New (old) VCR - Sony U-matic 5630

[gpo706]

Just had my first bonus from my stingy work for 3 years, so splashed out on a new-ish VCR.

£49.99, sold as works, postage was near half as much more 

I have worked with U-matics before, but in my last professional broadcast experience it was all Betacam or DigiBeta, way out of my price range!

U-matic was 3/4 inch format just not good enough for Broadcast quality in the day, widely used by schools, colleges etc and even local news was shot this format in the early 80's.

Must be tons of this gear sitting in institutions or high school cupboards across the US folks!

BTW this plays PAL/NTSC/SECAM, so if you have any old NTSC U-matic tapes...

Here's a video of a video recorder -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfy_DZMga1A

and another:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yivpXgdXL1c&NR=1

I have a pile of U-matic tapes up the loft, so here's hoping..

[AE_Collector]

We had U matics at our training centre at the Telco.

Do you want a RCA VFT650 VHS from 1981 to sit beside your Umatic?

Terry

[gpo706]

That's a most kind offer Terry, but I suspect postage from Canada would wipe out Greece's national debt somewhat...

Anyhow check out this very funny listing for a U-Matic...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sony-VO-5800-3-4-UMATIC-Recorder-/330525842454?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4cf4e01c16

[AE_Collector]

Here is the text from the listing. Sounds like a keeper!

It kinda plays.  Needs some new rubber I think. Guaranteed to be DOA.  Weighs a ton.  Great for use as a boat anchor.  Or you can use it as a parts machine or fix it.  I will charge actual shipping and send you a Christmas card in December.  Thanks for looking.

Only $3000 starting price but the $544 shipping to the UK isn't bad.... 

My RCA VHS machine weights a TON as well.

Terry

[baldopeacock]

New rubber for the 3/4" machines is very hard to find.

I recently finished transferring 180 hours of '80s vintage college level math distance education courses, from 3/4" to DVD.   We had three semi-operable 3/4" machines in the place  -- a 5600, a 5850 and a VP-9000 SP machine -- when the project began.   By the end, only one still runs, and getting it to rewind a cassette requires a lot of patience and crossed fingers.   We tried to source rebuild parts for them at the beginning of this project with no luck at all.

[gpo706]

New rubber for the 3/4" machines is very hard to find.

I recently finished transferring 180 hours of '80s vintage college level math distance education courses, from 3/4" to DVD.   We had three semi-operable 3/4" machines in the place  -- a 5600, a 5850 and a VP-9000 SP machine -- when the project began.   By the end, only one still runs, and getting it to rewind a cassette requires a lot of patience and crossed fingers.   We tried to source rebuild parts for them at the beginning of this project with no luck at all.

What were you playing through them 10/20/30 or 60m cassettes?

If it was 60's then thats 180 passes at the very least!

Was head failure the predominant cause of expiration, or drive bands?

[baldopeacock]

All 60s, and storage was probably not optimum.   There were a lot of head cleanings involved.   Some of them were also recorded off-standard as far as tape path alignment.   I don't know if you've tried sourcing new rubber parts for yours, but we couldn't find 'em.   Obsolete from Sony for years.

No head failures.   Two of the three developed threading problems and eventually would no longer rewind.   By the time it was done, that last machine didn't feel much like rewinding anymore, either (it would squeal like a stuck pig, pardon the American colloquialism) but they're all now on DVD.   We'll be retiring these machines and getting permanently out of the 3/4" business after this.

** update re: belts:  lo and behold, there's a set on eBay...

[gpo706]

I managed to get the 5630 manual downloaded and printed the relevant pages, so I finally got the jammed cassette out, now it ejects OK, but some other functions switch to standby when I try them, still I shall continue experimenting!

It's actually very easy to get a stuck cassette out once you can orientate your POV to the rather tiny diagrams, honest!

[gpo706]

I think it just needed a bit warming up / bedding in.

All the functions work fine, no excessive motor noise, no squeaks, record and playback perfect.

Although doesn't playback at the normal tracking knob position, it needs tweaked to the left at th 9pm position to give best results, (tape path or head alignment)?

Though it sometimes gets a bit sulky and sits in standby mode for a while, could be anything, lubrication, slack belt(s), static electricity etc etc...

I have named it (her) "Uma" the U-Matic, yeah, yeah I'll get me coat...

[gpo706]

I have been interested in colour bar generators since I got the 5630, this turned up on the bay tonight:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/160654527064?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

It's a service engineer's colour bars generator, from 1973, at the time, it was a dual purpose machine for UHF/VHF colour or B/W set calibration.

I have seen one of these on ebay before and it had a "Granada" logo on it, Granada was not only a supplier of rental TV/VCR's but a regional broadcasting franchise.

It's made by LABGEAR.

UK went colour 625 line in 1969, or 1967 for BBC2.

Will let you know how it goes...

[baldopeacock]

PAL standard.   I've never worked with PAL, just NTSC (Never Twice Same Color, har) and ATSC.

Just about the whole world had better quality video than the US, until we went digital.

[Adam]

Just about the whole world had better quality video than the US, until we went digital.

Now, everybody has the same poor quality video (because nobody transmits in the highest definition they can, opting instead to transmit multiple lower def channels to make  more money...)

[gpo706]

Yes Adam, bandwidth robbers, it is appalling poor on freeview boxes.

[Stephen Furley]

There are a few people who have 2 inch Quad machines at home; at least one of them even has an Ampex AVR1, probably the biggest and heaviest of them all.  This was the model which the BBC had at their technical exhibition at Mullard House in 1972.

http://www.lionlamb.us/quadpark.html  The site doesn't seem to have been updated for years.

If you want to know how to prepare and align a VR-2000 VTR the training video is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bFPPJgFUJg

and in two other parts.

[gpo706]

Stephen, thanks for the link.

I'd love a Quad or even a 1" god knows where it would go!

I have a 1" Sony 3-channel audio recorder nearest I have got to one.