the wall. I considered buying a low-end DVR to replace my broken VCR in early 2004, but its 20 hour capacity seemed pretty limited. Though I bought another VCR (for a third of the price) instead, I only ever intended that as a stopgap- it was obvious that DVRs *were* going to get cheaper and bigger in the near future.
If anyone knows better, feel free to butt in-- I'm no expert on this!- but AFAIK the mechanical action of the mechanism and the physical path followed by the tape are identical whether it's recording or playing, the difference being how the heads are powered up and signalling. So a mechanical fault should mess up the tape regardless either way...
I'm no expert either, but having opened up VCRs and watching them in action, (in my younger, more curious years) i would have to agree with you on that
If you remember what it looked like when watching a scrambled analogue satellite channel, that's what it looks like.
I've offloaded 98% of my old VHS tapes now anyway.
The previous one was a Mitsubishi M1000 which stopped working properly after quite a few years - I took it to a couple of shops to see if they could fix it but neither could.
Prior to that was a Toshiba (all your money back in three years deal) which lasted a while - don't remember why it failed though.
Wouldn't be a NTSC / pal issue would it?
I've tried more than one VCR on the tv, none of them work.
I've tried the same VCRs on different tvs, they work.
Go figure
Some modern TV's are quite fussy about the signals they work with, VCR's aren't very accurate, and won't work on some modern sets.
Likewise pattern generators often have problems on modern TV's, again, not accurate enough.
It seems strange that modern TVs would be *more* fussy about correctly handling poor quality signals than older ones, though this may be related to the fact that they're ultimately processed quite differently(??), effectively being digitised for display.
I've heard that modern TVs have problems with some "classic" home computers like the Sinclair ZX81. This is because it took some liberties with the spec of the TV signal for the sake of keeping the design simple (apparently it goes straight from sync to the mainly white picture itself where a strictly standards-compliant would be expecting the black level, so the latter TVs assume the white level represents black and the picture goes dark). The question is why this didn't cause a problem on older CRTs in the first place though
Can't you use SCART leads?
Depends how old you mean, but if you're talking 1981, then not enough circuitry to do this and not necessary anyway.
The video detector detects the current of the video signal as it is supposed to be - none of this "expects" rubbish, it expects a video signal, including black level or any other kind of level. Unfortunately, a modern TV is programmed to be much more standards compliant for the sake of being a pain in the arse with including something no-one gives a shit about.
That's what I am using.
It doesn't work with an RF cable either, tried that.