JCPenney 1985 Hi-Fi Stereo VCR Model 5075

[@publicmail2]

Best part of hifi vhs is it kicked ass for audio with specs that where as good as it gets for consumer analog audio, s/n 90+,DNR 90+, 20-20khz.

[@rich_edwards79]

Very advanced unit for 1985. Not at all surprised to learn that it's a Panny under the hood. Their stuff was so innovative given its conservative looks. Now I want one!

[@interstat2222]

And always extremely reliable. But it shows how high end JCP was aiming that they chose Panasonic and not someone cheaper at the time like Funai or Goldstar.

[@honestguy7764]

I was always a JVC guy

[@LisaWagner-wy5li]

VCR s are still popular in 2024

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

Our first VCR was a portable JCPenney model (made by Panasonic) from '82.

[@frankowalker4662]

Nice VCR. And a realy cool camera. The cable on the camera has 3 useful pins, 12V DC in, Audio out and Composite video out. I made my own adapter to use with my cameras when the Porta-Pak was beyond repair.

[@frankowalker4662]

@@joaobatista19808 Don't know the model numbers, but one was a JVC and the other was a Ferguson.

[@wibblehx]

The stickers are the best part of a new tape!

[@N0zer0]

Nope, it’s the smell

[@danielboguse4249]

I used to love getting the Sunday paper and going through the adds looking at the adds for all the new video equipment on sale.

[@yearginclarke]

We always had crappy VCR's when I was a kid. This looks like pretty darn good quality unit I must say.

[@HostiaRecords]

I have a Sanyo Super Beta Hifi from 1985, sounds superb and records better than the standard VHS that existed

[@probnotstech]

Oooh that looks like a clone of the Panasonic PV-1640. Really nice VCR to have.

[@douglashoff95]

These were manufactured by Matsushita of Japan (Panasonic) and were among the best that they made. They still were using a die cast chassis. Some of the most common issues were the rubber idler drive tire losing grip and filter capacitors in the switch mode power supply.

[@5roundsrapid263]

Some people are actually using tube cameras and/or filters to make their KZbin videos look “80’s” now. It’s very similar to the intro here, but not as accurate.

[@404010ful]

my VCR was a Mitsubishi with the jog wheel remote . bought it 1991 . 4 to a 6 head machine. it ended its life 2009 had it for a lot of years the first VHS HI FI movie i saw on mine was Young Guns 2 with Emilio Estevez .

[@coolbluelights]

It's a really neat old VCR! I have a 5074. slightly different variation of this. mine was NOS when I got it. Still in the box. The only thing I had to do to it was replace a belt. it's my daily driver now for whenever I need to play a tape. i'm currently using it to transfer old home video to digital.

[@interstat2222]

Mix audio mode is for playing home recorded audio dubbed tapes (where you would record, for example, a commentary on a home movie and keep the original soundtrack underneath it).

[@Ale.K7]

Nice machine. Love the window on top!

[@madmanmike1980]

3:16 I remember when I was growing up in the 80s to early 90s NBC🦚 had the Peacock logo with headphones and the text that said In Stereo Where Available, as well as the CBS👁️ StereoSound Where Available bug at the bottom of the screen.

[@MyDenney]

The mid 1980’s was the best time for VCR’s. Quality for vhs or Bata was superb. After that for some unexplained stupid reason manufacturers stoped putting adjustable audio meters on them. Why? This is a must feature how do you record audio in without knowing seeing the signal strength? To quiet or over saturated.

[@oleo007]

A cool piece of forgotten tecnology,this VCR has cool features ,its a pro VCR with consumer look,that VU is amazing !

[@cjpwolf2436]

this VCR is just a re-bagged Panasonic.

[@IAmNotAFunguy]

Even better than the Shintom/Funai from that era!

[@BilisNegra]

@@IAmNotAFunguy What? Has Funai ever been any good? I do know that rebadged VCRs from later times until the death of the format were Funais in many cases. Not awful maybe, but quite basic. Like the audio cassette Tanashin mechanism.

[@IAmNotAFunguy]

@@BilisNegra At one time in the 80's and early 90's Funai were top-of-the-line in terms of performance and reliability! Circa 1996 they went away from the Shintom decks and started making their own very cheap decks. Go look at some of Spats Bear's videos.

[@cjpwolf2436]

Shimtom is good too.

[@joeb2588]

​@@BilisNegrayah, Funai was crap

[@thebetamaxman8905]

You always do great reviews

[@spacemissing]

As I'm watching this (2021 Oct 21), I am parked in front of the same JC Penney store where I bought a 686-5075 in December of 1986. I still have the VCR, but since I used it a LOT, it would need a new upper cylinder in order to work well. The PAY TV switch is for use with a cable box. The AUX connection is not for ordinary signals, but rather for an accessory the details of which I don't remember. Both you and I need to Read The Manual! The nearest equivalent Panasonic model is the PV-1740. I prefer the looks of the JCP version.

[@ACBMemphis]

Regarding the "Pay TV" switch, wonder if that had to do with mixing in a cable box output signal with other cable ready signals? I had an 80s VCR where the TV/CATV switch was not only digital, but also a programmable option; In combination with a UHF block converter, this allowed me to treat the VHF and UHF as separate inputs and program recordings on both. This VCR has an incredible amount of features, from recording levels to the audio options and switched outlet... One of the most interesting things about it is the terminology seems to be "in flux" - for example, notice the VCR display has LED digits for "S L P" but also it looks like it has "EP" right below. Interesting the term "Audio II" would become SAP, "Stereo TV" was often called "MTS" and the "HiFi Audio" branding was usually "HiFi Stereo"... (There was linear stereo on the fixed head on VCRs but compared to HiFi it sounded like crap). Anyway this was a great video thanks for uploading!

[@grandadgamer8390]

Great vid. Such a high spec deck for 85. Picture quality was so good I thought it was super imposed 😀👍

[@musicnerd72]

I knew just by the sound it makes when he powers it on that if was a Panasonic. They all made that same mechanical noise when powered up.

[@williamwilliam9993]

Love your new channel logo

[@brantisonfire]

Nice that this one has all three recording speeds. Later they removed the option for LP and just had SP and EP/SLP. Using 120 minute tapes in EP mode, even on my SVHS deck, to record football games looked like garbage. I'm sure back in the day, watching it on a 19" or smaller CRT it would be passable, but it doesn't hold a candle to true SVHS quality on a quality SVHS tape. I found some 180 minute tapes on Ebay so I may record the Super Bowl through my DAC going into the s-video of the SVHS deck this year.

[@thebetamaxman8905]

My uncle had a JC Penny VCR he bought back in the early 1980s

[@charlesc920]

VCR's around that time usually had an audio dub feature, especially ones with that many inputs.

[@rwdplz1]

I vaguely recall we had either this same unit, or one VERY similar.

[@pHD77]

The look of the digital VU meters have me thinking, that this might be a clone of an early Panasonic Hifi VHS unit.

[@mrnmrn1]

Not a clone, it's a rebadged Panasonic.

[@pHD77]

@@mrnmrn1 Alright, then, rebadged. But I can't tell for sure which model this is. I *do*, however, recognize all the characteristics of the whirring sounds as typical Panasonic of VCRs produced during that time, whenever any action is performed on it. I used to have this rebadged Panasonic back in the early 90s, rebadged as a Blaupunkt. It produced a decent picture on playback, both with rented movies and recordings made on this deck... but for some reason, whatever had been recorded on this unit would look and sound awful if played back on other decks. Picture would look dull... and the hifi audio would have this very low-key "hum" to it, which could be noticed during quiet scenes. It almost resembled the low buzzing noise you'd hear from a power transformer.

[@mrnmrn1]

@@pHD77 I'm too lazy and tired now to search for the equivalent Panasonic model, but most probably there is one, maybe with slightly different front panel. It surely is a Panasonic, the head drum and all the ICs has the Matsushita logo on them. The picture of your VCR's recordings being dull on other decks while it played back prerecorded tapes well is a mystery to me. The buzzing on the HiFi audio was most probably head switching noise, or vertical sync crosstalk, or both. Maybe it had a defective drum, the azimuth of the head cores was misaligned, and crosstalk between the video and HiFi tracks was too much, but I'm just guessing.

[@thetechgenie7374]

Definitely a Panasonic as have one with HiFi and linear stereo that looks almost the same. Was a great machine for it time, if not one of the best for VHS beside SVHS machines

[@michaelturner4457]

This VCR was made by Panasonic for JC Penney?

[@brandtfj]

I had a model very similar it was marketed under quasar

[@Rasle500]

Did you only record in mono or did I miss the stereo recording?

[@hmbpnz]

I'm baffled by that as well.

[@colloidalsilverwater15ppm88]

Nice work

[@NigelMontezuma]

This JCPenney VCR Also Panasonic PV-1740

[@randyc8171]

My brain is overloaded after taking in all those controls.

[@dlarge6502]

Ikr, now you don't get anything! The flexibility and customisability of this vs my Philips "keep it simple, press play and stuff happens" DVR is staggering. Here you had control, you f'ked up if you f'ked up, on my first DVR however it f'ks up and I have to like it.

[@rogerchurch3804]

hi fi vcrs i love that they look and remind me so much of cassette decks that machine has so many cool features to that most young people would find useless and obsolete hey i dont care !! if could still find a good working hifi vcr these days id gladly hook it up my audio video system lol!

[@nyki7fykxtjxyi]

By 1986 they replaced that rubber idler with a gear mech much better

[@ChristinaGXL]

I was doing exactly the same thing with exactly the same Canon camera, but I used the Canon VCR for composite out

[@alokkp5434]

Sir where from you?

[@databits]

I from USA

[@NozomuYume]

I'm curious what the actual model of this VCR is. It's clearly a rebadge sold by JCPenney, but there is almost certainly a non-rebadged equivalent either sold in the US or in Japan.

[@interstat2222]

It's a Panasonic. Similar to the PV-1630. Philips Magnavox also had a version but they re-engineered parts to their specs.

[@theannoyedmrfloyd3998]

Is this a Stereo VCR before HIFI was a thing? I have a Dolby Stereo VHS tape which is NOT HiFi encoded.

[@honestguy7764]

no, it is not… what you have is a linear, non hifi stereo dck, whick is dolby encoded to reduce background noise

[@foreverpurge4348]

Now if this vcr would just let you time shift back to 1985!!!

[@BilisNegra]

The TV Stereo / Audio II features sound so much more '90s than 80's to me. Don't know if that's because I'm not American?

[@lobsterwhisperer7932]

In 1983 my dad purchased 180 mins cassette tapes for $9.99 AUD...called Chroma something or other..he thought it was a steal at that price.

[@AeeeIOUY]

The face in the new avatar looks like a cooler version of you

[@dav1dbone]

HiFi and LP, wow - In the UK were IRC not available until the 90s?

[@crashbandicoot4everr]

Look up the National/Panasonic NV-H70. It's a PAL hi-fi VCR from 1986 with SP and LP.

[@dav1dbone]

@@crashbandicoot4everr Yeah, maybe. Very different back then, even a basic top loader vhs vrc was £500, most households in our "social class" opted to rent instead. I'd say it was much later that a basic sp/lp vrc could be bought for£200,

[@interstat2222]

LP was available in the early 80s in the UK, eg Ferguson/JVC models. Ferguson 3V32 from 1983-4 I think.

[@dav1dbone]

@@interstat2222 Thw thing is, we were stuck with a rental vrc for years, it was 500quid plus for even a basic vhs, this didn't change until the 90s.

[@interstat2222]

@@dav1dbone Our family couldn't afford to buy one new even in the 90s. People forget how expensive they were, especially if you wanted Stereo or Videoplus.

[@rsuryase]

Can it play linear stereo VHS?

[@pippolupin8715]

You see logo Dolby Stereo.

[@Xantylon74]

Why did you record in mono?

[@AeeeIOUY]

Would you upload the 3M The Power to Shine tape?

[@giuseppelavecchia775]

Videoregistratore buono,mi piace molto,buonissima anche la videocassetta TDK E-HG,modello di alto livello,complimenti

[@rogerchurch3804]

id offten use my vcr to record music from radio or a cassette deck the sound is nice!!!!

[@manueldi_77]

17:04 "Hi-Fi Mono" - Is this a typo? 😜

[@DavidWood-rc6gj]

No, his playback was definitely mono.

[@ramchandrayadav8416]

Sir I want, what price

[@LikaLaruku]

Your voice sounds familiar. Were you a radio DJ in the early 90s?

[@4HBirtcher]

Panasonic rebadged!

[@christo930]

Well, to be completely fair, this was a low end consumer camera and is not representative of video shot in the 80s. A true broadcast quality NTSC video camera will look great too. That's just video. If you were making a movie, you would be shooting with 35mm film, which is very, very high quality. Scanned 35mm movie film (assuming it is preserved properly) can be scanned at basically the highest resolution available today. It's not just resolution hurting your camera there. It's just not a very good camera. The optics aren't that good either. Plus, it's 30 plus years old and doesn't perform today as well as it did in the 80s.

[@stupossibleify]

A broadcast quality camera wouldn't record to VHS, which is the limiting factor. No point having a 625 line camera sensor when you only record 250 lines.

[@BilisNegra]

I'm sorry I must tell you but the movie camera remark was so dumb. Like no shit, Sherlock, OK, Captain Obvious. Your comment would look so much better with that part removed...

[@itsyeeoledskoolfurry3208]

Ya know what no TVs or DVRs or any AUDIO VIDEO hardware uses any more!!!? Picture in Picture!!!! Picture in Picture (or PiP) was used for watching one program while you searched the other channels (channel surfed) for something else to watch. There was a rectangle that appeared in one of the four corners of your screen. You could EITHER watch your program in the CORNER BOX and change on the main screen OR watch your program on the MAIN SCREEN and channel surf in the corner box. Pretty much the ONLY way that came back is when we use a device to make a video call, OR video chat to each other. I'm not sure on HOW MANY or which companies of retro Audio Video players had this feature.

[@dlarge6502]

PIP is sometimes used on special features on Blu-ray

[@Monza62000]

that machine was made by panasonic

[@borabora8757]

JC Penney, in Europe known as the test faciility for DeLorean Time machines....

[@solarr2]

👍👍🇵🇱🇵🇱👍