Video Asylum

Posted by 4season (A) on January 02, 2009 at 16:58:42

In Reply to: RE: VHS as part of the home video library archives posted by user510 on January 01, 2009 at 18:55:12

It gets tricky because even when parts remain available, rubber parts in particular do age. Panasonic (and I think JVC as well) made pro-grade 19" rack mountable VHS machines which you might be able to pick up today for under a grand, with Panasonic's AG-7500 being pretty typical. I even saw one at a thrift store once! They were designed for much heavier use than your average home machine, and designed to be repaired rather than replaced. Downsides are that they can be huge, fairly noisy, no consumer features like timer or tuner, no wireless remote. But on the other hand, it'll do the best frame-by-frame you've ever seen.

But it may be easier to seek out late-model JVC SVHS consumer machines which sometimes include a timebase corrector. Very lightweight and not much inside, but sometimes newer can be better.

• http://www.broadcaststore.com/store/model_detail.cfm?id=5691   (Open in New Window)