National VCR question

Hello from Portugal

Where is the tuning button (or equivalent) on a National L15EN VCR? I can't find it anywhere!

Best regards, Afonso Gageiro

Reply to
afonsogageiro
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Never heard of a National VCR, can you post a picture? How old is it? Is anyone manufacturing VCRs anymore? I made a living repairing VCRs for about 14 years of my life, but that was over 21 years ago.

Mikek

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Reply to
amdx

Probably called Panasonic NV L15 (various suffixes) in other countries

Reply to
N_Cook

Probably from 88 or 89. Don't have a camera handy but here's a video of it:

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Best regards, Afonso Gageiro

Reply to
afonsogageiro

I don't know for sure but do you have the remote?

I'd guess if there is no obvious programming button on the machine, there must be something on the remote or a on-screen-menu, if it has those.

It wasn't a vcr but the last crt-type tv I bought (a phillips with built-in vcr and dvd player), the channel setup was buried in a on-screen-menu somewhere, which if I remember correctly, was not available with any of the push buttons on the set.

Best guess I have.

-bruce snipped-for-privacy@ripco.com

Reply to
Bruce Esquibel

Remember the tuning thumb wheels for each channel under the top panel of old-ass VCRs?

Reply to
Cydrome Leader

I thought that wsa the original question (or read it that way) but then I'm no longer sure.

Don't forget, tv sets went that way initially. Do away with those fussy UHF tuners, and especially when cable came along to add lots of channels. So you get pushbutton tuning, but you had to set each channel with a control (and a switch to select vhf-lo/vhf-hi/UHF). I remember seeing an RCA tv set like that, I think it was 1975. It came with stickers so you each channel button could indicate what channel it was tuned to.

And yes, that sort of tuning wsa in early VCRs. It took time for synthesized tuners to be in everything, even though they did arrive relatively early.

The first VCR I saw close up was a friend's, he bought it in November of

1980. I'm pretty sure the remote was wired to the unit, but it's been so long I'm not sure. At least it was palm size remote, unlike some early cable converters that had a box with a lot of pushbuttons that you kept at your chair, the converter being on top of the tv set.

Michael

Reply to
Michael Black

I remember more prehistoric stuff than that.

Somewhere around here I still have my timer from the Quasar Great Time Machine, a non-vhs, non-beta format that died out around 1983 or so.

Although the main deck had detent tuners (you know, click knobs), the timer to make it auto-record was an optional accessory. It was similar to those timers of the day where you stuck plastic pins in these slots to make a lamp turn on and off.

It sort of looked like two clock faces, one was the analog clock (complete with sweep hand) the other was where you plugged the pins into. The idea was, you plugged the timer into the outlet, the vcr into the clock.

Since the machine was mechanical, you just pressed rec/play down while off and when the timer clicked to "on", it power the vcr up until the next pin passed, which shut the machine off. Of course you had to remember to put it on what channel you wanted before hand.

What was sort of odd, I think there were 8 pins, 4 for on and 4 for off (only a different color, either pin knocked the timer to the other on or off mode). Since the machine couldn't change channels, all you could do was record up to 4 programs within 24 hours of the same channel, since the timer was circular.

The odd part was the tape only held like 60 or 90 minutes, I think. Not really sure where recording 4 programs would work.

I never owned one but I think Sony made a carosel adapter for some of the beta decks, mechanically would eject/insert a new tape when one reached the end.

The stupidest thing I remember is when RCA introduced a vcr where the timer could be set up to a year in advance. I mean on any level, where would a feature like that come in handy and possibly work?

Anyway with the OP's question, the model number gave me a slight tingle being familar (it wasnt in the end) but after looking around for a bit for a picture or anything else, it does seem to be a later model (maybe mid 90's) than a pre-historic one.

I also remember towards the end of those (vcrs in general), there were some that basically had no buttons on the machine except on-off (maybe play/stop also). Even the tracking was on the remote only.

Panasonic (which used to market as National in some countries) did do some stupid things once in a while. Next to me is a DMR-EH75V which was one of those vhs-hdd-dvd recorders they made about 10 years ago, very handy to make dvd's from vhs, the tape dumps to the hard drive, once there you can control how to make the dvd. Sort of an editing deck.

The problem is the clock, there is no manual set for it. It used to use the EPG for the info, which of course, no analog channels, no EPG, no clock. Someone did figure out a secret menu thing, hit reset while pressing two other buttons and some kind of "it only appears once" manual clock set comes up in an on-screen menu, but without the EPG, I've had free watches from cereal boxes keep better time.

-bruce snipped-for-privacy@ripco.com

Reply to
Bruce Esquibel

Those kinds of wired remotes were common for a while, I guess most of the

2nd generations (80-83?) used them. They weren't hard wired in, most had a 3.5" mono earphone plug.

They even had "wars" with those. Most were 4 function (stop/play/ff/rw) but someone would have a "6 function" (probably channel up/down added) and some even went as far as adding a record.

The odd thing to me was how they did it, it was just a two-wire cord and the remote had no battery. The hand unit itself was a resistor ladder, like pressing stop was a dead short, play was maybe 220 ohms, ff was 1000, rew maybe 4700 ohms. I don't remember what they used in the machine to read it, I always thought it was something like those chips they used to sell for making your own led VU meter. Each function was another "step".

Once the IR remotes came out, it was the end of wired ones but I bet they were fairly standard issue for 2 or 3 years, if not a bit longer.

One other memory fragment, I think it was Panasonic that introduced a wireless upgrade device. If you had one of their decks with a wired remote, they made (for a while) a black box which came with a IR hand held remote, box plugged into the jack for the wired remote, into the 120V and instant wireless. Wasn't cheap and probably wasn't made for more than a year or two.

-bruce snipped-for-privacy@ripco.com

Reply to
Bruce Esquibel

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Reply to
jprosario1996

I think the Curtis Mathes VCR I bought had a wired remote.

I paid extra for a lifetime membership on video rentals. Haven't got my money's worth yet.

Reply to
Tim R

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