Here you see 3 VHS VCRs from my collection... UPDATE AUGUST 2020 Just uploaded a new video with these same 3 VCRs, 8 years later and now in 4K:    • VHS VCRs Revisited, with some Vintage...  

A Panasonic PV1200 from 1981, a Mistubishi HSU59 from 1994, and a Sony SLVN50 from 2001.

This comparison shows some ways the consumer VCR has changed over the decades. The 1981 VCR is a very mechanical contraption, while the newer VCRs move many functions into software. You also see features unique to every decade, i.e. the 80s VCR's external input labeled "camera" and the inclusion of Audio dub/microphone input. The 90s VCR has "VCR Plus" programming with a cable box control. By the time the 2001 VCR was purchased, the VCR was on the way out so this model is not as fullfeatured as the others, but it does have Auto Clock Set. (IMHO, the best feature ever added to the VHS VCR was HiFi Audio recording.)

On the inside, the 1981 VCR has two huge fold out circuit boards, lots of connecting wires, and is heavily populated by standard electronic components such as diodes, resistors, and capacitors. Sections are labeled with names like "Chroma" and "PG Shifter." The circuit boards in the 1994 VCR are more specialized and smaller, but still stacked and cramped. The 2001 VCR has just a single main board and a tuner module, and very few standard components. A label stamped on the loading mechanism says "SHY" wonder what that means?

I am not an electrical engineer, but it would be interesting to hear an opinion on these
designs in terms of longevity and reliability. Would the 1981 VCR have the potential to keep running longer, since its more generic makeup lends itself to perpetual repair? Or is a VCR made of fewer specialized chips so reliable that only the power supply would ever need replacement, even after the chips are out of production?

At the tail end of the video you see the Panasonic PV 1200 compared to the PV 1210. Both were available from the local Target at the same time for the same price. The PV1210 seems more of a "no frills model" in that it dropped the lighted tuner, audio dub, microphone input, and counter memory switch. Also, you could not set a recording end time it just recorded from the start time until end of the tape. But the PV1210 was a small step forward in design it recorded with a single button (pressing play and record was an old tape deck convention) and moved the clock and external inputs up front. I remember my school also having an RCA branded VCR built on this same chasis I wonder who really made these VCRs and how they chose these variations in design/features?

Actual repair history on these VCRs: The 81 and 94 VCRs have both had new belts. The 1200 was given to me after the owner banged on it repeatedly because it wouldn't go (hence the cracked lid in the video). Power wasn't getting to a section of it, so I grounded or rerouted something and it started working. I also had to replace the light inside the loading mechanism which tells it to stop rewinding. The PV1210 had a problem where the motor would not turn, but I was able to trace power to a regulator IC and order a replacement. The VCRs all still work in 2012. The motivation for this video was a transfer project for someone which caused me to pull them out of storage, along with reading the recent Steve Wozniak autobiography in which he fondly remembers repairing VCRs....