AG-1980 and AG1980P - Difference?

[WhitePhantom]

Sorry if this has been answered somewhere, but I've done quite a bit of searching and haven't found the answer. Does anybody know the difference between the Panasonic AG-1980 and AG-1980P?

Thanks!
WP

[Bix]

Same thing, AG-1980P is the full model number.

[WhitePhantom]

Cool, thank you very much for the response! It's extremely appreciated.

WP

[videobruce]

Are you sure the 'P' isn't a PAL version??

[lordsmurf]

I'm 100% positive that AG-1980P is the full model name.
And that "P" does not mean PAL.

I even crawled around behind my rack to double-check.

[orsetto]

No real difference, some production runs were named "1980" and some were named "1980P". Probably some slight internal difference known only to Panasonic, it might have been important when the machines were new but at this late date all you really need is for the thing to power up and play your tapes cleanly. There were some teething problems in the first couple batches of AG1980s, all related to recording (the tuner audio selector on some units was defective, and some units lost lip sync halfway thru recording a tape). Playback was not affected by these defects, so tracking down a "flawless" AG1980 isn't necessary for DVD transfer work. Any of them are fine for our purposes.

There was a "twin sister" to the AG1980 named AG5710. They are fairly rare because they were double the price of the AG1980 and sold only thru pro equipment vendors. The AG5710 lacked a tuner, could not be operated by wireless remote, and could not use the the "amateur" edit controller sold for the AG1980. Instead, the AG5710 had a serial port and circuits for connection to the megabuck edit controllers and computers found in professional post production suites. Today the AG5710 is utterly forgotten since no consumer ever bought one. Because they're unknown they often sell very cheaply on eBay and can be a bargain compared to an AG1980 (I scored two AG5710s a year ago for $70 each!) The 1980 and 5710 look identical: tape transport, controls, playback performance and TBC/DNR are exactly the same. The only real drawback is not being able to use a remote control with the 5710, I have to run everything from the front panel. Not a big deal, most tapes I just dub to HDD from beginning to end anyway and edit digitally later.