Donated Philips N1700, a 1977 video cassette recorder.

[@Odessia-ij5ys]

Amazing job ...,the art of the TV repair man Is getting rare the old school

[@martynquiney9121]

Hi Colin great video I love these old philips video recorder

[@cannotbeleftblank6027]

I found a pre-recorded tape for this type of recorder years ago, sitting outside on a window sill of a second-hand shop that to my knowledge only sold furniture, paintings, etc. It was a bit dirty but otherwise fine. Took it home, never could play it back of course due to lack of a player. It still has the label on it of the video rental house it belonged to.

[@video99couk]

I've never seen a pre-recorded N1500 tape (I'm pretty sure it won't be the later N1700, but the label would say so if it is). If you still have it, I could try it out.

[@alexslingsby1883]

Hope you like it Colin.

[@andydelle4509]

RE: Comb filter. If your TBC has separate chroma and luminance processing, an SVideo connection will yield better image quality. The Chroma is separated before recording on consumer (color under) VTRs. And the chroma is processed separately on playback before the final re-combine with the luminance. So if the TBC has a separate chroma path, why re-combine the chroma at the VTR only to have to separate it again in the TBC? It's not a case of a better comb filter in the TBC, it's a case of a comb filter or none, which is cleaner. Now if your TBC is full composite processing, then it really doesn't matter.

[@video99couk]

Absolutely, I use S-Video connections where available on all my equipment. However the N1700 wasn't built with S-Video, it's a case of modifying it to add it, and when I tried that circuit I didn't like the results, there was a chroma offset and noise. So I decided to let the digital comb filter handle it instead in just this case.

[@andydelle4509]

@@video99couk Got it. Please keep posting your adventures. I too have a vintage video studio. I need to start a KZbin channel as well.

[@JacGoudsmit]

Ha I didn't know the tool was used to clean that tape guide. I learned something today I guess. I think they put it in there to adjust the modulator. I took out the one that I got with my 1700, it was my only non-conductive screw driver for years. 😃 My 1700 had the rewind problem too by the way. Drove me nuts! I even tried putting a little grease on the spools of a cassette to improve things. Obviously that didn't help.

[@thebreretons]

Philips had some really stylish products back in the 70's Hi-Fi units looked very fashionable too.

[@video99couk]

Philips equipment can be quite smart. However sometimes the logic behind the way Philips equipment is operated is baffling. These machines are quite logical, if strangely labelled.

[@g7mzh]

The 1700 gave one of the best - if not the best - picture quality of all the domestic VCRs. Certainly better than VHS (but what isn't?).

[@video99couk]

Certainly VHS is a very low bar. I think a top notch Beta is probably better than N1700 (better servos), but they're in similar territory.

[@bobjerome5390]

hi had the same in some betacan sp deck alot of the parts not doing the right things i was sitting around for a long time

[@mspysu79]

Awesome to see another Philips machine come to life. Nope have never seen another machine move the head drum like that when threading the tape. Cool to see the boards for the PSM/SPDIF boards, do you know if Brian is willing to release his circuit, I have a 501 I would love to fit with a card.

[@video99couk]

Brian has said he's happy for me to use his design. So once I've built and tested one, I can release all the details.

[@mspysu79]

@@video99couk Very cool, looking forward to seeing the results.

[@TigerBoyRS]

Colin, please enlight me on these one: What's with all that can boxes around groups of electronic components? Is it just RF shielding? Overkill or real needed, mind the Era? Thanks, keep on the good work. Cheers 🇵🇹

[@video99couk]

RF shielding primarily, but it also acted as a way to support the small PCB modules. The idea was that you could swap out a defective module quickly to assist with easy maintenance, in stark contrast to the older N1500 model which was horrible to work on.

[@The_Traveling_Clown]

Would you know what can cause a the loading mechanism in a Beta player to stay stuck or not load the tape (am not sure which one)??

[@video99couk]

Really depends on what model.

[@The_Traveling_Clown]

@@video99couk It's a Sanyo 4500 Betacord.

[@Odessia-ij5ys]

Technology in tape deck for VHS has become more compact in size and lesser working part s

[@MyPOLYSTAR]

Finalmente tenho um. Consegui por a mecânica a funcionar, mas não tenho cassetes gravadas, apenas tenho duas virgens. A avaria que detetei não recebe o sinal de antena rf, mesmo ligando um videogravador em UHF,mas passa o sinal rf de antena mas sem dar para programar os canais do video. Não consegui fazer gravação.

[@video99couk]

There are plenty of recorded N1700 tapes available on eBay or similar. If you get stuck looking for one, I can probably supply you with something.

[@MyPOLYSTAR]

@@video99couk obrigado pela dica!🙏 O meu é o N-1502.

[@MyPOLYSTAR]

@@video99couk arranjei 4 cassetes gravadas e poderia ter para mim quase 40 gravadas da tv portuguesa, mas infelizmente as cabeças de vídeo estão partidas. Retirei para verificar como vi aqui no seu video. Agora tenho um Grundig V-2000 e um Philips LVC com o mesmo problema. Má manutenção de quem os tinha.

[@bobjerome5390]

hi good plan with the name on the mat no come back with this mat

[@zx8401ztv]

Well that works really well now, well done :-D The picture looks good, likely better than the old piano key vhs machines. Philips made front loading vhs machines that had the same odd line effect on the screen with no fm from the heads. I can see why there vhs machines had a similar line effect. I'm talking about the machines with the horrible clip and screw that held the video head drum in place. Not a machine i would want to change the heads on :-(.

[@video99couk]

That's right, some Philips VHS machines did give a similar effect, I had a VHS HiFi Charlie deck which would do that.

[@crashbandicoot4everr]

@@video99couk My Grundig VS-310 VHS isn't different. Same effect. I guess they all use similar ICs.

[@zx8401ztv]

@@video99couk Another thing i remembered is when you applied power to the machine, it would mess about with the deck and forward fast then rewind, then load and unload. And if you held a certain button or buttons down when applying power, it showed the number of hours it was used for. Philips often went too far with there designs lol.

[@vihaanabdullah6107]

instablaster

[@SR-vl1kp]

Hi, how do you remove the cassette loading part? It looks easy but I just can't figure it out and don't want to break it.

[@video99couk]

Could you be a bit more precise about the part you need to remove? The top carriage comes off very easily (it's in the instruction book!) but deeper parts of the mechanism are not trivial.

[@SR-vl1kp]

@@video99couk Yes the top carriage. It looks easy but still can't figure it out. I don't have an instruction book unfortunately.

[@MyPOLYSTAR]

👌👌👌

[@pierrejeanf.dupuis4150]

1500/ 1501/ 1502? Let me know. Kinda scuffy.

[@video99couk]

Not quite sure what you are asking. Of those machines I would always recommend the N1502.

[@jamesbennettmusic]

What's going on with those filter capacitors? They look like crushed coke cans!

[@video99couk]

They are made like that. Yes they look ugly.