Video History: V2000 - The format that came third in a two-horse race

Video 2000 - or V2000 is the video cassette recorder format that Philips predicted would have 50% of the European market by 1985.
Everyone is familiar with the Beta vs VHS battle, but here's the story of the other video tape format - the 'Video Compact Cassette', V2000 : the European alternative.
If you want to see more about Beta vs VHS watch Technology Connections series of videos - Part 1: • Why Sony's Beta Videot...
If you want to learn more about Philips earlier 'VCR' format -
Here is an in-depth demonstration video • Early Philips VCR form...
and here's an article:
www.rewindmuse...
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[@patricaristide7678]

This channel really is the gold standard for these kind of reviews. That research, old adverts, news snippets together with great camera work, flawless presentation and a great voice! I seriously can’t believe there isn’t a sizeable team working day and night behind the scenes. Never did I feel the urge to fast forward or skip a Techmoan upload, you’re the best!

[@duffman18]

Yep. He's the first channel I ever became a patron of, because nobody does this kind of stuff better. I've learnt more from this chanel than probably any other. And yes as you say he does this all himself.

[@jeffreyjoshuarollin9554]

Agreed.

[@electronash]

@@duffman18 The puppets do help out occasionally.

[@daanwilmer]

I've only ever felt the urge to skip through the credits to watch the muppets - but that's gone too with the anecdote or whatever during the credits. Amazing channel!

[@explorer806]

@@electronash Hopefully he's got a bigger dressing room than the puppets though.

[@ericbazinga]

27:49- Damn, that tape's got Alien, The Thing, and Blade Runner? The previous owner must've really liked sci-fi, and had good taste to boot. Pretty good lineup for just one tape!

[@MartinOmander]

That tape, some snacks, and some drinks would make a perfect stay-at-home evening!

[@antivanti]

"refurbished" = "cleaned it off with a rag"

[@mcearl8073]

Anders Öhlund If you’re lucky. I bought a “refurbished” Wii U from GameStop and it looks like they wiped it off with a scotchbright pad or something equally abrasive.

[@musmodtos]

Interesting. I've just imported a V2000 machine from the Netherlands and similarly my 'fully restored and recapped' machine needed the heads cleaning out the box and clearly hasn't had new caps. Wonder if it was the same seller?

[@vampjoseph]

reminds me of a video game console reviewer that got a "refurbished" ps4 that smelled like an ashtray. pulled it apart and there was nicotine, dirt and debris on the inside like the tech just cleaned it off and didn't open it up or even turn it on.

[@MrMiddleWick]

Funnily enough it's also quite often just a returned item, so in pretty much perfect condition, but you can't sell as new. Annoyingly there is no way to tell which "refurbished" an item actually is.

[@Trucker494]

and with simple green

[@JacGoudsmit]

I've been waiting for V2000 the get the Techmoan "treatment" it deserves, and I wasn't disappointed! Excellent video, thanks for posting! I owned, or have seen, pretty much all Philips V2000 recorders and most of the non-Philips ones, because I lived in the home town of Philips and was a big fan of theirs. The ones I owned were from the annual flea market that my high school organized. Some extra info, mostly from memory: 3:15 The initial maximum recording time on the VCR system (when using an N1500 recorder) was only 60 minutes I think. And those tapes were EXPENSIVE! My aunt and uncle had an N1500 and I remember them mentioning that a tape was over 100 guilders, probably more than 400 Euros in today's money after correcting for inflation. My uncle also complained that he often had to take cassettes apart to repair the tape. 3:19 Quality: The VCR and VCR-LP systems were especially admired for their audio quality. No wonder: the tape ran much faster than VHS, Beta and audio cassettes (see also 4:16). The V2000 system ran at only 2.5cm per second and Philips used their own DNS (Dynamic Noise Suppression) to improve the audio quality and reduce tape hiss. 6:43 DTF worked by recording four "pilot" frequencies along with subsequent video fields to make it possible at playback time to "follow" the track. The electronics would basically be "tuned in" to the pilot frequency of the track it was playing, and if it detected the frequency of the next or previous track, it would adjust the position of the head accordingly by applying a voltage to the piezo crystal on which the head was mounted. 7:25 I don't know about DTF in Betamax machines, but the DTF system was standardized in the 8mm video format. 8:41 Search the differences between the picture from the folder and the picture on the poster :-) The VR2022 in the folder has a single row of controls under the cassette compartment, and the VR2023 (poster) has two rows of controls so you could go straight from stop to picture search. Neat! But it took Philips a long time to come out with the first recorders that had Picture Search and freeze frame. 9:17 Grundig and Philips made a terribly embarrassing mistake: Philips had an "M" loading mechanism and Grundig used a "U" loading mechanism and there was a difference of the distance between the audio head and the video head drum between Philips and Grundig! It was only a few millimeters but (because of the low tape speed) significant enough to make recordings from one brand annoying to watch on the other brand because the audio would be out of sync with the picture. So if you had a Grundig and you rented a tape that was recorded on a Philips, the movie wasn't lip-sync. They later fixed the problem and there was a service kit to modify the head position but that of course meant that if you got your recorder fixed to watch rental movies, all your own recorded tapes would be out of sync. I wonder how many V2000 recorders were returned because of this... 9:43 As far as I know, an auto-reverse mechanism was never actually developed. It would have been much too complicated because it would either need a mechanism like that AKAI cassette deck that you show during the credits, that flips the entire cassette, or it would need two head drums in the machine, each at a different angle (or a drum that could pivot somehow, which would probably be much too unreliable). Any solution to make an auto-reverse V2000 recorder would have been prohibitively expensive so they settled on developing LP (or "XL" ast they called it) mode. 12:40 The European restrictions on importing video recorders meant that later on, when camcorders became popular, manufacturers had to disable features that would allow you to record from the video and audio inputs (including the IEEE1394 firewire), otherwise the camcorder would be classified as a video recording device, and the manufacturer would have had to pay the extra tariffs. Fortunately I found out soon after I bought my Sony DCR-PC7E MiniDV camcorder in 1998 that it was easy to re-enable the record-from-firewire function if you had a service remote control, or a computer program that could emulate one under DOS :) 16:00 I can definitely confirm that there was p0nr available on V2000 rental tapes. The story of how I know is more bizarre than you think and trust me, you really don't want me to tell you :-). But seriously: I agree, it was a matter of momentum, in more ways than one. Philips had been making (what they considered) a pretty good system for years, and they took too long to realize that VCR-LP wasn't good enough to compete with VHS and (later) Beta, and by the time they were done coming up with something new and (I think) better, it was too late. Also, with DTF and everything, V2000 recorders were much more complicated and therefore much more expensive. My dad bought our family's first VCR in 1984 and we used a spreadsheet to compare the features and disadvantages of about a dozen recorders that we had looked at, all over town. He spent a lot of money on a SABA VHS recorder with LP mode and stereo (this was just before hifi stereo started to appear, unfortunately) and it was STILL cheaper than a V2000 recorder even though we knew V2000 was on the way out. 18:30 Were rental VCR's ever a thing outside Britain? I think I remember reading 1980s magazines from Britain and noticing ads for renting TV's and VCR's but I don't think hardly anyone in the Netherlands did that because in the long run, it was much cheaper to just save up and buy a TV or VCR instead of renting it. Maybe my reality distortion field was strong because, a lot our relatives and acquaintances could buy TV's and VCR's in the Philips employees store because they worked at Philips, or knew someone who did. 23:15 The VR2414 ("Chewy") was the low-cost entry model of the second generation of Philips V2000 recorders. I had one for a short while and I couldn't keep it running if my life depended on it. The first generation recorders are really sturdy but also super heavy, and the second generation are more reliable but more integrated and a little more difficult to repair. But I remember the 2414 had all kinds of brittle mechanics and electronics that would just stop working and just kept being a pain. Of course this was long after they were new so maybe they just age badly. 21:42 The round connector is probably for an optional remote control receiver. I thought I remembered the 2414 had a remote sensor like the other 2nd generation recorders but I could be wrong. For all the first generation recorders, the remote control was optional, I think: the decoder would be attached to the back of the machine (making it even bulkier) and the sensor would be plugged in on the front side. 22:00 The first-generation machines included a tape that had a funny short animated instruction video by well-known Dutch cartoon studio Toonder Studios about how to operate the recorder. There were several versions with small variations because it shows the texts on the controls which can be in different languages. But there was no (real) speech and it still does a great job of explaining most of the important features. It's worth a watch! See e.g. kzbin.info/www/bejne/kJ7Hl5mlnrxgfas (there are other locations with varying levels of quality but the maker of this video also shows the actual cassette that had the video on it). 25:50 I must say I've never actually played with the VR2220 (it was even more expensive than the regular models because the electronics had to be split up between the take-along unit and the leave-at-home unit, so it's quite rare I think, and I never encountered one at the flea market where I bought my VCRs). But none of the other V2000 recorders I've ever seen, plays the audio during picture search. So I think that's either a defect or a modification by one of the previous owners (edit: it appears that this was a factory feature, see comments below). As for inventorying your tapes, a GoTo button really helps; unfortunately I think you have exactly the two V2000 recorders that didn't have that! 26:56 Taking these recorders apart for cleaning isn't very difficult. Be careful not to break the piezo carriers of the heads: always clean the heads in the direction of the rotation of the drum, never sideways. You can use a piece of regular paper (no alcohol or anything). Just hold it against the drum and rotate the head drum so the head goes across the paper a few times. The roughness of the paper is enough to take the dirt off the heads. There were cleaning tapes for V2000 (as well as for the other systems) but even in those days, I read several magazine articles saying that they did more bad than good. And of course after this many years you have to wonder how good an old cleaning tape is going to be. Thanks for posting, and thanks for reading!

[@MultiArrie]

My cousin had an camera / splitup v2000 machine, it ran on 2.1Ah 12 volt leadbattery same used in security systems. he produced alot of boring party and wedding videos.

[@andrewsmactips]

My VR2220 (two of them, actually) did play the audio during picture search from new.

[@Pauldjreadman]

I will read that's in parts :) Ever thought of writing a blog?

[@olnnn]

While the V2000 format failed, at least some of it's innovations like the tracking system ended up in sony's later Video8 format.

[@carlosbragatto]

You're the best, I loved all the info you presented here, thank you very much !!!

[@oafkad]

So THAT is what DTF means. Wow I've really misinterpreted some texts.

[@annother3350]

It's GTF in Scotland.

[@SebastianVazquezFerrero]

Yeah, it's just about putting the head where it should be.

[@ChrisStoneinator]

@@SebastianVazquezFerrero Hello? Yes, I'm calling to report a criminally underrated comment

[@g00gleminus96]

I thought it meant "Damn The French"

[@HowardLive]

I ain’t goin’ there ... 😂

[@jadeLoTuZ]

This was nostalgic fun to watch. I was grown up with v2000. Living in Sweden, born in the mid 1970s, and a tech-interested father from the UK, I remember his v2000 with warm feelings. It was a space-ship looking Bang & Olufsen. A mix of dark grey metal and plastic, and wooden panels. It was true "sci-fi" for me. I was intriged by its design, even as a 8 year old boy. On of the favorite movies he had on it was Star Wars, watched it many many times. =)

[@Laceykat66]

I find it funny that originally we spent so much time cutting OUT the commercials, and now we hunger for them more than the shows we DID record.

[@genuinescorruption]

Because like everything else from music to movies to video games, there was a time when they were made with love.

@@genuinescorruption I always spent time pausing when recording a film from the tv during ad breaks... now thoroughly wish I hadn't 😬

[@-DeScruff]

I think part of it is that back then, you couldn't watch that TV show or movie any time you wanted. But that stupid commercial? Oh geeze If you really wanted to see it, turn on the TV and you'll see it. Today we have the opposite situation. If you really wanted to watch that old TV show or movie, you can easily find it online in better quality. You've probably have seen it multiple times over the years. But those commercials? They have been off the air for decades! - Unless its that Shirley Temple Collection commercial... THAT is still being aired 20 years later. "Limited time offer" my ass.

[@returnofbeaux]

@@genuinescorruption no

[@genuinescorruption]

@@-DeScruff Here in Ontario, Canada we have an ad for steel buildings which has been advertising a limited time sell-off for at least ten years now.

[@Mochrie99]

I just love how the V2000 looks exactly like a giant-sized audio cassette.

[@enp82003]

I like how v2000 is always DTF

[@AleK0451]

@@enp82003 oh aye

[@rawrvintageisclassic]

You just need a comical size pencil to rewind it.

[@dickJohnsonpeter]

Sucks for you guys either way I remember my dad being a huge beta fan. He gave up.

[@RJLightning68]

Giant-sized??? Should I call Hagrid about this???

[@Keranu]

That V2000 cassette looks noticeably sturdier than a VHS tape. Not that VHS wasn't built great, I'm just amazed by the craftsmanship and thought put into the V2000 casing and mechanics.

[@medes5597]

At the time, vhs was actually even more sturdy. On the early days of vhs they used metal screws and other parts. It's only when vhs achieved mass production that they began using cheap parts. Its often claimed that Video2000 used lower quality tape but I don't think that's actually true.

[@Keranu]

@@medes5597 Remember how sloppy those late term VHS tapes were circa mid-2000s? I even had the tape wear out immediately on one of them.

[@FoxADV]

It was great to see the old Ch4 ident. Back in the early eighties, I worked as a production technician for the company that made the graphics cards that made it possible. Actually, the cards were, in fact, 2U 19" units. One per colour. I think they cost around £16k for a single unit. I was proud of my work and the high profile of doing something in computing that everybody could relate to, as back then most people didn't have a clue as to what a computer was. Thanks for the memory!

[@Jmcinally94]

Amazing idents, huge fan of the effort and that went into making them. Groundbreaking stuff.

[@starbar1958]

Do you mean they would fit a 19" rack similar to the rack system used in telephone exchanges?

[@CamTarn]

Ha, that's awesome! :)

[@snooks5607]

@@starbar1958 sure, what else. 19" is the VHS of rack systems, 2U is the unit height designation.

[@markpenrice6253]

Awesome. I tried to recreate the ident with Cyberstudio 3D on our Atari ST. Managed to recreate the shape with the use of some tracing paper pushed against the TV and then measuring the lengths and angles, and even figured how to squeeze all those colours with lighting effects into the limited palette ... but of course it was rather low rez, far from true-colour, and the complexity of the motion absolutely confounded me (not having a frame-by-frame VCR) so I just made it spin. Was still rather proud of myself. Making the actual thing must have taken a deceptive amount of work for something that looks relatively simple these days, and the hardware would have been worth every bit of that £48k in the early 80s...

[@Tomanista]

27:49 Alien, Blade Runner and the Thing on one tape? I like the previous owner

[@mapesdhs597]

When I bought my first VHS tapes in 1987, B.R. and The Thing were two of the ten I chose (of the others, three more were Carpenter movies). I saved buying Alien until a long time later, a complete expanded VHS box set from a store in New York in Sep/2000. :D But yes, a discerning former owner indeed.

[@NormanRDolan]

I remember watching old tapes at elementary school. Mid-to-late 00's IIRC. It was also my first tastes of WGBH's Neon Sign of Nightmares and Dot and Dash of PBS Kids, both of which I am scared of. The latter is harmless until you see a horrifying KZbin Poop. WGBH, though... 40-ish ****ing years and still no change of logo. Scary since the 70's.

[@jonothanthrace1530]

It's funny how sometimes an ident will stick in your head. For some reason, I was scared of the United Artists ident, possibly because of the shift in volume. It made watching Yellow Submarine, my favorite movie growing up, an adventure...

[@Takeshi357]

I associated that old UA ident with Pink Panther cartoons. What a surreal experience THAT was.

[@NormanRDolan]

@@jonothanthrace1530 Yeah, it causes difficulties watching PBS, because I have to swerve around WGBH and PBS Kids.

[@100percentSNAFU]

My family also got their first VCR in 1984. It's a Magnavox VHS format, and I still have it and it still works. In the following roughly 20 years after that when the format was still popular, my dad bought a newer model and relegated the old Magnavox to the second TV, and I myself after growing up and going out on my own had two additional VCRs made in the mid to late 90s. All 3 of those machines died many years ago. But the old heavy duty, mostly metal, giant Magnavox is still going strong. When they say "they don't make things like they used to", there is a lot of truth to it.

[@MicrobyteAlan]

Hi yah. I’m a 68 year old computer engineer working in the field for 48 years. You always bring me down memory lane. Nice suit. Thanks from Orlando

[@jusb1066]

you can come inside now !

[@MickeyKnox]

OK ... this might sound strange, but I'm 100% serious. Can I get a copy of the PIRATENSENDER POWERPLAY recording? I'm german and the thing is, that the ZDF-Version of that film is different from the theatrical release, but wasn't shown on television for 20 years or so, and I think this version will never be shown anymore unfortunately and not released on DVD or Bluray. So "You are my only hope, Techmoan-Wan"

[@steveoddlers9696]

OMG, I remember that movie! Straight from the Supernasen-era.

[@mbirth]

Laut de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piratensender_Powerplay war die Version vom ZDF einfach nur aus Lizenzgründen verstümmelt und die 2007er DVD enthält die ursprüngliche Fassung.

[@Daffodil31LE]

Piratensender Powerplay was released on Laserdisc. It might just be possible to find a copy. I know I have seen it a long time ago from LD. And a short search later I have found one for sale too. www.lddb.com/laserdisc/shop/38081/4105-11/Piratensender-Powerplay

[@MickeyKnox]

it's not that the film is not yet released (yes it is), it is THIS VERY version - the ZDF made it's own version with a different soundtrack and that version is not available because it was only shown on ZDF and only the ZDF has the rights for THIS specific version.

[@Daffodil31LE]

@@MickeyKnox okay, I'm cool with that. I will buy the disc myself, for it is actually quite funny.

[@Damien.D]

My grandfather had a v2000. I was always amazed by the overall quality of the machine. The soft buttons and smooth ejecting mechanism seriously were on the high-end side of consumer gear. The perfect freeze frame and smooth fast forward were of hi standard too. But he finally bought a VHS too, mainly because of blank tape price. Hey used both, even at the same time. Still have everything in the attic, packaged in original boxes.

[@ChristianPinnock-r4s]

Saw a beocord v2000 machine that takes these tapes I don't know if vhs will work in it

[@FranLab]

I had one of those VCR stacked tape reel cartridge helical machines in my shop a very long time ago. Never did restore it, and left it behind in a move in the 90's. (Sigh...)

[@JacGoudsmit]

COMMENT REPORTED! Such vandalism! :) By the way if that was a real Philips VCR system, it was probably a European machine that you couldn't have used on your TV anyway, though I think I've read about some of those that were converted to NTSC.

[@StraberrYKiler6789]

Ive got an old VCR that does have a switch for Pal and NSTC Sony SLV E720 or at least the one i have has that on the back i assume for picture never ad a non UK tape to try in it

[@michaelmartin9022]

I think later PAL VCR's had NTSC playback as standard (not need for a switch, even, just put them in and they worked), but in the early days it was probably a very expensive additional feature. Right at the end of the lifespan of VHS and CRT TV's I was a horror fan, and spent a whole hundred quid on a combined unit so I could play "newly re-released out of print rarities" (pirate copies, they mean pirate copies) from this dodgy website. Receiving really plainly-labelled videos in unremarkable brown paper packages felt wonderfully transgressive... even if the stuff on them was low-budget crap that the police would be more likely to laugh at than arrest me for.

[@veg7nlif376]

I'm not even interested in old tech, but this dude is so amazing that makes me watch a 35 min KZbin video and then go to his channel and spend all day there.

[@bio-plasmictoad5311]

You are now interested......

[@veg7nlif376]

Bio-plasmic Toad Indeed.

[@vikingraiders4138]

At least you are learning a thing or too even if you aren't interested.

[@youtubekanals123]

I also wasn't interested , still 3 years later i am watching Techmoan videos !

[@P_nk_]

@@youtubekanals123 you and me both, lol.

[@germangarcia6118]

My family had v2000. In fact, we had exactly the one you got for your video, which was split in to pieces. I'm from Spain. It stuck with us for a long time, even when we got an VHS, because someone had told my mother it had the best quality so she still used it to record the tv shows on it.

[@linkskywalker5417]

I don't know about the best quality, but you didn't have to eject a VHS tape, switch sides and reinsert it like with Video 2000 (in fact, many cassette players from the 90s onward had the ability to play side b without flipping the tape). It's not just momentum, functionality has played a huge role in a format war. That's why beta failed.

[@ionychel]

@@linkskywalker5417 Bullshit. VHS tapes never had a side B, so there's no way that any VHS player ever had an auto-reverse function.

[@linkskywalker5417]

@@ionychel Of course not. That's why VHS never had the issue Video 2000 did.

[@compzac]

@@ionychel He wasnt talking about VHS or beta he meant the audio compact cassette I dont know why he compared a video format to audio, but he did weirdly, now granted I never even saw V2000 being from the US but i sorta doubt the picture quality malarchy that was how Beta was sold here was that it was better quality than VHS, but that was only true for Beta x1 speed which only the first machines worked at, most of the machine you would find later basically erased the X1 speed and only allowed you to use the X2,3 speeds which due to speeds ran slower than VHS SP which technically meant that VHS actually had better picture quality

[@yeez13]

Your work on Immortal Hulk #25 is some of my favorite comic art I’ve ever seen. Awesome to see you here of all places!

[@robshorts]

Being at school in the 80s and seeing teachers trying to fathom out how to get a video recorder and television to successfully play the video was always a laugh, it was nearly always one of us who would know how to get it to work!

[@geraldmcmullon2465]

Toddlers could pick out their favourite video tape recording and push it into the VCR. Old folk, who didn't like all the tech could still load a VCR or a DVD and it would automatically switch the TV over. Running down menus on a remote to pick a track from a memory stick or access a digital juke box of any size requires you to read and be able to control a keyboard and tracker pad or mouse. Perhaps with voice control the very young and technophobes can access the media again. I met someone fluent in 5 spoken languages with a Facebook account who claimed he can't read or write - Google Assist!

[@deusexaethera]

To be fair, it doesn't help that the school's A/V equipment was usually bought piecemeal and each TV trolley had slightly different equipment on it that connected slightly differently and behaved slightly differently.

[@vitalik38815]

It hasn't changed to be honest, I had to put the CD on all the time for the teacher. And in more recent years having to maximize the KZbin window

[@dunxy]

Yes, i remember this as well! When i was at high school in the '90s there was still some umatic machines in use in some classrooms as well as offcourse VHS and BETA.The umatics (sic?) were very old at that stage and i don't think had much if at all domestic use, i only knew of what they were at the time because my father worked for a TV station and we had every possibly video,audio and even film format commonly available in our house.

[@allan.n.7227]

True that.. what a lovely trip down memory lane.. those heavy CRT and VCR towers that was dragged and pulled from class room to class room (the school could only afford one setup).. and the tapes were all officially licensed and lent out from the state information department.. those were the days.. before that we had the tape to tape reel machines projecting the image - with all the fiddling on with focus, tilt swiwel, seperate mono speaker and so forth... (they were even more hard to setup) .. and let alone many times the film would snap during playback... in every respect things were going about in a totally different pace back then... I kinda miss that.. and then again not..

[@nin74]

A nice video, as always. As a Video 2000 collector, I have around 400-500 pre-recorded tapes, and my collection is growing, I can say that there was cleaning tape released. It is very hard to find and I have only seen one (the one I have). Love the V2000 format.

[@compu85]

Could you take the cleaning "tape" from a VHS cleaner cartridge and put it in a V2000 shell?

[@rickyg1247]

In the early 80s I shared a house with a computer programmer who loved his tech, we had all 3 formats. Interestingly we always considered the Betamax machine was the best quality picture (but that may have been due just to the machine being a particularly good one). We loved the v2000 it was big and chunky and good for recording but could be temperamental. Ultimately it was the availability of titles in the local video shop that saw the VHS get used the most. It was a shame - as I still believe that in the early 80s the other 2 formats were superior in many ways.

[@medes5597]

Betamax was the superior quality option of the three. It also held up better to replaying. It's why you could buy blank beta tapes into the 2000s because aging broadcast nerds maintained their personal archives on Betamax for its quality. My grandad was one of those nerds and I think even though he's 95, he'd still be archiving on Betamax if he could get hold of the tapes.

[@Andrew_Sparrow]

I'm responsible for destroying 10s of V2000 machines in my youth :) My dad worked for a Electronics repair shop and their basement had a pile of these machines (I assume ex-rental) that would have been obsolete. I got to come to work with Dad some Saturdays and to keep me busy I was allowed to pull one apart (I liked taking the motors and LED displays etc out). couldn't count how many, wish I had one now! I do remember how well they were built and the quality of the components compared to the VHS machines :)

[@endofthelinejoel]

Hi TECHMoan, please post more of those 80s adverts you captured! They are great. Thanks!

[@__-yw1hb]

agreed. i so much want a Fiat Uno now. 80s ads were so much better, though if we'd had the technology to skip as now would we even remember them?

[@markmallone7484]

Search for channel called Tele Viewer, uploads old uk tv clips.

[@ChrisBrandrick]

Yup! I want to see more :D

[@Trenchbroom]

Yes, as an American when I want to go back to my childhood I can search "80s commercials" on YT and find a channel that has 80+ hours of classic stuff from the U.S. The U.K. 80s kids need the same. Get to work fixing Chewy so you can fill this void Techmoan!

[@becksy539]

This Guy is a pioneer in reviewing old tech, love this channel, thsi is waht you tube was invented for, thoughtful and detailed revews every single time, keep up the good work Techmoan, hopefully you continue to get more views to generate more cash so you can continue to buy this retro tech to educate the rest of us, 10/10

[@michaeldeluca6331]

He isn't a "pioneer" at all he's just good at it. Learn what words mean.

[@ColinHuth]

Now that TechMoan and Technology Connections have both officially mentioned one another, we *need* the dream collaboration of a lifetime to happen. It’ll be a dry humor overload!

[@danijel-ch2gk]

Yes. Just yes.

[@NormanRDolan]

*flashes back to 8-Bit and TM's collab, to the part where TM makes a disgusted noise about ferric tapes, and laughs very hard*

[@NormanRDolan]

**realizes that TM's gonna bring the Muppets** *_NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!_*

[@ProfessorYana]

Well, why don't you give it a shot, MP?

[@AnalogueGround]

I remember attending the launch event of V2000 by Philips back in the day. The VCRs from Philips, ITT and Grundig were very advanced and well engineered machines and I owned many of them. I still have the whole of Live Aid that I recorded on to V2000 tapes back in 1984. One day I'll find a machine and take a look at them to see if they've survived!

[@geraldmcmullon2465]

Not worth the attempt of recovering my records of Live Aid. Most pre-85 tapes proved difficult to recover.

[@thegearknob7161]

Not surprised to hear that. My grandfather used to repair TVs for a living from the 60s right up into the 90s. He always liked the Phillips sets above the others. I don't mean that in a he reccomended them because they kept him in business kind of way, but they were the ones he bought himself. I still have the Phillips DVD player he bought shortly before he died. Still comes in handy because it is region free. It's worth checking out the Live aid tapes. Maybe you got lucky and didn't get that bloke talking over Queen!

[@SpaceCattttt]

My parents bought our first VCR in 1984. And I can still remember the classic line "Have you got a video!" echoing in my memory banks. First film I watched on it was Raiders of the Lost Ark. Life was good.

[@markpenrice6253]

I hope it's not one of those video narrrrsties...

[@jeremytravis360]

Hi Matt, I think I might have told you that I was part of a company called Teletape in central London. We specialised in all tape formats including reel to reel imports. Sonys Umatic was the first out followed by the Phillips stacked cassette. When Betamax and VHS came out we were told that Sony had concentrated the US market which made it miss out on the Uk market. The other problem I had was reps saying you could only buy a VHS recorder if you paced an order for TVs. I won't name the one company that did this. I was very much a Betamax man with a Sony SL9. I did have a VHS machine as well but only because I had a couple of customers who used to turn up with a suitcase of blank tapes and asking me to record a lot of UK Tv programs which were taken out to Africa. By the time the Philips 2000 system came out I was pretty much fed up with the format wars and customers asking "Which one is going to win" to which there was no definitive answer. One format you have missed is the Technicolor Video system which used a cassette not much bigger than a standard audio cassette. By the time it came out customers were rather fed up with buying a machine that could cost £700 only to see it drop out of existence. Jeremy Travis formerly Teletape London

[@MrGeoffHilton]

@@davidjames579 Hi David, this is a million to one shot, but, did you by any chance attend CCAT Cambridge in the mid 80's?

[@MrGeoffHilton]

@@davidjames579 thanks for the reply, have a good weekend.

[@esa062]

I was quite annoyed that Video 2000 didn't take off despite being obvioiusly superior. And look how long we did get stuck with VHS.

[@recklessroges]

I'm very glad V2k lost because I hate Philips as a company. They focus on profit to the detriment of their customers, (and even those of us that are not their customers.)

[@mdftrasher]

Today it is hard to find a working machine, also most of the tapes do not stand the test of time. Remember, one side is half of the tape! Sometimes it is very very hard to get a decent picture. The v2000 system was not a very robust system. Philips even planned a auto reverse video 2000 machine! Most vhs tapes are still okay after 30 years ;-)

[@edgarmatzinger9742]

@@recklessroges Then you should hate every manufacturer.

[@edgarmatzinger9742]

@@mdftrasher V2000 was never meant to be an archiving system. And VHS had never as a good a picture as V2000 did.

[@deusexaethera]

Being the best isn't as important as being good enough and being widely available.

[@112048112048]

"DTF, that's the _Digital Track Following_ technology" Sure, that's what it stands for.

[@Okkie26]

DYNAMIC Track Following...

[@TmanT321]

Down to follow, those tracks lol

[@MethodicalBread]

Was specifically looking for this comment 😂

[@MsCori76]

Our first VCR my parents bought when I was little was the Sharp VC381 VHS. My parents ended up giving it to me in its original box with the manual & wired remote in 1996 when I moved out of home & I used it for 16 years till it wouldn’t play anymore as the heads wear badly worn & it recorded with a un-viewable picture which was the first thing to die on it back in 1993.....the VCR lasted well for roughly 27 years!

[@wildbilltexas]

That's a great lifespan. My family's first VHS in 1984 was a Sharp VC-481U. My parents used it for 8 years until we replaced it with a Panasonic Hi-Fi VHS.

[@bart7695]

off topic: Sellafield at 13:13. "A spokesman said that the level of discharge was within the limits set for the plant (..) He said there was no danger to the public." More on-topic: Being from Eindhoven, where Phillips started his company, My dad owned a V2000.

[@scaper8]

This was particularly interesting to me as an American as I know some (but by no means all) about the format war, but almost entirely from a US perspective. I've always been curious how this (and the other format and tech wars) played out on the UK, Europe, and Japan. This may not have been comprehensive, but it was a window into that area.

[@mikeselectricstuff]

Many years ago, late 80s or early 90s, I went to a closing-down auction of a company that did VCR and TV repairs for some of the big chains of TV/video/electrical stores. At the auction, they had a couple of hundred VHS and Beta VCRs, mostly units they'd loan to customers while theirs was being repaired. These VCRs were going for around £30-50 each. There was one lot of two or three V2000 units. When this lot came up, a little sniggering could be heard around the saleroom. When the auctioneer said something like "where shall we start, £150 for them?" the whole crowd spontaneously erupted into laughter. The poor auctioneer didn't have a clue why it was so funny...

[@xCARPx2014]

mikeselectricstuff wait. Why was it funny?

[@SethMethCS]

Because they didn't know what it was or saw V2000 to be worthless.

[@electronash]

Even when I first saw a V2000 VCR at our local dump in 1991, my Dad also laughed at it, and I didn't know why. lol And that's coming from a household who used both VHS and Betamax for most of the 90s. Now I wish I'd had the foresight to collect up a few of the rarer machines and kept them, but there's not much 10-year-old me could do at the time. (there were hundreds of weird VCRs, reel-to-reel decks, TVs, retro machines, and the odd arcade cabinet there every month. It would be a goldmine if it were the same now.)

[@MetalTrabant]

@ElectronAsh: You know it must've been a successful format, if some people first encountered it at their local dump... LOL :D

[@electronash]

@KoivuTheHab It wasn't a "dump" as such, it was a Recycling Center, where all the electrical stuff is put into sheds for people to look through.

[@photolabguy]

I'm from the US. I have seen that Channel 4 ident before. I remember watching The Secret Life of Machines. It was on the Discovery channel back in the 80's. They took that Channel 4 indent and showed how the quality of video degraded if you kept on recording a recording. Awesome!

[@CommodoreFan64]

I was just about to comment that myself lol! Loved that show as a kid.

[@photolabguy]

@@CommodoreFan64 That's awesome! That was a fabulous show! I loved the quirky animations, it mads the show very unique.

[@theJellyjoker]

"The Secret Life of Machines" I remember that show, it was awesome.

[@CommodoreFan64]

Yes indeed it was very unique, it's like they told the crew you only have this amount of money to work with, but hey we will give you some summer interns to help with the research.

[@kbhasi]

Yeah, someone posted that clip on KZbin, I saw it, and I think the show was originally produced by Channel 4, before Discovery Networks licenced it or received broadcast rights through a distributor.

[@ultrametric9317]

The film snippet is from "Enigma", 1982, director Jeannot Szwarc.

[@dabe1971]

We had the Phillips V2020 as our first machine - loved it ! You didn't mention it but it had a feature that I've never seen on another system - the GoTo button. You made a note of the counter when you started to record a particular programme and rather than have to search back and forth or sit over the machine waiting for the counter to reach the required number you just hit goto and then punched in the number and off it went. I also recall we had a Phillips VCR at my school as I remember them taking our the big plastic thing before loading the machine. Oh and Quattro ! God that was vile ! Keep up the good work !

[@ladymunch0]

these old ads and idents are amazing. I can spend hours on KZbin watching them. Please put the ones you have up somewhere if you get the chance. Thank you for the great video.

[@NormanRDolan]

Popular sites include TVArk and CLG Wiki.

[@recklessroges]

If there is a Techmoaning (TM2) channel it would be perfect for those old samples.

[@petermcarthur7450]

Just wanted to tell you, you absolutely nailed this one. It's a masterpiece.

[@paulw858]

Do you think Betamax would have won if it were called Alphamax?

[@ciprianwinerElectronicManiac]

Lol, I just glanced over your comment and I switched to another tab, then I burst into laughter when I got the joke. Nice one mate :)

[@Jakeinlivincolor]

I know one thing, after it lost the format war, it became Omega Max

[@sjames5027]

Or Max Power video

[@bigbro5793]

alpha male

[@ChallengeTheNarrative]

Mmmmm. What about OmegaMax. sorry, couldn't RESIT.

[@SumeaBizarro]

Finland has been mentioned, we will hold the meeting in town square my lads!

[@tapehead3832]

27:57 I would love to see how Blade Runner looked on that video 2000 tape.

[@zh84]

Our school - perhaps all the schools in our county (Fife, Scotland) - standardised on V2000. The machine illustrated at 6:46 is exactly like those that used to be wheeled into the classroom with a big CRT to show us documentaries that had been laboriously recorded off TV and then indexed. The teacher would cautiously type in a four-digit code onto the number pad on the front of the machine, and then it would wind to that counter and start playing.

[@no1DdC]

My school still used Super 8 reels well into the early 2000s, at least occasionally. I remember a particularly (unintentionally) funny silent film on the mating behavior of frogs, produced at some point in the 1970s. We had VHS and DVD too, the latter being pushed by language teachers, since they loved the fact that there were usually at least two different audio tracks, which meant they didn't have to import movies as often as before.

[@pishedasafart]

Heh, yeah, was like that in Balwearie..lol

[@zh84]

My sister went to the Fife Youth Choir with people from your High School :-)

[@dirkhempel3709]

Same here in Germany

[@pishedasafart]

:-)

[@gootsy]

Thank you very much !!!! We had a V2000 tape recorder in the mid-eighties, by that time it was already an obsolete format. When my parents switched to VHS, they gave me the device and I was more than happy as a child to have my own tape recorder. Fortunately, there was a small shop in my hometown where they were selling blank tapes (for rentals or prerecorded tapes, it was over, but what I wanted was to record shows that were broadcast on school nights to watch them later). I had quite a collection and I loved the format. You could store a lot on one tape, you could search by time (thing you couldn't do with the standard vhs player back then). Mine was looking a lot like the one from the catalog at 13:50. I kept it until the mid nineties, when I even edited a homemade videoclip we made with a friend and managed to synchronize it with one my songs with that "audio dub" button you see on your model ! A wonderful device.

[@jhdore]

Good lord, things you didn’t realise you’d forgotten - Quattro fizzy drink! So 80’s!

[@Uhfgood]

I'm an American and even though I've never seen those adverts they're similar enough to our commercials that even I felt a bit nostalgic. Add the fact that when I was approximately 5-8 years old we lived in Belgium coupled with classic Doctor Who and various "Britcoms" were shown on public broadcasting, that's almost downright familiar.

[@souvikrc4499]

Even today you can still catch Britcoms every weekend on PBS.

[@Sama3L]

A piece of paper soaked in isopropanol can work wonders in cleaning tape heads. This method doesn't damage them and removes pretty much any contamination

[@KirkNorthrop]

30:23 - in the bonus print advert. That’s the Post Office advert machine you hated so much being depicted?

[@video99couk]

A few pedantic corrections: Missed out the third variant of VCR which was the Grundig SVC (Super Video Cassette) which could record 5 hours on the later VCR cassettes. DTF did not go onto Betamax (domestic format) but onto Betacam (studio format had some cross-over including partly interchangeable cassettes). The Grundig 2x4 Super did not give hours/mins/seconds, only hours and minutes. Sanyo Beta machines were rebadged by rental companies. Technology Connections video is rather NTSC based, Beta for PAL had several differences. I have working machines for all of these formats, VCR (also known as N1500), VCR-LP (N1700), SVC, V2000 and Beta, and you can see them on my channel. Also how to repair the Grundig 2x4 Super: kzbin.info/www/bejne/j4jNfYGXoaeIaMU&

[@brettogden6104]

I have a Grundig 2x4. I brought it to Australia when I moved here. The picture started to get a noise bar. I found a belt inside that needed replacing but never got a replacement. ....I'm still waiting to fix it ....

[@evoste]

My father pick up a VR2020 back in 1982, it was a great machine built like an outhouse! It was ahead of it's time with some features, but it was always a little over engineered, remembering VHS got a lot simpler and cheaper over time. We still used it for recording even when we got a VHS player a few years later, I remember retiring it to the loft it was close to 20 Kilos.....

[@elainejsta]

That commercial. “That doesn’t sound Japanese” “(Impatiently) it’s a firips”

[@hanselmanryanjames]

Ikr!? You couldn't get away with advertising like that today. The Politically correct crowd would be all over you!

[@2small4theMall]

Ryan Hanselman That's probably for the better

[@sourgrapekate1003]

Man that’s racist. How could they be that tone deaf in the early 80’s?

[@daniel.holbrook]

@@2small4theMall it's funny lmao

[@jhdore]

sourgrapekate1003 because early 80’s.

[@holden_tld]

1988: fast forward through ad to watch the movie 2018: fast forward through movie to watch the ad we truly are living in the future.

[@DarrenCoull]

We were a V2000 family until you couldn't get machines any more - my favourite was the Grundig 2x4 Super - apart from the timer recording, that needed a university degree to figure out! Still have heaps of tapes (I hope) sitting at parent's house in the UK - remember we recorded the first transmission of TVS (Television South) and Channel 4. The last machine we had was a 2022 Philips, but eventually that decided it didn't want to play or record, and simply ejected the tape all the time. Would love to get a new old stock machine and go through the old recordings. Sending the whole lot to Australia might be cost prohibitive though....

[@taofanarchy96-renzomaracas14]

Ask to your parents to send the tapes to Techmoan. He has now a working machine and can digitize the image. Better than send the entire lot down under (not cheap)

[@SVHome]

Excellent! I was an original Cartrivision owner and when other formats started appearing, I picked up brochures so I’m sure I have one for this system but I ended up with VHS, now owning a Sony dual S-VHS and DV machine. I also now run cartrivision.com so was happy to hear mention of that format in this video but not sure where the notion came from that the playback was jerky. It was not and was actual quite smooth with excellent color and no jerkiness whatsoever. The tapes, of course, were huge and took up much space but they did also have a good prerecorded tape rental network.

[@DeadReckon]

The sad part is that, with the death of physical media in the household being a primary recording source, our links to the past and old commercials are dying off too. These commercials where all well before my time from the wrong country, my childhood was in the 90's, but still, I grew up through the strange transition of everything being on physical media of some variety to everything just being beamed out of thin air onto a device.

[@deusexaethera]

You can find reams of old commercials right here on KZbin.

[@MrDannyDetail]

@@deusexaethera You can find stuf that is currently old now, but since people are mostly no longer making VHS recordings of current TV then presumably stuff that is currently current (if you see what I mean) will be harder to stumble upon in 20 or 30 years time when it becomes old. Same with anything digital now, music, video, things written on websites etc all the non-physical ephemera from this era could dissappear before we can start to get nostalgic about it, but then again perhaps having all eras of non-ephemeric film, tv, writing etc available on the net will mean that one day the only thing we will get genuinely nostalgic for is nostalgia itself!

[@annother3350]

You can just drag them off your Tivo box these days. We'll still be able to watch todays shitty adverts

[@Xezlec]

@@MrDannyDetail People save all the kinds of things you're talking about. I don't know where you've gotten this idea that only analog media can save things. Are you unaware of the Internet Archive? Not to mention all the random websites where this stuff gets uploaded and also people who have this stuff saved on their desktops at home. And people already are nostalgic about digital stuff from the 90s, and we still have it. I still have tons of stuff I downloaded in the 90s, and most of the stuff I uploaded in the 90s is still out there somewhere, and some of it has multiplied and is now on a bunch of different websites.

[@MrDannyDetail]

@@Xezlec I'm well aware of the Internet Archive, so yeah. And I'm not saying nothing ever gets saved, just that it's harder now as even when people want to save stuff they are often strictly speaking prevented by GDPR etc. I'm not totally against GDPR and similar laws, but as a genealogist I realise that these days you cannot keep data for any purpose other than what it was gathered for, and at the same time I recognise that pretty much none of the original sources I consult when tracing family trees were explicitly compiled to assist future genealogists, so I suppose I straddle two different worlds in a sense. And I think the truth is that even if some stuff is still being saved, it is going to be somewhat less than what is sitting on the VHS, audio tapes and random bits of paper that my generation has saved (I'm 36), since the next generation (admittedly generalising) seem to save literally nothing. Also you mention the 90s a lot, and I know a lot of nostalgia stuff exists for the 90s (as it bally well should), but the thing is I think there is a massive change in outlook around about 2004-2005 or so, and that there is almost certainly a massive decline in surviving emphemera from around that date. Don't get me wrong though I would love to be disproved, and so would libraries and archives around the country and world.

[@blackcountrydroner1814]

Techmoan...Ive been watching your videos for quite a number of years, the first being, the keyfob spycam #616 i think, Your videos are still 2nd to non,no fancy dubstep music ,no coughing,sneezing or bad editing etc..This lastest video took me right back to my childhood...keep up the fantastic work!!!!

[@enemdisk6628]

I second that. It's a one-man-show producing television grade content. I'm always impressed by his videos.

[@gregx5096]

I watch these videos (besides for their amazing content) because of the complete and utter absence of anyone bellowing "HEEEEEYYYY WHAT'S UP FELLOWS AND GALS GET YOURSELF READY FOR ANOTHER TECH BLAST FROM THE PAAAAST!!" or anything like it. Bliss!

[@deusexaethera]

Now I want to see Techmoan review various brands of dubstep drum synths.

[@NewGoldStandard]

I love this channel. Thank you for all of this great content!

[@DevoldoinHD]

Apparently DTF means something much different nowadays, lol!

[@elliottslab]

Devoldo this is what I was thinking it sure means Something very different now

[@JimPatience]

"Hey baby, are you Video 2000? 'cause I'm DTF" This is my new pick up line. This is also why I'm single.

[@brokenacoustic]

Jim Patience say that to the right girl and you'll be set for life! lol

[@cliz305]

I only knew DFT instead of DTF.

[@JacGoudsmit]

Philips had a way of "overloading" abbreviations. Try and find something on eBay with DCC in the search and you'll get lots of model trains with Digital Command Control instead of Digital Compact Cassette.

[@EmeraldLavigne]

Awesome shoutout for Technology Connections - that is such an amazing & under-appreciated channel! 👍

[@deusexaethera]

It's a good channel, but it would be a better channel if his commentary had fewer subliminal biases in it.

[@nthgth]

@@deusexaethera Agreed

[@davidkennerly]

Wow! I had managed to (almost) completely forget about the V2000 until you refreshed those exquisitely unexercised circuits which, apparently, still exist and to enable their archaic images to come flooding back, albeit with a lot of noise and tracking errors.

[@peterfoxhusky3170]

I'm from the Netherlands and my dad bought a Philips V2000 video-recorder in the early 80's. Very big, very heavy and very expensive. But we loved the idea of using two sides on a cassette and also important: it was made by Philips from The Netherlands. And it had perfect slow-motion and still image without stripes on the screen. It was the VR2024 machine with stereo sound. Not HiFi-stereo, but just linear stereo recording. It worked, although most TV programs were in mono in the early 80's in my country. I remember sitting in front of the TV on July 13, 1985 to record Queen and U2 at Live Aid on our V2000 recorder. In mono, but I recorded the stereo sound on a music cassette from the radio. Later in the 80's we switched to VHS because the best movies were only available on VHS in the local video rental stores. Only old and weird movies were available on Beta and V2000. Early 90's I copied most of TV-recordings from V2000 to a VHS-tape.

[@BenHelweg]

Ironically they stuffed up the audio on the tv feed, but the radio one was fine I think.

[@WouterWeggelaar]

I have been brought up with V2000, and interestingly the format war has never been a war in my mind until I started reading up on it. For me, Both beta and VHS are successors to V2000, because everywhere I went, V2000 was used (family and friends). only years later did people switch to VHS. as a young kid, your sense of time is distorted anyway, but I know that my granny kept using V2000 until well into the 90s. I still have the cassettes with some TV programmes recorded on them. I was surprised that V2000 was only 20% in The Netherlands, while I did not see VHS for several years after V2000. I have never seen beta until they were being dumped on flea markets

[@JosephusNB]

I did the same back then, and up to this day i still have that vcc480 tape containing a large part of the live aid broadcasts from that day. beste systeem in die tijd .. op zeker :)

[@JosephusNB]

Wouter, In the market for videorecording at home in the netherlands Philps was a big player, but for rental they always were the 5th wheel. most titles only came out on VHS (or you could rent an illegal vhs to vcc copy). Owned several through the years and my first purchased 2022 in the philips shop in Eindhoven is still working :)

[@crunchychips8123]

Got to suck being the guy who creates the best technology possible, only to be undone by weird business decisions, unintended use-cases, and fickle consumers. Somewhere, there's a retired Philips engineer who is probably quite bitter, and was probably quite glad to see DVDs destroy VHS.

[@JacGoudsmit]

Ha, I imagine a meeting at Philips headquarters in 1979 or so. "How can we make a system that's better than VHS?" "I know let's make it reversible!" (2 years later) tada! V2000! Customers: "GREAT! I'll buy it as soon as you make an auto-reverse recorder!"

[@Alpinerbergen]

That is still called the "Gerard and Anton Syndrome", one Philips brother invented something great and the other Philips brother wanted to focus on marketing other products. Back in the days of V2000, Philips wanted to push through Compact Disc. And the CEO of North American Philips Corporation, mister Pieter C. Vink, decided to buy Matsushita VHS tape mechanisms to assemble in Magnavox vcr's, instead of their own Philips V2000 tape devices, therefore V2000 never was available on the market as a native NTSC compatible version. Another technological issue was that the printed circuit boards (PCB) for processing the audio were manufactured by the Philips audio department, where other PCB's were assembled at other departments, which made all these different boards not as compatible as could be, so the interconnecting PCB at the bottom of the machines was a fairly complicated interface. The power supply unit was unnecessarily complex too, since not all PCB's used the same voltages. Philips engineers should have simplified the electronics layout by integrating technical functions with each other, but that would have put some Philips manufacturing departments out of work.

[@nigelh3253]

Thanks for all the hard work you put in producing these KZbins - buying equipment for review, etc.

[@magreger]

Enjoyed this one. I definitely learned some new things. Also, Alec over at Technology Connections is no doubt smitten over the plug :) :)

[@TechnologyConnections]

The plug is indeed much appreciated!

[@tomtalk24]

I now feel really really bad for putting a jam sandwich in my parents VCR back in the 80s when I was a kid (thought it would show strawberry jam on TV). Would be like washing an iMac in the bath price wise today....... sorry Mum!

[@eddiebaxUS]

I put a toy steamroller in my parents' VHS player when I was about 4, back when money was tight and the machine had been a real stretch to buy. I think I made steam come out of my dad's ears. That one still gets brought up at family gatherings...

[@jimi-w]

One of my earliest memories is going with Dad to the VCR repair place. I had a penchant for "posting" things in the tape slot - mostly clothes pegs and the like.

[@Tynut]

We had a 12V tv with a VCR when I was a kid. We used to plug it into the car’s cigarette lighter on road trips. It could only play tapes at one speed. I didn’t know that and put a tape in that was the wrong speed (I think it was too slow). We had to take it apart to get the tape out. Afterwards the TV still worked, but the VCR was kaput... oops.

[@blxtothis]

tomtalk24 - That’s not as bad as a very young new member of my staff back in the early 1980s, who after an introduction to the delights of a very boozy departmental night out, and was duly poured into a cab home to his parents’ house in the outskirts of London. After being comatose in bed, he eventually sleep walked during the early hours of the morning needing a bladder emptying session, he made it not to the toilet but found his way to a darkened downstairs room, and relieved himself into the family top-loading V2000 after carefully pressing the eject button for access.

[@adenowirus]

Spaceballs claims another victim. When I was a kid I put a slice of bread in our VCR (I think I saw some cartoon where someone mistook VCR for a toaster and I sought to emulate that). It continued to work after that, but when broke down some time later the repairman had quite a surprise waiting for him.

[@wirdy1]

Another product of the 80's- the RAF's Tornado F3 aircraft..has a link to this Philips V2000 technology. I remember a V2000 tape transport mechanism was used in the rear cockpit. It multiplex recorded multiple video inputs from the intercept radar/rhwr/TV tabs/ hud camera. Once back on the ground, this was replayed on a debriefing system using a modified Philips V2000 VCR Machine along with a stacked bank of TV monitors, each showing its individual (de-multiplexed) video feed.

[@VWT1BVDS]

I am sorry for your bad shopping experience with Dutch people. Some people here think refurbished is a more classy word for 2nd hand...

[@NOWThatsRichy]

People also like to say 'pre owned' rather than second hand.

[@me3333]

In the US refurbished usually means dusted off

[@CJ-rf9jm]

+me3333 that still goes even here in canada. I have no doubts after going through 3 sony PS2's (only 1 still works) and 5 PS3's (2 still work, 3rd needed a lot of work) and were sold as "refurbished" by the company that did sony's warrenty work when those machines were still current.

[@9inchpp]

Refurb often means something was done to a product beforehand prior to resale

[@edgarmatzinger9742]

Well, it is. Refurbished is just a single word for "We've taken the cover off, it looked nice inside and closed the cover again."

[@624radicalham]

29:10 Fabulous nostalgia trip indeed. Especially for us Americans that couldn't see any of this back in the 80's. You really should archive as much of the adverts as you can and post them online on another channel. It's historical. Don't let it go to waste!

[@StrangelyIronic]

First time I saw a laserdisc player in real life was at my school library in elementary school. I remembered the chunky landscape style remote and massive record like player that they then replaced not too long after. Now I collect a ton of laserdisc disc across the entire lifespan, they have some of the best cases/covers/sleeves to have displayed (I built a couple multi column/row frames to display my favorites).

[@Spiderelectron]

I remember that "Firips" advert so well. It must have made an impression on me in my childhood. You certainly wouldn't get away with something like that now!

[@enemdisk6628]

Thanks for putting it into an European perspective - it fascinates me when eventually there is even more to a topic than everyone else has talked about for a thousand times. Such a good channel!

[@AutPen38]

Please rewind this video before returning it to the shop.

[@2Old4Toys]

Who remembers "Radio Rentals" ? Our telly and later the video recorder were both rented and we got to upgrade to a newer model every so often I think.

[@starman_uk]

I remember as a young child having to insert coins in the back and the cash being collected every few weeks :)

[@gibbo9089]

There was Rumbleows too!

[@HannahWalters]

Radio Rentals is still a thing in Australia!

[@RustyRogers]

Can you still rent the machines?

[@HannahWalters]

@@RustyRogers unfortunately not take machines anymore but more modern ones like dvd/Bluray, yes!

[@deadfreightwest5956]

"It's a Firips." LOL Reminds me of the old Isuzu TV spots in the early '80s here in the US where the potential buyer couldn't pronounce "Isuzu." The Japanese rep patted him on the shoulder and says, "That's okay, kid. I can't say Cheveray."

[@me3333]

It reminded me of the Hyundai ad that said "Win one little award and suddenly everyone gets your name right. It's Hyundai, like Sunday"

[@galaxyanimal]

What? Isn't it pronounced like "shehverlay"?

[@galaxyanimal]

Shehverlay

[@CThyran]

@@galaxyanimal It's pronounced chev-ro-lay or chev-er-lay depending on the region

[@nthgth]

Lol "Cheveray, reminds me of Lu Kim from South Park

[@zephyr332]

I'm in Ontario, Canada - born and raised in Toronto and I don't remember anybody in my family having a VCR before about 1986, simply because they were so expensive. It really wasn't until about 1988-1990 when the prices cam down to more realistic numbers.

[@actuallyasriel]

Wasn't born until '98, but I recall a lot of my life that tech is more expensive here compared to the US (we got a lot of American commercials, with which I made that comparison) and we didn't have them at accessible prices here until a while after they'd been widely available in the US. Like, it wasn't until 2011 that my family owned our first flat-screen television. It was a plasma, which had already been considered somewhat outdated by that time (if my sense of time is correct.) Of course I grew up in a lower financial class than most of my peers, so that could be a contributor there.

[@portland-182]

The Philips VCR machines were a bit of a nightmare with tracking. If you tried to playback a tape on a machine other than the machine it was actualy recorded on, they often wouldn't track in correctly. The tracking would also gradualy readjust on the machine over time meaning that old tapes often wouldn't track even on the machine it was originaly recorded on. When all was well the picture was pretty good.

[@MH-bv9kk]

This is exactly why I like your channel. Here in the US, I never heard about V2000 till now. Seems too bad that VHS won out. But now, thanks to you, I know about it. And now I know of another device to want to add to my entertainment centre. Oops. =-)

[@taofanarchy96-renzomaracas14]

Off-topic: I ❤ your profile pic

[@MH-bv9kk]

Thanks. I have a friend near Glasgow who has kept me up to date on IndyRef. American media has barely given it any mention at all.

[@telocho]

Both the VCR (look for N1500) and VCR long play (N1702) and then the V2000. I've got them all. But won't play easy in the US, it's 50Hz and PAL.

[@Alpinerbergen]

Chairman Pieter Vink of the North American Philips Corporation thought it was a bad idea to buy their own European more expensive Philips V2000 tape mechanisms if they could buy Asian VHS tape mechanisms from Matsushita at half the price. That is why no NTSC versions of V2000 video cassette recorders were sold under the Norelco or Magnavox brands.

[@rileysimmons9886]

What an absolutely crazy coincidence to wind up with two decades-old tapes on different formats, purchased months apart from the same original owner!

[@ryans413]

I think V2000 missed out on a great opportunity to have two sided content. For example it works a lot like a audio cassette one side has music but flip the tape over and the other sides got more music here on V2000 you could easily have your main movie on one side flip it over and have special features or behind the scenes whatever you wanna call it on the other side. Or two feature films on one tape like a combo thing. Yes VHS and Betamax could have special features but you have to fast forward the tape to the end to see them. On the V2000 it be cool just to flip the tape and start watching the other content. It work great on marketing the only format to have your movie on one side and behind the scenes footage on the other. After watching this I like V2000 I think it missed a great opportunity too be good.

[@valedictorianism]

Not to be too nit-picky, but you'd still have to watch one side to the end in order to "just" flip the tape and start watching the other content, though.

[@drewgehringer7813]

@@valedictorianism yeah but people were willing to put up with that for prerecorded cassettes.

[@valedictorianism]

Yeah @@drewgehringer7813, and actually I still put up with it gladly when I listen to my LP records. I was just fussing about this sentence in Ryan's comment: "Yes VHS and Betamax could have special features but you have to fast forward the tape to the end to see them." On V2000, you have to watch the whole movie AND run the tape to the end to flip it over, so... same difference.

[@agfagaevart]

@@valedictorianism The movie studios settled on VHS by then, so I doubt they would've gone for that idea.

[@dunebasher1971]

There's no way they'd have gone for "bonus content" on the B-side of the tape. The cost of producing it would have forced them to push the price of the tapes way beyond what the market would have tolerated in the early 80s.

[@Parknest]

My parents got their first VCR in 1988. It was VHS and it was rented vis Visionhire (due to the cost and reliability of the machines). Back then we rented video cassettes and some of them got abused. I remember renting Rocky IV and the video at the end was corrupted so I never knew how the film ended. Like most people, we recorded stuff off the telly as well (adverts included). Those adverts were a nostalga trip for me. The 1970s and 1980s were the golden era of British TV. I never came across any V2000 stuff back then but I was aware of the format because some of the video cases could accommodate all 3 formats.

[@AS-ly3jp]

Nice video. I can just talk about my region here in Germany, where one of our biggest electronics manufacturers "Grundig" sold the video 2000 systems in masses. I grew up with that format and used it long after VHS won that race.

[@tolkzig]

Amazingly that the quality of V2000 recordings is better than VHS, and i didn't noticed horizontal tracking line in the bottom of screen

[@shaunhw]

That line was caused by the switching between the two video heads located 180 degrees apart, the tape being wrapped around half the video head drum. :-)

[@joligrunlaub3412]

Even VHS had later on 3 head drums to get quit of this lines. But Video 2000 was much better it had moving heads which could follow the track and therefore it had the best picture during Pause, fast forward and rewind.

[@deusexaethera]

Leave it to the Germans to design something that is technically superior in every possible way but also far too expensive for widespread adoption and unreliable when operated by end-users. There's a reason we all drive cars with Japanese-designed engines and transmissions, and use electronics with Japanese-designed circuits (even if they're actually made in China nowadays) -- they have a better sense of what actually matters outside the laboratory.

[@joligrunlaub3412]

You really believe this? Good technology is not a question of nationality. As far as I know Germany exports a lot of things into the whole world. It can not be so bad and expensive. But I admit that China will rule the market in a few years, because the most things are produced there. This is not a lucky future for Europe and for democracy.

[@rankingtrevor]

"Firips" 🤣😂 That play on Phillips to 'sound Japanese' would not fly in today's advertising world...

[@Gary-Goodridge]

The other add were funny in the same series

[@tentringer4065]

I don't know, you can still find 'funny foreigner' stereotypes in more recent adverts; the Dolmio family, for example.

[@jur4x]

Speaking of stereotypical accents... When was the last time you were advised to compare insurance prices by small animal? :)

[@gunfighterzero]

the PC brigade would be outraged now days

[@tentringer4065]

But how would Mac owners react? We need to know!

[@maciejcegowski657]

Great and unique channel. Deep research and knowledge. Clear descriptions. Thank you very much for each video.

[@Z3R0FiR3]

i love how a V2000 cassette looks like a huge music cassette.

[@fordprefect9296]

Philips invented the compact audio cassette, so it's no coincidence.

[@webbox100]

I LOVE the thoroughness of this video, Techmoan. As a sidebar, might just be me, but the lady in the brochure at 13:42 looks a bit like Marina Sirtis.

[@ricardlupus]

I actually used this format as late as the mid 1990s; I was given a machine and was amazed at the picture quality, especially in still frame and fast wind modes, compare to VHS. Eventually something failed in the machine and I had another one for a while, but when it too failed and started chewing tape, I decided that it was too awkward to try and get it running, especially considering the 1980s design with tons of RFI shielding plates covering everything inside the machine.

[@daveeckblad]

Note the Enigma box does have a holograhpic V2000 sticker under the hammer and sickle logo :)

[@twocvbloke]

Of the three formats, I'm definitely a Betamax supporter, even though the format wars were fought before I was born, the tapes just look neater in size and appearance... :)

[@Zeem4]

Apparently Sony modelled the size of the tape after a paperback book, which is why they look so much neater.

[@samroberts7404]

Brings back memories, this is what I had as a kid (and how I managed to ruin my parents enjoyment of live aid by putting a smarties lid in the tray that blocked the recording head). My grandad liked this format so much he was still using it well into the 2000's, he bought 3 players in the early 90s to use as spares and just fixed as necessary, which wasn't very often!

[@CoolDudeClem]

I haven't seen one of those tapes with the stacked reels since primary school, I was beginning to think I'd dreamed it up.

[@KevinT3141]

Love how you recommended Technology Connections at the end, I think I found your channel via Alec's.

[@sdstorm]

Fascinating. Never heard of V2000 before. 8 hours! Kinda makes me wish they won in the end. Anyways, thanks for the video.

[@Techmoan]

and if you used V2000 on XL you got 16 hours on a 8 hour tape.

[@maxmustermann1455]

16 Hours on one tape. Would be perfect now to binge watch all those TV show seasons, instead of the constant disc swapping.

[@xaverlustig3581]

+Monty Python the Flying Circus Make that 10 hours from a 5 hour tape - assuming you were in the PAL/SECAM part of the world where E300 VHS tapes were on sale.

[@JacGoudsmit]

@@xaverlustig3581 I have some of those tapes. In the 1990s a Dutch radio station would do something called "dance night" where they would play non-stop dance music in the mix from 9pm Saturday to 7am Sunday. I would record those on the audio track of one of those tapes while it recorded MTV or whatever on the video track. They were great to play while studying, or for parties! But the E300 tapes didn't arrive until long after the demise of V2000 so it's unfair to make that comparison. The tape manufacturers must have found a way to make thinner tapes that were still strong enough not to break.

[@johnfrancisdoe1563]

Jac Goudsmit They are *still* improving tape material like that. 8 years ago the highest capacity data cassette was 800MB plus compression. The current generation of the same cassette holds 12TB.

[@billmyke746]

That Fiat commercial at the end was absolutely Priceless. I couldn't stop laughing, thanks man.

[@joinedupjon]

An obvious nod to the opening of Knight Rider - that might have been the year I decided 'european car of the year' must have been a racket.

[@markpenrice6253]

@@joinedupjon It's rather suspicious how many quite desperate Fiats (and, somehow, Daewoos and Kias) have won it... Though the Uno wasn't really so bad a car when you consider its contemporaries. It just had a body made of rather thin and exceptionally crap steel... and the base engine really didn't like being converted to unleaded and having a catalyser bolted on, given one particular uncle's experience with losing motorway speed as a result...

[@perikholt3395]

Now I feel like digging out my dad’s V2000 machine and watch all the wrestling matches he recorded back in the eighties.

[@ryuken7129]

Big daddy and giant haystacks lol

[@macnerd93]

My parents bought a Bang and Olufsen V2000 machine and they were gutted as after only a few years they struggled to find rental tapes for it.

[@rif42]

Yep B&O also made V2000 video machines.

[@pilskadden]

Probably a rebadged Philips or Grundig machine. I believe B&O used a lot of Philips sourced components in the 80’s.

[@video99couk]

And they kept breaking down too.

[@JacGoudsmit]

I remember B&O made really beautiful machines that were even more expensive than the models they were based on. I've never seen one actually except on pictures.

[@crasheffort]

I'll be sad when you run out of obscure media formats to feature. The amount of formats you have shown that I have never heard of is amazing.

[@ASTMA193]

Love these videos. Great to see some old adverts too. Thank you :)

[@WereReallyRelayCamping]

v2000 was a way better picure than vhs, just look at solid blocks of red colour, virtually noise free on v2000 machines..

[@hi-friaudioman]

Which VHS? the old one or the newer one? ;-)

[@MartyInTheWoods]

yes, I frequently look at solid blocks of red colour ㋞

[@WereReallyRelayCamping]

@@hi-friaudioman if you mean svhs (not s video) it was better than old VHS but the improvement still didn't go beyond v2000 in real life even if it maybe did on the specs. It's like a canon Nikon thing, but I think if maybe v2000 had hit the market 18 month earlier it would have done better.

[@diatonicdelirium1743]

@@WereReallyRelayCamping Having owned v2000 and still owning a sVHS machine and can guarantee that it is much better quality - double horizontal scan rate, hifi sound, improved luminance. My deck also has digital time base correction and therefore always a synced picture as well as perfect freeze frame. Mind you, these machines were very expensive, 3-4 times the price of a normal VHS.

[@tentringer4065]

Ah Quatro, the colour and taste of four kinds of acid reflux.