DrCassette's Workshop - Panasonic HS1000 S-VHS VCR overhaul
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- čas přidán 10. 09. 2024
- Link to the HS900 video: • DrCassette's Workshop ...
In this video we give the high end Panasonic NV-HS1000 an overhaul. Cleaning the mechanism, greasing and lubricating it. This video also contains another real time experience :)
IMPORTANT: When re-greasing the tracks of the loading mechanism, do not copy what I did in the video. Instead, clean off all existing grey grease with a dry cotton swab, then apply fresh white lithium grease. Do not use just any random grease!
always rotate anticlock-wise when cleaning the head drum otherwise it will damage the heads because the heads are angled to play anticlock-wise so it need to be cleaned that to void damaging heads
Just brought the Panasonic version, thanks for this video I shall be using this guide to clean and service
One of the best machines for tracking hi-fi audio in my oppinion. Even when other panasonics will not read it, HS1000, HS900, Hs850 and FS200 will, if the heads are in good condition.
Nice to see another fellow tape enthusiast, the K Mechanism in this vcr was a good mech, I have the same in my nvhs900 and nvhd620 hard working mechs and will last a very long time if serviced right, had my 900 for 23 years now still working great for a high miler, perfect picture and sound.
When i service mine I take the whole mech out and oil all the bearings and check belt tension, I also remove the capstan completely to clean it and oil the top and bottom bearings, you can turn the capstan in place by turning the flywheel from the bottom on this machine but if you don't have access to the flywheel then wear a rubber glove so you can griping the capstan shaft and spin it with you finger, I do this on both my 900 and 620 machines for quick cleaning and access to the flywheel on these is mech out joby.
It's a good idea to run a scope over these after a full service especially for tape path alignment the ones fitted with plastic p guides wear like a bugger as they put naff all grease on the runners on the cheaper vcrs with the k mechs those usually have plastic p guides too and they also seem to wear on the tape exit guide the most.
I love teardown/repair/overhaul videos, always is helpful even for stuff that's not the same model. Thanks for the videos!
This is a very nice unit, I have a Panasonic from 1999 which is an S-VHS. It has proved to be a very reliable machine and every so often, I clean and relube the mechanism. Can't think why you have so few comments either, very interesting video !
a video head vxp1561 suitable for Panasonic HS1000? Instead, the video heads vhp1747?
I had one of these in the 1990s. It cost £999.00 (GBP) but it was by far the best machine available at the time. For some reason it seemed very prone to head contamination but was otherwise excellent.
That model left the production line for around £90 GDP. Subsequent shipping, marketing and middle man mark up pushed the RP to nearly £1K!!
Have you made one, were you replace broken gears. The focus is really good.
I just happy that you want to make these D.I.Y video PROJECTS. CZcams watcher when your not sure, on how to clean one of these machines, just go thru DrCassette CZcams play list. Be sure to watch the commercial and not skip them.
Very nice vcr, certainly worth preserving
Ich habe meinen Blaupunkt RTV-925 S-VHS (welcher auch eigentlich ein Panasonic ist) ebenfalls noch im Einsatz. Ein schönes stabiles Gerät mit rotierendem Löschkopf für Insert-Schnitt. Läuft noch wie am ersten Tag. Das Innere erinnert sehr stark an das hier gezeigte Modell.
Michael Roll Insertschnitt kann mein Metz auch. Audio Dub, Video Dub, das volle Programm, soweit ich weiß. Heutzutage benutzt man das natürlich alles nicht mehr, nur noch die klassische Wiedergabe ;)
Dein Blaupunkt müsste meine ich die Generation vor diesem Recorder sein, als nur die Hälfte von der Front runterklappte. Danach kamen Recorder, die hatten zwar eine Klappe, aber keine Bedienelemente mehr darauf (z.B. Panasonic NV-HS950).
I have this vcr and it has strange things:TBC make picture worst and only work as should over svhs. On composite video it slightly changed colors and make image jitter much more visible. And overall image is noisy ,not I expected from device this high end class. Any suggestions? Is it video heads problem or video amplification? Is it worth to demagnetize video heads?
The built-in TBC of the NV-HS1000 is not the best. It only affects the luminance (brightness) signal, the chrominance (colour) signal does not get processed, it only gets blurred slightly to make any time base errors less visible.
As for the additional jitter caused by the TBC, both a friend and me have had this problem in the past with our HS1000s. On mine this problem randomly disappeared, my friend was able to fix the problem by repeatedly operating all the toggle switches of the VCR, in the lower section of the front, and the signal output switch on the back.
Do not try to demagnetize a VCR, you can't demagnetize one head without re-magnetizing another!
I like the Matsushita (Panasonic) machines of the mid 80's. Reliable tanks. (Panasonics, GE, Magnavox, Sylvania, Quasar, plus others).
Interesting, I have a Panasonic NV-HD700 with sound problems, the picture is good. Do you have any suggestions what could be wrong?
If you don't even bother to describe the sound problems in any detail, of course I don't have any suggestions.
During the 90's Nokia developed a VHS standard which bypassed SVHS standard but still offered SVHS performance. They trademarked it as ASO (Active Sideband Optimum). ASO matched the resolution of SVHS but with just a handful of components - no need for all that superfluous daughter board and motherboard monstrosity. JVC at the time objected to Nokia's ASO but relented.
I have never heard of that system... I know later there was S-VHS ET, which also allowed S-VHS quality recordings on standard VHS cassettes
@@DrCassette I moved on from CE as VHS wained pending the dawn of DVD in early 2000's. Sadly, we dumped all our technical library when we closed the business down. Else, I know we had service information surrounding ASO.
20 years odd later, I'm dumbstruck anyone is interested in VHS, let alone the various standards surrounding it, especially with all the shift towards solid state and subsequent magnitudes of reliability, superior systems of production and function, plus of course pushing the boundaries on resolution including prices plummeting to say the least.
Still, that said, as a historical technical document, that ASO service literature would have made interesting reading given it turned SVHS on its head for next to no component count and all achieved by such a relatively simple application of signal processing theory and for peanuts.
Around 6 months ago, I stumbled on the various YT presentations relating to people still working on CE from that time, which surprised me somewhat. It seems such a long time ago and so much has happened to me in work since, which added to the sense of distance between now and then.
It made me chuckle as the various presenters discussed the SVHS and other video tape standards but not one mentioned ASO. I felt compelled to raise the awareness of ASO but was frustrated not to have my library anymore. I briefly checked to find any historical lit' on ASO online but didn't find any. Granted, I didn't spend much time on it [search] since what was the point?...
Maybe NOKIA have some information in their library, I don't know? I felt compelled to contact them around a year ago but in the scheme of things didn't bother in the end as I no longer have the motivation WRT to that level of CE. Moreover, I realise NOKIA have been on somewhat of a paradigm shift across all it's operations since the 90's, obviously. That said, part of me wondered if somewhere in deepest Finland, in a dusty corner of physical documents, Nokia somehow kept a historical record of their ASO standard. Maybe someone would like to find that out, I don't know?
What I remembered of the machines of the time was their high performance, superb build quality and the retail price also good. Unfortunately, NOKIA were a relatively small player in CE (non-mobile phone arm) at the time so NOKIA VCR's, inc their TV chassis, weren't widespread comparatively speaking. Such a shame as it was all top notch.
Part of me feels drawn to this work again, as an earning opportunity in retirement but how would I generate the custom with next to no market demand, especially where I live. It would feel odd working on these products again after all that has happened to me since but like riding a bike, it wouldn't be a problem doing it again.
So after nearly a quarter of a century, it feels bizarre writing about all this. Auch well!
All the best.
Nice to see a solid deck on a later VCR, most of the later ones i've seen weren't high end like this
Nice video. I have an NV-HS1000 too. What is good to do is to clean also the mode switch and to check the motor coupling , code VDP1434. Often it cracks and could prevent the mechanism to work properly. Is very easy to be replaced. What I found very interested is that this high end svhs doesn't have zero stop function at rew (counter memory), where the rew to stop when the counter reaches 0. Weird how Panasonic miss something like this for this high end model.
Interesting to see you move the video heads clockwise. I always heard that was something you didn't want to do... I don't know why however.
Maybe that piece of advice is an artifact from the days that the video drums were driven by the mechanism and so turning them in the wrong direction could mess the mechanism up?
Maybe, I don't know. The drum in this VCR is direct drive, so it doesn't matter...
DrCassette - Hello I have a problem and I would like to give you some advice I have a Panasonic NV-HS1000 vcr that does not execute the jog-shuttle flick in the sense that it does not walk the image either in front or back if you invite faster the jog-shuttle wheel locks the tape and you go into standby while recording and stopping on the perfect picture that you think is the defect I mention that I have never repaired a video if you can give me some advice thank you anyway in advance.
If you want to see the defect I can make a record and upload it to youtube
Very nice VCR
Nice looking machine, thanks for sharing it. I do like this video being longer and more in-depth, I like seeing what's going on so I can learn more myself when I repair electronics myself.
As for the music at the beginning, while it does make the video seem slightly more professional, it is somewhat cheesy. It makes me feel like I'm watching some sort of 1980s-1990s instructional video. Still a good video by all means, though.
VicVac I'll have to think about making longer videos in the future. So far I always tried to stay under 10 minutes, but maybe I'll extend that limit to 20 minutes. The response to the recent long videos has been quite positive.
As for the music, indeed it is very cheesy, but that's what you get out of Pinnacle Studio 14's ScoreFitter music generator. I don't really like this music either, but this is about the only stuff that won't get my into copyright problems. And cheesy music is still better than just silence, especially right at the start of a video.
I have this machine and I agree with your comments. I also have the HS950 which is 'digital process' and is also a good VCR. One thing I do recommend is to change the underside tape drive gear 'dog' before they crack/break as they usually give up with a tape in the machine which is awkward to get out.
What do you think of the picture quality compared with the HS900?
VintageLynx I heard about that problem. But I don't have access to replacement parts, so this will have to do for right now.
The HS1000 thanks to its time base corrector, is MUCH better than the HS900. The HS900 is absolutely not bad though.
DrCassette I have two spare ones I can send you - let me know if you would like them (free of course)!
I should get out my Panasonic SVHS machine some day.
Don't wait for too long, the mechanisms in these don't get any better from just sitting around. Depending on how long it has been sitting and on which type of mechanism the VCR has, it's a good idea to lubricate the pinch roller mechanism before even turning on the VCR. If the old grease has dried out and the pinch roller is stuck, you might end up with broken plastic gears if you try to play a cassette.
@@DrCassette Can you please tell me what type of grease you use for pinch roller shaft and do you use the same grease for other parts? Is there anything i should be aware of when applying grease to pinch roller mechanism? Please answer. Thank you!
I've got one of these, and a HS800. One of them has a very faint slight static line on the picture. I can't remember if it's on the 800 or the HS1000. Loved the syncro edit function which gives you +_2 frames editing accuracy for a $5 syncro edit cable. The TBC does a good job on reducing wobble, but mind induces a very faint hue shift on the colour when enabled. Please can you post a video (or point me to one you've done) to clearly show the common lubrication points inside the video? And what sort of oil or grease to use? Thanks
I have done several videos on Panasonic HS series VCRs which are available on this channel. I'd recommend watching all those videos because some things are mentioned only in one video and not repeated in the other videos, such as the lubrication points. Oil and grease serve different purposes, please don't replace oil with grease and vice versa. As oil in this case I used silicone oil. Very important: Do not use silicon oil straight out of a spray can, as it will cause a mess. Did that once, spent the rest of the day cleaning oil out of the head drum. Not good. For grease I used some random synthetic grease. I have since switched to white lithium grease, that should be much better.
Hi DrCassette,
Thanks for uploading some informative videos!
Just "found" my NV-HS1000 in the basement. Have a few old VHS tapes that I would love to digitize. It worked for a couple of minutes and I was able to eject a casette and load another, Play FF and RW, all this was done with no AV-cables connected as I was merely trying out whether the machine still worked after 15 years in the basement. After a couple of minutes the "motor" started to give a strange sound like it is struggling, and it won't eject the casette. The machine turns off after 10 seconds. Any suggestions to what I could try to fix it or at least get the casette out again??
I don't remember if the eject mechanism contained a belt. If it does, this component may be bad in your machine.
It would be good to show how you lubricate a VCR- what grease/ oil to use. I have many VCR that are failing due to insufficient lubrication but don't know where to start
The process of lubrication varies with each VCR. Also usually when a VCR does not work properly, it's not (only) due to bad lubrication.
I have a panasonic fs 200 (ag 1980 pal version) and it is playing everything in black and white, before you say I'm playing ntsc tapes or something, I can assure you everything is set correctly, it's a hardware problem. Now I suspect only the caps can be bad? How difficult of a project is it to replace caps on those prosumer decks? I do have some experience with soldering, but not much.
As far as I know the AG1980 does have problems with bad SMD capacitors. This problem might not be fixable.
I did discover it later that it is, but it is a big project. Takes around 100-200 surface mount electrolytic caps to replace and the unit should work like new.
Something worth doing I guess. The HS1000 should actually have the same problems as it used the same batch of bad caps Panasonic and rebrands used back in the 90s, supposedly they only last around 15 years and at this point nearly all hs1000, fs 200 will start to act up, unless they get the caps replaced.
Very informative. I am looking to buy a HS1000 at an acution but I have no idea on how high I should go. For a unit in reasonably good condition - how much is to much and what is whithin reason? Any suggestions?
Karl Axelsson I'd try not to spend anymore than 100€. They go for around that price in the internet.
DrCassette Ok. Thank you, I appreciate it :)
Great Videos and very valuable information you give on repairs and maintenance on VCR.
Q, could you please advise on the best head cleaning alcohol to use in cleaning Video heads. Thank you for your Great Videos.
For cleaning heads I use Isopropyl Alcohol.
Does PANASONIC NV-HS800 its younger brother its also SVHS player does that one has S-video input
All S-VHS recorders have an S-Video input. It's needed to take full advantage of the S-VHS system's higher video resolution.
thank you
I can only wish my Sony SLV-825 VCR had all the functions this one has. Will there be any videos about your studio?
TheVintage99 Possibly, right now that's all a work in progress thing, so it'll be another while.
I've got a Sony SLV-R1000 and a JVC HR-S8000U, both high-end editing VCR's.
Hi. Thanks for a great video that made me want to clean my VHS players. Did you use lighter fuel to clean the head?
No, better use Isopropyl Alcohol.
@@DrCassette Thanks!
I always thought I had to buy those special cleaning sticks for the video heads. I went to work in a repair shop and found out that everyone in the repair business uses paper soaked in alcohol.
Hey Doc…Great videos. Do you have any of the Panasonic 1980 deck?? I couldn't find any.
+Fsp Upload
No, I don't.
That thing looks great condition for the age.
EastAngliaUK The VCR has been in my grandmother's living room for most of its life...
This VCR inside looks like National(panasonic) NV G10A , mainboard with boards on it.. and the whay its assembled. I also dont know what to do with it..
I have a G10EM! This uses the D mechanism instead of the HS1000 which uses the K mechanism. Mine has a power supply problem. Does yours work?
Hi. This VCR uses BNC connectors for the video output and RCA connectors for the audio output :)
+Fivos Sakellis jea. bnc wich i dont have.
Out of my four Alan Parsons Project videos on my channel, only one is blocked in Germany... by the way, never even try to upload anything by Supertramp, as the result will be a copyright strike :(
***** I'd like to upload the test and demo video, especially since I can't re-do it because I now have the VCR set up as part of my AV studio that I don't want to pull apart anymore for now. But I don't want to take any risk.
As for Supertramp, well that also happened to my old music channel (DrCasse11e) before I took it all down. Nothing but trouble with the copyright :P
I just bought a NV HS 1000 and it had two slight vertical lines on the screens. So I tried to clean it like you did in the video. Paper, lighter fluid (Feuerzeugbenzin) and very light pressure. Sadly after that the pictures is much much worse. I think the heads are now completely damaged and unusable.
Those vertical lines are most likely not there due to dirty heads. Seems like a tape related issue to me. Try using isopropyl alcohol instead of lighter fluid. If there was any dirt stuck to the paper, keep repeating the process. Also clean the other stationary heads. You are not going to get a good, stable picture if the sync head is dirty. The paper method does not damage the heads unless you did something wrong.
Hi, thanks for the reply. I did try it again with Isoprop 90% but no real change. (The highest I got at the pharmacy) I also cleaned the other heads like in your video.
I am pretty sure its not the tape because I have tested a lot of different ones and everyone has exactly the same issue.
Could I maybe send you a few pictures over mail? Maybe you can confirm that its the heads or not.
Thanks
Olsen have the same issue. Were you able to resolve your problem? What was the cause?
@@mj-iw6iz Actually it was a problem with the scaler on my plasma tv. I connected the player to another TV and the picture is perfect. Thanks to DrCassette for this tutorial!
Very nice, though you should experiment with different camera angels, sometimes you can't see a thing what or where exatly you are doing things... Will you do any tape path alignment videos?
Better yet, make series on "How to maintain your professional VCRs" and go trough basic procedures (cleaning, lubing) to the more complicated stuff that is required after heavy use on the VCRs (alignments/adjustments, replacements)
That is much more than what I have time for at the moment ;)
Hello my dear Dr! I just received my two AG4700 (remember that I ask'd you if was a good deal por 20usd?).
Sadly the seller wasn't very honest (or didn't know) that they don't work.
Both vcr's turn on, but when I put a tape, it stops a mid position and eject the tape.
I insisted at a point it got in, but it didn't load the tape (ribbon) into the head.
Would you be so kind of gime some tips of what to look for?
Meanwhile I am going downtown to buy some Isopropanol 99% and lithium grease.
Hm, that's a problem I can't do a remote diagnosis for. The cassette loading mechanism may be misaligned. I would recommend you don't try forcing a cassette inside until this has been repaired. There are several rather fragile plastic pieces in the loading mechanism that you really don't want to break.
@@DrCassette my thoughts exactly. I made a short video of the problem and also uploaded english subs. Maybe you could take a look?
czcams.com/video/BVgTQcK531k/video.html
The VCR works better than I thought. It does load a cassette and threads the tape, so the fault should not be in the loading mechanism. The next idea would be to clean the mode selector switch. This however requires a fair bit of disassembly, and since I have never done this on my VCR I can't help you any further. However there is the "12voltvids" channel here on CZcams. You should find some videos on this topic over there.
Thank you @@DrCassette ! That's exactly what I was thinking. In fact the mod selector in both decks had is contacts totally black. After some cleaning with isopropanol and contact cleaner it got better to a brownish gold color.
I have seen Dave's videos (12voltvids) on regarding mod switchs repairs, but I never seen a mod switch like this one.
In most cases I have seen that it has a disc on one side and some plastic clams or clamp on the other; however this one has a small plastic gear. So no clue of how to disasemble it. I try'd to force the gear out, but was impossible.
So far I haven't try'd switching one mod switch over the other to see if that might help.
@@DrCassette after reading your comment I decided to give it another go. I swaped the mode switchs from one vcr to the other. At first wasnt working (it ejected the tape). Then I realized: the motor was spinning but the wormwheel wasn't.
I bumped it a bit and it started playing! Image shown and everything!
However... then it wont eject. Same issue.
So, finally: the diagnosis is the small plastic that connects the motor shaft to the wormwheel. It has a tinny line at the middle that seems it is a crack. Both motors same sympthom.
I dont think that small piece would be easily found, so I will try to hunt another K system for taking the engine
Hi Doctor, I enjoy your videos. Is it possible to make a video for the Panasonic HS830 showing how to remove & clean the mode switch? I have 2 of these machines & one has all the symptoms of oxidisation on the control tracks. I took off the lid, took one look & hid in the cupboard shaking with fear & thought "I dare not touch this, I will break it.....I know, I shall ask Dr Cassette for help!". I cannot find info anywhere on the dismantling of this model let alone the procedure I'd like to do. I hope you can help. :)D
I can't get a specific model of VCR just to show how to repair a specific problem. If you get very, very lucky a friend of mine might make such a video as he owns a Panasonic HS830. You should be able to find a service manual for the HS830 online.
DrCassette
No probs. I took the plunge & did it myself. The mode switch looked fine. I cleaned it & put it together. I then realised the problem was not with the VCR but with the tapes I was playing on them. They were old ex-rentals & 20 years on are deteriorating. I thought it was odd because having cleaned the heads only a week ago, the heads were dirty again.
Years ago I had a 200 machine duplication bank & I realised those were always recording onto NEW blank VHS tapes, so the heads never got dirty.
So it would appear the deterioration was triggering my HS830 to stop & eject. I played an unused tape & it is fine.
PS: I thought you already had an HS830, I thought I’d seen you with one in a video. I must be mistaken.
does thats have S VIDEO input
It has both an S-Video Input and an S-Video Output.
1:07 All the speeds? That's a PAL model and unlike NTSC which have 3 speeds (SP/LP/EP). Very few PAL VHS includes PAL EP. Most PAL VHS only have SP & LP but not EP. I'm just confused about SVHS PAL VCR long before I saw your video because they said that JVC the inventor of VHS made a policy never include LP speed on SVHS machines and your VCR is a PAL SVHS model. My question is are the speeds of that SVHS PAL VCR SP & EP (no LP) like most NTSC VCR? or SP & LP (no EP) like most PAL VCR? or SP/LP/EP like the old NTSC VCR?
+bobskie321
This VCR features SP and LP. The EP speed, due to the very low quality, was never a thing on PAL VCRs. It may have been available on some models, but it was never popular.
+DrCassette
I googled it and discovered that Sharp VC-MH705 VHS VCR can record and play PAL-EP. BTW the dirt on tape path (7:17) in my experience is one reason of incompatibility issue when playing tapes recorded from other VCR. I noticed it in the 1990s which tapes I recorded in EP mode when the VCR was new is not compatible anymore. The tracking noise at the top of the screen when I adjusted the tracking it moves to the bottom. But after I cleaned the tape path, old tapes is compatible again but new tapes which I recorded before I cleaned the tape path is no longer compatible and must be re-recorded.
+bobskie321 Panasonic NV-FJ760 has EP speed. I have one of them. Never used it much because, as you say, not many PAL video recorders have EP, no one I knew had one that had it. The quality was actually ok though I imagine if it had been linear audio, the sound would be quite poor.
I don't know about the compatibility problems. I was recently going through some old tapes and found one with an EP recording and it played fine. That was recorded and played back with the machine clean though. Not much call for EP on PAL as the tapes are plenty long enough anyway especially once E240s became the norm in the 90s.
+nowt100
Even I live in a country where NTSC is used, the linear audio in EP mode is poor and the tape speed of NTSC-EP is almost the same as PAL-LP. So that could be the reason why they didn't include EP in most PAL VCR because the linear audio must be worse than NTSC-EP. I presume that PAL-EP is only available on HI-Fi machines because Hi-Fi audio is not affected by this. I googled the VCR you mentioned (Panasonic NV-FJ760) and it's Hi-Fi and it must be to make PAL-EP acceptable.
Yeah its Hi-Fi. A good deck, was about £300 back in 2000 although we got it because the previous one broke just within warranty so got new machine of same price. Its still going fine now.
Yeah the linear audio on PAL VHS is pretty poor in general. Just about ok in SP, any slower and its very hissy and muffled. So although I've never heard EP linear audio, going by what it's like in LP, it would probably be pretty much unlistenable.
Before Hi-Fi came in a lot of the PAL vhs machines, Ferguson (UK JVC clone) ones in particular, had Dolby NR on them to counter the noise from the slow tape speed, especially the linear stereo ones. Was that common on NTSC machines?
Parkside power! :D
Panasonic almost always made sure that the transport and chassis were easy to access and clean. Stark contrast with JVC...Always a damn circuit board or two on top.
Somehow JVC VCRs are hard to find around here, over the years I have seen just one consumer unit. I recently bought two of JVC's big industrial VHS editing VCRs. Those of course are designed for easy servicing.
Oh? Which ones? I had two BR-8600U's that were a breeze to clean.
I have a BR-8600E and a BR-6600E with matching RM-86U editing controller. They were bought as a set which is a bit strange because only the BR-6600E supports HiFi audio.
How much did you pay, do they both work?
I got these as part of an almost complete studio setup that a school used for teaching young adults the basics of working with video. So there was a camera, video mixer, title generator, a Sony S-VHS VCR and some other stuff along with the JVC VCRs. For all the equipment I paid 300€ in total. The BR-8600E works fine, the BR-6600E has a broken gear in the cassette loading mechanism, but I hope I can glue that back together. If you can get a cassette loaded into the mechanism, all the rest works fine. According to the hour meters both VCRs ran for only about 500 hours.
Nice videos, Dr Cassette. I watched this one and the HS900 one. I'm in the market for a Panasonic, you wouldn't happen to have an ebay shop, would you?
hushofthechameleon No, I don't use Ebay that often.
DrCassette Too bad, it looks like you know what you're doing. I'm sure eBay has a lot of knowledgeable sellers, but the reality is that you never know what you're actually getting if you buy untested/untested. Most of the time, it's a gamble.
Whenever I do sell equipment I make sure to give it a proper overhaul before.... you're right, a lot of people sell junk on Ebay :P
"Untested" VCRs on ebay simply mean not working. Very common with Betamax! The sellers usually claim that they don't have a tape to test the machine...
the best panasonic vcr is the AG4700 , not a HS or FS serie believe me
You do realize the AG-4700 is nothing more than an NV-HS1000 that has been slightly modified for professional use?
Ag series are for the American market, for Ntsc. Nv are for Eurooe, for Pal.
I takoyzhe VCR. What means cleaning the video heads? What is the cleaning fluid?