Video on Audio Cassette - The PXL2000 Extravaganza

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A 50% Very Special Episode of a full, in-depth tour, repair and demonstration of the very unique PXL2000 camera system.

[@aldiakaroofus]

I'm that friend who gave you the set in 2007! I'm really glad you got it fixed and running! Great video, Spats!

[@spatsbear]

That’s right! I wasn’t sure if you wanted me to directly mention you or not :3

[@aldiakaroofus]

@@spatsbear No worries! :D

[@oldradiosnphonographs]

@@spatsbear makes feel feel better about stuff I got in 2008-2012 I still haven’t got fixed lol it’s never too late

[@douglasallen9428]

You are correct on who manufactured the cassette tapes that came with the PXL2000… I should know, because they look almost exactly like Maxell’s high bias tapes from the 1980s.

[@JFD62780]

Yeah. The arrows on the tape leader ALONE scream Maxell. :D

[@Philip---pip267]

The BBC in the uk developed linear monochrome video recording in the fifties, with tape reels the size of dustbin lids (the V E R A project). I myself am a retired tv engineer. In the late 1970s, I experimented with collecting the demodulated vision signal from an analogue TV and running it to a seriously modified reel to reel audio tape deck. and then sending it back into the tv at the same point for playback. The issue of course, is bandwidth and recording head bias. However, I built wideband amplifiers and modified the heads. To give an example of quality, head and shoulder shots were blurred moving blobs and mouths were dark flickering movements, similar to early man on the moon images. Also, very difficult to regulate speed, and that would cause line stability issues. I believe this cassette version is better because it produced a very low resolution image from the camera in the first place, thus reducing somewhat the bandwidth issues. In my case I tried unsuccessfully to capture full bandwidth TV. Very interesting.

[@winstonslone2797]

Any video on something with the limited bandwidth as a cassette tape is interesting. I remember seeing the commercial growing up and have been curious.

[@whirlpool1978]

My very first camcorder was a Sears-LXI-used VHS tapes. I really enjoyed that thing!

[@perrybarton]

At Christmas 1988 I bought two of these: one for my sister's kids, and one for myself just for the heck of it. We would mail videos back and forth to each other. And like you, I preserved all of them to VHS. I also shot some stuff directly to VHS, using the PXL as a camera only, as you mention. I posted a handful of them on YT back in the late Aughts. I still have my PXL, but haven't used it in years. I wouldn't be surprised if the rubber belt in the cassette transport had turned to goo by now. Thanks for posting this! 🤓

[@gregorymacholl3087]

Nice 👍 I used to do betacam transfers for money

[@gregorymacholl3087]

One other thing I did as a child I used to make my own music on mixtape through the tube amplifier stage feature of the Roberts reel to reel with my electric guitar and made my own music but I no longer have the music I made on it they got moldy in storage and lost all my personal music I made and then the Roberts reel to reel transformer burned out and I didn't think it was worth replacing because it went through a lot of use I miss my original tube powered reel to reel

[@jamesbennettmusic]

Stock tape is a Maxell UDII - newer UDII's also work really well in these

[@ThatOneTruckGuy]

Funny enough...the other day I had a "shower thought" of what if they recorded video onto audio cassette tapes...no way that would be possible.....And then boom I see this video...lol.

[@EmersonCollie]

Sweet! Even my favorite burnt peppers episode is in this video! :D

[@bigalsmallengines]

Wow! Never knew they even made this unit. Interesting indeed. Cheers! 🍻

[@GeoNeilUK]

I don't think we ever had these in the UK/Europe, probably because we'd need a different version. As if they only built a 525 line 30fps version whereas we would have needed a 625 line/25fps version. Which means that while the PXL2000 had a frame rate of 15fps, a PAL/SECAM version would have a frame rate of 12.5fps. I could also imagine a European version of the PXL2000 might have had different recording speeds with different resolutions and frame rates. It was essentially narrowband TV. Who knows, maybe the Europeans would have built their own version of video on audio cassette with helical scan! Who knows how affordable that would have been and what framerate and resolution we might have got with that!

[@KRAFTWERK2K6]

I really only heard about these cameras years ago on youtube and just by happy accident and since then i am absolutely fascinated by these Pixelvision cameras. It's a shame they never were sold in europe. I guess they didn't bother with fitting it for PAL regions so really the ONLY child-entrylevel camcorder i saw as a kid in the 90s was the Tico Videocamera that was basically no camcorder but a black and white camera that had to be plugged to a videorecorder to actually use it. Never had one but found it really cool. I DEFINITELY would have went wild with a PXL2000 as a kid and teenager. My first own camcorder ended up being a JVC VHS-C camcorder that i used for ca 6 years or so.

[@njm1971nyc]

It's quite simple to use an abrasive plastic polish - the sort you would use for an acrylic turntable dust cover, (Novus #2) to polish the hazy layer off each side of the IR filter. No amount of simply "cleaning" it will have any significant effect. With the correct polish, and technique, the filter will be crystal clear once again.

[@summersky77]

Closer to 40 years, than 30.

[@seana806]

I think I remember the 2001 Mitsubishi Galant from you older videos. Believe that was traded in 2013 for the Dodge Dart which ended up getting traded in for the 2016 Toyota Tacoma.

[@irtbmtind89]

I don't think Sanwa has anything to do with Sanyo. In North America they are most known for radio control hobby products, but they do (or did) other types of electronics OEM and ODM work as well.

[@ScottGrammer]

First time seeing your channel - subscribed. Nice video!

[@HarleyBadger]

Welcome! (I am the Harley in Spats & Harley)

[@probnotstech]

33:55 I had a Realistic Concertmate 2000 karaoke machine with that exact same switch that prevented it from working without a tape. It must have been a feature available on these mechanisms.

[@Trance88]

I've NEVER seen one of these cameras in the wild. I think I might've seen one of your PXL's one of the times when I visited. I noticed some of the AC 2010 footage was recorded by the guy who used to own the suit that eventually became "I've Made Too Much Pasta." I forgot what his name was..

[@spatsbear]

That was Maxxarcade.

[@coondogtheman]

This thing was ahead of it's time. If I ever see one in a thrift shop or a yard sale I'm grabbing it. Never owned one. 1:13:59 I just bought one of those little gameboy like arcade games like the one you showed. Gonna play me some Excitebike.

[@capmadman6486]

The thrift store, provides, awesome find man.

[@hypnotised-clover]

Reminds me of that one that was made by either fisher price or mattel, but with a much more "professional" or "real" look, instead of the toy look. Edit: Turns out, this is the one I remembered.

[@Maxxarcade]

OMG that old AC footage, those were fun times. Do you guys still attend?

[@dhpbear2]

59:01 - It sounds like that vacuum cleaner is running!

[@axelthefoxytechworld8024]

oh fuck the duraleaks strike again

[@dhpbear2]

I'm guessing it needed a BOATLOAD of light to get a decent image!

[@JFD62780]

1:00:31 - Whoa! Tag Team! On "The New" America's Funniest People! They tried making it 'hip' by replacing Arleen "Harley Quinn" Sorkin with Tawny "Sweet Cherry Pie" Kitaen. Dave Coulier was still there, but they also tried to fill it up with regular segments and celebrity and music guests, leaving less room for the ACTUAL AFP contest entries. 9.9

[@stinc1]

I have the same TV. I bought it at Walmart around 1987 88. My TV is made by Rhapsody .

[@MarcelVanHoekElvis]

Very nice tech from the past! Thanks for sharing! Greets from Marcel The Netherlands in Europe 👍👍👍

[@miroslawkaras7710]

Sombody should make project today to record video on audio casset tape with standard speed with today technology. The could be very interesting results. I bet with just today modulation like ofdm and compression you could put on the tape a lot of information with out even speedign up the tape..

[@thanthanasiszamp4707]

Must be piece of cake with am modulation, at ~30 kbps, stereo, using h267 video codec and opus audio codec.

[@raymondleggs5508]

I had an old my first sony cd player once

[@robfriedrich2822]

4 minutes per C90 tape?

[@raymondleggs5508]

worlds first DIGITAL camcorder what a feat f or 1987, maybe if it had been marketed as not just a toy the color version could have made it to production!

[@Scenic2136]

just curious but what do u think of miele appliances, i have those in my kitchen (canadian miele).

[@thanthanasiszamp4707]

Did you just mention about attempts of making a next generation of Pxl2000 with higher resolution and color? Can you provide me a link for your sources related with that color Pxl2000?

[@robfriedrich2822]

The regular speed is too close to fast forward.

[@lutello3012]

I lost most of my childhood home videos to a "phase" and I'm pretty bitter about it. 😖😖😡😥🙏🙏

[@CRAIG86]

Happy your still alive lol

[@oldradiosnphonographs]

I always want one of these but getting one in working condition that doesn’t cost a king’s ransom is so hard 😭

[@LapisandHamtarolover]

50:29 *Bad Guys Saying They'll Kill Me*

[@robfriedrich2822]

42:30 Pretty often the belts are broken, the material has degraded over the years.

[@manueldi_77]

That tape is 100% a Maxell tape.

[@ejbeekeeper4360]

Dude! Your parents were rich!

[@s56hqr222]

I had one! They were a bkast.

[@thebigbadwolf639]

Sex, Lies and Videotape

[@JerrySpann-fn4kw]

Quit trying to use the adjusted for inflation rhetoric, because if that is true then why was the older VCRs more than a $1000 in 1980 but in 2001 you could get a VCR for $49.95. Adjusted for inflation a 1980 $1000 VCR should have been $2148 in 2001.

[@spatsbear]

No.

[@SnepperStepTV]

You see, standardized technology becomes less expensive to mass produce as time goes by, resulting in lower consumer cost to purchase comparable hardware. "Adjusted for inflation" refers solely to the currency, not any sort of inherent value. Ergo, in 2001 a VCR that had the same features as one in 1980 would cost a lot less because the components have gotten to a point where they cost less to make. There's a lot of ebay sellers that could use this lesson, they seem to think they can charge inflation adjustments for some nonsensical reason on broken stuff they don't even bother testing. If anything, prices should only go DOWN for units already produced and used and passed around via yard sales.

[@seana806]

One has to realize when a new technology or product comes to market, it’s going to be expensive, just how it goes. When Henry Ford introduced the Ford Model T in 1908, it’s price was roughly $800 to $900 since it was basically hand assembled and not massed produced quite yet. A few years later, Henry Ford had a primitive assembly line where cars were manually pushed or pulled, then people were assigned certain tasks on putting a component on as it went down the assembly line. A few years later, a more automated assembly line was introduced, things perfected. The Rouge plant was built in Dearborn Michigan, all the supply chains were bought up for various raw materials (vertical integration, something companies need to do again), things perfected more and more. Since mass production got to the point where you could make and sell things for less than cost by the time the 1920’s came around, the Ford Model T got as cheap as $260. The auto industry is a perfect example of how things are expensive when they first come to market, then get cheaper as time goes on since mass production gets more efficient as time marches on along with economies of scale.

[@HarleyBadger]

Because, by 2001, the Chinese had stolen all the design and engineering efforts from the past decades and figured out how to make VCRs out of recycled plastic bottles with sweatshops forcing kids to work 18 hours a day.

[@goodtimefolkrock]

Not the only brand for this tech.......Fisher price made a far more popular one of these too called the pixelvision camera...

[@HarleyBadger]

This IS the Fisher-Price Pixelvision PXL2000.......

[@goodtimefolkrock]

@@HarleyBadger oops didnt see that .....my bad

[@HarleyBadger]

@@goodtimefolkrock 👍