Added: 3 years ago
From: Audiovideopark
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  • How I remember the flow chart for operating the Zeus TBC - the VPR3 was way ahead of its time. Loved it!

  • Brings back memories of 1986 when I started working in TV. VTR3s we fantastic, especially in sport mode!

  • Dang, that thing sounds so COOL! Great to see some gurus are putting their heart & soul into preserving them.

  • These were made in the early 80s.

  • Nice video !

    How old is this VTR? It looks so 70's...

  • als iemand wil zien hoe een VHS er vroeger uitzag, is dit een "curiusum" !! :-)

  • we did the air guides here in colorado springs and all the high precision shafts,and idle arms.the air guides have laser drilled holes .002 dia. we did the drilling and the grinding of them.we have a room full of old mecanical part.we did parts for over 35 years.

  • I have to say, I loved all of my VPR3's just as much as my AVR1's before them.

    Does anyone have 1"C PAL playback, possibly in the UK?

  • Dear AVP, I just saw a VPR-3 listed on ebay for $175, one card has to worth more than that. auction 290405686922

  • That one has been up for auction several time before. Missing the monitor bridge and it has not been tested. Shipping will be over $500.

  • If that $175 ebay deck was within a few hundred miles of me, I would go get it. I doubt I would ever get it working where it played correctly, but I could put a pair of 11.75 inch reels on it and watch it run while I stared at it like a chimp at my first fire.

  • Dear Audiovideopark, what do you think ended up to all those hundreds of thousands of type c tapes that must have been in TV stations all across the country? Did pretty much all of them go to landfills? I see some come across ebay from time to time but not real often, and the ones I've seen are usually beat up pretty good. When you transfer tapes do you usually send the original tape back or does the client not want it? I was wondering because I have a small collection of audio/video/data reels.

  • Many tapes are on the shelf, waiting for the funds to transfer. Valuable programs already have been transferred. Some clients don't want their tapes back after approving the transfer. The aluminum reels can be recycled. I'm still transferring 2" Quad.

  • Great video, What do the tubes/pressure gauges do in the system? 5 star!

  • I think it's for monitoring air pressure, some of the mechanical works using air vacuum/pressure.

  • The compressed air is used to provide a blanket of air around the guides through a series of very small holes in the guides. The gauges tell if the air is at the proper pressure. The compressor is located in the upper rear of the VTR and the tubes feed the air to the guides. The vacuum capstan is where the air intake is. The air guides greatly reduce the tension around the transport.

  • Great stuff, congrats from Brazil.

  • Great machine! That ZEUS TBC was fantastic. The VPR3 (Viper) was likely the best 1" machine ever made. Amazing that a company like AMPEX could disappear completely.

  • wow, now that is great. I like to see the good older tech stay alive regardless of the "digital" whatever. Very nice machine.

  • I have a business transferring old 1" and 2" tapes to modern formats and hard drives. So the machines do have a function besides fun to watch.

  • It has to be Cool if you have one of these at home. If i had one, i wouldn't watch the Video that on the Reel, i would watch how the Mechanical Parts are Working. watch the Reels Turning and look at the Tape Moving. All my Friends would Ask whats this for a Monster in my living room.

  • That is quite a machine!

  • cAN'T YOU SHOW WHAT WAS PLAYING AS WELL?

  • Thank God for Digibeta!

  • I've always had a love for open reel VTR's. I was a jock at a 100kw FM that was sister to a TV station. I used to go up to the video tape room and lust after the Sony 1" type C and RCA 2" Quad VTR's. They were even still using RCA Quad Cart machines for a while for spot playback. It's amazing how heavy those 14" quad reels were when full.

  • wow. thanks for sharing!

  • THATS the prettiest thing ive seen in a very long time to borrow a phrase from Tim Allen "AWH AWH AWH" great machine

  • Thanks to you and to Tim.

  • wow i remember this type of recording machine in the day my best friend work for pbs station in orlando. on a saturday i was at the station checking out all the neat gear and one of these tape machine was taping a live interview from washington d.c and i had no clue this machine was recording i was putting my hand on the reel slowing it down and the next thing the tape machine shut down my friend came running yelling you cut off the live broadcast recording!!!!!!!

  • Yes. Never grab a spinning reel. Not only could you damage the tape and/or the machine but you could lose a hand.

  • Yes. All Type "C" 1 inch machine I know of had two channel audio, same as 3/4" VTRs. The VPR-3 actually has four possible channels, with 3 used for time code and 4 was used optionally in Europe. One use of the 4th channel was a mono mix of the stereo program. As you know, to get a proper mix of a stereo program, you have to re-mix it, not just sum the two channels together due to the +3db increase of any mono material (channels 1&2). Quad could do stereo by splitting the mono track.

  • Was the VPR-3 capable of stereo sound or just mono? Curious because I know stereo sound came to TV when these machines were in use.

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