Old Video Cassette Recorder. (very early one?) - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: RandyDarkshade
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: February 07, 2015, 02:41:18 pm
content: Hi, I'm new on these forums (but watch Dave regularly on YT) and while on a walk I did some dumpster diving and came across this very old looking video cassette recorder. It's very heavy too. I am 31 and have never seen one like this. The Video tape is double sided, it has the number one on one side and number 2 on the other, and the plastic cover will flip open in the direction needed to play the intended side. I have never seen a double sided video tape.Picture quality isn't great, could need it's heads cleaning, could be an old tape, tape itself looks okay though.The machine is a Phillips VR-2022

author: helius
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 07, 2015, 02:46:17 pm
content: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_2000It was interesting from a technological standpoint because it could fast-forward without bands of noise appearing on the screen. Beta and VHS couldn't.

author: Richard Crowley
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 07, 2015, 03:07:53 pm
content: Interesting. "Video 2000" (or V2000; also known as Video Compact Cassette, or VCC) was a third alternative competitor to "BetaMax" (Sony) and "VHS" (JVC). Of course, VHS won the "videocassette format war" and V2000 was an "also ran". Really interesting is that it is "double-sided" which none of the other videocassette formats (even the broadcast/industrial formats) could claim. Thanks for sharing that.

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2015, 11:41:29 am
content: The original version was very good, and the only reason it never caught on was the cost of the licensing fees from Phillips. That is another reason Sony failed with the technologically superior Betamax system over JVC's VHS system, as JVC was both willing to license the technology and also the fee per unit was very low.JVC made money with the system on every machine made, and also money on every tape. You might only have $1 per unit and 1c per tape, but on a million machines and a 100 million tapes this is very good money. As opposed to Sony, where you pretty only got a Sony branded machine ( I never saw any other manufacturer doing a Betamax unit) and a Sony branded tape, both at a 3-5 times price premium over VHS machines with a similar spec level.As well V2000 had stereo sound at the get go, and quite good video quality for the small tape it used, certainly better than the contender then, Umatic from Sony, and it suffered from both poor marketing and from a very high price for both the machines and the tapes themselves. That Phillips wanted a closed ecosystem with only themselves as supplier, while the rival VHS was open to having multiple machines, with wildly different prices, all with only the tape cassette itself and the layout of the path from the video head to the audio head fixed for compatability between machines. Even Phillips licensed the JVC VHS system after a few years, and made both systems as well.Sad to say I never saw a V2000 machine here, even though I still have 2 Umatic machines at work along with a top of the range Panasonic VHS machine. Time to take the Panasonic apart, it has a very common fault of the range, and it has not been used in a decade. HiFi stereo, SVHS and pretty much the best quality you could ever get from VHS, and as a professional grade unit very well made.

author: 0b01010011
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2015, 11:59:10 am
content: Quote from: SeanB on February 08, 2015, 11:41:29 amI have seen Sanyo branded beta machines in the when I lived in the UK - not sure if these were actually made by Sanyo or rebadged Sony's.

author: 0b01010011
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2015, 12:29:19 pm
content: I remember as a young child tearing down an old 1970's Philips VHS top loader VCR - with piano key buttons.Inside there were at least 20 little metal cans about 1/2 the size of a pack of cigarettes, each with a little PCB inside.I also remember my grandparents having a Mitsubishi top-loader VHS VCR. This was the luxury model with digital clock/timer and 'remote control'. Consisting of a little box with fast-preview, reverse-preview, and pause buttons, with a 20 foot long wire that plugged into the front! I can remember grandad making my younger brother and cousins amazed that their cartoons kept getting faster and going in reverse!

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2015, 12:51:48 pm
content: Quote from: 0b01010011 on February 08, 2015, 11:59:10 amIIRC Sanyo made a lot of mechanical parts for Sony, you had similar stamps in machines made by both. They probably had a close enough connection ( same culture and language) that they negotiated a license or some other agreement.

author: mikeselectricstuff
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2015, 01:16:42 pm
content: ISTR the V2000 system mounted the heads on piezo actuators so it could dynamically adjust the tracking - maybe this was to do with the clean forward/rewind.Fun story about these - many years ago, when VHS was in its heyday and new machines were £300-500, I want to a factory closure auction at a place that did repairs for some of the high-street chains.They had a lot of VCRs, many of them loan units to give customers while theirs were being repaired. VHS ones were selling for £20-50.A V2000 machine came up - a few slight titters went around the audience as it was announced. When the auctioneer said "Where shall we start, fifty pounds?", the whole audience spontaneously burst out laughing - the poor auctioneer had no clue what was going on!

author: baljemmett
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 08, 2015, 05:38:26 pm
content: Quote from: SeanB on February 08, 2015, 11:41:29 amVideo 2000 wasn't quite a single-supplier ecosystem - Grundig also made recorders for the format, although I think Philips might have had a stake in them at some point… I seem to recall a comment that the Philips and Grundig designs differed not only in terms of lacing arrangement, but also (in early models) in the relative position of the sound head - leading to picture and sound being out of sync if a recording was played back on the other manufacturer's machines. Later models converged on a single offset, although I don't know if it was a compromise or if one side won out over the other.My grandparents had a Grundig 2x4 Super, which lasted until sometime in the mid 90s; I distinctly remember it having separate controls to unlace the tape and eject the cassette, and a timer that was damn near unfathomable compared to my parents' Ferguson VHS machine (which apparently was actually a badge-engineered JVC model).

author: Kjelt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2015, 07:32:01 pm
content: Ha this was my first videore order when i was 16 (1983) could buy it from my fathers colleague who went abroad for a very low amount (then).Great picture only problem was that the remote control of this particular 2022 did not do forward with picture.So I opened the external ir decoder which had a 8035 or 39 with external eprom and wrote my first 8048 disassembler in basic to know where to mod the code.In the end it worked.Problem for this system is that it came relatively late to the us market and the rumour was that it finally lost because there was no software eg the videotheques did not have movies esp. Porn for vcc

author: free_electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2015, 08:24:32 pm
content: oh yes a video 2000 system !these were also sold by ITT. i've ripped a few (two or three) of these apart in my younger days .. sigh 30 years ago ...they use really nice Preh 'takt-switch' buttons with pins in a diamond structure.the central control board uses an 8031 or 8048 i believe. they chips are uPD series form NEC but they are essentially intel processors. there's like an 8255 io controller and a timer and so forth.i scavenged the ram and eproms an io chips from these things.that thing is crammed with circuit boards. all thru hole and lots of tcaxxx and tdaxxx chips. there should be a metal can in the back that holds a pal <-> secam converter ( it was an option )lots of goodies in those machines for the early hobbyist in me. finding one of those to strip was like christmas !

author: RandyDarkshade
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: February 09, 2015, 07:29:57 pm
content: Made a short video so it can be seen in action.

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 09, 2015, 07:42:45 pm
content: Worn heads there most likely.

author: coppice
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 09, 2015, 07:46:59 pm
content: Quote from: SeanB on February 08, 2015, 11:41:29 amSanyo and NEC both produced large numbers of BetaMax machines. They were cheaper than any VHS machine, so I assume they were not charged a high licence fee. TDK and others made BetaMAX tapes, and they were priced like VHS tapes from the same maker.

author: Richard Crowley
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 09, 2015, 08:04:05 pm
content: Quote from: SeanB on February 09, 2015, 07:42:45 pmYes. Or worn (or creased, or crumpled) tape.If there were a regular interference band across the picture it might be a tracking problem.Very interesting that it used dynamic tracking (piezo "motors" to move the heads up and down).Something found only years later in high-end helical-scan pro video tape machines (Sony, Ampex, Bosch-Ferenseh, et.al. "Type-C")http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_C_videotape

author: anachrocomputer
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 10, 2015, 01:56:15 pm
content: These Video 2000 machines are collectable enough to have their own mailing list, on Yahoo I think. People trade spares, machines, tapes and advice on repair. Some collectors search old V2000 tapes for "lost" TV episodes.

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 10, 2015, 04:27:16 pm
content: Quote from: coppice on February 09, 2015, 07:46:59 pmProbably they started making for Sony, then branded their own after the patents expired. As fellow Japanese conglomerates they were also very likely to have had an agreement as to markets, pricing and all sorts of things. Here in South Africa Sony was the only one who cornered the market, being the supplier to the government.