Heres a tip some of you may not know. VCR's are plentiful now as people transition. If you keep your eyes peeled, one day you will locate a very outstanding quality player in mint condition.
Did you happen to know that some very High Grade VHS tapes were manufactuered by the same companies that make your Cassette tapes?
Pair a first rate machine with one of these tapes, a good set of Condensor mics and a Mic pre-amp,, and you have a long play recording source that is very very good quality!
I am a Guitar player, so ti is good to have a source for long play to record practice sessions to see if ideas develop.
Keep your eyes peeled for the premium VHS tapes- they dont show up as common as the cheap ones.
I'm going to start buying up a few more great VHS machines( NOT the cheap ones!) if and when I am able to locate such.
One day , 'I'm quite certain, we will look around and wonder what became of all the good ones still left!!

you're right. You're absolutely right (thinking about vcrs right now)

ive thought about vcrs before. my local british heart foundation normally has quite a supply of fergusons, odd itt's and the like.alas, lately they have more old videos than proper boomboxes
although yesterday i did buy from the barnsley store a 1990 model JVC rcw440-not normally my bag as its such a late model,but i paid nothing and my main reason for getting it was its sound.with the hyper bass horn it sounds very very nice.plus add to the mix im starting there next monday as an electronics sorter/tester-you can see what i mean!and these guys do get a lot of electrics stuff, and after all it is my best source for boomboxes-my gorgeous gf525 to name but 1 came from here.and the best thing is my mate is boss in there so i can get great deals on boxes.usually a fiver or a tenner.
i hope to soon be reporting to you more finds ive found in there.....they also say they reject a lot of boxes cos of condition, etc.not any more....none are heading for the skip

I also use sometimes my old Video2000 !
Same like this:

yes, vcrs are still very useful...you can record extended recording for many things...like surveillance, long radio shows (in audio)..its what ive used at many times for... still got my SVHS unit

Some of the Video8 recorders made toward the early 90's recorded in PCM digital stereo and could record for up to 12 hours in audio only mode.

Have 2 more recent ones-a Sony SLV-EZ77 and a Panasonic NV-HV62.

i still use all 4 of mine
curtis mathes,zenith,rca,brooksonic

I still have one of those rewinder units for when you want to prevent wear & tear on your VCR

I use my Mitsubishi vcr all the time.

I am more so than DVD players.I own 3 of them myself!I think they take away our freedom of choice as U.S. citizens not hahing the following anymore:cassettes,video tapes,Cassette walkman with radio etc.Even with new inventions like the ipod they should hang on to the old inventions that I mentioned as well.People enjoy turntables as well.People of older inventions deserve a hug big time!

Beta was the ****!!!
I have 2 Betamax machines

I still have a Sony hooked up...unless you want to transfer all your media to dvd it just makes sense to keep a vcr...

thats what ive been doing for the longest transferring VHS movies to dvd because many that will never see the day of light in digital play back format...its one of the main reasons i will keep my vcr...the same with records as well versions of a song that never made it to cd i would dump onto disc...lotta work but was worth it..

Sorry for this post misplaced in this room. I meant to put it in off topic.
Anyway.. Yes, I too have a couple of very nice Sony Beta machines.Not the great big U-max studio machine( although I had one briefly), but the high end home machine. I also have a small stash of good Beta tapes.
Switching topics, I have heard that ALL VHS tapes are now out of production(OOP).
I think eventually we will see the standard grade being remade offshore, but I don't believe we'll ever see any more premeium grade VHS tapes , so better stock up if you can find them.
Also, as far as sound goes, I have heard that many machines VHS compress the sound when recording from mics or a source.
I think the good ones that do not compress are SuperVHS. I dont know about HI-FI VHS.

I had a fantastic, top of the range JVC NICAM HiFi stereo VCR, over £550 list price, bought new back in 1991. It had manual audio recording levels, & the sound was fantastic. I DJ'd my own wedding, laying a 4 hour set down onto an expensive TDK VHS cassette
The picture on that JVC was as good as VHS got too. Rock solid freeze frame. Over 10 years it got so much use I completely wore it out (I now have 100s of films on VHS). I replaced it with a near top of the line Sony & it was nowhere near as good. That fell to bits a couple of years ago & all I have now is one of those DVD VCR combis I got from eBay (Sony branded, but you know it's some far-eastern job with a sony badge on it).
I rarely use VHS now (that said I'm about to watch my VHS of "Ashes to Ashes" season 2), but the quality of a good VHS machine can be a good match for DVD, especially in the sound dept.
The sound from *standard* VHS was terrible. There were brief tries with stereo (on "linear tracks") which used Dolby B but the slow tape speed made the quality still poor. VHS "HiFi Stereo" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VHS#Hi-Fi_audio_system) mixed analog stereo sound information in with the video signal (a bit like an FM stereo signal) & the quality much better - close to CD quality. By comparision, audio on a DVD compresses the sound (a bit like mp3), so audio on top end VHS & DVD are similar quality. DVD cr4ps all over VHS for picture quality, of course.
"Super VHS" did address some of the picture quality issues of VHS, but I think DVD is still better.

I don't miss the compatibility issues of VHS, however. (in the same way I said goodbye to tape head alignment woes when I started using recordable CD instead of cassettes). Loads of stuff I recorded on my old Sony VHS won't play back in stereo on my new Sony VHS (the JVC stuff is, of course, fine). How stupid is that? They all play fine on my daughter's Samsung DVD/VHS/TV combi. Sony never really embraced VHS, did they
Mind you DVD isn't without it's problems. Record onto a dual layer DVD at your peril - loads of players won't cope with them properly...

Blu-Ray & HD is another big step forward, of course, so long as you have plenty of cash...

just secured a ferguson 3v29 videostar for a fiver from bhf-all looks to be working fine,even has original handbook and installation card -which i have on me-had to leave the machine till monday when it will be pat tested.but its in great condition and so retro,with its top loading cassette, etc.and it weighs a tonne.i could get into these........

panasonic nv v8000 for me

i also had a top of the range jvc hifi vcr in the early 90's HRD910EK it had manual recording levels (one of the last to include them) as well as multiple heads & features you would expect - sadly though the buils standard had already begun to decline - the deck used was same as budget machines used & it only lasted about 3 years before the usual loading & tape alignment problems came along! i replaced it with a jvc svhs machine which lasted me up until i stopped using vcr's

i change my mind. the fergie passed the pat test and everything.got her home to find it tuned in ok etc but the damn heads need cleaning/replacing
any one want this free send me a pm.word of warning though-it weighs a tonne!so itll be 20+ for shipping!!!!!!!if not ill scrap it!alternatively i have the original instructions booklet if anyone wants this-again pm me and ill mail you it.

couple of top of the range vcr's for you to look for..Panasonic NV-FS90,or NV-FS200 SVHS,Akai Vs77-Built in Dolby Surround,hifi amp with speaker sockets on the back,there is also some top of the range jvc's and mitsibishi's..i used to be into vcr's in a big way,but these days i convert them to dvd,,then convert them to avi format and store them on my external Hard Drive..

Nice writeup, isolator.

Just won a Toshiba SV-F990 S-VHS, just need the audio jack board which I already order.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISA...&_trksid=p2759.l1259

Most VHS and Beta tape was the same tape stock as Ferric Cobalt Type II High bias tape. i.e. TDK SA and Maxell XLII.

Most pre-90s VHS decks were made by Matsu****a (National Panasonic), Hitachi, Victor/JVC, Sanyo Fisher, Samsung, LG/Goldstar. A few companies like Mitsubishi and Daewoo actually made their own. Later Orion and Funai began to make a lot of contract manufactured decks for big names - pretty low quality stuff.

Very nice!
Love the VU´s

I grabbed a couple cool TOTL Sony VHS's late last year...One is white face with a million buttons on the front, used in the medical industry, haven't tried it out yet, seems to be in great condition. the other has a small digital display on the face plate which folds down to reveal the controls, also in great condition. These are fun when you find used 80's music video's...

Have a SONY SVO-9600 that we never used due to it was a backup machine, belived it or not they actually was just going to sent them off to recycle them, so I decided to take one, was brandnew never used, they are great machines, all direct drive reel to reel drive, and if I remember price is around 3k-5k for these machine when they came out.

i bought a hella cool TOPLOADING panny vhs at the booty this weekend.

plugged it in - it lit up - eject button didnt eject. no sound coming from inside. its hella heavy and very complicated inside. i have no chance of fixing it.

gutted. wanted a toploader for ages

Here my main editing deck a Sony SVO-9600 all direct drive motors and one of the best tranports that I seen.

Here a Sony SLV-70HF VCR from 1989 in new condition, needed a recaps due to age, video was playing in black and white and display was dim. So change all the capacitors in the "PSU" video, tuner and audio section also the main PCB board here some picture. Unit works great after rebuilt. Rather fix this unit then buy the junk they sell for VCR's today.