Finally....TV on the Radio

Discussion in 'Chat Area' started by Mister X, Nov 4, 2018.

  1. nickeccles

    nickeccles Well-Known Member

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    Fantastic!!
    I have recently bought a Panasonic SVHS top of the line, think the model is NV-HS950 & it's a 90's dream vcr with timebase corrector 7 heads for insert edits etc! Connected to my PC the results are stunning & I have quite a collection of vhs & svhs tapes from the 90's many hifi stereo recordings from music channels which still play perfectly!
    I would love to be able to re-broadcast in analog at low power at home!
    I have a sinclair microvision on the way, a Silver branded tv/radio/cassette & somewhere a Casio pocket tv to play with so far......
    I can manually plug into tv's & the vcr can play tapes into all them but I want to broadcast from a device that can output a UHF analogue signal from my Vcr & my PC - I wonder if this is possible......?
     
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  2. Mister X

    Mister X Moderator Staff Member

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    This is the key, the Roku+, I don't know if they have it over there but it gives me all of the internet stations and I think it resizes it in 4:3 if it is not already but I can't tell. There is output settings to do it manually. I wonder if you could use it as the input on the VCR to get your signal.

    Roku 1.jpg

    The Roku+ has a unique cable that goes to 3.5mm to audio L+R and video, I tried a 3.5mm to L+R and it didn't work.
     
    Last edited: Dec 17, 2019
  3. nickeccles

    nickeccles Well-Known Member

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    I'm really not sure either, the VCR has multiple inputs & outputs as a high end machine would have! I can feed anything analogue into the VCR via S-Video, composite or analogue RF & get a great result from the RF out socket feeding any analogue TV - Looking at the roku, yes I could feed it's analogue output? into the VCR but would still need a transmitter like your rack mounted one! I could even record on SVHS tapes too......

    Another project to put off repairing some tricky stereo's of my own that are daunting to say the least! :delighted: :delighted:
     
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  4. Mister X

    Mister X Moderator Staff Member

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    One of those videos, I think My Mate Vince, just puts an antenna on the RF (cable coax style male plug) on the back of the VCR, that's what Longman was saying. It will broadcast for you, the Roku is the front end and hopefully, like a three headed tape deck, you can monitor your signal or just have it pass through without recording.

    The Blonder Tongue is for entire buildings and maybe more with the right antenna. Keep an eye out for them as they are pretty cheap right now, around $50 USD. I don't enough about them to say if they will work with your system (PAL?). Longman may be able to answer our questions.
     
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  5. SantiOriginal

    SantiOriginal Active Member

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    It works! The view quality is very poor, due probably because the tv is right on the other side of the living room +- 7 meters away from the vcr. I'm going to search for such an antenna to plug in de coax of my vcr. Let's see if i can upgrade the view of my tv :) For now: it's amazing that i'm looking at spotify on my old Indesit, casting form my smartphone> chromecast > tv/vcr > Indesit! (no sound though).
     

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  6. nickeccles

    nickeccles Well-Known Member

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    Well the Roku is available here for around £30! So cheap also low cost analogue video senders are very plentiful & are better than the awful early 80's models!
    There's a plan developing here!!
     
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  7. Mister X

    Mister X Moderator Staff Member

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    It would be nice to save some of these little guys. The good news is most are still very affortable and in great condition, I've got a small pile of them that were babied their whole lives. I'm sure any boombox display or museum would look great with a few of these turned on playing 80's videos that were also playing on the boxes.
     
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  8. Longman

    Longman Well-Known Member S2G Supporter

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    Thanks for trying that. I kept thinking it was an obvious solution but haven't tried it myself. If you get an indoor antenna something like this
    https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Indoor-T...528910&hash=item33f1fbf7db:g:bqQAAOSw8htbcxa2
    and adapter to plug it into the VCR TV output you should be able to beam the signal towards the TV rather than it going everywhere.
    Avoid any antenna with an amplifier built in. Such types will have a battery compartment or power input. Unlike antennas, amplifiers don't work in reverse.

    Once you can convert composite to RF, what you send is limited only by what items can produce a composite signal.

    The potential problem with using a high power unit like the Blonder Tounge is that you could block your own signal or even worse that of your neighbours. In the UK Terrestial is more popular than all other delivery means put together, with cable a distant third to satellite.

    Nick. Your VCR looks nice (I have just looked it up). I have a similar spec SVHS JVC HR-S7860 which I bought new when Argos dropped them from their catalogue. The best thing about the timebase corrector is that it completely removes any copy protection when you play pre-recorded cassettes. What capture card are you using in your PC. I use a Hauppauge Card but have been looking around for something better for a while.
     
  9. SantiOriginal

    SantiOriginal Active Member

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    @Longman Tnx for your advise! I have an "universal indoor antenna" from Konig Electronic, with built in amplifier. Of course i already tried it, but I almost don't see any improvement. So probably you are right and does the amplifier of the Konig send/block a countereffect of the signal. Well, i am not sure. What i am sure of is that i did put the antenna in every corner of the living; close to my vcr (and connected to the vcr) gave the best signal. As long as i didn't move, hahaha!

    Also when i held both ends of the antennas of the Indesit tv in my hands. the view was good. So... me as an antenna was the best option hahaha! I send good signals ;)

    Here in the Netherlands it's cable, cable, cable. Ziggo and KPN have the monopoly offering lot's of stupid tv-stations drenched with advertisement. Satellite and Terrestrial (DVB-T2 hevc) are not popular. This year analog signal through cable will be ended, the only option will be digital.
    Watching television through my Sharp 10P-18H, now plugged with cable on analog signal - crisp black&white - will be impossible. So i need an alternative. May be as well wireless i figured. The other alternative is rf modulator > av to hdmi. I have a Philips Automatic - the beast - working that way: the view is great, no audio though..

    As for radio: AM is almost dead, FM will be terminated soon (only for military purposes it will be used from then on ), so DAB+ is the follow up. But it's not popular either; people tend to use internet for radio-listening.

    I don't watch linear television, it's mostly pulp and advertisement. FM Radio i tend to listen, in my car (news) and at home (classical). Most FM radio stations are screaming diskjockeys thinking they are funny. In the evening i can catch on AM the Spanish RNE Exterior, that's in my car.
     
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  10. Longman

    Longman Well-Known Member S2G Supporter

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    A friend recently found this thread about Multi-Channel modulators

    https://www.radios-tv.co.uk/communi...s/recreating-the-1980s-625-lines-lives-again/

    However, he seems to have missed the boat with these as I couldn't find any active or completed listings on Ebay.

    Fingers crossed we will retain FM for a long time. As for DAB I don't think they would dare switch to DAB+ after running thousands of adverts telling everyone to buy a DAB radio. There are still DAB only radios in the shops and 99% of the population probably don't know the difference between DAB and DAB+. I would be quite upset if my Sony XDR-S100CD stopped being able to receive the radio.

    I'm not sure if we ever had analogue cable that could be received by normal TVs. Terrestial Analogue TV was switched off in 2012 hence the need for units like the one in the link above. Most were a cheap single channel box with just a SCART output, but a few had a single channel modulator built in.

    https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Blazer-H...559361?hash=item2884e91401:g:GXsAAOSwLUJdelDE

    Probably less useful than a VCR as all you can feed in is DVB-T signals from an antenna.

    Some DVD recorders had modulators. My Panasonic EX75 had one but its replacement the EX77 didn't. Instead it had a big sticker on the box pointing out that it could only be connected by SCART or HDMI.

    As people have replaced their TVs they are now really common (even DVD recorders) in Charity Shops and at Car Boot Sales.
     
    Last edited: Oct 11, 2019
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  11. nickeccles

    nickeccles Well-Known Member

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    My VCR is a beautiful machine for sure! The solution for me is simply an analogue video transmitter from the VCR's composite output & stereo Rca sockets into the transmitter!

    I can feed composite into the VCR from my PC too & transmit music video's too - that would be superb!

    I use a DVB-T/T2/C Usb capture stick to record from VCR to the PC & I use a separate phono to 3.5 stereo plug lead to feed the stereo audio from the VCR to a line in as the Usb audio can be too high & anyway it's better having control over balance & level when converting tapes to digital!

    Panasonic NV-HS950 Super VHS VCR - 11 July 2019 (2).jpg

     
  12. SantiOriginal

    SantiOriginal Active Member

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    I have two Sony vcr's SLV-E120 & SLV-SE230 and a Aristona 349 cd/dvd-player. They are hooked up through my Think Xtra TxAN selector to my television, that in turn is hooked up to my chromecast and hifi equipment. @nickeccles Wich kind of analogue video transmitter do you use?
     
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  13. nickeccles

    nickeccles Well-Known Member

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    I don't have one yet! Just an idea at the moment!
     
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  14. Mister X

    Mister X Moderator Staff Member

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    I found one! A very rare Toshiba Model CE035 Portable Micro Color TV with a removeable microcassette player. This model has very little information but it was built in December 1982. The story began when I aquired a Toshiba Microcassette Player that had an edge connector on the back, it looked like it docked into something. After a lot of searching I finally tried using information on the included demo microcassette and got a hit, a small photo of a portable TV boombox. Then some more information was over on VideoKarma (AudioKarma) and then, boom, one showed up on Ebay.

    I've got it up and running and it's a very nice looking unit, and a little more advanced than some of my other TV boomboxes. This isn't really a boombox, it doesn't have a battery pack, but there's a very large transformer that clips on the back, I have a feeling that they also had a battery pack option since the transformer goes to 12 volt. This is the smallest of the boombox TVs I've got, it looks like the screen is 3" diagonal and the speakers are even smaller.

    This one is kind of unique with right and left audio in/out along with video in/out. I don't know why they have the video jacks but I bet there was a cool VCR that went with this. There's a connection for an external antenna for both VHF or UHF but I don't see a switch for it and the channels only go from 2-13. There is a switch for MSSS, maybe that controls the higher channels.

    DSCN2946SM.jpg
     
    Last edited: Dec 18, 2019
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  15. Mystic Traveller

    Mystic Traveller Well-Known Member

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    Looks very neat..
     
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  16. Longman

    Longman Well-Known Member S2G Supporter

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    I wonder how much it cost new ?

    Back in the early 1980s home video was just starting to become popular and affordable for the well off, replacing Cine Cameras. However, the first camcorder (the one they used in Back to the Future)

    https://www.rewindmuseum.com/vintagecamcorder.htm

    was still a couple of years off, so a home video set-up would have had a separate recorder and camera.

    https://www.rewindmuseum.com/cvc.htm

    Colour viewfinders were unheard of, while the cheaper cameras would just have an optical viewfinder like on a film camera (like the Sony camcorder in the first link)

    Therefore, a set like the Toshiba which could be used to check and review colour footage would be a big asset. Fast Forward ten years and a colleague, who was really into home video, used to take a 5" colour portable on holiday with him for checking each days footage.

    Now find one of these



    I remember seeing one in a High end Department store back in the early 1990s and it was stupidly expensive: about £1300, when a top of the range Sony TV was about £700, and I was earning £1000 a month.
     
    Last edited: Dec 18, 2019
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  17. Mister X

    Mister X Moderator Staff Member

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    Some of those first generation camcorders had seperate tuner, recorder and then the camera but it looks like from your website Longman that this is a year or two, too early. I feel like composite out might have just been popping up at this time and the L+R audio made it look like a stereo TV but without a user's guide I doubt it is.

    The sad thing about camcorders is all of my friends that had one didn't keep a lot of the recordings and we used to do a ton of cool 80's stuff and activities.
     
  18. Longman

    Longman Well-Known Member S2G Supporter

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    You mean like this http://www.labguysworld.com/Technicolor_212.htm

    I bought my first VCR back in 1984 so things like that were still on the market but were no longer the latest and greatest thing

    After spending Hundreds of £ in the early Noughties trying to set up my PC to do video editing I ended up just connecting my analogue camcorder to a DVD recorder to make a copy of the tapes.

    As for Mini DV I have recently bought my third Mini DV Camcorder just to play back the tapes, hopefully into a computer. Both the original JVC Mini DVcamcorder (bought new) and a spare I got developed mechanical problems and wouldn't play tapes. Compared to a Walkman they are far more complicated and if anything happens like sensing incorrect tap tension they will stop with an error code. On the Plus side it avoids tape damage. On the Minus side it turns the camcorder into an expensive paperweight.
     
    Last edited: Dec 22, 2019
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  19. Mister X

    Mister X Moderator Staff Member

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    I found this photo, maybe it's part of the Toshiba "Series?" The three color bars are similar, I can't remember if that was part of their video line.

    Toshiba.JPG

    I had a few "paperweights", I used to try to get them to work but your right Longman, they really squeezed a lot of stuff into that small case, if a microswitch or alignment was out of tune nothing would work. The interesting thing is the 8mm video market is really coming back, last I checked people actually want that old equipment but I'm not sure what for. I just remember how much fun we had with it and the constant technology leaps going from the monster shoulder mount camera to little tiny 8mm units.
     
  20. Longman

    Longman Well-Known Member S2G Supporter

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    Most likely playing back tapes. Unlike Cassette Players where new ones are available (admittedly with bottom of the range quality) if you have a Camcorder tape you want to play you are forced to buy used. Compared to Audio tapes, Video recordings are also far more likely to be personal.

    For example a Mini-DV recording I have was made by me at the Junior school I went to in the early 70s and where my Mother spent most of her career teaching. It was taken by me on an open day they held just before the school moved to a new building on a new site half a mile away, and the old buildings were either demolished or converted to housing. One of my Hi8 tapes was filmed by me at the World Trade Center. There is now zero chance of recreating either tape.

    Having not bought a camcorder until 1999 (a Sharp Hi8 Viewcam) I was surprised to read on Wikipedia that the format was discontinued completely by 2007. Mini DV was available in 1999 but at the time they cost significantly more than the £550 we paid for the Sharp. They sort of get a mention in the 1999 Argos catalogue but were obviously considered too specialist and expensive for them to sell. Interesting that in 20 years they have gone from being the latest and greatest to Yesteryear's technology.

    Camcorders.jpg
     
    Last edited: Dec 22, 2019
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