VCR comparison Panasonic NV-FS200(AG 1980) VS Panasonic NV-HS1000

[JoseD]

Before spending cash out I really need someone that has both (and I know some of hang around in here) to do a comparison.
The FS200 is supposed to have a bit faint colors from what I've read around here (and I can confirm that from my own) when compared with JVC units. Did they correct this with the HS1000? Is the image in the later, supposedly improved, model any better.
BTW my FS200 and but it came with a fault with the transport mechanism that I don't know if it's worth repairing.

Many thanks

[Undead Sega]

I'm actually interested in this as well, does anyone know the difference between the machines? Is the HS1000 worth sorting out for than the FS200?

[victoriabears]

I have two FS200's (UK MOdel_ and they are great, better than the 950/100 series in my humble, as many of the 900/950/1000 models were sold in Germany and have been used heavilly.

Now having said that, for my PAL tapes the jvc uk models with tbc/dnr have been best whereas for my ntsc the reverse is true, finding a uk jvc vcr with dnr/tbc is very hard, I will have some on Ebay over the next 3-4 months as my PAL collection transfer comes to an end.

just to make a lyer out of me, there are some jvc dnr/tbc vcr's for sale on ebay

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/JVC-HR-S8600-S-VHS-VCR-VIDEO-RECORDER-VHS-HIGH-QUALITY-/28057791...item4153bf268e

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/JVC-HR-S8600-S-VHS-VCR-/250713217645?pt=UK_ConsumerElec_VCRs&has...item3a5fac1a6d

and some more modern panasonics, its funny I have a 930 and its good but also have the last model sv-121 and its lousy

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/PANASONIC-NV-HS960-VCR-VIDEO-RECORDER-VHS-S-VHS-/270650615525?pt...item3f0408a6e5

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Panasonic-SVHS-NV-FS200-HQ-Edit-Recorder-Player-/300483457661?pt...item45f635b27d

[Quasipal]

I struck lucky with a low use NV-HS1000, but I have never tried the HS200...

The HS-1000 is a great VCR (anamorphic green heads) and outputs a very clean signal, BUT if it has been used hard (most have) then it will have issues. I see no Hi-Fi output on these decks because the heads have been worn off with hours of use. They cost £1000 in 1995 so those who purchaced them got their money's worth out of them.

When using S-Video output (NV-HS1000) the signal is clean, without ringing and with natural colour. The colour is not as strong as more recent VCR's, but it is not weak. I put a video clip further down this page from my NV-HS1000.

As a guide to useage, look at the head cleaning roller inside. If black, the machine is past its prime.

[Quasipal]

Just to add another NV-HS1000 video - playing S-VHS this time. It looks very good on a proper TV with colour and brightness just as the original.

[Undead Sega]

Wow everyone, thanks for all the replies here I heard here and there that the HS1000 is like the successor or the bigger brother of the FS200, technically, is the HS1000 a better machine than the FS200? also meaning does it perform better? At the same time, they both have Full frame TBC, a big plus amirite?

To victoriabears, cheers on the info there, but I'm pretty sure a good condition Panasonic VCR would have suerior performance than th JVC vcrs, actually recently I have won an NV-HS860 from eBay for just £88.50 altogether I personally would have liked the NV-HS960 but I was told the difference between the two is the editing features, I would just get an FS200 or HS1000 for that yeah?

To Quasipal, I take your word on what you've said, with you mentioning about the hard usage on these old machines, what kind of issues would we run into? Wouldnt a good Wet/Dry Head cleaning tape do the job? Even obtaining a slightly weak color signal than recent VCR isnt really a problem you could always bump up the saturation in post right? Also, probably you could be talking about that the image in recent VCRs would look 'warmer' than VCRs such as the HS1000, this could possibly mean that the HS1000 is merely outputting a more natural/purer signal than the recent VCRs which would be clouded by chroma noise, thus resulting a warmer or 'colourful' imge.

P.S. Your youtube video on the HS1000 capture looks absolutely fantastic, you would have enough information there to do a restoration if you wanted to, hahaha.

[Quasipal]

This is all interesting - and I think the more said the better as no information is scarse on all these machines. Concerning the effects of use on the pro decks mentioned here I have actually had 4 through my hands. 2 x HS800 and 2 x HS1000. When used very heavily the heads wear down and the Hi-Fi sound will become distorted or not play at all. The picture goes downhill too with muzzy edges. When in great condition, these decks play so well that when I see them in operation on my TV I almost get chills - silly I know - but I love seeing VHS play so nice. The heads in these machines are hard wearing saying all that but these days on S-VHS decks, worn heads are an issue (S-VHS tape is more abrasive). Cleaning the heads is important so that is good to do as soon as you get any VCR (they always seem to be a bit grubby).

Recent VCR's do seem to have stronger colour, but the actual picture is not *always* that good. The older VCR's had quality video stages, seperate power supplies and a cast chassis. I would say the NV-HS800 and NV-HS1000 were 'natural' and compared to other VCR's, they look good. You can see my clip - not washed out by any means.

I did have a HS960 that I sold on. My sample had seemingly low use but the video signal suffered from 'comet tails' telling of bad heads. I am not sure if the heads in this model are as rugged as some but I may just have had a bad sample. I have an HS860 (£30 on eBay) and that is great too - BUT someone had almost killed the heads with an abrasive cleaner so I don't know how much longer that will last.

New heads are over £200 for all these VCR's (not including fitting) so I am very aware now of any issuses.

[lordsmurf]

FS-200 (PAL) = AG-1980P (NTSC)
See VCR Buying Guide (S-VHS, D-VHS, Professional)

Are you sure the HS-1000 is in the same lineage? I'm not so sure of that. Even if different, I would be surprised if the transport was drastically different.
-- edit: The HS-1000 is similar to the FS-200, and both are PAL versions of the AG-1980

Even more surprised if the overall image quality exceeded similar high-end JVC units.
-- edit: JVC equipment does have a more accurate picture. Panasonic oversharpens. The Panasonic is best for SLP, while both JVC and Panasonic are fine for SP and LP.

[Quasipal]

Mechanism is G deck as were the earlier decks. Responce time is beefed up a bit and it is fully laced in all modes to achieve this.

There was no NTSC equivalent. I don't know why, but perhaps it was 'tuned to a certain market'. Whilst I cannot say that it is better than all JVC decks (probably not), it really is very good indeed and improves even shadowy and grainy tapes. The absence of sharpening and ringing effects is refreshing indeed.

The heads are special with very small 'green chip' video heads. Protrusion is less than standard heads which helps with image stability. The TBC slightly brightens the image and boosts the colour - best left on.

[juhok]

This is all interesting - and I think the more said the better as no information is scarse on all these machines. Concerning the effects of use on the pro decks mentioned here I have actually had 4 through my hands. 2 x HS800 and 2 x HS1000. When used very heavily the heads wear down and the Hi-Fi sound will become distorted or not play at all. The picture goes downhill too with muzzy edges. When in great condition, these decks play so well that when I see them in operation on my TV I almost get chills - silly I know - but I love seeing VHS play so nice. The heads in these machines are hard wearing saying all that but these days on S-VHS decks, worn heads are an issue (S-VHS tape is more abrasive). Cleaning the heads is important so that is good to do as soon as you get any VCR (they always seem to be a bit grubby).

Recent VCR's do seem to have stronger colour, but the actual picture is not *always* that good. The older VCR's had quality video stages, seperate power supplies and a cast chassis. I would say the NV-HS800 and NV-HS1000 were 'natural' and compared to other VCR's, they look good. You can see my clip - not washed out by any means.

I did have a HS960 that I sold on. My sample had seemingly low use but the video signal suffered from 'comet tails' telling of bad heads. I am not sure if the heads in this model are as rugged as some but I may just have had a bad sample. I have an HS860 (£30 on eBay) and that is great too - BUT someone had almost killed the heads with an abrasive cleaner so I don't know how much longer that will last.

New heads are over £200 for all these VCR's (not including fitting) so I am very aware now of any issuses.

Thanks for all the good info about these newer Panasonics. Could you check what upper drum the 900/1000's use? FS-200 has VEH0467 which can be bought for £50 from right place (don't remember right now the name of the shop).

[Quasipal]

I am 99% sure they are VEH0651, but they are amorphous - unlike standard ferrous heads. Some pattern heads seem to be ferric in place of the original green chip heads. May not be significant - but I really don't know...

If you find a lead on heads that would be great. Panasonic still stock them, but at a serious price.

[juhok]

Well I got NV-HS1000 for testing and it seems like a good workhorse. Upper drum is VXP1561 which indeed retails in the 190€(VAT0) range (Dönberg). VEH0651 and VEH0467 can be got for 40-50€(VAT0) from impel.

[Undead Sega]

Hey guys, sorry for bringing this up again, bit I would like to mention that just over a week ago I received my NV-HS1000 from Germany, and taking upon the words of Quasipal, he is right, i just myself tested the VCR via Belkin S-Video cable and I was actually totally amazed!

I mean, if anyone would remember from 3 years ago I made a topic here how I was longing for a HS960 or HS860 which I managed to finally get the latter a month ago and tested that out and was very happy with what it was displaying, but when I tried out the HS1000 and thought normally of the picture but that was until I played around with a few of the settings, and the one that amazed me the most was the TBC, as soon as I switched it on, I saw a noticable difference that kinda 'wowed' me. Technically the signal would be stabilized with the image slightly changed, but the noticable white noise that would appear on the top of the image was completely gone! A good example to explain this, is image you played a commercial tape and it goes into one of the black screens before showing either and advert of trailer, or even playing the credits itself, the black image would be clean and 'solidified', even though I was only putting in a tape to test it out, I almost ended up watching it completely

That is how I was amazed with it, however this all came to an end when I discovered a fault with it, yes a fault, I should probably make a new topic on about this as this one is abit hard to describe because there is no pattern to know when it will actually happen and no control over it either. When testing it out, the machine kind off had a mind of its own, and after playing/rewinding/stopping a tape, the machine would come to a hault, and then the VCR's intake motor only (the Right motor) started to turn but backwards, causing the tape to unwound itself from one side only, it does this for a few seconds and then it would go into Standby. I would turn it on again, and as it may seem to be trying to move, the right motor once again started turning again and literally repeating its actions, going back into Standby, I cannot do anything while this happens, as soon as I would turn it on, i would press the Eject button, Rewind, Fastword, Stop and Play buttons to try cease its malfunctioning, but does nothing whatsoever.

It kept doing this for awhile that it unwound enough tape for it to be jammed inbetween the machine's mechanisms (the little rollers that holds the tape just before intaking it to the right side), so much that while it was doing this that I had to pull out the tape itself to make way for more of the malfunctioning, but it was too late as it virtually destroyed a sentimental tape of mine, making it all chewed and wrinkled. The machine is so well built that I could not find a way to manually eject the tape, even by using force it was pretty much happy where everything was set. Finally within the half and hour of this (outrage) the machine gave in and when I turned it on again (lost count on how many times) it seemed to have acted normally, I immediently ejected the tape and the mechanisms released the jammed tape, I woefully started winding the tape myself

I have no idea why it has done this, it played well for awhile (with 3 different tapes) and it acted up like this, now I have become increasingly worried to ever use this machine again, but it's so good and that I paid for something that's out of the country to find out its probably faulty just saddens me.

Does anyone know what could be the problem with this? I think I pretty much explained my situation and I want to know if this can be dealt with. I would really appreciate it as well as I got this machine for a very good reason. Back on a slightly positive note, it surprised me it played NTSC tapes as well however, like the HS860 to my dismay, I cannot use the TBC on it at all! I am just imagining how brilliant it would've looked, playing an NTSC tape with the machine's built-in full frame TBC

[Quasipal]

Glad you like it! The TBC on this VCR is great in that it not only stabilizes but also improves the 'look' of the image.

The fault sounds like a duff mode switch to me. This tells the machine what position it is in and what to do (what motors to turn). It is not hard to replace but is a known problem with older Panasonic VCR's. If you are a dab hand you can dismantle and clean the original mode switch (it is not hard to do - but you need soldering skills).

Whilst you are at it, take out the head cleaning roller - it is probably contaminated by now.

Ian

[Undead Sega]

Thanks, I really did, and yes you are right that it does improve the look of the image, makes me thnk weather that's what TBC really odes or somesort of filtering is happening there

Hmmm that sound very interesting, I did abit of research and while they also claim that this 'mode switch' is a source of many common problems, I still dont understand how, is it a chip? or a device with gears inside? Cause you said to 'clean it' whilst it was suggested that getting a new one was prefered.

Also, upon reading what you've said and from initial research, some soldering skills are definately needed and I'm worried I would really mess up the machine if I slip up whilst trying to do this in the process. I was wondering if there was any sort of tutorial out there showing how to do thisi can get barely any info on this whole mode switch on Panasonic VCRs.

About the head cleaning roller, it most probably is contaminated, but from the look of things, it never touches the drum of the head, how does it even work if one cant control it?

[Quasipal]

When the machine goes into play mode or is stopped, the mechanism 'pushes past' the head cleaning roller arm, pushing it into contact with the head for about 1 second. It is held in by a little tab which is compressed by using a small screwdriver. Concerning the mode switch, I just opened up my HS1000 and it is not directly visible sadly - in the earlier G deck machines it was near the capstan on the top. So, I would suggest that it would be money well spent to have it checked and repaired at a decent shop. Look in the Thompson guide and ring around - you will know from speaking to the shop whether they understand video still. I just had a Panasonic G12 back from a full tape path alignment at a small local repair shop - total cost £11.75 - so VCR repair is not expensive if you look around.

[Undead Sega]

he there, sorry for the very late reply, university and christmas you know But anyways I thought I would pop back here to let you know that I have recently tried opening my HS1000 with excitement, I obviously opened the top which I've had before, then when I came to the bottom, I was left very gobsmacked that it was like covered up by a large plastic cage which I could not find access to releasing.

I just stared at it for awhile and looking everywhere on where I can even try to access it and probably after around 20 minutes I kind off gave up and closed everything back together. How the hell do I open this thing? All i wanted to do was to take alook at the Mode switch itelf, but i believe it is covered up well.

[juhok]

Heh, so it happens I had some spare time and played with my HS1000 today and bought the service manual. Download from here.

Contrary to my initial impression it seems like an ideal combination of new JVC and old Panasonic decks I like in terms of image quality/sharpness. I cannot wait to get it properly serviced and put to work.

[Quasipal]

The mode switch can only be accessed by removal of the deck mechanism I think - certainly it is not designed to be accessed from the bottom. Shame about that.

Anyway, I was doing a comparison yesterday to my NV-HS860 and the HS1000 has more detail and better colour in playback. Really lovely machines. Looking closely at the picture, it really pushes the VHS format and brings out all the tape has to give. I ordered a couple of genuine Panasonic spare heads from Impel (thank you for that link) so I am set now.

[jouse.]

I own many of the FS200 and i asked myself often the same question. I am always amazed how great the quality of this VCR is...could there be any better? Maybe these broadcast-S-VHS-Decks? Those grey, big ones?

I tried also to demonstrate the maximum quality of this great deck by uploading a HD-Video on Youtube. Of course, with YouTube it loses quality, but still you can't see how good it is. NOTICE: This is NOT S-VHS, but just an ordinary VHS-Tape !



I also have pictures here:

I recorded those tapes anamorphic, with full-frame 16:9, which of course also brings lots of quality gain.

[juhok]

If you like the oversharpened picture of FS-200 I think there's nothing "better". What I like abbout HS1000 is that the sharpening is tuned down a bit. From all the VHS decks I've owned FS-200 is the best mechanically. It's rock solid in that regard and can eat very bad tapes. I just hope someone would come up with a mod to bypass the picture post-processing. I

[Undead Sega]

hey guys, so sorry for the very late reply again, but stuff happed once again and becoming abit depressed about that I cannot even power on my HS1000 because of its malfunction, ontop of that I still dont know how to open it up just to even see this mode switch, which might not even be the problem in the first place!

Does anyone know if there are any instructions on how to dissassemble the VCR? I cannot go through the hassle to find and to carry this heavy machine around to a repair shop.

[Quasipal]

Don't get depressed - VCR's are very complex and something always goes wrong at some stage (just been struggling to find a fault on one of mine - a Panasonic NV-F75).

Before you get dissasembling, it may just be out of alignment - or something may have come adrift during transit. I just had a 'loading gear' on one of my Panasonics replaced as the whole thing just got in a real pickle and would not take a tape nor operate (just shut down). This gear had lost one tooth and 'skipped', therefore the machine could not function.

What I am trying to say is that I really do suggest that you have someone look at it - and if you are in the London area, I know a guy who will come to your house (field engineer) and he is a VCR enthusiast. PM me for more info if he may be of help. Once the machine is in bits, in my experience they rarely go back together again.

Cheers, QP

[Undead Sega]

Well I'll try not to and now I'm abit more confused to what the source of the problem is, it could very well be the mode switch, please re-read my problem in my earlier post as a reminder.

And I am actually in London and that sounds like a good idea, however I dont think bringing someone to my house is though, my family wont accept it. Who is this guy anyways?

[Quasipal]

Whilst it is tempting to diagnose a fault without seeing the unit, after just falling into that trap myself I do suggest expert advice. I speak as an engineer who has basic video repair training but who still does not know all the tricks of the trade and stock faults. Whilst I could say it is the mode switch, it could be a gear strippes giving similar symptoms. The NVHS1000 is a valuable unit and a luxury item, so even if it were my own I would still say the same thing. There is a knack in repairing these machines - manufacturer training days were given (I attended Kenwood CD theory, not video sadly).

I have a 'breaking' unit in working condition should you need a part for yours that is unavailable.

The gentleman whom I speak of is a field engineer who runs his own repair and instilation business. He is good with video and has all the tools - indeed he repaired three VCR's for me in one hour. It was interesting to watch him at work. If you would like his details, PM me - I don't want to give his telephone number out as there are some who may misuse it.

[Undead Sega]

Hmm very interesting, can you PM with the details or this guy by any chance? Is he based in a shop or something?

[Undead Sega]

Hi guys, sorry for bringing this up again, but just wanted to ask something about the NV-HS1000 as I proudly own

I was wondering, if I wanted to capture something to the VCR and the source was Component (Yipper) and the method to be done was to obtain a component scart adapter and plugging it to one of the Scart sockets at the back of the VCR (primarily the S-video scart socket), what would happen exactly??? Would it accept the signal and downconvert it to S-video? or just get a scrambled picture?

[Undead Sega]

Anyone at all may i ask?

[Quasipal]

Well I can't say for sure but looking at the circuit diagram I thing it will just loopthrough from one SCART to the other. Same with RGB signal - inputting RGB only results in no picture. But I am only guessing based on my experience with RGB I'm afraid.

Tell you what, I'll try this weekend and report back.

[mammo1789]

I was wondering, if I wanted to capture something to the VCR and the source was Component (Yipper) and the method to be done was to obtain a component scart adapter and plugging it to one of the Scart sockets at the back of the VCR (primarily the S-video scart socket), what would happen exactly??? Would it accept the signal and downconvert it to S-video? or just get a scrambled picture?

In Nv 1000 and fs 200 Europeans models there are 2 scarts one are rgb the top one and another is only s-video/video so if you like to use rgb or component ( there is some scheme on the net very simple for using component on scart and vice verse by using wires on scart blue,red as signal and green as sync ). The problem is i don't know if these vcr have rgb input or only output, i tried the scart output ( rgb ) to the scart rgb input in dvd recorder and it worked ( but only if I conect the dvd trough scart (rgb) out on tv I get picture other way only black screen. I also tried ( home made scart rgb to component cable) on pc tv card with component input and i get the picture ( by the way is more stable and clean then svideo that the alot of US members are using) but there are rare pc tv cards with component input on the market. Best way is to try yourself and see so you can post back here at least for us European members who have nv 1000 or fs200