Umatic VO1810

My school's old 3/4" Video cassette recorder. Found under school stage, the eject lock was seized and the tapes indicate it was last used 1983.
Made by Sony and released 1971 they were the first VCR. Tape spools ran opposite directions and overlapped. This presumably reduced tape curl.
I've been told it's the first u-matic with recording options. Some previous models could only play-back. U-Matic became a success because The Ford Motor Company bought about 500 prior to the introduction. The introduction was in fact sooner in the USA than in Japan.
The model was also available with a tuner on the right side instead of the two channel mix facility.
Here we see inside. There's one big motor which drives the lot. The tape lacing mechanism I've adapted because short stout drive belts are hard to come by. For the time being it needs manual help spooling and it's too fast unspooling. It records a bit of a fuzzy picture similar to Youtube Quality. I've got a CD of the technical manual thanks to a man in Australia who mailed it me!

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Umatic
• VO1810
• Sony
• Video
• Cassette
• vcr
• tape
• old

[calumettv]

That is impressive, I used to do videowork for the local cable channels here in NW Indiana, and 3/4" was all they used, most used the front load VO-5850's with controller. They have a beautiful pic. Some of the local cable systems here in NW Indiana and suburban Chicago still use 3/4" as of 2008! I also do freelance work and opted to buy a JVC BR-S811U S-VHS edit system, as the camcorders where easier to use. FINALLY, 3/4" in my opinion outperforms S-VHS professional equipment any day.

[thomasking55]

I'd agree with your final point! Their servo motors don't pack up ether!

[pvx]

Interesting, I have a similar vintage of machine, a circa 1978 Sony VO-2610 that works beatuifully (it seems to not have been used much by its previous owner, the North Dakota State Historical Society). U-Matic (aka 3/4") is a great, decent quality (sure beats VHS!) and durable format, if not a bit dated. I have a handful of 20+ year old tapes as well that play back quite satisfactorily.

[thomasking55]

Cool! Look after it... I'm having bad times with worn out heads.

[thomasking55]

Regretably, quite a few tapes that came with this machine were not viewable for dropout with the 1810 and I re-used them. With hindsight I should have waited and tried them on a better machine (like the series 5) because they would have had terrific programme content on for uploading! The perrils of magnetic recording!

[AULDANA1646]

@calumettv

Hi there is there any chance of getting a PDF copy file of this manual, be greatly appreciated.

[RealAgentOfSHIELD]

If the unit is on and there's no tape in the machine does the head of the umatic spin? I have an umatic, but I haven't tested it due to lack of a tape (I think I can get one Sat.) ... when I turn it on the machine makes this 'Grrrr" noise and nothing else.

[jrcstudios]

I got one of these! I have to help the loading mechanism on mine too!

Other than that, it works. NO search feature!! you have to stop to fast forward, yes its that old!

[mig189189189]

Nice video. Keep on with that good work!

[lovemylogics]

S-VHS falls apart because of the phase-shift color-under recording format - an original S-VHS recording has 1/2 the chroma res of the original signal - the next dupe has 1/2 that (so, 1/4th), etc... Plus, S-VHS has too much bandwidth for its noise level. High-Band Super Beta-Is is a much better trade-off - it still has the color-under phase-shift problem though. U-Matic doesn't use phase shifting to record the color-under signal, so it records 480-lines of VERTICAL chroma res (30-horiz).

[stpworld]

UMATIC is a great format i have used it my self personnaly and i have converted tapes from 1978 to the computer and those still look good. I am currently converting some for a community tv station. They said i might be able to have a machine when there done. But for my self i prefer vhs i have over 200 tapes on vhs and almost all of them are still working as good as the day i bought them.

[calumettv]

I shoot all my work on S-VHS on a AG-456U Camcorder, I paid $1800.00 back then, had it serviced a few years ago and new heads!!! Works great, and I have the JVC BR 811 Series full size editors, in addition to my VO-5850 system. I wish I could get a JVC CR-850 3/4" deck it would be nice as a editor from S-VHS.

[pvx]

I agree as well, 3/4" is a much more robust format electronically & mechanically, and S-VHS's video quality doesn't seem to hold up as well when it comes to dubbing from one tape to tape in duplication or A-B roll editing compared to 3/4", from my experience...

[kimberlyKfnOphiEAGLE]

They had U-Matic VCR's at my high school(Pitman HS)that were used rather than projectors for most classroom presentations. My English teacher usually had me operate the machine, and make sure it got back to the a/v room after class. It was on a huge cart along with a TV which was placed high enough so that the whole class would see the screen. Needless to say, that cart was a nightmare to haul to and from the classroom.