Ampex VR-1200B Quad VTR with Merlin mods with audio

The last upload did not include all the audio. Here is another try with different compression. Ultrafurb Merlin Ampex 1200B. Here is a look at threading and starting playback from many different angles. Then, some segments from local old 70s commercials. If you need a dub from 2" quad, let me now.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Ampex
• quad
• machine
• VTR
• reel
• to
• color
• video

[Audiovideopark]

Yes, cassettes didn't come out for professional use until the early 70s.

I do my own maintenance with advice from some very bright friends. I have a store of spare parts.

[Audiovideopark]

I bought them from an estate sale in Washington State. They wanted to get rid of a bunch of TV stuff and I made them an offer. They took in and I had everything shipped down to California. Now, I have moved everything to Grants Pass, Oregon to my new studio.

[Audiovideopark]

Yes, TV City is a great place. I got to work with them on Big Brother.

[Audiovideopark]

The 2" quad tapes are usually dubbed to DigiBeta. I know that was done for the Game Show Network. I saw the pallets of quad tape at CBS TV City.

[Audiovideopark]

2" Quad is a composite format. The machines usually had a video low pass filter of around 4.5 mHz. This was to match the bandwidth of broadcast television.

[Ampex196]

Many thanks for posting this wonderful clip of your VR1200

That Quad remained the defacto broadcast standard for so many years is testimony of how good a format it was. Here in the UK (625/50 PAL at 15.5/8 ips) it reigned supreme until the early 1980s until eventually being displaced by 1 inch C. I was very sad to see it go!

[Audiovideopark]

Right. The Quad had a better picture than 1" but 1" had picture in shuttle, slo-mo and freeze frame. Audio was also better on 1" due to the orientation of the magnetic particles. For Quad it was up and down, for 1" is was sideways due to the helical scan of the video heads. That made it better for the audio heads.

[bmuscotty88]

Love these machines! Thanks for sharing! It's always amazing to see how these "machines behind the scenes bring us what we see. Although it looks like repairing and keeping these things in tip top shape must be a big job!

[billbabin]

Since the video bandwidth of an NTSC television transmitter is only 4.2 MHz, they rolled off the frequency response to reduce noise. The format can make 6 MHz. All quads had some sort of rolloff.

[pvx]

@Audiovideopark I was not aware that Quad machines had a 4.5 MHz LP filter for the video. How much video bandwidth is a Quad VTR theoretically capable without it, if I might ask?

[Vladislaw81]

@Audiovideopark And what about Betacam SP? I'm currently having top PAL Beta SP machine at home - it's great!

[shoprat17]

sweet oral roberts on this dinosaur

[dmine45]

@Audiovideopark I hope that they saved the quad tape after they did the transfer.

[fertub26]

Open reel machine video? how you do for make maintenance?