Time Lapse VTR Sanyo Reel to Reel Video Tape Recorder

The Sanyo VTR-1350 offers quality black and white recording in EIAJ-1 format and gives you time lapse recording features so you can keep an eye on your parking garage for days at a time.

[@brownfranklin]

The high school that I went to had a Sony VTR that was a 1/2 Reel to Reel. The middle school had one as well, a smaller version. Both took the 7 inch reels and played for an hour. During the science fair, in 1984 at the middle school, I brought an old 1950's tv into the auditorium as part of my project. There was no cable hook up but the VTR was available and had a channel 3 RF modulator in it so that's what I used for the signal. The tapes I ran were old basketball games recorded in the gym, probably 10 years before. One of the tapes had several segments of school house rock on it and that's what I ran. When I went to high school a year later, they had stacks of videotape with basketball games, probably from late 70's. My job was to erase them all with a magnetic bulk tape eraser, and I did. Little did I know that I destroyed a piece of history, which in that day was not a huge deal. One of my neighbors brought a tape over to have transferred that was done at his company using their machine. It was a 1965 video made of a pretend newscast which was interesting. The end of the tape had some candid videos of kids playing in the gym. Another video that was used by the police department was a mock trial called, "The trial of John Spencer" taped in 1974. I watched it through once and attempted to duplicate it on VHS but the quality was not worth the bother.

[@shawnjenkins8707]

This guy, I like him. He’s just as cookoo for vintage video equipment as I am🙂

[@Josechpruiz]

Those egiptians loved their 4k

[@bobbyberetta4206]

They really do don’t they?

[@thiesenf]

*Forcibly removes an "i" with an "y"* in the intended word "egyptians"*

[@WatchingDude]

Flipped belt prevents it from slipping. See early steam driven machinery.

[@paulhurst7748]

Jeez, I remember these machines from high school. We also had Porta Paks that used the open reels. they were stacked one on top of the other. But the primary VTR was the the 1" Ivc 800.

[@roberthorwat6747]

Results as expected for its age. It owes nothing and has clearly served its former masters well, but, it would be wonderful to see it restored to its former glory. By the way great tip on sticky tapes. I found a few sticky audio tapes when digitally archiving them. I shall do a few oven baking experiments! Nothing ventured...

[@BilisNegra]

Been missing you lately. I'm so glad to watch new stuff from you today.

[@moshezaharia4666]

Great finding! The big silver capacitor looks like the motor's start up capacitor, all Sanyo's electrolytics goes bad with time. My Sony SL-C7 Betamax had all it's Sanyo capacitors failed, even leaking acid on the boards. Good Luck in getting this one going!

[@xray111xxx]

We had the Sonys at my high school. Was fun.

[@maltronics]

Great video,think the main problem will be worn heads.Due to the fact its a time lapse machine and probably ran non stop for years and years.The slower tape means more head ware

[@Stoney3K]

Not just that. The fact that there's a lot of noise on the video when the motor is on makes those head brushes and slip rings the prime suspect. Get those cleaned, and see if there's a video signal coming through with an oscilloscope.

[@mattwolf7698]

"Put the blame on VTR"

[@coondogtheman]

I would clean everything, touch up solder joints, You'd be surprised what touching up solder joints can do, and even test and replace the capacitors. Also that computer chip board looks a bit dirty. You could maybe put the boards in the dishwasher. I used to work at a small electronics factory where we made static and moisture meters and we would wash the boards in a dishwasher to remove the flux from soldering. then blew off the water with an air compressor. If you can't fix it, send it over to 12voltvids, he can fix things like this.

[@BetamaxFlippy]

Well those are the best looking 60's caps I've ever seen.

[@tjnickles4782]

I love my vhs tapes and DVDs

[@jaybrooks1098]

Cellulose which celluloid is made from, tends to suck moisture up. Its a nature of the material. Its a product made from wood. This is what causes sticky tape syndrome. Baking your tapes at 90 degrees in a dehydrate setting for a couple hrs will restore the tape to new condition. Placing the tapes into ziplocks with a desiccant bag will help preserve your tapes.

[@stellam5226]

Impresionante!!!

[@Brillemeister]

Imagine knowing that you were the last person to ever be picked up on security footage with this tape recorder...

[@rayogaro503]

This is what I wanted to record every episode of Doctor Who in the 60s.🎧🎼🎹🎬

[@elmoredneal5382]

13:05 Oh man! If you open that up your warranty will be void! 😮

[@MrDuncl]

Did you try cleaning the heads (sideways not up and down). We had a similar reel to reel VCR at school. It was operated by the school librarian who had a monitor in his office so he could see when the picture started to degrade which would happen after about 30 minutes of playback. He would then come and clean the heads using an air duster while the tape was still running restoring normal operation for the next 30 minutes.

[@RicardoFerreira-hm4jf]

Very very good

[@SeanDamonGreene]

"Guys On Camera" and "sticky tape syndrome" jut about had me laughing hysterically.

[@jamesburke2759]

How many of these things are out there? i found one in the wild from a ex-ABC worker/hoarder. It uses same audio head that more modern VHS systems use if that's interesting or not. I love how this was considered "Portable" back then.

[@mercuryoak2]

Oh this is very cool.

[@rollingtroll]

I do see a typical video head signal as soon as you turn the motor on, actually. The blue is coming from your screen not being sure what to do with the signal. This to me looks like the heads are either really dirty, or broken.

[@Narayan_1996]

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSS HAHAHAHAHAHAHA MY FAVORITE ^^

[@russellhltn1396]

Odds are the sticky tape gummed up the heads. However, if it's not passing a video in signal out to the TV, that suggests something else is bad. I'd never see a time-lapse open reel like that. That must have cost a small fortune back in the day. I'd think it would have to be used in a bank or casino or other high-value place. It would have been too expensive for the Kwik-E-Marts of the day.

[@adapaitsmyname]

All these machines from those years are still in operation. On the other hand, today's planned failure of them is to increase sales. What a world ?

[@johnking6501]

I just went to eBay to see if you can still buy one of these old tight video tape recorders yes you can buy a video tape machines for $280 and also the real ones you can get a box of 4 reals for $48 this is so interesting.I remember in the 7th grade 1974 they show. Jesus Christ Superstar movie on one of those video recorders it was very interesting to see this

[@NR23derek]

The first thing to do is to clean the slip rings on the rotating heads, they even looked dirty and given the tiny signal they have to deal with I doubt much will get through as is.

[@jasonthewiczman5442]

Love your video's I learn so muchn

[@BertGrink]

Oh man i fell for the "old egyptian tomb" thing hahaha

[@tentringer4065]

Looks like he got a hold of Tobias Funke's old video tapes.

[@johneygd]

Those ict chips inside looks interesting as the first commercial cpu was on the market was in 1971, so i wonder if they already had the technololy on the market back then( hence why those ict chips inside the obscure machine.

[@BetamaxFlippy]

Integrated circuits were a thing since the mid 60's, they're the reason the Apollo program succeeded. The CPU is in many ways different.

[@evergriven7402]

how long and at what temerature to "bake" the tapes ???? Thanks

[@DanielLopez-up6os]

Well this just Beats the timelapse VHS and it's from before that!

[@dhpbear2]

4:20 more like an old Farber percolator's socket :)

[@adammedbery4454]

Why not try to adjust the tracking? It could have been way out, which would explain no signal during playback

[@zyborg47]

We used to use something like that at school, many years ago

[@Clay3613]

What video has "Guys On Camera"?

[@BBC600]

What would happen if you put a VHS tape on one of these machines? Could you record on it?

[@michaelshultz2540]

BBC600 yes and most likely very good results as vhs tape is much higher quality hi output coating on the tape by the same token that old tape would not work in a vhs deck very well if at all as the old tape required much higher bias signal to record on.

[@russellhltn1396]

Given the different era, I'd imagine the tape formulation would be different. It would be kinda like putting a high-bias tape into a normal cassette machine. it might work, but not as well as using the right kind of tape.

[@retrotech3812]

VHS tape is much thinner. Also it has higher magnetic field requirement. But it does work to an extent.

[@richardd.9816]

Due to the different sizes of video drums and probably speeds you would not be able to watch a tape made on a VHS machine. If you recorded it on this machine it should work.

[@davidbjork5063]

@@russellhltn1396 Yes so true. Same time have been seen on youtube that vhs tape works in reel to reel audio decks pretty good. But okay this is also video not only audio :)

[@prof.schreiber8925]

So pot bad audio does indeed mean that one of the audio channels is having difficulties. It could be tied to those wires you were looking at (especially the one that fell out) and probably was always that way. In the radio/music industry, we would have to remove the entire audio controller (pot) and clean them out. My guess is that's why it was labeled that way.

[@rock-steadi-cam5058]

I've tried using a hot car as a "tape baking oven." I cracked the window slightly and used a meat thermometer to try to keep the temperature within a range But it didn't really make any difference.

[@PatrickByas]

👍🏿🔥

[@LostinMND]

Looks like a complete cap job to me. I got some of those old school power cords that I think will fit. Let me know if you want one.

[@michaelshultz2540]

Clean the tape with a cloth with some silicone spray dry lube on it then also clean the drum and heads. I'll bet it'll work fine. As long as the drum heads are not dammaged.

[@dav1dbone]

Run the tape onto a take up reel and back again without going through the heads and rollers, see if it loosens it up?

[@DAVIDGREGORYKERR]

I suspect that the main motor is a three phase motor driven via a mains to three phase inverter, I wonder was that wire that came adrift was a video lead or was it.

[@Stoney3K]

No inverter there. The main motor is a three-phase motor, most likely an induction motor with the big capacitor providing a phase shift for the other motor phases.

[@michaelshultz2540]

Wish i could get my hands on it I'd make it work !

[@grassulo]

You should get a Video DAC, back when CD's were really expensive, some people would record 16 bit digital audio onto video tape, usually VHS but if you had one of these VTR's that worked really well you could do it with one of them too.

[@Stoney3K]

You mean the stuff that is in a DAT deck? DAT is pretty much the exact same but instead of a VHS transport they used a Sony Hi-8 cassette to make the tapes smaller. The reason they used the 44.100 and 48.000Hz sample rates is because they lined up nicely with the timing of existing video circuitry.

[@grassulo]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/jpyqhXeZmKyCaK8 no I mean one of these you just need a vcr or vtr with about 300 lines resolution

[@davidfhadley1]

I repaired these units in the middle 70’s. Changing record time did not effect quality. It would increase the time between recorded picture frames. The green connector was known as an 8 pin. It contained video in/out and audio in/ out in one connection. The audio did nothing in time lapse mode. The drum servo was controlled by an electro magnet that would slightly slow down the head spin speed to properly sync the record frames. The pot bad audio indicated this audio level pot was defective. I believe the Hall motor drove the capstan in time lapse mode. Replacing the head bar required inserting a foil thin shim or two under one or both sides of the bar assembly to minimize the guard band width.

[@vibingwithvinyl]

I would imagine the "pot bad audio" means that the potentiometer gets scratchy or something and needs some deoxit periodically.

[@TheVCRKing]

What would happen if you were somehow able to put the tape in VHS reels and play it in a VCR

[@rawr51919]

I'm pretty sure that EIAJ tape and VHS/S-VHS tape are incompatible as they scan through the heads in different manners. Tape speed may be an issue too.

[@jamesburke2759]

Ive tried this before on my national colour VTR, the audio plays but there is no picture as the heads scan at a different position. hence why the head on a normal vcr is slanted to fit more onto the tape.

[@Stoney3K]

The head position in a U-Matic or Betamax is pretty similar to the old VTRs though, so that may be worth a try.

[@Buy-n-large]

try testing it on an old CRT that doesnt do that annoying blue screen when the signal cuts out.

[@ninjamaster3453]

"Max Head Drum"

[@ramakrishnamishra8179]

I will watch and like all your videos if you make a video replacing each and every component in the pcb with new components by hand soldering them!!! Aaaaaaahhh!!

[@wendellporter4810]

i've been trying to track one down to restore

[@alexale8540]

If only we could manage to make a nano-scale magnetic heads (like they do in "petabyte DVD" many years ago) - we will get a years of recording on one tape. 😌

[@rawr51919]

Only problem: Tape's very small and fragile, which can be problematic when miniaturizing a derelict format like VHS or, in this case, EIAJ.

[@alexale8540]

maybe, i think it's even can be tested with parts like magnetic heads from some hard drive, if that students in Australia made DIY nano-scale laser DVD-drive, same DIY nano-magnetic tape reader-recorder can be made, i remember that i have even seen some patent where magnetic field on nano level was offered to change with laser (no real device, but they already registered)

[@HammyTechnoid]

I like my electronics exciting and confusing...

[@michaelshultz2540]

Noticed that it's a helical scanner and not a single head full loop threder.

[@akella728]

definitly needs recaping

[@joseph9770]

ugh... those epoxy domed transistors and sanyo electrolytics... anyone familiar with working on vintage electronics will know what I mean. :-)

[@MsJinkerson]

How I remember this

[@shaun9107]

Never know they egsisted

[@_ryukora]

the title said time lapse but the video isn't time lapse

[@TheGamerWithMore]

This was uploaded in 240p... Oh... thats the resolution of the machine?

[@mercuryoak2]

You gotta change your settings mine is at 360p uses less data on my mobile. But he has it at 1080p

[@TheGamerWithMore]

@@mercuryoak2 ok. Looks like KZbin on Desktop is broken again

[@SianaGearz]

This happens when a video is published before KZbin finishes processing. It may be stuck at an arbitrary low resolution for a few hours at first after upload, then it bumps it the re-encoder to 1080p.

[@TheGamerWithMore]

Its fine. KZbin ended up doing weird stuff on PC

[@user-kh4xi4js7r]

大昔のビデオは、重く、高価な白黒日本人は、買えませんが、輸出され世界の富裕層に喜ばれ三洋は、松下電器と兄弟で、斬新なマシンを作りました。

[@marktubeie07]

Take care with playing the 'sticky' tapes - just one pass can ruin the video heads and would be tragic, so avoid at all costs!

[@mercuryoak2]

Now I see what this is can you just picture what it be like if they used helical scan for just audio. Wonder how many hours of music would you get and or would it sound better then what they used for cassettes and reel to reels with a horizontal tape head. Just wondering if it was ever done or possible. Sucks this didnt work too good. Hopefully you have a way to find out what wrong.

yes it exists; DAT, Digital Audio Tape

[@SianaGearz]

Even VHS had a fairly decent implementation of helical scan audio, known as Hi-Fi VHS, but the recording channel is not exclusive to audio so this is likely not what you're looking for. A practical issue is that the helical pattern introduces a discontinuity that is not a problem for video because you have a perfect switchover point during vertical blanking period, while on audio, you need one of two things, either supreme precision of the complete mechanics and extremely durable tape, or digital recording where you can just pause at the end of the swing and continue filling an asynchronous buffer whenever you get a pilot signal again. So yes, there's DAT and it makes total sense there.

[@iainoggy]

I got a Sony one of these once tried it same thing but when I connected to a crt tv could see better results was beyond repair but could make out moving image think an lcd tv monitor can't refresh quick enough to catch slightest pic the machine may put out monetary

[@pomonabill220]

The "spindle" on the power connector is NOT a spindle! It is a PIN. Also, the "spindles" on the transport are NOT spindles! they are Tape Guides.

[@UHF43]

They don't spin, so they're not spindles fur sure.

[@maxwelsh6121]

Damn , thats no tapedeck motor , thats a repurposed car alternator , look at that fan!

[@michaelshultz2540]

It's a blank tape ! Plug in a old 10 pin camera and record on the tape.

[@ozzie_goat]

You may want to add an epilepsy warning.

[@davenay1645]

You could tell you really didn’t know what you where doing. You could free up the tapes by notthreading it through the. Drum. And running it straight to the take up reel and holding the shut off tape end switch making the recorder think there was tape there. And then running fast forward. And get some rubber revitalized. And clean the rubber idlers and belts.

[@BetamaxFlippy]

Yeah he's just fucking around. Anyway I think there'd be a problem in winding the tape directly between reels because they're on different heights so it wouldn't thread properly.

[@MsJinkerson]

all caps are electrolitic

[@bobjerome1205]

hi no earth you bad man i never power tec up with out it.

[@ThePolaroid669]

What's your obsession with the word "spindle'. Spindle implies spinning. The power socket posts or pins are not spindles, and the guide posts that you threaded the tape around are also not spindles. Also, not all tapes suffer from sticky tape, or shedding. Sony tapes ALWAYS are sticky, Panasonic tapes are never sticky.

[@Buy-n-large]

radio shack...

[@ahah1785]

potentially bad audio probably left byr repair man

[@kirknelson156]

probably need to replace the caps

[@mattwolf7698]

iPhones don't have headphone jacks anymore.

[@richardd.9816]

This has got to be the most boring technical u tube I have sat through. I suggest that you learn about video recording or whatever you want t share.

[@grandinosour]

Please do something about the sound of your videos.... It is hissy when you take a breath and you pronounce your 's's'... Try listening to your video on a cell phone speaker and make some adjustments..... This is really annoying.