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

 

Probably from 88 or 89. Don't have a camera handy but here's a video of it: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FWWn_IK_PmU

Best regards,
Afonso Gageiro

 

[amdx]

On 5/30/2015 8:28 AM, afonsogageiro@gmail.com wrote:

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

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


---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
http://www.avast.com

 

[N_Cook]

On 30/05/2015 16:13, amdx wrote:

On 5/30/2015 8:28 AM, afonsogageiro@gmail.com wrote:
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

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


---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
http://www.avast.com

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

 

[Bruce Esquibel]

afonsogageiro@gmail.com wrote:

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

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
bje@ripco.com

 

[Cydrome Leader]

Bruce Esquibel <bje@ripco.com> wrote:

afonsogageiro@gmail.com wrote:
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

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
bje@ripco.com

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

 

[Michael Black]

On Mon, 1 Jun 2015, Cydrome Leader wrote:

Bruce Esquibel <bje@ripco.com> wrote:
afonsogageiro@gmail.com wrote:
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

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
bje@ripco.com

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

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

 

[Bruce Esquibel]

Cydrome Leader <presence@mungepanix.com> wrote:

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

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
bje@ripco.com

 

[Bruce Esquibel]

Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> wrote:

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.

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
bje@ripco.com

 

sĂĄbado, 30 de Maio de 2015 Ă s 19:21:19 UTC+1, afonso...@gmail.com escreveu:

Probably from 88 or 89. Don't have a camera handy but here's a video of it: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FWWn_IK_PmU

Best regards,
Afonso Gageiro

 

[Tim R]

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.