Grundig's mad SVHS machine VS-680 VPT. Part 2 of 2.

[@rodrigobelinchon2982]

Lots of buttons , massive remote and hi-fi sound , I would have loved that Grundig when I was 15 !

[@video99couk]

So would I.

[@jmvirgfb]

My poor little Ferguson 3V43 (which died in 1993 - 30 years ago 😱) might have had a knob control for mixing Hi-Fi and linear. Loved that machine.

[@wdavem]

Nice work! That's a nice old rare machine. It looks like it's right around the first 'on-screen programming' era... yet it has unusual and extremely advanced features. I think I might have seen one once when I was a teenager but never got to use it.

[@Ragnar8504]

One thing I've found on the internet is after replacing the battery you should run the head position sensor alignment (4934 - 6, shown at 0:28 in the service manual screenshot).

[@TigerBoyRS]

Cool to see you battling those beasts. Never touched one of those, but I can tell you one thing: The effects generator does exactly the same tricks as Sony CCD-V5000/V6000 Hi8 pro-sumer camcorder of the same time period. Cheers from 🇵🇹

[@altebander2767]

Ohh the advertisement claims that the Display has "manual regulation of brightness". The "headphone switch" button selects the audio for the headphone. The E-S button does "Edit Search (short review)". Marke sets an index mark as on many VHS recorders. The last 4 are "function keys for the Multi-Audio-System for perfect dubbing". The chroma might actually even drop an additional half line because of the frame store as it likely converts PAL->RGB->PAL.

[@TTVEaGMXde]

The trimming Capacitors with a red lower Part and a dark-grey cross slot upper Part also tend to rust off the Sliding Contact completely. In the 90s there were SONY Televisions made in Germany that had the same Trimmer and TDA Color IC as GRUNDIG. In the field, I installed 27pF (average Value of the Trimmers) Tube Capacitors from the 70s (Workshop was combined with Electronics Store), because you could turn suitable replacement Trimmers 360° without the Color going away. The FRAKO Bombs are still in the Power Supply and it has not been enlightened whether the Video Recorder is sharp enough for a Copy Service. Given the Price ratio for S-VHS Recorders in Germany (purchase from €50, sale from €70), I give up much earlier...

[@video99couk]

Since it doesn't have a TBC, I'm not very likely to use it for video transfers, but it's just possible it might come in useful.

[@wdavem]

Thats a really interesting one for sure! I named my worst two umatic 800 machines "stabby" and "poker face". Stabby actually got impaled with a screwdriver before I got it, took out a few analog processing components! Poker face has firmware so advanced you have to bump a switch to start the remote protocol (a "feature" that took a while to figure out). Both had loads of other problems and I gradually fixed up mechanical and control over several years to keep my brain alive. Recently got the time code problems cleared up and they are ready for the edit controller again.

[@160rpm]

Lots of fun features here, can't remember ever seeing a VCR with zoom or pixelation, etc. Later SVHS machines seemed to be quite boring

[@Ragnar8504]

This was aimed squarely at loaded amateurs with moderate amounts of taste who wanted to play with their home videos and add all sorts of bonkers effects without needing the space for dedicated editing systems. Basically an expensive toy. I have no idea how much this thing cost when it was new but I'm absolutely sure it was quite expensive!

[@pauloarpereira]

I bought this video and later the Grundig GV 280 S-VHS. Despite the GV 280 using the same Panasonic engine, the image is vastly superior. Such as the performance of digital editing effects. These videos were some of the most expensive in Europe. However, they do not have TBC. So, for videophiles, I don't recommend that they are the best source for converting to digital. For this I use the best from JVC with TBC, of course.

[@Oldgamingfart]

Philips were equally quirky in their operation, with buttons doubling-up for multiple use; not obvious without consulting the user manual. On some models, the stand-by display brightness was set using the channel +/- buttons, where on any other machine that would probably bring the deck out of stand-by into Tuner mode. In Play, said channel +/- buttons then operated as the tracking control!

[@video99couk]

All Philips equipment is hard to use, it always has been. I don't know what planet their designers come from.

[@bionicboybxl]

Adjustment on rear is for UHF rf modulator

[@UHF43]

The mark button probabaly is for index marks like the AMSS of compact cassette decks

[@rodrigobelinchon2982]

VISS Vhs Index Search System

[@frankowalker4662]

I had a Silver Crest freesat receiver I got from LIDL in about 2004 with digital pause and zoom functions. When it was paused you could still hear the programme audio playing, so it was just a single frame capture. Absolutely useles. LOL. The zoom went upto 10X mag. That was rather pointles too. :) The poor thing blew up last year. It tripped the main breaker. A sizeable cap exploded and it took ages to get rid of the smell and the smoke Ha ha. I wish I could find another one. I would have liked to have seen the special features demoed with moving images as opposed to a test card. :) It's a very nice video machine.

[@altebander2767]

Actually no, there were Pay-TV providers which offered a Mosaik screen of all of their channels. With the zoom function you could just zoom in on a channel and select the unencrypted audio while watching the badly pixelated video without paying.

[@frankowalker4662]

@@altebander2767 Yes, that would be useful, but mine didn't have the PIP or multi-channel functions and it was a free to air receiver only, no card slot.

[@altebander2767]

@@frankowalker4662 I think you are missunderstanding. Those Pay-TV operators had unencrypted free to air channels where you had a 4x4 or 5x5 mosaic of their channels, as well as 16 or 25 different audio channels.

[@frankowalker4662]

@@altebander2767 I never saw anything like that. Are you in US ? I'm in UK.

[@joedannunzio9416]

Hi Colin. Do you still own the hillman avenger, if so,is it still in working order and would you sell it ?

[@video99couk]

Still very much have it and use it regularly. It's booked in next week for a little work on the front discs. Not planning on selling it though I think the misses would probably like me to.

[@Camell513]

For your up and coming customer story video, if you don't want it to all be you just talking to the camera video, you could just toss on some previous repair or demonstration of a deck video as a sort of B-roll while we listen to your story.

[@Thepaddster]

This is a fascinating machine. Clearly not a high end machine*, but tonnes of interesting and handy features that higher end machines didn't always have. Was this maybe sold as some kind of editor? *Were grundig ever? I always thought they were cheap but extremely cheerful and because of that a pain to fix when they pack up down the line. In addition just a great video to watch. I like repairing things but so much of the stuff you do is way over my head but you explain in a way that I can start to understand it. For once its also very pleasant to see you work on a machine that doesn't have you fixing one catastrophic problem, only for the machine to immediately shart itself somewhere else. Great video as always Colin.

[@janmos5178]

Grundig was great in many areas e.g. TV sets, world receiver radios and many others, but VCR,s variably came out, sometimes better sometimes worse. In this he was quite average, especially when it came to the reliability of the machines. They just had a tendency to overengineering in this type of production.

[@Ragnar8504]

Yes, I'm quite sure this was sold as an all-in-one home video editing solution. If I remember correctly the user manual says something to that effect. The full alphanumeric keyboard on the remote was for adding titles.

[@giuseppelavecchia775]

Ho il VS 680,videoregistratore top di gamma di fascia alta,infatti sul davanti riporta la scritta professional line,mai avuto un problema

[@altebander2767]

Actually most VHS recorders could record the teletext signal as it's low enough in bandwidth to just pass under the 3,5 MHz bandwidth limit. AFAIK the main problem recovering teletext are things like the crispening circuit which does non-linear things with the video and therefore cannot be corrected for in deconvolution.

[@video99couk]

This one could record teletext pages as images on the tape.

[@analogvideochannel4612]

Standard VHS doesn't record high res enough for a normal teletext decoder, but there is a software project that manages to restore teletext data from vhs tapes by using data models and using the fact that's it's continously retransmitted - see vhs-teletext Super-VHS was able to record it well enough for normal teletext decoders afaik.

[@bjarneanthony1363]

Its BASF and AGFA and Philips video 2000 Tapes.Anthony

[@janmos5178]

Good news. Regards.

[@Alphadec]

this tape you are using with "nrk2" testpattern is this something you have got from someone in norway or is the owner of this Grundig from Norway I see that this was reacorded in 1996. ?

[@video99couk]

I recorded it from satellite TV back in 1996.

[@bjarneanthony1363]

The oktion end in 6 days of the video 2000 Tapes. ANTHONY

[@sfjoos]

My uncle had one VS680. Sadly he sold it after he became defective

[@bobsbits5357]

me to we are waiting to hear it along as there's no names i just put new belr in my 1702 i wish the price of them was better i see lot of VCR 1700 around i was lucky the decks i had just put away and not got at by any fools if video heads goe's it's bad news for the decks