Sharp VC 6300H . Vintage video recorder .

[@OaklynHall]

Thank you for sharing this excellent video with us. It's interesting to note that the electronics still worked and it was just a mechanical/lubrication issue that needed to be attended to so the video worked again. I wonder how many of today's electronic devices will still be working 35/40 years in the future?

[@michaeldranfield7140]

with everything been software controlled , using lead free solder and Chinese capacitors, probley none .

[@Philip---pip267]

Hi Michael. Don't know how I managed to miss this post. I still have my Sharp VC 2300H, serial no. 926989, brought new in early 1982, from a local MEB outlet, complete with receipt and servicing history. I had it as it was a 12v battery mains portable affair, with shoulder strap and integral uhf tuner. My previous vcr was a Phillips n1500, which I wish I had kept. I had already built a b/w video camera in electronics today, to use with the Phillips, but i had just acquired a colour Akai, and needed to go portable. It doubled up well as a main vcr, with no need for VHS c and adapters ! If I recall, a sharp video camera was available as an optional extra. I recorded a local raft race on it, but it nearly broke my shoulder, and the battery only lasted an hour. It had heavy use up until around 1995. Brilliant memories, still has the original brass head drum. By comparison, my Philips got through 2 sets in 4 years, finally ending up with a set of n1700 heads and a speed conversion. The Sharp is retired now, it has replacement belts on standby, but occasionally the left loading arm jams when threading, so probably needs a good service through lack of use. One thing I recall is that the audio through the tuner was a quite low and hissy, compared to camera and av in. With its rigid front handle attatched, it looked like a large hi fi portable, which I thought was kinda cool.

[@michaeldranfield7140]

I dont have a VC2300 in my collection but they come up quite often on fleabay, still got the service manual though !

[@michaelwaite6725]

Long time since I saw my first Sharp Vc6300 was a install on a Saturday afternoon for a chap who had a local riding school and had got a brand new Vc6300 via a chap called Joe who worked for Sharp so he said . So couple months later when I see our Sharp rep Joe O'Toole he confirms he got this riding school chap a video as a favour and gave the chap our shop number to set the video up .By the way they were well built even the later 7300 and 7700s etc but I admit I was shouting at the tv screen " There's a tape in it " and thought it might be a case of hard grease stopping it working .Nice to see it in action anyway and complete with instructions , remote and cover .👍👍

[@michaeldranfield7140]

Got to see what's on that tape now! I didn't initially realise there was a tape inside but should have done as it was fast forwarding, must be an age thing, I m beginning to forget things now. I do remember the 7300 machine though, big square box with rows od Cd4011 gates, no LSI in those days, I think the 7300 also had a brass head.

[@michaelwaite6725]

@@michaeldranfield7140 just remembered Sharp included a short test tape with those Vc6300 machines included music from Vivaldis four seasons and always think of those videos when I hear that music

[@michaeldranfield7140]

I didn't get a test tape with this machine .@@michaelwaite6725

[@michaelwaite6725]

​@@michaeldranfield7140 if I remember correct it was a short 15 or 30 minute demo tape for assisting the installer or customer to set up this video

[@crashbandicoot4everr]

Great work there! Looking at the service manual for this unit, it looks like you have to remove two screws on the left side of the cassette carriage and two more screws on the right side, and that will allow you to remove the carriage.

[@michaeldranfield7140]

Many thanks for that , I will look again , I could only see 3 screws but 4 makes sense .

[@Zardox-The-Heretic-Slayer]

finding these old VHS machines in skips was a dream come true for me as a kid - I salvaged so many cool parts from them

[@michaeldranfield7140]

If only I had kept more stuff ! I never managed to find videos in skips unfortunately as back then they sold for big money .

[@boredwithusernames]

Fantastic video. Lovely to see these old classics again and thank you for keeping this one alive. There are three older video recorders that I remember back in the day from when I used to work in electronics. The classic old Ferguson Videostar 3V23, which I owned, the old Philips VR2324 Video 2000 machine which I still own and a very old Philips N1500, one of the first ever video recorders to make public release back in 1972 at a price of £500 back in the day (over £5560 in today's money). The cassette was square and the tape spools were stacked on top of one another. I wonder if you ever had the pleasure of working on any of these vintage classics, they would make a great addition to your channel ;)

[@michaeldranfield7140]

I have done the Jvc, Ferguson stuff and also have a few in my collection but never got involved with Phillips 2000, I do have one someone gave me a few years ago though, The N1500 with the analogue clock on the front I remember very well when I was at junior school, the school bought a brand new one and they only had it for 3 weeks in the dinner hall, someone smashed the window, broke in and took it .

[@kendom33]

Great video Michael. Well made complex machine. Never seen one before. My sharp dealership was short lived

[@michaeldranfield7140]

Complex electronically but the mechanics are of a simple design , no mode switch and not mind blowingley complex like a G deck panasonic .

[@xyredmax]

I did so many video repairs and servicing back in the day, I bought shed loads of idler tyres from a company I think was called 'Irwin Electronics', I still have them and they still come in handy

[@michaeldranfield7140]

I still have a catalogue , there were based in Sheffield I seem to remember .

[@sw6188]

By the time I started repairing VCR in the early 80s, most of the old piano-key models had been retired and the 'new' models were coming on the market - the likes of the National NV-777, 788, 300, 370 etc. Then the NV-250, 450, 730, 770, 850 and 870 came along. They were good quality machines with a die-cast chassis and that was one of their selling points - that if you dropped it, the chassis wouldn't twist like the cheaper decks with their pressed-steel chassis and throw everything out of alignment. Sharp, JVC, Goldstar and Mitsubishi brands also made it here but not in as many numbers as National. We also got budget machines like Funai. I've managed to hang on to a number of National machines since those days but it's a struggle to keep them all going.

[@michaeldranfield7140]

I had a Panasonic NV-730 at home and the picture quality , even in freeze frame , pause blew me away, Sadly I fitted one of the Genuine Panasonic service kits and sold it for £150 and used the money to buy a top of the range Samsung long play machine, what a load of crap it was , the picture was so poor it looked like you were playing a tape that had been copied many times over

[@1000ukjohn]

Brilliant video, really enjoyed it. When I look back now can't believe those vcr worked at all.

[@michaeldranfield7140]

The build quality says it all .

[@djdrunkenmonkey2]

i had that funai vhs machine, it recorded really well when played back on other machines, i diddnt keep it long, my friend still has it in it box! i went back to my jvc hr-d150ek

[@michaeldranfield7140]

These machines were really not designed for repair and a testament to its cheapness , the clock is missing , OSD only and a few LED s on the front .

[@digitalz1988]

I remember these well, I referred to it as the Sharp finger chopper, they seemed to have too much strength for their own good, and my fingers - I still have a scar. I really like Sharp machines, but this one gives me nightmares!

[@michaeldranfield7140]

proper DC motor driven in those days , not the silly digital drive stuff.

[@Synthematix]

VHS wasnt great at the best of times but these last players to be sold were horrendous, most of them didnt even have a display, the best machine was the Ferguson stereo Hi-Fi model

[@michaeldranfield7140]

at the time we thought Matsui and Saisho were bad but the Funai takes the biscuit.

[@Synthematix]

Yes indeed, and funai are still around in places, bloody awful electronics made with the cheapest components ever, built to last 12 months and thats it. But in reality china makes some of the best electronics in the world, its a very divided place, Shenzen made some of the very best and the very worst. @@michaeldranfield7140

[@marcse7en]

I had a Sharp VC7300H in 1981. I bought it from my mother's catalogue, and had the choice of Sanyo Betamax top loader with mechanical keys, or Sharp VHS front loader with logic control. It was huge and very heavy, and cost a fortune. It was delivered in a furniture removals van. It had a single programme 24 hour timer (useless!), and no still or picture search. It had a belt driven head drum, and incandescent (not IR) tape end sensor lamp, so if the lamp burned out (it never did), the VCR would not work. When not in use, it was covered in the Sharp dust cover. As a tape is already loaded, the cassette lamp is not visible, as it's inside the recess hole in the VHS cassette.

[@michaeldranfield7140]

I remember the 7300 , a big chunky front loader with rows of CMOS chips doing logic functions that would all be replaced with a single chip these days .

[@anthonychallis2472]

Great memories Michael. I remember my first video recorder, a Sony SL8000UB. It was built like a tank and weighed nearly as much. Funnily enough it also used to suffer with problems on the internal playback record switch, nothing that Servisol switch cleaner couldn’t solve. I think it cost around £700 in 1978/9. I also remember there was a shortage of Betamax tapes at the time and TV shops only held a few in stock just for their own customers that had bought the machine from them. I was also amazed at the size difference of a Betamax cassette compared to a VHS cassette, the Betamax cassette being much smaller. It goes to show the quality of build when a machine of that age that had been unused for many years still burst into life after just a few fairly minor fixes. Great video as always, thanks.

[@michaeldranfield7140]

Did a few of the earlier betas the SLC7 types that weighed a ton , in fact I have a few in my collection but Betamax never really interested me which is just as well as it soon lost popularity.

[@tartarughaninja4]

Belt driven video drum? That's new to me

[@michaeldranfield7140]

very early technology , no silly digital motors in this machine .

[@adamsimmons631]

My families first VCR was a Sharp VC-A100 bought in the late 80s in Germany. That is a beast of a machine 😮

[@michaeldranfield7140]

The VCA models were really good but like every other manufacture by the mid 90s quality went down hill.

[@allandenman9387]

Hi Michael. Many thanks for posting this video. When I worked at a Sharp dealership back in the day, my father bought one of these when they first came out. If memory serves me I believe it cost around £700 then. It took a while to learn how to drive it but it performed VERY well for a number of years. Great to see one again. Very straightforward to service these. Kind regards Allan.

[@michaeldranfield7140]

I would have thought £700 would have been the right price back then as a retail sale ,

[@mosfettg6857]

great video, seeing you get one working again .

[@michaeldranfield7140]

Thankyou for that , I have quite a few other vintage videos as well .

[@aardvarksmith6852]

Hi MD I have just repaired a Toshiba VCR/DVD combi for a friend , it is fitted with that Funi deck, what a piece of rubbish, it would load up play then cutout,the tape counter worked so after removing the pcb then the deck I cleaned the mode s/w all back together still faulty, so I put my thinking head on(I havent repaired a VCR in about 20 years) and thought reel sensor, what reel sensor, the cassette lamp led is on the main pcb under a light guide that acts as the cassette lamp and via an interrupter reel sensor, clean off the dusty led and pick up it worked , what a waste of time, next one five minuets .I hope this helps any one with the same problem.

[@michaeldranfield7140]

the clear light guide you refer to use to be a common fault back in its day , more so in the house of a smoker , a quick money maker though .

[@leetucker9938]

excellent work repairing the vcr

[@michaeldranfield7140]

Thankyou for that .

[@MrFixiit]

Right now where did i put that debbie does dallas tape :p

[@michaeldranfield7140]

Got some dubious tapes somewhere!

[@waynesharp1690]

What a beautiful machine. I'm trying to find the same one.

[@michaeldranfield7140]

I doubt you will find another one of these , I couldn't believe my eyes when a customer brought this is !

[@waynesharp1690]

@@michaeldranfield7140 no I can't I've looked on eBay and the internet.

[@robtitheridge9708]

i never came across that model .i still have a box full of sharp idler wheels and tyers.

[@michaeldranfield7140]

I still have loads od Sharp parts too but from the 90s stuff, VCA33 onwards.

[@gpo746]

Those belt packs remind me of the GRANDATA packs . My mate has 100's of them . Got stopped in his van one night and the police were suspicious at all the video and TV spares in the back, they though he had done a shop over !

[@michaeldranfield7140]

back in the 80 s I had all the kits in stock as belts were a common failing , gradually they were dropped in favour of direct drive systems , I did use to find though with some particular machines the belts were a very poor fit and in some cases not even a match at all .

[@mrnmrn1]

I've never seen a brass head drum! I have a brass colored one, but that is aluminium with titanium coating on it. It's inside an early '90s VCR, might actually be a Sharp, or maybe Goldstar, I don't remember. This Sharp will probably need a new pinch roller, as the wow&flutter is horrendous even with the new capstan belt (unless it's a problem with the recording). Hopefully it's not the fault of the capstan motor. Might need a commutator cleaning, but I don't know how easy it is to disassemble the capstan motor in this. Those late Funais are working OK and relatively reliable, but you're right, they can be a nightmare to repair. And they are seemingly a bit harsh on the tape, too rapid acceleration and deceleration on FF and rewind. I have about six of those (the more advanced model with actual display and not just a few LEDs on the front, and HiFi audio), about half of them works, the other half has mechanical problems, most likely clutch issues. Late Samsungs also had problems with clutches melting from the x400 speed rewind, after the plasitc arm that disables the clutch during FF/REW worn out and the machine started to do FF/REW with the clutch stuck in playback mode. Probably this same issue can happen with these Funais.

[@michaeldranfield7140]

I think the Sharp 7300 model also used a brass head , I have not looked into the wow and flutter problem as yet , I just wanted to get the machine basically working in order to display a picture , there was also a samsung that a plastic gear/clutch split and I think it caused a winding problem , I still have a couple some ware .

[@video99couk]

I remember of the slightly later Sharp (front loading) models, still with brass head drums, that head life was poor. I saw several of them but never one with good heads, and I seem to remember that you couldn't pick up good cheap Konig replacements like you could for JVC/Ferguson.

[@michaeldranfield7140]

I think the model you are referring to is the VC7300.

[@video99couk]

@@michaeldranfield7140 Yes, that looks like it. I don't think it was anything to do with the drum being brass, but head life was rubbish on those.

[@Barbarapape]

I can well remember the early and later VCR's from Sharp. You could buy pallet loads of ex-rental ones for not much money, once they were serviced and the cabinet resprayed they gave good service for not a lot of money and they had all metal mechanisms that had good access, not like those cheap and nasty Funai ones.

[@michaeldranfield7140]

Back in the 80s there was a big demand for secondhand videos, you could sell them the same day, how things have changed.

[@Barbarapape]

The 80's were a great time to make good money without the hassle that we have today. The ex-rental gear paid my mortgage for a few years until VCR's and TV's became more affordable and the rental firms closed down.@@michaeldranfield7140

[@monteceitomoocher]

Long time since i saw one of them, very early unit, we mainly repaired the vc381 series, it's a testament to the quality of every single component in that machine that 45 odd years later it still works, and the build quality was superb, the funai sets on the other hand, they worked quite well but they were rubbish!.

[@michaeldranfield7140]

If I remember correctly the 381 was one of the models that the idler was a common fault, think the part number was NIDL0005GEZZ!

[@monteceitomoocher]

@@michaeldranfield7140 well remembered!, you might also recall the modified brass idler bush with 'extra tread' that had to be glued to the motor shaft!, i had on kicking around for years, every now and again it turns up.

[@michaeldranfield7140]

Yes I do , I have one on order at the moment but it seems to have disappeared in the post , in the early days we use to change the little spring on the top as well in case this was the cause of the failure but then sharp brought out the motor with the rough brass bit attatched .@@monteceitomoocher

[@industrialmonk]

Yes I loved it when sharp uk was on Oldham road Manchester. Back in the 1970s/1980s as thay had every part on stock & as a child i New if i went there thay always helped me thay were great. Unlike the current sharp uk were ever thay are naw. Thay don't even reply to requests for 13 month old equipment parts.

[@michaeldranfield7140]

I did my dealer training at newton heath in the 90s,very happy memories, in fact in the dinner period I took a walk down the road to look up new cross radio on the corner of Oldham road, a place I use to visit as a kid, when I get there all the shops had been demolished and there was just an empty space where they one stood.

[@BjornV78]

23:37 That gold colored metal plate at the bottom, what is the purpose of those little dots pressed in this metalplate? I have seen that before, i think it was in a cassetteplayer that i took apart back in the late 80's early 90's. Is it to retain some grease when parts are sliding over it ? Regarding the brand Sharp, i have here a simple Sharp calculator (Elsi Mate EL-230) from the mid 80's that still works as new, it still has the first AA batteries from the Sharp brand that came with it and has no signs of leakage.

[@michaeldranfield7140]

I don't actually know what those dots are they could be to hold grease I guess, I remember the elsi mate calculators , I use to work in a shop in the 70s that sold them , from memory the 230 model you mention had a green fluorescent display , ?

[@BjornV78]

@@michaeldranfield7140, no they have the classic LCD look, grey background with black numbers. I have send you some pictures of both calculators that i have. Grtz

[@angelosanagnostou5550]

And at 33:34 when the guide posts withdrew and the cassette remained behind with my luck the tape gets some graphite grease on it and all hell breaks loose thereafter. LOL

[@michaeldranfield7140]

done that before !

[@marcus_jones]

That's almost certainly produced in the Tochigi factory in Japan. I seem to recall the first models we assembled in the UK started with the VC-9300H, which was shipped to us in kit form (SKD, or semi-knock down), before production in Wrexham ramped up to CKD (complete knock down).

[@michaeldranfield7140]

I remember the VCA series proudly displaying a British flag on the front and saying made in the UK on the back but you could see by the engineering they were of Japanese origin. I remember the VC-9300 very well , and the part number for the idler , which I seem to remember was NIDLOOO5GEZZ !!!!

[@marcus_jones]

@@michaeldranfield7140 That Union Flag was TLABMxxxxUMZZ. Can't remember the exact numbers, but the production line staff could put all the labels on precisely in seconds - without looking at what they were doing. 😊 Parts ending GEZZ are from Japan, UMZZ from the UK.

[@michaeldranfield7140]

Interesting ,sharp made some very good stuff back then and the spares back up was second to none , sadly they exist in name only now , I have noticed some of the later microwaves are no longer made by vestel , there made by Midea of china .@@marcus_jones

[@steve83803]

I remember the early Ferguson 3V16/22s and the Sony 8000s which were almost a 2 man lift along with the Philips N1700s and 2000s. I was at new junior school in the late 60s and seem to remember they had a N1700. A glass chroma delay line wow that brings the theory back 0.3 R 0.59 G 0.11 B luminance equation 😀

[@michaeldranfield7140]

I have some of the models you mention, videos for another day!

[@steve83803]

I bet that’s the original cassette lamp! When I worked at Radio Rentals we had a IR replacement PCB for them. We also used to turn the rubber tyres over on the supply and take up spools. To think we only had 3.8 MHz video bandwidth compared to 5.5 MHz broadcast.

[@michaeldranfield7140]

got a draw full of these lamps ! later in time some companies started selling new rubbers , cheaper than replacing the whole idler @@steve83803

[@stephenking2393]

Hi did you have the shop in Buxton ????

[@michaeldranfield7140]

Yep that's me, 1985 I started on Fairfield Road and then moved to another shop on terrace road about 1999 and finally gave up with shops and moved to a large unit on an industrial estate about 2013.

[@skyll4141]

my first vcr was an akai top loader a school friend gave me. never did get it working.. that was a massive silver chrome thing..

[@michaeldranfield7140]

Akai did make some good stuff too back then.

[@jaimz33]

Can you fix a Kenwood ham radio Michael? It was transmitting fine but i bought an auto antenna tuner the seller said his dad used for years, he died. But it must have been faulty and done something to the Kenwood. Its a TS-680V.

[@michaeldranfield7140]

This is not something I usually do but I bet Richard who does the CB radio videos will be able to help you.

[@whitesapphire5865]

I may even have a Sharp VHS of about the same era! If it's any good you could probably have it, along with those Panasonic Inverter boards. Not a clue as to the model number, but it was about as basic as you could get in front loading Sharp. I think I might know where it is. Would you be interested?

[@michaeldranfield7140]

Yes I would be interested, I will take a guess at the model you have too, I bet its a sharp 9300!!

[@whitesapphire5865]

@@michaeldranfield7140 I'll check that out and let you know.....

[@michaeldranfield7140]

I say the VC 9300 as this must have been the most popular model ever made in the mid 80 s video boom, there were of course lots of other models , the worst for complexity was the VC 9700 I think the model was .@@whitesapphire5865

[@whitesapphire5865]

@@michaeldranfield7140 Would that be the one with the remote control, sitting in a pocket in a hinged control panel? If so, I had two of those - One was cream crackered, kept for spares, but the other one was exceptionally good. I seem to recall there being a fault that developed in one of the control ICs that crippled the rewind function, and a fiendishly clever circuit mod to restore full functionality - and then a few versions of the mod that didn't work quite as well.

[@michaeldranfield7140]

Yes the 9700 had a long detachable remote that sat in the front of the machine, out of interest there was a sharp TV also that had a long remote that fitted into the front of the set a DV-1600 , I have one but cant remember if it still has the remote . I have a vague recollection of a low torque fault been caused by a thick film IC but its a long time ago now @@whitesapphire5865

[@f.k.burnham8491]

I really disliked the "el cheapo" VCR mechanisms. Funai & Magnavox mechs were horrible to remove as they always demanded a literal blood sacrifice, The sharp edges on the metal always sliced me up. The worst of the worst were the VCR units in the combo TV sets. Nightmares to remove. Mostly unless it was a belt, clutch, head cleaning, or Idler it was not economical to repair. I still have my jigs for the VHS machines and maybe a test tape or two left. I much preferred working on the Panasonic machines, Towards the end of the "VHS era" Sounds like the RW belt is bad.

[@michaeldranfield7140]

I think Funai made the Amstrad machines and I remember on the 4600 if you pressed down on the screw that holds the pinch roller to unscrew it all the arm would bent , all pressed steel crap and like you say razor this lids.

[@pi6706]

It’s surprising that most VCR manufacturers didn’t stick with LCD displays and stayed with VFD instead. I know you can see VFD in the dark but with LCD you could have always used green/yellow LEDs to illuminate the display without the need for a high voltage to run a VFD.

[@welshwisdom]

I would love to be your apprentice

[@speed_rider362]

The only useful part in these Funai units is the pinch roller. Great for replacing the cracked one in your trusty '90 VCR.

[@michaeldranfield7140]

sounds about right, definitely not made to be repaired .