Play VHS tapes while sideways and upside down (Goldstar GCP-C135)

[@monolithicshapes5215]

I hope you feel better Adrian. Rest and recover. Don't push yourself too hard. All the best

[@timstuart7112]

Yes Goldstar is LG. LG actually stands for Lucky Goldstar the name came from the merger of the Lucky chemical company and Goldstar electronics. As a side note I think either late ‘90’s or early 2000’s their marketing department developed the tagline Life’s Good.

[@lasskinn474]

I wish they would bring back the lucky goldstar branding instead of pseudo branding as if they were an european traditional brand. south korea isn't bad for quality(now anyway), should embrace that. the lg branding makes it just look like it's random stuff from china like all the trad. brands are. i still think fondly of a daewoo 32" crt I used to have 20 years ago. did everything, pal, ntsc and both in 50 and 60 and 50/60 rgb as well. was a great pairing to an og xbox.

[@MrJeroendemuzikant]

Man I was going to say that thing about Goldstar becoming LG. And being all clever about it. 😎🤣 I never heard about that being ‘Lucky Goldstar’. Only about it being ‘Life’s Good’, which I thought was pretty lame as branding. But what do I know. 😁

[@timstuart7112]

@@MrJeroendemuzikant I have been in retail since the mid 80’s and have seen a lot over my lifetime. During the late 80’s to mid 90’s Korean brands were viewed as “cheap” and poor quality. Goldstar had that same reputation. LG was fully aware of that view at least here in the US. Kudos to them for recognizing it and relaunching their brand as LG. I only know of that back story because the retailer that I worked for at the time had training reps in that told the story when the LG brand launched with them. I think I remember them saying the merger of the two companies actually happened in the 50’s but since this was over 20 years ago maybe even 25 that I heard the story I am a little hazy on that.

[@nickwallette6201]

Some people say "I would rather be lucky than good", but I don't know if that does or should pertain to chemical companies.

[@Birdman_in_CLE]

They also bought the Zenith brand out of Chicago.

[@MiguelAngelBeltran]

This VHS was installed in Buses. All was designed to be easy to use It. Vibrations, positions, etc ..

[@mamayl8592]

I suspected it was used in a mobile environment.

[@AttilaSVK]

Oh yes, I recall going from Slovakia to Greece by bus in 1999, via Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria (that's the longer way) because of the war in former Yugoslavia. We were sitting near the back of the bus, maybe about two thirds in, and the TV was at the front. Well, I think nobody could really see it, maybe the people in first or second rows of seats :D

[@Orangeman1996]

Ergo the 12-volts

[@dustinsmous5413]

This model was quite common in RVs in the 90s and 2000svas well.

[@vwestlife]

The heads on most 2-head VCRs are optimized for EP, so you'll get (almost) clean pause and fast-forward/reverse search in EP, but noise bars in SP or LP.

[@Shadowfoxxy30]

if you knew anything about VCR's you'd know it's bad to pause your tapes it damages them.

[@zachbeckner]

@@Shadowfoxxy30 WTF? talk about an attitude.

[@Vaionko]

​@@Shadowfoxxy30 You're telling vwestlife he doesn't know anything about VCRs? Lol.

[@Snohup]

Do 6-head VCR have (almost) clean pause and FF/RW in EP, SP and LP?

[@adriansdigitalbasement2]

Heh after making the video, I played an EP tape and yes this was instantly evident! I surely knew this at some point but then forgot it.

[@sarahgoo5541]

Tune in next week when Adrian repairs a Husqvarna sewing machine 😊

[@darkknite2k11]

@@sarahgoo5541 would be continuity gold 🪙

[@jpnc2319]

This guy can repair almost anything

[@adriansdigitalbasement2]

Maybe it uses a floppy drive??!

[@jpnc2319]

@@adriansdigitalbasement2 let's see if can run Doom

[@tigheklory]

@@adriansdigitalbasement2 My wife's Brother embroidery sewing machine uses CF cards.

[@thirstyCactus]

Sorry to hear about the stomach thing. Wishing you a fast recovery.

[@petenielsen6683]

Strictly speaking it was called a VCP. I bought one to edit tapes when I recorded Doctor Who off WCNY in the late eighties and early nineties knowing that PBS might not repeat the same Doctors over again. And at the time I did not have the income for 2 VCRs. VCPs were cheaper. And the second RF port was because most people had CRTs without RCA inputs on them. It was a bypass so we would not have to unplug our cable TV every time we wanted to just watch TV.

[@BigCar2]

I'd recommend probiotic yoghurt. That seems to help my stomach get back into shape with the right enzymes.

[@howaboutsomesoyfood]

or probiotics in general.

[@moonrock41]

That's a really good idea. I eat yogurt often and also take a probiotic pill every day.

[@jeremiahrex]

My family bought a full size van (sometimes called conversion vans?) in the mid to late 90's and it had one of these inside. I remember watching the Bruce Lee film several times on the color TV in there. It sat inside this wooden cabinet in between the two front seats, built into the center console. I remember the picture being pretty decent and this felt like the height of technology, watching movies in your VAN! Wow!

[@bauertime]

My dads handicap 1993 Ford van had the same set up.

[@volvo09]

I love conversion vans!

[@Alcarods]

Yup! These were very popular in conversion vans also!

[@joshuas2516]

Glad you’re on the mend, Adrian! My parents had a high-quality late-90’s Sony VCR, and that’s how I remember the pause looking! Oregonian greetings from Canby!

[@pelgervampireduck]

I remember having a "play only" VCR for some time, it was so frustrating. It was another brand, a local brand that only a local store sells. The day we got it they didn't have recording ones in stock, the price was the same, but my dad said "we don't need recording anyway" and bought the "play only" one. Arrrrrghhhhh. Years later I got my own NORMAL VCR that recorded, but it always felt like I missed out for a few years.

[@SkrixFox]

Back in the mid to late 90's my family traveled the country with one of these and a small white crt TV in our green Chevrolet Astro van. My father built a nice little console for it to fit between the front seats. We had a small little 300w power inverter running everything. The audio would play out through the 3.5mm audio jack into the cassette tape jack. Definitely saved my parents a lot of headaches with my brother and I on road trips. I had completely forgotten about that little VCR. Thank you for the trip down memory lane.

[@whiskerlesswalrus]

The jack on the modulator is there for the tuner if it was so equipped with on it allowed the antenna signal to be passed to a built in tuner-they made them in that form factor for years and the modulator works just fine as a stand alone modulator without a tuner plugged into it-why would a manufacturer make multiple devices like a modulator for a vcr with a tuner and one for a vcr without a built in tuner-just use the one-saves on having to manufacture different parts to obtain the same goal

[@telemedic5142]

These look like the little machines you could hire from video shops in the uk if you didn’t own a player of your own. They would be fitted in a large carry box. This version seems to be for use in a mobile situation, we used them in coaches.

[@HokusaiXL]

Those were also common with truck drivers because of how tight sleeper cabs are.

[@dobroplayer7]

I had one of these mounted in a late 90s suburban, in the cargo area to the inside roof. It ran to a 5 or 7 inch fold down LCD screen mounted between the front seats from the roof. Obviously for the back passengers (kids) only. It had a small flat credit card sized remote that you had to point back at the VCR. The sound went through the trucks speakers via a manual toggle switch. This was a "top of the line" after market job on a dealerships demo suburban. I bought it used a few years later.

[@agw5425]

The smooth connector on the rf unit is the standard for Sweden, we almost never use threaded connectors for antenna/rf signals. In the 80´s and 90´s we had rental video players they called a movie box that was mounted in a vinyl/plastic carrying case, even they would have the smooth rf connector. Yours was probably sold on many markets so they simplified the design to save on parts.

[@sasiuru]

I remember these player only VHS things from video rental companies too here in Finland. Buying VCR late 80's was expensive thing to do, so that's why there was a rental players, just rent a video and player.

[@imark7777777]

Oh that looks like an RCA connector to me on the side of the RF circuit. But yes Europe uses a different RF connector. And it's cool to know that rental VHS devices were available there outside of the blockbuster and Hollywood video of the US. Never did rent one but always wondered what the process would be like.

[@agw5425]

@@imark7777777 You had very basic controls with play stop ff and fr usually it had a tracking control besides eject that´s it. we used to rent them with videos/tapes we wanted to copy if we had a vcr at home but not all vcrs could record of them because of copy protection, but some could.

[@dennisp.2147]

We had a similar one that my brother grabbed out of the trash pile at his university when the dorms were being cleaned out at end of term in about 1996. It was originally in a rental case from the local Video store before we shucked it out. The power brick was integrated into the case, but could be removed.

[@jarthurs]

This brought back memories, I bought a VHS player in the late 80's and it was the older brother to this the VCP-4100M. It sat under a 14" Philips portable TV in my room as a teenager.

[@remcovanderadio]

We had those here (in Holland) as rental vhs players in a case. Recover good Adrian!

[@bonemar66]

This VCP is designed to be put in the driver seat pouch so the kids can watch Aladdin in the back seats of the Grand Caravan.

[@siberx4]

My family had what was probably one of these _exact_ models when I was younger, specifically for use on our boat! It was a great unit in that application, both for size and the ability to power it off 12V. It didn't give us any grief as far as I recall, regardless of the orientation.

[@TheGreatAtario]

It's kind of a miracle videotape works at all, really. That they eventually got them so cheap and reliable is more miracles on top of miracles.

[@shmehfleh3115]

I remember a friend had a conversion van with a 9" color TV and a VCR just like that in it. They also had a SNES wired into the system. Pretty effective way to keep the early 90s kids occupied on long car trips.

[@mqb17]

At the 34:01 minute mark I totally thought Adrian somehow reached into the video and poked the sewing machine.

[@grinderkenny]

My parents had a video store back in the late 70s thru the early 90s . These vcr were designed as a rental unit with a 120 volt power supply

[@grinderkenny]

I'm not sure with this unit but a few systems used petroleum jelly as a lubricant on the gears. Also I remember fixing these as a kid at the store and one came in with a peanut butter sandwich inside of it.

[@BilisNegra]

The Husqvarna sewing machine video reminds one of a typical use case for a player like this, other than RVs and stuff: Commercials/product demos in retail space. Think about it: where else does the REPEAT button/function (playing a tape over and over) really make sense? If finally turns out this machine is actually more tolerant about playing in any orientation than more standard "living room" models, there's another advantage for you: you can tuck the unit away from customers' eyes more easily.

[@Shadowfoxxy30]

technically speaking it's not a VCR but rather a VCP since it can't record

[@Plarndude]

Yah! Someone else is bothered by that too!

[@helgew9008]

The silkscreen on the bottom circuit board is even marked "VCP". Back in the day, we called them a movie box.

[@TonyLambregts]

Technically correct: the best form of correct 😅

[@JessicaFEREM]

be careful with windex with ammonia, often times the ammonia can eat plastics slowly over time. I personally use ammonia-free windex when it comes to electronics, not only is it safer for the environment, it's safer around tech. I just use store brand but you can get name brand too.

[@xylexrayne8576]

I saw the front of this VCR In the thumbnail and freaked out. My grand parents had this VCR in their Van, along with a tiny TV. The nostalgia is real. As 90s kids we watched many many movies on that thing.

[@darkknite2k11]

Totally having flashbacks. Back in the day when my Dad ran a video rental store they had the straight A/C versions for rental use. Came in a big ole blow molded case.

[@volvo09]

I remember the big blow mold rental cases!

[@jeromethiel4323]

Those chamois cleaning sticks were the best thing to use. You can actually clean them with the same fluid you use the clean the heads (regular old IPA works fine, at least that's what we used to use back in the day). Those sticks really only wear out if the chamois comes off the stick, or the surface of the chamois is damaged. They are actually very robust little items. And they are the absolute best for cleaning heads in a VCR (or audio tape deck for that matter.)

[@brentboswell1294]

My dad had a Goldstar mini VCP (video cassette player!) at his dental office for playing instructional videos for his patients. I used to borrow it over the weekend for copying rental videos from the video rental (with the aid of some RCA cables and an image stabilizer [copy protection defeating device] ordered from a classified ad in Popular Science 😂 ).

[@johnrichardson1949]

I had a few of these exact units in my limousine collection

[@baronvonschnellenstein2811]

What a cute VCP and in such good condition :) I actually still had a fancy hi-fi stereo Sony VCR of that vintage that I'd had from new until we bought this house 7yrs ago (smaller house - the VCR and its tapes had to go, but I kept my Amigas, lol) As many others already pointed out, it was quite common to find those portable VCPs on coach tour buses (If I remember correctly, even Greyhound, in these parts!). When you mentioned early attempts at recording video to VHS with portable players, that brought back memories of my dad lugging around such units and an equally sizeable video camera on a few family holidays 😂 - Thanks for that fun little "break" from regular, often "meaty" content - hope your current ailment goes away quick smart 👍

[@ncot_tech]

Having a VCR paired to a colour (trinitron) TV in your RV/boat was a super luxury. We had a b&w TV that needed hitting to make it work and I thought that was fancy 😅

[@nickwallette6201]

Exactly. This immediately brought me back to seeing the pimped family vans and RVs at dealerships in the 90s. You had to be doing _alright_ to be cruising around in a van with a TV and VHS deck.

[@LucidSystems]

Same VCR was in our old van. Had that and a built in TV for the back seat passengers.

[@BG101UK]

Hope you recover soon, Adrian. Earlier single-speed VHS machines did provide quite decent still-frame and trick-play results. The issue with the 2-head SP/LP/EP machines is the head wafers are thinner to accommodate the narrower tracks needed for the long-play modes. You will likely find LP/EP recordings give a better image in trick-play modes on this machine.

[@gr8gassy]

I appreciate you taking the time to share your more personal things like being sick and your diabetic things. It helps ground us in reality, that, although KZbinrs may be famous to us, they are also just regular people like us too. I recently got diagnosed type 2 diabetic, and it’s nice knowing I’m not the only one, and since I watched your videos for so long, I kinda knew what to eat and drink to help manage my sugar. Gotta get some of that tang, though! Been wanting to try that🎉

[@gr8gassy]

I did get some tang after chatting with Adrian about this topic at VCFMW. The mango one is good, and I will try the other flavors.

[@elektro-peter1954]

That Jack on the modulator-module is typically the aerial output that would be connected to the tuner module on VCRs that can record. I guess they just used the same modulator for this player.

[@nickblackburn1903]

39:02 You take that back! I love my VHS tapes! We often have 80's film nights and use a 1982 Fergusson Videostar. Joking aside, I loved this video and found it very useful from a maintenance point of view, thank you Adrian :) Also - drink some flat lemonade and eat some plain crisps(chips) always settles my stomach.

[@artemius130]

Hi Adrian) Get well and don't get sick. Thank you so much for the video. I very rarely write comments, even though I have been a subscriber to your channel for a long time) As soon as your videos come out on KZbin, I always immediately like them, because I know in advance that there will be something interesting) As for the tape recorder, I really have never seen a VCR that runs on a power supply. And Goldstar is really LG. I have a Goldsar TV and audio cassettes.

[@Haldrie]

I actually have a recorded VHS tape that somehow has the recording at the very start after the leader that I have not been able to properly capture due to all the VCRs I have having a OSD that shows up when I try to rewind and play that part of the tape so the fact this VHS Player does not have any OSD is great for my need of wanting to preserve that tape's entire contents. Also this helped me realize I really need to pull my main VCR apart and grease it up and do a better cleaning job on it to preserve it's proper operation.

[@eDoc2020]

Many VCRs have different modes for the OSD such as always counter always visible. One of these options should suppress the OSD completely.

[@imark7777777]

I've used a bunch of VCRs over the years... I think due to a combination of buying the next level up from the cheapest and buying the only thing we could afford. Although somehow we were luckier than another family member I knew who just kept destroying the cheap ones they got. Some of them don't do that some of them do and some of them let you toggle it in the menu if you can get into the menu without the remote. It is so annoying that they Blue out on static so quickly. And then that's complicated by the capture card doing the same thing.

[@steveskipper6473]

I can't help thinking about the moment in Clint's video where a decision was made to visit Whataburger....

[@macgeek21]

i vaguely remember the old style camcorders with vcr’s. my dad had a betamax when i was born and dropped it down the stairs at a mall in New Hampshire and it smashed in a million pieces. the vhs one we had was a panasonic i want to say and we had that one for years as well. till a tape got stuck in it and my dad took it apart to get the tape out and never put it back together.

[@gingered]

Those chamois tips are somewhat popular for cleaning game cartridges since they fit basically exactly between the plastic shell and the card connector without disassembling the cart and don't leave fuzz behind like cotton buds often do. I usually see them in kits with other "game cart cleaning supplies" so I didn't know they had a specific name besides "the wide and flat swab"

[@Renville80]

I understand all too well on 'side effect' illnesses... for me, any cold, flu, etc. makes my asthma flare up and it takes weeks / months to settle down. Here's hoping you get past it quickly!

[@danwic]

Reminds me of old school trips with long coach journeys. Tbe teachers would stick a video on to stop us annoying the driver lol

[@otho03]

A friend had a conversion van with one of these in it.

[@wolf1438]

I remember these on my 24 hours long bus holiday trip to Croatia. Same TV and VCR style. Was watching Desperados. Core memories.

[@larrywilliams8010]

Feel better soon

[@probnotstech]

That VCR (VCP technically?) would have been common on tour buses as well. I have memories of watching movies on bus rides during band trips back in the 90s, and they had VCRs like this, and CRT monitors hanging from the ceiling.

[@gentuxable]

It's a Videocasette Reader :D

[@Really........]

@@gentuxable There are no record functions on this unit so it's Video Cassette Player.

[@t0nito]

14:30, it's the other way around, a 2 head VCR will have much more noise during trick play on SP than on EP

[@jeromethiel4323]

I was in Houston TX last week myself. Caught what feels a lot like a covid variant. Wiped me out for days. Could not/did not want to eat, just wanted to sleep. Taste and sense of smell was gone. Body aches, fever, congestion/cough, you name it. Have had a couple of different versions, and this felt just like it. Finally ate for the first time today (5 1/2 days cans food), and it was good! But yeah, the old stomach was NOT happy with food in it after being empty for so long. And it was chili mac, because i woke up this Wednesday dreaming about chili mac (a favorite of mine). So i had to make homemade chili mac, and it tasted amazing. And while my tummy was a bit upset, everything stayed down. So i'm calling that a win!

[@Darxide23]

Most VCRs should be pretty agnostic about their physical orientation.

[@kevinh96]

For the mode switch on that model if you evert weird behaviour it looks like you only need to remove the black cover, just gently push in the white tabs in the centre and pry the cover off with a small screwdriver. The lower flat contacts can be cleaned with deoxit, or even good old IPA and a cotton bud. The tiny finger contacts on the underside of the cover can be cleaned with the same products just make sure you go in the direction the little contacts are orientated. You can also very gently pry the little fingers up a little to get better contact but 99% of the time that isn't necessary.

[@750kv8]

17:21 - The moving post is what controls the felt band tension. So, if the post gets pushed to the right due to increased tape tension, that loosens up the band, and vice versa. 19:37 - Counter Clockwise. I had to do a double check on one of Dave's videos, so I got it correctly. It's CCW. The head drum spins in the same direction as the tape passes by on, to help it move forward. 28:21 - That's how the brake mechanism works; at the start of fast winding the brakes, being spring loaded, are getting 'wound up' into a position where at the end of it they just get released to snap against the spindles for instant braking action. This is completely normal. 30:35 - On the bottom of the picture there's usually a pulse of 'noise' (in alternating spots between the frames, but there's just one actually), that's the very spot where the switch between the heads occur; interestingly, the engineers of practically all magnetic tape formats decided that it won't happen in a blanking area, but just a few lines before the active picture area ends. I assume the practical reason for this is making the head switching visible without having to use a special monitor that can be desynced, to monitor tape tension, but without impacting much of the screen area. Incorrect tape tension can cause a horizontal 'shear' effect on the lines immediately after the head switch. The position of head switch pulse also changes along with changes made in the tracking, relative to the horizontal sync pulse. IMHO that was a missed opportunity of implementing tracking without the use of a linear tracking signal, sensing the time relation of the head switch pulse and the horizontal sync pulse. AFAIK, no manufacturer did that. Any VCR is supposed to be able to operate in any position. The cassette door tends to jam in some tho, in my experience. Feel better soon, Adrian!

[@TheMamosians]

Oh no I’m sorry that you weren’t well. Glad you’re feeling better. Well done for keep working away when your not feeling 100 percent

[@antonglushkov2327]

The day has not been lived in vain. Now I know that Husqvarna produces sewing machines.

[@j__r0d]

I have a nice Sony CRT/VHS combo and I love to watch some of my old VHS tapes every so often for the nostalgia. Plus, I just think they're neat! it's such a cool technology that a lot of people took for granted back in the 90s

[@marekwyszkoni64432]

3:26 - not really, they decided not to. My Elekta PAL/SECAM VCR which possbly was made by Aiwa, has the recording functionality via composite and it's small and 220 volts and 12 volts too. However adding a tuner back in the 90s to these portable VCRs was impossible since those old analog tv tuner heads required 30v to tune them, and it would possibly increase the size too. If you wanted to record tv broadcasts on a non tuner recording vcr (oddly they called these things "video cassette players with line recording" by manufacturers) you needed a TV that converted the RF to IF and converted IF to composite video with audio (quite common in Eastern Europe) (those are the mysterious video outputs on TVs, they also decoded RF to composite for those VCRs with no tuners)

[@subynut]

Very cool! Growing up, there were a few times when we were living in a travel trailer. At the time, we had a Sanyo TV/VCR combo unit that had the dual voltage input like that VCR. Pretty neat! I pray you feel better really soon!

[@suvetar]

Feel better soon Adrian, and thank you for taking the time to still keep us up to date! Does Ginger help? I am a seasonal sufferer of a bug that gives me horrible nausea, Ginger is the only thing that seems to work !

[@Madpegasusmax]

never seen a VHS constructed like this ,quite interesting,good serviceability , external fuse ... the extra plug on the tuner could be for a Aerial plug or for test/calibration proposes .

[@minty_Joe]

Adrian, sorry to hear you weren't feeling well. I hope you get better. I recommend some peppermint tea or even some with ginger in it. They seem to help with nausea and upset stomach for me. Keep up the great work and rest up.

[@XKSteve]

Oh bless Adrian, sorry you weren’t feeling100% but well done on another entertaining video. Really like your videos and have learnt SO much since subbing to your channel.

[@tigheklory]

My Chevy Express 1500 came with a 12v CRT TV and an Audio Vox 12v VCR. I still have both even though I took them out of my Van. The power to the VCR is a Molex connector.

[@AnthonyRBlacker]

I remember back in the 90s my uncle had a VHS camcorder. It was pretty big, it went on your shoulder, had a very small viewfinder that stuck out either left or right, had a boom microphone (horrible quality) on the top, an attachable light that slid on.. it had an angled handle with some function buttons on it. It didn't have an addition playback screen on it, had to use the viewfinder, but it was ok.. that thing recorded a LOT of video back in the day.. SO many tapes.. they're all junk now I'm sure.. but what memories

[@rednwhitecooper]

A lot of these were installed vertically in an armrest. I remember renting conversion vans for vacations in the 90s and they VCR was always hidden away while the TV was front and center there in the back of the console or on the ceiling if it was a high roof van.

[@klaushergesheimer8602]

I think lithium grease can degrade plastics. Better use silicone grease when there's plastic involved.

[@TechneMoira]

Hello Adrian, hope you're feeling better. A small tip: Chamois is pronounced as sha-moaa... it's a French word describing basically skin of the goat antelope (Chamois) that lives in the Pyrenees mountains on the border between France and Spain. Fun fact: professional bicycle athletes wear chamois inlays in their pants to absorb excess sweat... I'm told it makes sitting on the sadle for a long while "a lot more comfortable" :D However, don't take my word for it, you should try it out yourself to experience whether that is true or not LOL

[@dennisp.2147]

In America (and parts of Anglophone Canada) We pronounce it "shammy". Primarily to make the Frogs twitch and writhe.

[@CompuSAR]

Nausia and stomach "not functioning" is sometimes caused by low acidity in the stomach. Try drinking Cola (if you can control the resulting sugar rush) or lemon juice (i.e. - squeezed lemon). They are both at the same acidity level, and from experience (mine and others) it causes you to *immediately* feel better. Note that when I said "Cola", I did not mean any of the diet variants. They are less sour (i.e. - less acidy) as regular Cola uses the insane amounts of sugar in it to balance out the very high acidity.

[@quadmods]

As a former bench tech for rotary head machines of all sorts, the mode switch was by far the most common repair. I had dozens of different ones in stock, all functioned similarity. Slip ring and pinch rollers also were common.

[@russellhltn1396]

I think the extra connector on the RF module may have been to connect a tuner. (When used with a normal VCR that has record functionality).

[@sokoloft3]

I had a awesome Goldstar set around that size of the TV you showed. Maybe a tiny bit bigger. Must've been from the late 60's early 70's. Had the clicky knobs. I wish I still had it and the NTSC RCA set I had that had SCART and a whole bunch of other stuff.

[@stewievader4]

Thankyou for showing what the flat headed cleaning sticks from other videos are called. Good thing your sparing with them though, 75$ for a pack of 50 ouch.

[@more.power.]

Get yourself well Adrian thank you for releasing this video. Cheers

[@mariestarlight]

Feel better Adrian. Apologies if this is unwanted advice, but I have similar issues when I have stomach illnesses and personally I found that taking probiotics for a few days really helps my stomach recover. Just figured I'd shout it out in case it's something you haven't tried.

[@jabrow7135]

Adrian, I’m exactly the same with my sugars during bouts of stomach issues. I tend to force myself to eat even when I’m feeling sick and don’t take any insulin until my sugar goes up. Actually if I’m having diarrhea my sugar stays low but the otherwise I’m always backed up and have to take quite a lot of insulin. I think it’s IBS. Anyway get well soon. I love your content.

[@kirkanos3968]

Sounds like my crazy stomach thing i have been fighting with since i was young. Just stops processing food, only thing that helps most the time is water and riding my bike miles hard and fast or working in the yard and getting that metabolize working again. Hope you get well soon.

[@dmcintosh1967]

I have an older Gold Star VCP and I had to take two machines to get one working. The unit you have there can't record so it would be classified as an VCP ( Video Cassette Player) not a VCR.

[@oliverw.douglas285]

Some of those older VCRs just keep plugging along, with a little maintenance, every so often. While I was attending college in the mid-1990's, I remember our Electronics Department putting on a VCR Cleaning Clinic, to teach students the ins & outs, of basic repairs & troubleshooting. Looking back, I kind of wish I would've participated. I've got a few VCRs, that I'd like to get working again, so I can make a digital copy of family videos.

[@moonrock41]

I'd guess there are quite a lot of VCRs still around, probably not getting used, but stored away in closets, etc. I have at least three of them, only one of which I bought.

[@mikebell2112]

Might the RCA connector go to one of those 2600 era TV/game switches?

[@50shadesofbeige88]

My grandfather had a VCR like that in his astro van. If I recall correctly, it was mounted to the back of the passenger front seat.

[@mrnmrn1]

This was more likely to see in tour buses. In an RV, a recording capable one would have been more handy (recording the evening show or sport event while you are fishing or whatever). Although I don't know if 12V ones with recording capability AND tuner were available or not. I've seen ones that can record, but only from an AV source. About the orientation: you're not supposed to operate a VHS cassette upside down. The reels can rub against the top of the cassette, especially with longer tapes, as the springs that normally push down the reels can't do their jobs properly if they are under the weight of the tape reels. You can operate it in any orientation, except upside down. This note is included in the user manual of full-size VHS camcorders as well. As can be seen here, they *can* operate upside down, but it is not guaranteed with every cassette.

[@douhacomcastnet]

Hey Adrian, it would have been interesting to see what was output from that internal jack. 😮

[@nakfan]

Probiotics is a great help to get my stomach back to normal again, also during / after treatment with antibiotics.

[@czeci7]

Sewing video was quite interesting, you should share it to some archives. :)

[@kevinshumaker3753]

I had a 12v/120v VCR that recorded too, back in the 90s. Bought with an Atari 2600 for the kids while traveling in our van, along with a Timex Sinclair 1000. Kids loved them also for camping...

[@macgeek21]

i never tried play a vcr upside down or vertical but we had a vhs(no recorder) in my dads buick from the time i was born till we sold in 1996. we had the same magnavox vhs too. my dad kept it right under his feet and the thing worked for almost twenty years!

[@adriansdigitalbasement2]

Like it was a foot-rest in the driver's footwell?

[@dmcintosh1967]

My Hitachi from 1992 keeps the tape loaded except for full speed rewind and fast forward when it unloads the tape from the heads. Also you have to turn on a feature it cause movie return if you want auto play when insert a tape. Also if you want the VCR to rewind the tape at the end and eject. It's a wired one and surprisingly mine still works as Hitachi VCRs are famous for having leaky capacitors from this era. I probably need should recap it but VCR works fine and I don't want to fix something that ain't broke.

[@mrjsv4935]

I hope you get well soon. Nice little vhs player, brings memories from rental device my parents used to rent couple of times in the 80's, before they bought our own VCR. It was called Esselte Home Video System, or something similar to that, I believe it was just a player to show the rented vhs movies, small and fairly easily portable., like this newer player. I seem to recall the 80's Esselte had some teal coloured buttons too. I still have Philips VHS VCR from 2003, still in working condition and sometimes I watch the tapes I used to record with it, mostly TV-shows and some movies. It had some minor issues couple of years ago, but they seem to have disappeared, at least for now, without doing anything to it.

[@SophieFeet]

Get well soon Adrian, I was worried! I've really been enjoying the Plexus videos (reminds me of some of the DEC gear I used when I first started working full-time).

[@alangray5288]

That sewing machine looks more complicated than the vcr!

[@minivanmegafun]

wait have you ridden the ACC? I love that ride, I did it in 2016 and 2018!

[@АлексейКарпов-й8ь]

For pinchroller and another rubber things you can use Formula A from xerox or something similar from another copier and printer manufacturers. This thing restores rubber rollers instead of drying it.

[@fu1r4]

Try press the stop button twice. Many VCR's unloaded the tape for faster rewind ...

[@robjw66111]

get well soon, and enjoy the old electronics

[@elektro-peter1954]

Most all VCRs can play (and record for that matter) while upside down. Some have problems loading a tape though.

[@FishDS9]

Haven't seen a VCP in awhile. Thanks for the video Adrian!