Last Gasp VHS: cheap 2000s Funai VCRs
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- Опубліковано 24 чер 2024
- A look at one of those cheap, disposable Funai-made VCRs from VHS's dying days as a format, in the early to mid 2000s. The same mechanism lived on in DVD/VCR combo units, until Funai finally ended production of it in 2016.
Time flow:
0:00 Introduction
0:40 Overview
2:42 First test
4:20 Playback features
5:27 Direct capture samples
7:16 LP mode playback
8:15 Mechanism & circuitry
10:20 Automatic head cleaner
11:02 Recording test
12:45 Common problems
13:49 Conclusion
14:18 Calling Funai
#VHS #VCR #RetroTech - Наука та технологія
The most obscure of these VCRs was the Pokémon VCR released circa 2001. It was blue and yellow in color and came with a stuffed Pikachu remote that controlled the most basic functions.
Funai were utter junk, cheaply made i had one and it only lasted 2 years started chewing tapes, so i decided it's going in the dump, JVC, Panasonic, Sharp are reliable brands, dont buy Funai it will cause issues for you..
"I was blue and yellow in color" ahh you wot? (They edited to correct it)
As soon I saw those lights on the front I recognised it. I even think it's the same model.
IIRC the pokemon themed n64 was also the same color scheme.
I saw one of those on eBay once or twice. Didn't bother with it, in part because it was mono only. I suspect branded models like that were intended as a secondary VCR for a home.
These things are a wonder of optimization, allowing consumers who can't afford much to buy a great little device to enjoy. The people who cost reduce devices like this are underrated - it's quite an art.
Absolutely right. I remember our first VCR from the early 80s, a far more complex affair but much more fussy about tracking, which had to be manually adjusted to get a stable picture. That this flimsy thing is working well 23 years later is indeed a testament to the cumulative effort that went in to refining the design of what is still a high precision device.
You said it! Sure there are better VCRs but these cheap ones have quite a bit of charm to them! I think people give too much flack on these. If they work, they work! You know the saying, if it ain't broke don't fix it!
OMG it’s Big Car!!
Hello Big Car!
A colleague commented that a device (like this) is perfected just about the time it becomes obsolete. I have had a couple of VCRs from around this time and the Auto Tracking is surprisingly good. Twenty years earlier the big name manufacturers were telling us that the only way of having accurate tracking was a solid Die-cast chassis and even then you had to twiddle a knob on the front to get a noise free picture on a recording made on another VCR.
The picture quality seemed pretty decent.
The customer service guy's been waiting for a call for 20 years. He'll be annoyed you called out of hours 😂.
I don't know of it's the same in the US but in the UK there are companies that will take over Customer Support for end of life products. So when you phone Company A on their helpline you get through to company Z who also support Company B,C,D and so on.
It's much cheaper for Company A as they pay a small retainer plus an amount for each call (or they might takeout insurance) Support is generally limited to what is in the manual and possibly some spare parts if Company A still had any.
I worked for one a while ago and we were getting calls for things that had been discontinued twenty years before.
@@prk55 I haven't tried to see if it's like that here in the U.S but I've called Nintendos old customer service number one time and it was still Nintendos Customer service which surprised me
Funai is still marketing products in the US to this day (of the LED TV and DVD player type, along with formerly-known big brands licensed out such as Sharp and Toshiba), so it's not a shock the support hotline still works, which is relieving here.
@@santiagorecords1895It's not like Nintendo has stopped making products. Why would you think the support number no longer worked? I mean, there is a chance that they set up a different number for different product lines, but that's usually only done for entirely different lines, like say, Sony and having different numbers for Playstation vs TVs, etc.
@@slightlyevolved I never said the number doesn't work!
I laughed so hard at the fuel checking segment. I can't believe the guy didn't recommend that one must taste it as well! LOLOL
As for these VCRs, I remember looking at those at Circuit City and marvelling at the insane low price but clearly at a cost of build quality. I vaguely recall buying a Symphonic Hifi version just to have as a spare VCR but I can't be totally sure.
I love these examples of consumer tech at the extreme end of their lifecycle. Where they have been simplified and cost reduced as much as possible.
The early VCRs were so complicated and dense... and by the end, all of that was gone. I suppose this is like the early color TVs versus ones at the very end of the line.
What else would you say went through such a huge transformation from very complex and expensive to almost free.
and i thought i was a hard drinker 🥴
EVERY piece of electronics has gone this route. In the 1970s, it took all FIVE of us kids (teens) a YEAR to buy our mother a microwave oven for Christmas (She REALLY wanted one!) We paid more for that Amana "Radarange" than I did for my first CAR! 😳
@@Ramdileo_sys I'm drinking "avgas" right now. (OK, just vodka, BUT I AM "flying" though.) 😜
@@jamesslick4790Yeah, reminds me of those dirt cheap DVD players you could get around 2008. They cost less than new movie releases. The most expensive component of the machine was the MPEG-2 license fee the manufacturer had to pay for producing it.
@@IvanKowalenko Yep! 👍👍
This is the sort of thing my grandparents would have bought to show cartoons to kids on rainy days, and that's just about it. They wouldn't have used it themselves. Does the job.
I had a sharp 4 head recorded play on console.
These VCRs make absolute sense, back in the day I was a field service engineer for various TV rental companies, rental was big in the UK through to the early 90's. What the customer wanted was exactly this , but instead they had the latest Panasonic, Sony etc with features up to the eyeballs that the average Mr & Mrs hadn't a clue how to use. All they wanted to do was play a film from the corner shop or tape Coronation Street - these machines came too late.
A simple, to the point video player... those quite existed in the rental market by the mid 1980s, simple to use, but unlike the VCR in this video, having pretty high build quality (as they had to survive in the rental market).
But I do not recall any such players being offered to consumers directly.
My parents did (actually they still do and it worked last time I checked about a year ago or so, it just lies at the bottom of a drawer) own a very basic VHS player from JVC back in the early 90s. And I'm purposefully saying "VHS player" and not VCR because that's what it was. No display, no OSD, no timed recording, no TV tuner even. You put in a tape and it plays it. That's just about it. Well, that particular model could record, but only from a line-level composite input and only if you explicitly pressed "record". So it could be used to copy tapes from another VCR or record the thing that was being watched (and we did record a couple of movies we wanted to "own" in this manner), but not really to time-shift.
It was also pretty compact, narrower than most VCRs. The video quality was pretty good for VHS. It was a European model, and it could play and record in both PAL and MESECAM, and it could even play NTSC tapes (as NTSC 4.43 or transcoded on the fly to PAL60). Sadly no HiFi stereo though, but still - it was pretty good at those basic things it could do, but it was stripped of almost all features that weren't essential.
@@kFY514 and my guess is that it cost ten times as much as one of these. I recall the first £199 shop brand VCRs appearing in late 1980s and everyone wondering how they could be made so cheaply. (the answer was that they had two circuit boards instead of six with a load of wiring between them).
I remember there were some video stores that would rent VCRs, which was quite pricey, but this was in the early days of home videos before VCRs became affordable to the average Joe.
@@lastotallyawesomebleach204 In the U.K. where VCRs really took off in the early 80s, lots of people rented their TV and VCR from the local TV shop. Repairs could be expensive and the machines quickly became outdated. I recall when a multi event timer added a £100 premium to the price of a VCR.
When I bought my first VCR back in the 1984 January sales a top loading Fisher for £299 was thought to be such a bargain the shop had sold out when I got there at 11 AM.
With the disappearance of included RF cords, cheap VCRs like this are what allowed me to play my video game consoles to my RF-only TVs in the late '90s. Simply connect the console's AV out to the VCR's AV in, and all your RF modulation is handled and output to the TV.
yep, quick n simple modulator box 😁
Didn't Radio Shack have much smaller RF modulator boxes that were around 20 bucks? The 15-1214 even has stereo inputs.
@@XyspadeI have one of those it's 15-2526
I never did! I didn't have the money for tapes after buying games.
@@Xyspade I'm sure they did, but I already had the VCR and watched things on VHS until I got an Xbox in the early 2000s, when I upgraded my AV set up at long last.
Oh wow didn't expect the 4:3 aspect ratio lol
Yeah that's a nice touch for this video :)
He is recording on an SD camcorder
@@dlarge6502 It can record in widescreen, to. But since the VHS tapes are all 4:3, I decided to match their aspect ratio.
VCRs are absolute marvels of technology and engineering, which the general public just took for granted. Even to this day I find them fascinating, and I still marvel at how they not only work, but work so well. Incredible devices.
That's very true. I saw something recently that said when you look at the amount of information they could store if you considered it as digital data, it was dozens of gigabytes' worth on each tape - at a time when most things were measured in kilobytes and megabytes were only just coming onto the scene. It's amazing how far ahead of its time it really was.
I agree. What I also find fascinating is the old mechanical jukeboxes.
@@vink6163true as dvhs holds up to 50 gigabytes on the largest tapes frlm what I read about as far as researching tech etc
@@vink6163alsp hdmi digital vhs decks exist for the 2004 and later if existant from after 04 as far as years of digital deck production for tapes goes.
@@vink6163 It should be noted that most VHS tapes were the equivalent of 240p. They looked better on tube televisions because of the differences in how the tube TVs function. Try playing a VHS tape on a modern 1080p television and it will actually look quite fuzzy unless you are sitting ten feet from the television.
The video quality actually looks really good for VHS. Really clean pause and ff/rew as well. It's really basic but feels perfectly adequate. The stereo version seems to be something I'd be pretty happy with.
Agree, it's one of the few cheap products that's not a total piece of junk. Don't record in EP and you're fine. Essentially the Crosley Cruiser of "VHS players."
Funny thing is, this looks like what my buddy gave me earlier today! Thankfully, move is stereo hi_fi. Haven't even had time to try it yet.
I owned the stereo version of the Funai sold around 1997. It was fine.
Likely they are using some kind of digital filtering to make it look better than normally is. You can see the edges are super sharp (like a "sharpening" tool PhotoShop for for video).
@@BillAnt The same filtering that would have only been available in the best TV studios twenty years earlier ?
I bought this same exact model at Walmart for $32 under the name Magnavox. It chewed up my tapes within the first 3 weeks. I returned it and got another model identical and it did the same thing. I threw it in the trash and went to Best buy and bought a DVD// VCR combo for $259. I still have it.
Had a similar experience with the same or a similar Magnavox branded VCR from Walmart. It lasted a month or two before it began eating my tapes.
As someone who deals with VHS machines all the time, this one actually exceeded all my expectations. I've heard a lot of rumors about these and thus tried to avoid them at all costs, but in all the seriousness I've seen worse ... MUCH worse picture and sound quality from other machines and far more respectable brands.
On a side note, here's something which maybe you didn't know. Funai was a respectable corporation throughout 80s and early 90s, and they were the ones to first introduce the geared idler transmission. Because in the original specs, JVC made it using rubber idler wheel, which was prone to slipping and wearing faster than gears. And that is ... or rather was something which all the brands assimilated, there hasn't been a new VHS with idler drive since the late 80s, or perhaps early 90s at most.
The reason to avoid them wasn't picture quality but build quality. Also, Funai was somewhat respected in the 1980's and 1990's (in Europe only as a cheap store brand, together in the lowest market segment with Samsung and Goldstar) mostly because they used Shintom decks with a geared idler (and even those had some design flaws). After they ditched Shintom, the last bit of build quality went out as well.
@mjouwbuis true, their (Funai Shintom) mech mk.3 is actually my personal favorite and probably the easiest to repair. These things just keep on running, usually just need some lube, new set of belts and a pinch roller.
On a side note, yes I am aware that the modern Funai machines have terrible build quality. In fact, right after I wrote that comment above, I received a 6hd stereo unit with mechanical issue where it couldn't thread the tape. Turned out to be a simple issue however, as there was a foreign object blocking the gear rack, thus causing the loading motor pulley (and its belt) to stretch and slip.
What I meant to say is that it actually has much, much better build quality than what I expected. So, to put it simply, for as long as it runs, and nothing serious happens, these are surprisingly reliable and durable machines ... considering just how cheap they were put together.
For sure. I was actually quite impressed with the pause quality.
The one thing that I really liked about these VCR was that, if you didn't have the remote, you could still access the menu function, like you showed.
Yes, and you could still access the AV input without the original remote, unlike most TV's at the time. Back in the mid-late 2000's, the remote for my TV got broken and I couldn't find a universal remote with an input button that functioned properly, which was fine up until they shut down all the OTA analog TV signals. If it wasn't for one of those VCRs, that TV would've been a useless 200lb paperweight because there was no other way to connect a DTV converter box.
I worked at an electronics retailer back in the mid 2000s when VCRs hit the bottom pricing. We had a $20 (Canadian!) model that was absolutely junk. Over half of them were returned within a week, and I remember we had a huge pile in the back to be "destroyed". I guess one positive is that ones that didn't die from poor quality control seem to have lasted longer than I would have expected. I guess because of the cost cut, simple design - less to go wrong!
5:00 This is due to these not having reel table speed sensors (another cut cost). VCRs with high speed rewind use those sensors to determine when it gets close to the beginning, to slow down and avoid snapping the tape. The lack of speed sensors also means it won't have a "time remaining" counter, but I'm sure the people who bought these didn't noticed. .
7:41 That's actually really impressive clarity for scanning and pause in LP. I have Panasonic models that aren't that good.
One notable feature of all the last-gasp VCRs is that they are so light that you have to hold the machine when putting in a tape to prevent it from sliding. The reason for this is when you try and push the tape in, they are so light and have plastic feet with little or no grip and so the VCR will slide around rather than tape being pushed in.
I remember I added big rubber feet to one of these AND a room lamp on top of it so it wouldn't slide ⛷
That's a pretty decent quality for VHS standards even in SP quality, no blurring images, and the bottom of the tape is very clean, not so much drops
You obviously meant "even in LP quality".
I hear plenty of older folks calling them VHS Players. I think it's one of those terms that has caught on with the younger crowd and spread to older folks, like 'vinyls' as well.
I call them VCRs, tell my friends my age to call them VCRs, and do the same with records/LPs.
My parents had one of those Symphonic VCRs, and had it plugged into a cheap Emerson TV, and had a cheap Garrard CD/AM/FM/Cassette boombox stacked on top. It was situated downstairs in the (finished basement), aka home office, which also featured 3 Gateway 2000 computers.
The *real* stereo with the nice JVC VCR, Yamaha receiver/tape deck/CD player, RCA TV, and Boston/Kef/NHT speakers was upstairs.
It wasn't just the cheap VCRs that got the lightweight treatment and various cost cutting measures. I have a SVHS from 2002 which I bought new. It has a lot of cool features. It has a tape test procedure (kind of like a biasing feature on a tape deck) which measures the quality of the tape and then adjusts the recording quality accordingly.
It also has a SVHS feature that can record in SVHS to a standard tape. I don't know if it achieves the full 400 lines, but it looks better than a VHS recording. It has an accurate tape counter so that if you put in a tape that's in the middle, it knows it it is in the middle. It also knows the length of the tape. All the recordings I made back in the day with this mode still look great, so it didn't degrade.
It has a super fast smart rewind. Since it knows where the tape is, it goes into a turbo mode when rewinding, but then goes into a slower mode when it almost done.
It has a full set of inputs and outputs with S-Video jacks in and out.
But it is just as light as a cheap deck from the era and includes those cutout sections you showed on this one. By the end, all of the electronics were put in a single chip. Early VCRs were loaded with boards. One big board and a bunch of daughter cards with each card doing one job. Like the tuner took up a whole board. The encoder took up a full board. etc. Some of the early ones were like 40-50 pounds. Almost the whole thing made from metal.
It sound like one of last high end JVC VCR's?
A lot of tapes could be converted to SVHS and worked fine
which model is it, please
I have a 6 head sony that would do high speed rewind and of course retract the tape back into the cassette. It would ramp up very fast and slow at the end similar to the one you describe. We had an old early 80's Sharp front loader and it was very heavy and quite large, made of hard plastic. My sony was metal by the way.
@@hugoromeyn4582 Maybe. It's branded Mitsubishi, but it could just be a re-labeled JVC.
VCR's were a marvel of electronic engineering. Most people over 50 years old can appreciate the video rental stores in the 70's through the early 2000's. They were a blast. Especially the secluded Adult Section room.
The first VCRs actually cost more than the Apple Vision Pro adjusted for inflation. It's amazing they ever got this cheap.
@@irtbmtind89 My friend financed a Sony SL-8200 in 1979. He bought it just to record Star Trek episodes. It only recorded for one hour. Cost was $1200.00 USD. It was massive. Great engineering. Very collectable and rare now.
@@rancosteel A lot of early marketing for VCRs (as well as the original Philips laserdisc players, which were endorsed by Leonard Nimoy) is actually directly aimed at people who wanted to watch Star Trek whenever they wanted.
@@irtbmtind89 Ironically, the home video market was fueled by the porn industry. Couples didn't have to go to porno theaters anymore. Kind of interesting and never talked about.
@@irtbmtind89 Give it twenty years and you will be able to buy a Symphonic Vision Professional for $50.
@rancosteel Except everyone always falsely claims that Betamax failed because you couldn't get porn on it.
p.s. In the early 1980s U.K. there was originally no censorship of video tapes so you could get to see things (like things going in and out) that would have never been allowed to be shown in the cinema. Don't ask how I know 🙂
Nice to see a 4:3 video on the 'tube! As cheap and plasticky as these last machines were, I'm still kind of impressed at the engineering that made it possible to produce such a cheap and simple machine. The early machines cost a month's wages or more, weighed a ton, weren't that reliable and were probably the most technically advanced thing in the household at the time. 23 years later and they've become so cheap and simple that they're disposable.
In the 1980s U.K. most people rented a VCR, mainly because they were so expensive and unreliable. In real terms one of these Funais was probably the same as months rental twenty years earlier.
The flip phone with the super large buttons really sold the end of the segment.
we need more vids in 4:3, i may be biased as i still watch youtube on a late model trinitron but i digress. retro tech covered in retro aspect ratios just feels right.
i have a vcr from the early 2000s, a really nice jvc model, i had no idea they made them this cheap because even the jvc wasn't that expensive yet had all the bells and whistles of a nicer vcr
Hey check out my VHS Revue episodes. All 4:3!
You still use a CRT on your computer? RIP your eyes.
@@computerkid1416 What's wrong with CRT monitors? Most of those very common 1024x768 85Hz models still look alright.
@@computerkid1416 My main monitor's backlight just took a dump and I can't afford the $250 for a new one 💀
I have a surprisingly-nice Panasonic 4-head VCR that also supports stereo input/output and it was manufactured shockingly-late into the format's lifespan. November 2005- the same month the Xbox 360 was released.
I’ve waited years for you to make a video about these. Happy to finally see it.
Still rocking my Panasonic HiFi VCR. I worked in broadcasting in the 90’s and learned how to service 3/4” Umatic and BetaSP decks so maintaining my personal VCR was always easy.
I used to have a Samsung VCR/DVD Recorder combo and the VCR and DVD Player/Recorder still works, but the VCR itself was made by Funai, and it was from around 2007 or so until VHS VCR’s are completely died out by 2009. I got rid of it and replaced it a Panasonic PV-950H Omnivision VCR from around 1999 for $2 and it still works, and it doesn’t include a remote. The Panasonic VHS VCR was not Funai.
That VCR worked far better than I expected. I am curious if this was really a four head machine, or if Funai was counting the audio/control and erase heads and the actual spinning drum only had two. (They did this with the later VCR/DVD combos, where the included VCR also lacked hi-fi and possibly even linear stereo audio.)
Even with the tape loaded, head wear in the fast winding modes will be nearly nonexistent. The tape is floating on a sort of air bearing as the head drum turns.
I had one of those VCRs around the mid-90s, and it did perform like it had four proper video heads. Rapid scan and still worked well in both SP and EP modes. The two-head machines I remember usually looked much worse in SP in those operations than even the LP mode shown in the video.
I also agree that head wear in fast wind might not be as bad as it may seem even with the tape still loaded around it. The relative speed of the heads past the tape in any case is much higher than the linear tape speed even in fast wind, and the amount of time the heads are running in this mode isn't normally very long compared to that of playing through a full-length tape normally. Also, I assume some engineering work did have to go into making sure the tape tension isn't excessive in the fast-wind mode, otherwise there likely would be problems (hence why many earlier VCRs did not attempt this).
Yes it is a 4 head machine. Otherwise it can't play LP. I have hacked my AKAI 2-head to play in LP, but the SP heads are too wide for the thinner LP tracks, so lots of noices and interferences are produced. It has to be a 4 head for LP, and 6 head for SLP :)
If you're talking about normal playback, the two-head VCRs I once had were all able to play SP, LP, and EP/SLP just fine. This doesn't require a separate head for each speed, but it does mean that the 2-head machines have to use heads small enough to handle EP/SLP, which makes their SP/LP performance less than it otherwise would be, and I believe this is also the reason why fast-scan and still modes looked bad on anything except EP/SLP on those units. The 4-head models normally have one pair of heads optimized for SP and one optimized for EP/SLP so that they can perform special playback effects in both. Apparently manufacturers decided LP wasn't used by enough people to be worth the cost and trouble to optimize.
Programming VCRs was one of the funniest things in the 80s and 90s. The most intelligent people like college professors and PhD's had to ask their 10 year old sons and/or daughters to set up the family VCR to record the tonight show...
I like to say that using a computer is 90% reading comprehension and experimentation and 10% reading the manual. The same applies to more dedicated devices, too. I suspect the people who had trouble setting their VCR to record anything are the ones with an aversion to reading any documentation they don't absolutely have to.
It _kind-of_ makes sense that a professor might be the type. They spend all day reading papers and marking assignments, and after all that, they really don't want to read anything else that's not for entertainment.
Oh man. We had a pile of these Symphonic stereo VCRs at one of my old jobs. I absolutely hated using them as they were just so bad. I'm actually surprised at how good the video quality looked in your video. I don't remember them looking anywhere near as good.
and I'm glad you noticed the phone number as well! I saw the phone number and Googled it to see if it was still active. Quite surprised to see Funai is still around as I've not seen anything from them in ages.
Crazy the way the world works sometimes. I was just cleaning my VCR as I tried to watch a tape last night and the picture was all out of whack. The remote doesn't work anymore so I can't adjust tracking. This morning I looked to see of they still made new VCRs and this is the first thing that popped up. Love the vintage videos my friend!
Fancy seeing you here. Love your videos
Oh, hey Erik! Nice to see you here :)
I think I actually have the same VCR as you, Stereo Memorex VCR. it’s been reliable so far, but makes sketchy sounds when rewinding.
Later VCRs had auto tracking but manual was available if auto didnt work coz the tape was messed up or the transport was gummed up.
@@ozzie_goat One of my favorite channels!
When it comes to demonstrating the miniaturisation of electronics, the VHS deck has to be the greatest example. At school in the mid 80s, I was given the task of carrying that Ferguson Videostar deck downstairs from one classroom to another - a silver fronted toploader with piano keys that stuck out. _BOY FOCK_ it was heavy! I know they were loaded with circuit boards, but were those boards impregnated with lead?
HELLO fancy seeing you here! 🙂
No they were soldered with lead 🙂 For anyone outside the U.K. Ferguson VCRs were made by JVC as the companies were linked. We came very close to having VHD videodiscs here because of that.
I actually still use VHS, not just to watch old recordings and movies, but to record from time to time as well. Is it a perfect format? No. But I look at it this way. VHS is a reliable, consumer friendly, time-tested, and practical format that has existed for over 47 years (since 1976). It may be a standard definition, non-hd format, but even some digital television stations in my area broadcast at 480i. If it’s good for television stations, why wouldn’t it be good for the average daily user like myself. The sound quality VHS offers is also very good (provided it is in Hi-Fi stereo). Considering all of this, why stop using VHS just because it’s an old format when it still has it’s uses? I believe in using both new, state of the art technology, as well as sticking to some technologies that may be old, but are still useful.
Are you kidding? I still record on VHS! I've been making custom VHS tapes and uploaded one on my channel earlier this year. In real life the only thing I watch on TV is both NASCAR and Me-TV and with my converter box I can record them both easily if I don't wanna record on the external HDD. If it ain't broke don't fix it!
I as well play and record VHS tapes. It's great.
I still using cassette tapes for recording BBC radio 4.
I have a Funai combo unit from July 2016. Probably one of the last ones ever made.
Where did you get it?!
Yes, I think 2016 was the final year Funai made them.
That aviation fuel segment was fascinating. I loved hearing a guy derisively say “politically correct” just like they used to when I was younger. It’s interesting how the euphemism treadmill has moved-on and they don’t say “politically correct” anymore.
Plus, I love the way he tries to assuage the conscience of the viewer. “Well-spread avgas”, as if squirting it _real good_ on the lawn will stop lead accumulation in the water table!
Why not keep it and dispose of it properly, just like we do with a used oil can? (Unless we were still throwing used motor oil on grass in the early 90s… I thought that stopped by the 80s but I could be wrong.)
Anyway, here I thought the cheapo Philips VCR my family bought in 2001 or 02 (to replace a TV with a built in VCR which had died) was bottom of the barrel! But it still had a VFD, VHS hifi, a very comprehensive programme timer (you could easily schedule way more than would fit on one tape, but we never did), fast rewind which intelligently slowed-down in the first few minutes of the tape, etc. I guess it was actually midrange for the time!
I just found it fascinating that he was openly admitting to violating several environmental protection laws. And yeah back then "politically correct" is what the same people would call "woke" today.
Back when I was your age, after our navgas shower, squirting a heathy dose of Eau de Navgãs smellums, and topping up with a bowl of our favorite breakfast cereal, Super Sugar Navgas Balls, no one said a word unless you scattered tested navgas closer than 1 dolup per large thumb squared!
You're such a zealot!
@@fluffycritter I must admit, I was afraid of UA-cam putting my comment behind an uploader review section no one ever checks if I’d said it! Commentary on particular behaviour often gets mistaken for that behaviour by these automated filters.
But that’s what I was getting at, yes. It was nostalgic to hear the old outrage term :p I’m so tired of misuse of the new one!
And don’t you know, environmental protection laws are just silly wishful thinking with no real effect on the real environment! (They also say, to assuage their conscience in much the same manner.)
TBH I wasn’t sure if the relevant laws had come in yet when that video was made, or if there was just debate about having them, so I didn’t want to get too specific there!
@@andreasu.3546 why thank you!
Man seeing 411VM 45 in your videos is such a trip. I can't tell you how many times i've watched it. I have it sitting here on my shelf with my other skate vids. So cool!
Something about your comment on the clock and remote led me to a flashback about top-load VCRs with wired remotes, incandescent bulbs, and mechanical counters. I think I was 12 or 13 before I saw a VCR with a VFD clock/counter and wirelesss remote.
That pilot who so dismissively threw the fuel on the ground was probably the sort who dumped his used motor oil in a corner of his backyard.
Amazing to think that QVC were promoting Funai VCR/DVD combi's as late as 2014! I think Funai produced them until 2016, as a last breath of the VHS tape with a focus more on converting them to DVD's.
I went to my living room to get my current VCR made by JVC just to take that cleaning thing out of it, since I am always cleaning it with a q-tip and proper IPA for VCR's, although it is expired since 2003 hahahaha
Thank you again for one more amazing video, Kevin! I love it ♥
I've found it is best to clean the heads with copy paper with a little alcohol on the paper.
Most VCR makers would include warnings in the manual not to use Q-Tips because the cotton strings can get caught up in the heads, though they are fine for cleaning the audio heads, capstan and other items not in the spinning drum..
@@christo930 I heard about that too, but since I clean the heads very gently an not scrubbing them it usually does not let cotton strings loose on it. But I really appreciatte your comment, I'll try using copy paper once again to compare results ^^
It's not only the sponge thing getting dirty, but just like the belts the foam rubber can perish with age. At that point it's not so much a head cleaner but a head damager! If you squeeze the sponge and it doesn't go back to round when you let go, it's perished and should be removed.
In the UK we just called them 'Videos'. Also remember in the 80s when they were sought after item by burglars. People would cover the LED display in case a burglar looked through the window at night when they went to bed!!
So many things to say! Oddly enough, my parents had a ~1988 JVC VCR that did not have LP mode (it could play, but not record.) In the last 90s or 2000s, I bought one of those no display units branded Phillips Magnavox, and I was super happy I could finally get an affordable HiFI Stereo VCR! I used it for years, with my 13" TV hooked up via RF and the stereo audio going to my stereo, it eventually ate a tape and got replaced with a (IIRC) Panasonic. Other thing I have found, the mono versions of those VCRS seem to only have two video heads on the head drum, despite being marketed as a 4 head unit (I've taken enough apart to know it's not a fluke) but the stereo versions have four heads on the head drum.
These use Dual Azmuth heads, so there are actually two heads in each slot paired together, for four heads total.
@@vwestlife Kevin.. trick for that sponge at 14:03 👆 .. and any sponge like that.. headphones sponge.. sound isolation panels.. pillows.. even the sponge for the dishes😊 ........ soaked up wets with ethanol 96% (Rubbing alcohol normal pharmacy alcohol).. wash it with the alcohol just like you do with the sponge for the dishes but with alcohol instead of water 😉 ......... it will put huge.. fluffy like a poodle😳 .. but when the alcohol evaporate... 😧 Magic😧 the sponge is brand new in his original size and shape... like if just come out of factory 😦 ... try it with some old crushed headphones sponges or pillow for example.. is amazing..
Nice touch, using an old SD camcorder for one of your segments, to sort of replicate the look that we might get from this VCR, and then getting right on by recording straight through this VCR to have some of what you're showing us in that exact look, rather than just the commercial tapes.
I have that exact VCR, I got it for free from a pile of junk on the side of the road like 10 years ago and I was amazed something so cheap and flimsy worked as good as it did, still going like new
Should've watched this on a Funai TV for the complete Funai experience.
Honestly, as much as people trash these, just like the TV's these do their jobs just fine just as long as you keep your expectations realistic.
I still have my Sony SLV-N70 4 head hi-fi stereo VCR. Outside of replacing the belt, I haven't had any issues with it in the 23 years I've owned it!
This VCR has a surprisingly good playback quality. And it would be an awesome gem to have Aloha Hawaii tape fully published on UA-cam!
I keep seeing u alot in my recommended ive been subbed for years, nice to see u still uploading. also do more videos about these weird brands i like them
VHS. The king of all home videotape based formats.❤ The LP mode was my favorite. The Sharp branded VCRs featured fast rewind and wonderful picture sharpening circuitry.
I have a digitizing setup with 3 VCR : 1 Philips Made from the 90's (Mid-Range tier), 1 JVC S-VHS from the 80's (High-Range tier) and one of the latest VCR/VHS combo made by Samsung which includes a HDMI output natively. The last one has that Funai mechanism and, for reading, it works just as fine but is more sensitive against tapes which has suffered from bad recording etc.
Some '90s-early '00s Philips VCRs have a horrible 'feature': the head drum has sleeve bearing instead of ball bearing. If the oil dries up (or crawls out on the bottom, like mine did), it will howl like crazy and verical lines on the picture become wavy, then it soon will become so bad that the drum will be unable to reach the needed RPM and the VCR stops. To remove the upper drum, you have to remove a very special compression ring which requires a propiretary tool. The upper drum has some conical holes close to the bearing, I guess that is for oiling it. I tried to oil it, but probably the oil I used was too thick, and I applied too much, so it ended up flooding the tape with oil.
I will have a few more attempts with it, I will try to source the compression ring removal jig, if it won't be succesful, I will try to wash the excess oil from it with brake cleaner while it is still assembled, and apply some thinner oil... What a nightmare! If you grab the upper drum and you can pull it upwards several millimeters with little force, yours also have sleeve bearing. I think only Philips came up with this horrible idea as a cost cutting measure. Even these super cheap Funais have proper ball bearings in their drum motors.
I liked your A-B recording comparison. The first time I realized the difference in SLP audio quality was around 1999 when I went to make an audio mix tape on my VCR for a gathering with friends. I didn't want to have to change CDs or audio cassettes so I used my Hi-Fi Stereo VCR to record a couple of 6-hour VHS mix tapes. After starting playback, I realized how dull the audio sounded and, after thinking about it, realized that the slower pass of the tape didn't leave much room for good-quality audio recording. I also wish I never got rid of my S-VHS deck. Those are becoming very hard to find.
Are you sure you were recording in Hi-Fi mode? Hi-Fi sounds about the same (in theory) at EP and SP
@@gammaboost Yes, Hi-Fi mode sounds identical in EP and SP, it's just more prone to dropouts in EP.
I have several long recordings of radio shows (six to eight hours at a time) in VHS Hi-Fi EP and they sound incredible.
6:47 Love those General-MIDI Orchestra Hits!
Back when we could find VCRs released in the wild, we'd found at least a couple of these wee beasties. Ended up giving them to the Salvation Army...
That preflight segment was wild 😂
My first new VCR was a 13” Symphonic TV/VCR combo built entirely by Funai - this was in 1996 (my 12th birthday). From day one, that thing made odd noises when loading and unloading tapes - it lasted until around 2000 or so when the optical tape end sensor failed (a common issue with those decks). The first issue was actually the threaded coax jack tearing off fairly early on in its life, which I was able to solder to the RF shielding (poorly - but it worked). I weirdly miss that TV for some reason…
I had the Emerson Version of this same VCR when I was a kid, and it was an incredibly reliable VCR. We bought it with an Emerson TV in the early 2000s and the first ever Tape we watched on it was s Scooby Doo VHS Tape.
That was really quite good picture and sound quality considering 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Funai also had TV/VCR combos with the same VCR as shown in this video. My grandparents had one growing up, and my cousins and I wore out the VCR! Brings back memories!
Funai made lot of these VCRs for Magnavox, Samsung, RCA, etc in the 2000s. I wish Funai reproduces VCRs for video enthusiasts, since there’s not that many used VCRs online that are affordable.
Funai never made VCRs for Samsung and RCA. You are right with them making VCRs for Magnavox though. They've also made VCRs for Emerson Radio, Sylvania, LXI (Sears), Toshiba (Only for certain VCR/DVD combo models), Sanyo, and Hitachi.
@@TheVCRKing Samsung outsourced to Funai for standalone VCR models only in the 2000s, not their flagship VCR/DVD models. RCA VCRs in the 2000s had the Funai mechanism after JVC stopped making the original mechanism!
My dad used to have a gold colored Sony VHS player from the early/mid 90s, and man was that thing robust. Eventually my dad "upgraded" to a VCR/DVD combo (can't remember the brand) and the gold VCR got moved to the "kids room." The VCR portion of the VCR/DVD combo had a habit of eating tapes and after 3 years that's all it would do every time you stuck a tape in it. The gold VCR lasted all the way up until like 2009 when one day it just wouldn't turn on anymore. It still played tapes until the day it died and for a VCR that had zero maintenance done to it, that's one heck of a lifespan!
I could not have expected you to have a different cell phone. Very fitting.
Always nice to hear your soothing voice Kevin.
Got me a VCR (again) just recently, i found a fully working one (with the remote included) in very good shape for almost no money on second hand. Mine is a Sony SLV-E210, i'm guessing from the late 90's. The mech looks pretty much the same as in this "Symphonic" so i assume there were a very limited number of manufacturers of them at the end of the VCR-era. It also has that ridicoulus "self cleaning" nonsense device, which i didn't remove but should do.
I use it most for the fun, and 'cause i'm a vintage tech-geek 😀. Also sometimes when i sell tapes online i want to make sure they work and has the correct recording on them.
Funny is, i keep seeing VCR's at the local second hand stores all the time, and people obviosly buy them as they dissapear after a short while.
I have slv-av100 from Sony. It's a stereo (I believe it's a hundred watts) with a VCR built in. It's great for recording audio to VCR tapes. It has a bunch of inputs, but cannot deal with a phono unless the phono has a pre-amp and puts out line level audio. The built in tuner is pretty good too. It was a fortune new, but I bought it as open box for like 300 or 400, it's been so long I don't remember.
Wondeful selection of clips❤
Amazing video. I have such fond memories of VCRs and taping all my programs on VHS tapes. I bought alot of tapes to watch my favorite shows and sports. What a beautiful era before streaming.
My family's first DVD player was actually a Sylvania-badged Funai DVD-VHS combo unit from around 2002. I remember the VCR had Hi-Fi stereo, but recorded very "hot" chroma. It began eating tapes after only a couple of years, though.
That's what happens with these. 😢
Both combo VHS / DVD players and VHS / DVD-R recorders were more popular than expected; Panasonic actually released a VHS / Bluray player.
Yeah, and it goes for ridiculous money on the Bay.
Yet another great video - how do you do it? Thank you so much for this, small details that are so helpful, and yet your sense of humor makes this all so much fun to watch! cheers, all the best to you!
today i realized your TV is branded "ÖLEVIA". (fits perfectly into the sketchyness of the Symphonic and the Hawaii promo tape.)
Perfect vaporwave gear!
I was the one who the family and others depended on to program their VCR's. Setting the clock and teaching how to program scheduled recording. I know you remember the VCR+ device. I still have one. The later models of machines had VCR+ built into them. I also remember the codes in TV-Guide to set the recording time for TV shows. Wow, how far we've come.
04:49 The rewind speed is slow, because it detects not too much tape remained. So, try to rewind a whole 60 minute tape and you'll see and hear the fast rewind. 😉
(At least my similar VCR have really fast rewind, the sound of it is insane.)
That would be true with decks that actually have fast rewind, but all the VCRs similar to this that I saw in the late-90s and early 2000s only had the one “standard” rewind speed regardless of the tape length. In that case, typical T120 rewind time was usually around four or five minutes or so.
@@TravisTev I have a gray two head stereo VCR ‒ with no display, like in this video ‒ and it has fast rewind, it can sound pretty ridiculous when fully rewinding a full tape! 🔊
It seems there were quite a few variations in terms of VCR features. I recall the first time seeing such a rewind being early 2000s or so. That one was about 60 seconds, which was impressive. Before that I remember having a TV/VCR combo which advertised a “fast rewind” feature, but you had to manually activate it and it somehow never seemed all that much faster than normal rewind.
@@TravisTev My 2000's VCR have two channel stereo sound (not hi-fi), analogue cable tuner and fast forward/rewind. It only has two Scart connectors (I live in EU) as input/output, no front display, just some LEDs like in this video.
My minimum requirement is stereo sound, I don't accept mono VCRs for myself!
My grandma had a VCR like this that she got from Walmart in 2004. It was made by Magnavox. It broke after two years, so she bought another Magnavox from Walmart which still works as of early 2023.
Our only survivor VCR at home is also a Funai, very similar to this, just silver. I did not know it was so popular. Its last task was to digitize the family videos with a usb capture thingy.
For me, the "last gasp" VHS were those grey Panasonic "Super Drive" 2 head VHS VCRs with a tape mechanism practically made of tinfoil. As you can imagine they didn't last 5 minutes! I actually tried using the "satellite link" function once back in the day so it could change the channel on my set top box, it never worked!
I have a Panasonic from 03 that works perfectly 20 yrs later. When are you talking about?
These generation Funai made vcrs had some serviceable parts like the mechanism could be unplugged from the board and lifted out after removing the 5 screws. But the later ones from 2002 I think had the wires soldered to the board so the mechanism couldn't be separated from the circuit board without unsoldering
I have a VCR similar to this one, but sold under the Sanyo brand and with a DVD player as well. Interestingly, the button that switches between the DVD player and the VCR seems to maybe switch between two entirely different systems, as the VCR menu looks and sounds identical to the one show in the video, while the DVD player uses different menu buttons and looks completely different.
I had one like that, opening it up it was two devices. All the VCR/DVD button did was change the input on the VCR to the DVD. The giveaway was separate DVD and VCR menu buttons on the remote. You could switch to the VCR menu during playback of a DVD .
I have an Emerson branded one that does the same. Emerson and Sylvania were two more infamous Funai brands, as well as a lot of Magnavoxes from the same time. I'm sure it was cheaper to use the existing VCR OS and a DVD OS and just switch between them instead of developing a new system.
@@Xyspade Seems exactly like that.
We have two JVC branded VCRs from this time period in our house, one of them being a higher end S-video model. Both have the higher speed rewind functions but will slow down towards the end of the tape, most likely to eliminate damage to the tape when it reaches the end. They also both have the time and counter display on the front like the older design models. But the button layouts are very similiar to the one you featured in this video. They were heavily used early on in their lives but not used so much now, but never had any issues with either one of them.
Some terminal nostalgia damage from this one. Love it.
I have a couple of these in my collection! I should really take those cleaning pads out! It's crazy seeing this compared with a Magnavox Touch Tune VCR from 1978 that I've been working on repairing! That beast is so massive, heavy and over engineered compared to tiny plastic late model ones!
The most important feature of a VCR back in the day was it's ability to record TV programming and set the timer to do it for you automatically. Even if you had a mono TV, a HiFi Stereo VCR was idea for the HiFi audio recording especially on EP/SLP. The mono VCRs used older and cheaper linear audio which provided a dull audio with a lovely waterfall in the audio. It got the job done, but I spent the extra money on HiFi. Even HiFi VCRs were pretty inexpensive after 2000. VCRs were also more dependable than early DVD recorders. Imagine going to watch your timer recorded TV program just to get an error message. I often also recorded on VHS as a backup or just only recorded on VHS. My second DVD recorder which was pretty much near the end of the line for DVD recorders didn't give me any problems. In the end VCRs just got the job done.
Actually, that's not bad from that VCR. Clean picture. No apparent noise. What's not to like?
There's clearly some digital magic post-processing going on here.
Picture memory, line doublers, stabilization, since the picture looks that way.
As for an entry level VHS VCR, that's very good.
Of course Funai left a lot to be desired to the cost cutting department.
VHS of course is capable of more, but it works and people seem to have been buying these in bulks.
I'm shocked at how adequate the picture quality is. Not great, but perfectly fine for many VCR use cases.
I'd laugh if there was a VCR revival in a few years time, where the Funai mech (or a clone) becomes the Tanashin of VHS mechanisms.
Unlike Tanashin clones nobody now makes a new VCR so if you see one of these (especially the stereo version) in a thrift store I would go for it.
Funai distributed these same exact VCRs, as Funai, Symphonic, Magnavox, SV 2000, Emerson, Sanyo, Sylvania, and other brand names to get around the various retailer's price matching guarantees. Wall Mart, Best Buy, Circuit City, etc. would each have a different exclusive brand.
Great video. Love last gasp VCR idea
Hey VWestlife. A very special Happy Easter to you and your family. I hope it becomes very special for you.😀
Let's be honest.. the reason why we don't set the time on our VCRs is because right after venturing in the menu to set it, something like a power outage or cord bump happens to reset the clock, and you just don't feel like resetting it again.
Starting in 1999, I had VCRs like this for the longest time! Honestly I have a soft spot for these VCRs. I know they're not the best quality but still! Brands I used in order: Magnavox, a Sanyo VWM-680, GE (Edit: had it confused for an Orion unit), Sylvania, Samsung (VCR/DVD Player), Emerson (2 of them, first was mono and second was stereo, guess which one I liked more), and my Magnavox VCR/DVD Recorder which I still have. However the VCR quit working around 2017. I think it's bad off cuz nothing I do to fix it works. I don't wanna rid of it because it has a DVD recorder and a Digital TV Tuner which is great if I wanna record TV off of DVD or something. If that kaputs also, no big loss. At least I have my converter box!
I'd like to get a Citizen one day just to have soon!
This might be the Crosley or Tanashin equivalent for VCRs. In late 90s in Brazil my family bought one from local Gradiente brand that is just a different shell for the one shown in your video. Same features, inputs and and image quality but it had a digital display and remote control. The race to the bottom comes for any technology.
That whirring sound when you inserted the tape brings back a lot of memories
I could've seen myself hooking this up to a satellite in the early 2000s. Tivos/DVRs were expensive and an extra subscription. We had antennas though and we used VCRs with the record timer to record shows. I eventually upgraded to a DVD-RAM recorder when they had come down a fair bit in price but hard disk recorders would've still been quite expensive. Blank VHS tapes that weren't absolute garbage were becoming difficult to come by by that time.
I'm curious if you could've bought blank tapes from 3M? I thought they were by far the best blanks I ever bought. When I was in the market for blank dvd's and cd's, it seemed 3M wasn't making those.
@@charles2241 I dunno I just had to get them from like target or Kmart or something because I was a teenager and had limited options of where to go and couldn't order anything online.
Another great video. I always get disappointed when I see how little there is inside. My first VCR was a Sanyo 9300 Batman - and it weighed a Ton ( Actually book a coffee table ) and It always amazed me how much was inside , and what it was busy doing. I then went to VHS and Brought a JVC HRD 750 - It was a Nicam Model. I then went for a SVHS Mitsubishi HSM1000 - another big beast the cost £ 700-00 .Spent ages looking at reviews, picture and sound was amazing. Now we have machines where the tape is more expensive than the recorder. I know it progress - but I do lament the physical media - being able to physically press a button to play ! which is probably why I have a Studer Reel to reel, Aiwa tape deck and a technics turntable ...lots of flashing lights and functions !
That same model was sold in Australia under the Teac brand in the early 2000's. The one's I've used had a textured grey plastic body and silver faceplate, with a segmented display instead of individual LEDs.
I live in the UK, I brought a VHS recorder unit back in 1980. It was a top loader with 1 programmable in a year on the timer.
It was a Ferguson 3V29 Videostar.
Not built by that English Video company but by JVC. Whom better than them since they were the inventor of it.
I used my Videostar for 35 years and it still works outlasting 8 modern VHS units.
and hence got a ton of tapes waiting it seems forever to be checked and copied onto DVD.
I done some of them using a Toshiba VHS/DVD/HD unit which worked well until it wore out doing the editing work.
I also wore out a 2nd one off it. I brought 4 brand new Funai VHS machines in the end of the 1990's as the DVD were taking over the role.
Mine were 6 head Stereo full display units with remotes. I knew what to buy by then.
They are all still packed in their original boxes untouched.
I be unpacking one soon to try and get some more VHS tapes copied so I can start throwing out those old VHS taps as you can know those tapes take up a big amount of storage in big wheeled long storage crates.
I loved VHS when it was in it's heyday. The Videostar I had had a rare wired remote control with the basic controls on it.
And I cleaned my VHS heads in the machine with Scotch Cleaning Tapes every week and never over used the fast forwards etc.
Such great times.
These Funai VCRs actually aren't the worst, especially the ones that were a tiny bit more expensive but had hi-fi stereo. I think some of these even had quasi S-VHS playback support which wasn't always documented. If you just need to play some old tapes you're more likely to find a working low hour one of these for cheap than the 80s models the collectors all want (which all seem to have problems now and have thousands of discrete unobtanium parts).
FWIW, I have a Total Trolley and have found it to be a pretty useful and versatile tool. I got in shortly before it was no longer made or sold.
That 411vm tape brings me back to my skate crew friends in junior high who used to bring those to school and watch them at lunch time. Circa 2000/2001 😬
This one is from March/April 2001. Unfortunately the tape is moldy, so I couldn't actually play it.
Came here to mention the 411... have a few of those tapes stashed away with other skate videos of that Era.
I had an even cheaper 2-head version of this VCR back then. It eventually became a tape-eater when the mode switch started screwing up. I think many/most VCRs with this Funai mecanism had the same quick failure; my dad had a combo Magnavox VCR/DVD recorder that used the same mechanism (although it was 4-head hi-fi stereo) and it eventually became a tape eater too.
Edit: As for the auto head cleaner thing, when i learned how bad those could be for the video heads, I removed them from all of my VCRs.
Edit 2: Wow, the customer service number still works? Amazing!
I bet you’ll never see another ad telling you to rub jet fuel between your fingers 😂
I have a Panasonic VCR that was made in early 2000's and have a Stereo RCA output. Yeah, I knoe that were cheap but the gray plastic finish and the inner motherboard that differs from the average Funai VCR's allows me to appreciate much more the serious improvements in playback with Hi-Fi tapes.
Also, the fact that my late 00's Panasonic VCR does have hi-speed rewind took me off-guard.
And yes I have this VCR and never had an issue with it since it was found in a storage shed years back. Glad I watched and learned something new since I never knew about the self head cleaning mechanism. I’ll be removing that next time I clean the heads! Great video!!!
I still have a FUNAI at home. The old owners of my home leave them here for free. But iam in europe, my VCR is different. Chassis is in metal (not plastic), but still very cheaply made and mono.
I find picture quality (of your video) quite nice for a very cheap VCR. Iam impressed. And even more impressed by the phone number still exists.