The 1984 Sylvania (Panasonic) Model VC2230SL01 VHS VCR - Part II

[VHSIsNotDead]

It's interesting that you mentioned Napoleon Dynamite because there are a couple of scenes in that movie that feature the use of an '80s top-loading VCR, much like this one.

[CenTexVideo]

Those were tanks. I had the front loading type from the same era. It has the same VFD, IR remote and cable ready. It still had the limitations of number of channels, but as we didn't have cable, it had plenty. I remember getting the number from the plastic bag and inserting onto the plastic tray every time a new UHF station went on the air.

[Jallge]

Great VCR, over the summer I actually found a ferguson videostar, my guess is that it's from about 88 or 89. It works fine but there is lots of static when recording and playing back even though the heads and the tape path are both clean.

[wildbilltexas]

I remember the first time I used a VHS deck, U could rent them cheap from a local video store in 1984. And I remember it was a top-loader that may have been a Panasonic. Later my father bought a Sharp 2-head deck with wired remote control.

VHS is still great for 19 and 25 inch CRT TV's but if you hook up that 80's deck to a modern 40 or a 55 inch flatscreen you will notice it's limitations even using quality tape and SP speed.

[spatsbear2]

@wildbilltexas Those limitations are also easily viewable on even the small LCDs today.

You have to play these VCRs are real (CRT) TVs. LCD stuff is only good for playing in their native resolution. Even playing DVDs, up-converted, on a 55" LCD does not look all that great either.

[clemsonbloke]

@spatsbear2 Spats is right, upconverted DVD's, many times, look as bad as VHS. If you want all that super duper high def you have to either get HDTV signal off the antenna or play blu ray movies. Some of us though like older CRT's still and a good ole VHS!

[VideoGuy84]

@clemsonbloke Glad to know I'm not the only one who still watches VHS on good old CRT TV. I can appreciate HDTV, but I still like this old stuff too ;)

[clemsonbloke]

@VideoGuy84 Oh yeah me too, love it! ;)

[wildbilltexas]

@spatsbear2 Yes, the more you blow up the picture the more grain and noise you'll get.

My parents have a Vizio 55 inch that has some good noise reduction processing that works fine for playing up-converted DVD's off a Magnavoc blu-ray player. But it still has some major problems with VHS, and my parents recorded a bunch or copied of things on EP speed.

[NJRoadfan]

A top loader from 84, wow, must have been really low end. 4-head VCRs never had better picture quality, the extra heads were for snow free "trick play" like cuing, slow-mo, and pause. The biggest difference is that older VCRs had bigger 58um heads optimized for SP recording. The newer ones all had 19um heads optimized for EP speed. There were good VHS VCRs in the 90s-00s, but nobody bought them because they cost more. JVC and Panasonic made some incredible SVHS decks in the format's last days.

[Organgrinder010]

That's a great recording! It looks just as good as the source. :D

[aldiakaroofus]

VHS will outlive every single home burned DVD-Rs. I need to backup some home movies from DVDs onto VHS one of these days...

[wilkes85]

Wow the picture quality is excellent for a 2 head VCR!

I think the reason why newer VCRs are so crappy is because they want people to think videotape is crap, so they'll go out and buy DVD or BluRay.

Also, among many other things, newer VCRs don't even have the LP speed anymore.

[MysticArksRevenge]

@wilkes85 Exactly. Those damn companies just want to FORCE people into buying DVDs and BluRays.