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  1. Originally Posted by johnmeyer View Post
    [BTW, my Panny VCR is now better than when it was new. My repair guy said its picture is as good as the AG-1980, and given the sophistication of the electronics in the unit, I believe that to be true.]
    Really glad the repair worked out well for you! Didn't you also have a pro/studio out for repair recently: one of the late models with tricky-to-repair proc amp TBC electronics? Hope you have equal success with that overhaul, too.

    Because every positive mention of any VCR model on VideoHelp or DigitalFAQ instantly drives flocks of eager buyers to eBay, it should be noted here that the Panasonic PV-S4990 is a unicorn that almost never appears for sale, partly because they're incredibly rare and partly because they have an even more ghastly reliability/repair record than the AG1980 (and thats saying something). I owned a couple of these back when they were current, along with a few lesser models from the same vintage and followups circa 1992, and they were among the worst VCR purchases I ever made. Late 1990 thru mid-1993 was probably the most uneven design and engineering era in Panasonic consumer VCR history: many reliability and repairability issues with the transports/tracking, and confounding electronics issues with the top of the line 4990 and its two or three similar (but more cheaply constructed) followups. Reports of these issues were common on the prehistoric web (alt.rec.vcrs etc). Frustratingly, Panasonic service depots would flatly refuse to repair them even one day past their warranty period.

    The 4990 and its two followups are almost impossible to find now in any condition: early JVC DigiPure TBC/DNR models outsold them 30:1 so Panasonic barely bothered to run a production line (the last of these unsellable leftover stocks technically remained at the top of Panasonic's consumer lineup for nearly a decade, while every other consumer Panasonic model was redesigned from the ground up year after year). The more marketable, profitable "prosumer" AG1970 (later AG1980) far eclipsed the 4990 series in sales volume and buyer awareness, promoted as Panasonic's "luxury consumer" models at select retailers while the 4990 followups slipped to "special order only" status. Because they are so rare with so little awareness, there are no proactive specialists like Deter or TG Grant around who regularly fix the 4990 or its two later sisters. johnmeyer was very fortunate he found a tech willing to do so: most of these early-90s Panasonics have been reduced to doorstops that will never function again.

    A shame, because despite their poor construction playback performance was Panasonic's consumer peak. After 1993 Panasonic returned to more reliable, sturdy construction techniques in their consumer VCR lineup but the video playback quality suffered. PQ declined gracefully from 1993-1996, then fell off a cliff from 1997 on (after 1996, the only great-playing Panasonic model available new was the expensive AG1980). If you're a gambler and you want to try the elusive PV-S4990, I'd recommend limiting your search to that one model. It has stubborn electronics issues but at least the transport is usually repairable. The two followups have bad electronics and unrepairable defect-plagued tape loaders. I (mercifully) forgot the exact model numbers (PV-S4280? 4370?), but they're easy to spot: more matte plasticky looking than the elegant 4990, with a TBC switch under a square-shaped flap to the left of the tape slot.
    Last edited by orsetto; 14th Sep 2021 at 13:22.
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  2. Originally Posted by orsetto View Post
    Practically, the level controls are useful for several other "off-book" purposes. They will boost or cut the audio level of all input sources passing thru to the outputs, at least on my examples, making the 1980 a handy external "audio level adjuster" when patched between a source VCR playing a low-volume tape and a capture device (like a dvd recorder) with no incoming manual level control.
    This suggests something Tig should do. Try patching the audio through and see if you get audio at the output. This might provide further clues as to what's going on (i.e., what part of the circuitry is failing or, alternatively, what switch or connection must be changed.)
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  3. Just sent a second deck to Deter. First repair looked great

    As said earlier, FedEx has really dropped the ball on the quality of their shipping. I don't trust them at all any more for any gear. Been sending UPS.
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  4. Originally Posted by orsetto View Post
    ... it should be noted here that the Panasonic PV-S4990 is a unicorn that almost never appears for sale, partly because they're incredibly rare and partly because they have an even more ghastly reliability/repair record than the AG1980 (and thats saying something).
    I don't doubt a word of what you said. However, having corresponded with my repair guy while he was working on it, I think the entire problem was the capacitors. I don't think he did any work on alignment or anything else. As you know, electrolytic capacitors from certain eras have a much higher incidence of failure, and this ended up affecting not just the cheap Chinese-manufactured electronics products, but also those from Japan, like Panasonic. I think the reason the models you mention, including mine, were more vulnerable was just the shear number of caps compared to cheaper designs. I've done simple repairs on a number of VCRs and I don't think I'm exaggerating much when I say that my cheaper units use about 10-25% of the number of capacitors that are in my PV-S4990.

    I have my fingers crossed that this unit will continue to work for the rest of my life (10-15 years, in my case).
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  5. I am so relieved to have found this thread, and am about to send my AG1980 to Deter for repair, as its video output craps out after several minutes of use.

    On a similar note, does anyone have suggestions for a technician to rehab a Sony Betamax SL-HF900, properly?
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  6. Originally Posted by daveemory View Post
    On a similar note, does anyone have suggestions for a technician to rehab a Sony Betamax SL-HF900, properly?
    I had a very tricky repair done on my 2005 Sony FX-1 HDV (DV tape) camcorder by these people:

    www.VideoOneRepair.com

    They are wonderful to work with, and their correspondence is really clear. They seem to mostly do camcorders but you could write and ask them if they can repair your deck, or whether they can suggest someone else who can do the work. No one else would even give me a quote for the repair, given how difficult it was. The fixed it perfectly.

    I used to send my Sony decks to "Dr. Sony:"

    http://www.doctorsony.com/ServiceCenter.html

    but three years ago had a less than stellar result with a repair he did on a 1980s 8mm Sony deck. However, he had done several repairs prior to that which turned out really well. As you will see from the link, he does repair Betamax decks.
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  7. Originally Posted by johnmeyer View Post
    Originally Posted by daveemory View Post
    On a similar note, does anyone have suggestions for a technician to rehab a Sony Betamax SL-HF900, properly?
    I had a very tricky repair done on my 2005 Sony FX-1 HDV (DV tape) camcorder by these people:

    www.VideoOneRepair.com

    They are wonderful to work with, and their correspondence is really clear. They seem to mostly do camcorders but you could write and ask them if they can repair your deck, or whether they can suggest someone else who can do the work. No one else would even give me a quote for the repair, given how difficult it was. The fixed it perfectly.

    I used to send my Sony decks to "Dr. Sony:"

    http://www.doctorsony.com/ServiceCenter.html

    but three years ago had a less than stellar result with a repair he did on a 1980s 8mm Sony deck. However, he had done several repairs prior to that which turned out really well. As you will see from the link, he does repair Betamax decks.
    Thank you. I actually just realized I had long ago bookmarked this: https://mrbetamax.com/ ... and he appears to be an insane information treasure trove, as well as having a repair service. I would sure love to know if anyone has used him, as he says he is former Sony tech.
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  8. Member Deter's Avatar
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    Here is a little update:
    Tig's never sent the VCR back so my suspicions and what I suspected from the start has not changed.

    As far as Betamax units, it is nearly impossible to find parts for them as long as the parts inside the unit are not broken, I can fix it. I went to MisterBetamax website and I checked his price on a Sony 2100 which he is selling for $2,500. That is good to know cause I have one of these that I rebuilt.

    As far as Dr. Sony, I actually met him in real life.
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  9. Originally Posted by Deter View Post
    [B]As far as Dr. Sony, I actually met him in real life.
    I'd be interested to know what you thought. All my dealings with him were via email, so I never spoke to him on the phone. I just briefly looked at all the emails, and they were very cordial, and he communicated well. I did get a little miffed that I sent my FX-1 to him, having described perfectly what the problem was, and then when he got it, he told me there was no way he could fix it. This is the one that I later sent to L.A. (address above). He should have known from the description that he would have to replace or repair the DV (Firewire/1394) interface. I talked extensively to the people in L.A. about it, and they did say that it was extremely difficult, but that they had the equipment and know how to do it, which they did.

    I think I had three repairs done by Manny (Dr. Sony) before the 8mm Deck where the picture was not stable after the repair, no matter which tape was used. All those units worked fine and all are still in service.

    I actually have to thank him, in a backward sort of way, because I had to finish the 8mm video project, so I did some research, found the "best" option for transferring all three 8mm formats (8mm, Hi8, Digital8) found a NIB version on eBay (amazing luck) and have been using that unit ever since. The video quality is fantastic and having the ability to also handle Hi8 and Digital8 means I can now handle every consumer video format (OK, I don't have a CED disc player).
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  10. Originally Posted by nicholasserra View Post
    As said earlier, FedEx has really dropped the ball on the quality of their shipping. I don't trust them at all any more for any gear. Been sending UPS.
    I used to do analysis for a Logistics department of a large medical lab that did about 10 million dollars a year worth of shipping with FedEx. What happened is that when Covid hit they had a bunch of employees that got sick and couldn't work and simultaneously the number of people shopping online, because they were scared to shop in stores, skyrocketed. This overwhelmed their shipping network and at one point their main hub on Memphis had double the amount of boxes coming in as was designed to handle.

    What FedEx is was prioritize those packages from their big clients, mostly medical related shipments, and deemphasized their one off clients.

    UPS did the same thing, with at one point them telling shops in malls that they would not be picking up an shipments from them nor delivering.

    This lasted well into this year and from what I hear, thanks to the massive storms that hit the Memphis area this year, including one that knocked out the main FedEx hub in Memphis hub for 2 weeks, they are still struggling to get everything under control.
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  11. I, for one, am so grateful to Deter for taking my AG-1980 for repair, and he hasn't even gotten it from FedEx yet – TG Grant's web site (and he backed this up in a message to me) makes it clear he will not work on 1980s below a particular serial number range... and mine fell into that range. His note back:

    "The AG1980s with the "5" as the second digit are from the first production run in 1995. There's a couple of different style circuit boards in them, as well as some early production run mistakes that need rectified. I'm sorry but I can't take that in for repair and I don't have any parts that I can sell you."

    So, far as I'm concerned, since Deter apparently has no issues rebuilding these "alternate" circuit boards – and I wish I knew what "mistakes" would "need rectified" (sic) – it's a no brainer where the machine was going to be sent for repair.

    In continuing this thread about comparisons of Panasonic-to-Panasonic, does anyone know the production history of the AG-7500 broadcast deck vs. the 1980? Are any circuits shared? I have one of these, as well, working pretty well, and consider it top-notch for SP transfers, though I do run into tracking issues from time to time, particularly with hi-fi tracks.
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  12. Member Deter's Avatar
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    I have worked on TG Grant machines all he does is recaps the Y/C card. He doesn't fix anything.

    As long as I have the parts can fix anything on these units and sometimes it requires another machine,

    Three times this year have gotten in machines with busted up front panels with broken plastic shields. From broken pinch rollers to destroyed loading mechanism to broken plastic gears to even replacing the video heads. Yes, can even do the Jog shuffle dial if I have another one in stock or the customer sends another unit for parts.

    Yes FedEx has smashed up units. The guy in West Virginia FedEx smashed up the loading bay and front panel. He sent the unit back, took pictures and we filed two claims with FedEx and they refused to pay the claim. I fixed that unit for free and had to even bend the metal frame back in to place.

    It costs me a lot of money and than time to rebuild these units and I only ever offered this service because it is just about impossible to find repair shops that actually fixes these units.

    The Panasonic Broadcast decks have double or triple the amount of capacitors they are monster projects just on recapping.
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  14. Originally Posted by daveemory View Post
    In continuing this thread about comparisons of Panasonic-to-Panasonic, does anyone know the production history of the AG-7500 broadcast deck vs. the 1980? Are any circuits shared? I have one of these, as well, working pretty well, and consider it top-notch for SP transfers, though I do run into tracking issues from time to time, particularly with hi-fi tracks.

    The 7500 is one of the earliest SVHS Panasonic "broadcast" decks as far as I know. I don't know about the development process, but I think the AGDSxxx models are the closest one to the 1980P of the broadcast ones, like the 1980P those also used digital processing for much of the decoding process that is done in the analog domain in most VCRs.

    Originally Posted by orsetto View Post
    A shame, because despite their poor construction playback performance was Panasonic's consumer peak. After 1993 Panasonic returned to more reliable, sturdy construction techniques in their consumer VCR lineup but the video playback quality suffered. PQ declined gracefully from 1993-1996, then fell off a cliff from 1997 on (after 1996, the only great-playing Panasonic model available new was the expensive AG1980). .
    I still wonder why their north American consumer models from that time until the mid 2000s combo decks used such a different design and mechanism compared to the models released in PAL/SECAM regions and Japan. The tape transport used in the 1980P (K-mechanism) is also found in the cheaper consumer models in Europe (and I think japan) from the mid 90s, even down to the bottom of the range 2-head mono decks, they look pretty similar to the the AG1xxx and AG2xxx "pro" models found in the US. It seems a lot of these otherwise pretty nice PAL decks from that era suffers from the K-mechanism loading issues. Like, a large portion of those on ebay are sold as "not working/for parts" while the later Z mechanism ones (1998 and on, e.g NV-HD630) are very widely available and mostly working.
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  15. Member Deter's Avatar
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    I let some time pass to see if Tig would send the unit back or even contact me and he has not.

    I stand on my 1st comment in this post that this guy made up a bunch of lies about a machine I fixed for him because he wanted me to pay to ship his VCR. I would not budge on this and he refused to pay his bill. After about 3 weeks he gave in and paid the invoice.

    Tig's was so irate over paying shipping he took to the forums to make up false railing accusations that his unit had no audio to discredit this repair service.

    Here is the deal, I knew this guy was going to be a pain, so I made sure to pack up his box extra careful with extra padding and bubble wrap.

    To be clear I am going to state my policies:

    It is a flat rate of $500 to repair the AG-1980 units, no money is do until the unit is complete. If I can't fix the machine you pay nothing.

    The customer is responsible to pay for shipping both ways.

    If extra parts are needed that I don't have aka new video heads or whatever the case the customer is responsible to get a spare parts machine. This is very rare but it does happen.

    If the unit gets damaged in the mail or something that was supposed to be fixed and was not send the unit back and it will be repaired at no cost.

    On returns, customer pays to ship to me and I pay for the return shipping.

    On all orders:
    If the box that is sent is poor quality or damaged or does not have enough bubble wrap, I pay my shipping service for a new box and to wrap up the unit. That is usually around $15.00.

    Insurance: Thus far FedEx has destroyed several boxes and have damaged units, in every case they have refused to pay the insurance claims.

    Once last thing. please don't send power cords with the units they are not needed on direct ebay orders on damaged machines that are shipped direct to me, that is fine.

    On all ebay orders that are shipped direct to me:

    I go through and inspect the units and report back all the damage or problems with the machine which usually results in the customer getting a discount from the seller. I am honest on this, yes if it has leaked capacitors or electronic damage I will says and if the unit is beyond workable as well will work with the customer on sending back the unit to the seller for a full refund.
    Last edited by Deter; 29th Oct 2021 at 14:30.
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  16. Regarding Deter standing by his work, my unit was damaged during shipping back to me. The jog shuttle was somewhat smashed and is no longer working. Honestly don't care all that much as I never use the jog shuttle anyways. Everything else was working perfectly. Kinda sucks to have the blemish but whatever.

    I told Deter about it and he offered to fix it for free and pay for return shipping so long as I shipped it to him.

    I didn't take him up on the offer yet but the fact that he offered to do that at cost to himself shows that he does stand by his work and will try to make things right if there is an issue.

    Also using the deck now for about 4+ months and it still works perfect.
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  17. Video Producer Tig_'s Avatar
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    I apologize for my absence — been hospitalized. Just back and starting to sort things out now. I've had every intention of sending my AG-1980 back but was not able to handle this myself and didn't trust anyone else to take care of it for me. I'll get it sent as soon as I'm able.
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    Tig_ Your done buddy it has been several months, not a word, nor ever an email, send it to someone else, your warranty has expired, you are a proven liar in my book. Send me all your medical records for being in the hospital for 3 months and I will send you two free AG-1980's.
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  19. Re production changes on the 1980P, this page has a bunch of service bulletins for it, though I don't think any mentions major changes to the pcbs. There is one noting a bunch of SMD electrolytic caps being changed though.

    Originally Posted by johnmeyer View Post

    Image
    [Attachment 60722 - Click to enlarge]


    I've got a desoldering station, so I could do the caps on the main board, but those SMDs on the daughter board? Foregetaboutit! I can see why he was not looking forward to that. Also, I think this board is buried, and takes a lot of disassembly to get it out.
    Are there any caps on the bottom of that board too? Several panasonics have these "hybrid" ICs the other way around so all the electrolytic SMD caps are on the bottom making it even worse (e.g NV-HS1000 Y/C ICs, the chroma one is even coated in some black stuff). These boards are often an absolute pain to get out as they tend to sit on double-sided circuit boards and have solder on both sides. I haven't dared to try to remove them even though I suspect at least the chroma one has tends to some issue as there is a noticeable difference in saturation between edit on/off that isn't present on other Panasonics. Also the trimpots on the video board are not really accessible while plugged in on this and other similar models (panasonic had special extension cables for the boards for that) so it's hard to adjust the chroma noise reduction one properly too. I worked on a JVC HR-S5800 from 1991 recently and it's so much nicer, all the boards flip out rather than sitting upside down and needing to be taken out like in the panasonics from the time.
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  20. Video Producer Tig_'s Avatar
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    Originally Posted by Deter View Post
    Tig_ Your done buddy it has been several months, not a word, nor ever an email, send it to someone else, your warranty has expired, you are a proven liar in my book. Send me all your medical records for being in the hospital for 3 months and I will send you two free AG-1980's.
    Depending on condition, deal. Helluva thing to demand medical records from VCR repair clients but I'll actually post them publicly if you promise two 1980s in good working condition, don't see why not.

    All I really want though is for you to stand behind your work and restore the audio on my deck. I'll cover return shipping. Then if you'd like I'll do an uncut video unpacking through playing a tape. Let me prove you do great work and stand behind it when things go wrong (as they do, understandable). What better way to put this all to rest? I myself want to send my other 1980s to you when the time comes. And I'm happy to pay shipping. I simply didn't know that was a separate charge before because I never saw this forum thread; we PM'd and you quoted $500 flat rate. I wrongly assumed that included shipping, but I never refused to pay it. After a few days of confusion I sent the full $580, did I not?

    Edit to be clear: it hasn't been three months. Discharged last week (a VCR fix was nowhere near top priority, I have two young children and clients to take care of). My last post was only two months ago and I went in with acute respiratory distress a few days after that.
    Last edited by Tig_; 23rd Nov 2021 at 19:04.
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  21. Video Producer Tig_'s Avatar
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    Just want to thank Deter, who is now looking at the 1980 with audio issues. Greatly appreciate his taking the time and looking into the problem. Sometimes things just go wrong, and it's nice to know that ultimately, if you take your deck to a good tech you'll be taken care of. People who still work on this equipment are a treasure in my book, and we need guys like Deter and Tom Grant to help us save important footage from old tapes that won't be around forever. Thank you Deter.
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  22. Help, I am desperate and need to make sure I am not losing my mind here.

    I have sent two AG1980P units out for repair. When they came back, the linear/normal audio channel is NOT STEREO. I got these machines specifically to play old linear/normal audio tracks that happened to be recorded in stereo (in that brief 1980s period where such a thing was done, before Hi-Fi Stereo was invented).

    In my tests, it is clear that the fixed/normal head is only playing the R channel of a stereo track, and centering it in the middle. Not a L/R mono mix. (Nor, of course, proper stereo.)

    I need to know if other users of the AG1980 are getting actual linear stereo playback. And I need to know if the machines in question have ever been serviced/rebuilt; if they have, such a test may be moot.

    Just to be sure I wasn't losing my mind, I went back and looked in an AG1980 manual, and its description of the linear track is very confusing. It shows playback as both "L+R Stereo" and "mono". If this machine was not made with a stereo linear head, I am going to blow my brains out.
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  23. I can do some tests if you can give me exact steps to test and reproduce. I have a Deter rebuild, a tgrant rebuild, and a stock parts deck that might still be working to test on.

    The linear selector on the AG1980s is a bit odd. It's dependent on the tape, and if the tape is having issues, you might not even be able to select linear. For example I had a tape that hifi was cutting in and out. The deck would not let me select linear only on that tape. Meanwhile my JVC will let me choose linear no matter what.

    Anyway, let me know how I can help.
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  24. The service manual at would suggest that the AG1980 does not have linear stereo. It's mostly just found on decks from those few years in the 80s and on these very large broadcast/edit decks.
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  25. Originally Posted by nicholasserra View Post
    I can do some tests if you can give me exact steps to test and reproduce. I have a Deter rebuild, a tgrant rebuild, and a stock parts deck that might still be working to test on.

    The linear selector on the AG1980s is a bit odd. It's dependent on the tape, and if the tape is having issues, you might not even be able to select linear. For example I had a tape that hifi was cutting in and out. The deck would not let me select linear only on that tape. Meanwhile my JVC will let me choose linear no matter what.

    Anyway, let me know how I can help.
    I will be very, very curious to know how all three of those decks output linear stereo. You would simply need a tape which you know for certain is recorded in stereo on the linear track. And if it is dual (Hi-Fi and linear stereo), you would press the AUDIO OUT button on the panel to toggle between L/R Hi-Fi and linear. When it goes to linear, if it is playing back mono on all three decks... and you are absolutely sure the recording is stereo, key point!... then I have my (bummer) answer. But then I'd know for sure. THANK YOU.
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  26. Originally Posted by oln View Post
    The service manual at would suggest that the AG1980 does not have linear stereo. It's mostly just found on decks from those few years in the 80s and on these very large broadcast/edit decks.
    Amazing. The "pro house" (quotes mine) which sold me that deck originally, in Albuquerque, specifically marketed it to me because it played linear stereo (and of course, is one of the few consumer-ish decks to do so). The operating manual for it is contradictory.

    My AG7500 professional deck does it, of course, but I need a machine that does the dreaded SLP linear stereo, too (it is SP only, of course). I have a JVC HR-8000U which does........... but it needs repair. And doesn't throw as good an image as the Panasonics.
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  27. I am pretty sure that none of the Panasonic pro decks had/have linear stereo.

    Page 32 of the AG-1980 owners manual (as well as other pages) makes it clear that "Normal" (their term for the linear audio track) is mono.

    This 1980 FAQ page also confirms this:

    https://www.tgrantphoto.com/sales/index.php/content/panasonic-ag-1980-faqs
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  28. Unbelievable. I've been wrong this whole time about the deck.
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  29. Member Deter's Avatar
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    I personally don't want to deal with tgrant machines anymore. Granted he puts stickers all over the place and really cleans the insides and the capacitor work seems to be fine but so much of the other stuff on the machines that I reworked was absolutely screwed up and a nightmare to try to figure out the problems.

    In like 2015 or so created a new method on these units. Granted I like to know some of the issues like an F03 error or the tape is gettin eaten. However all the picture issues or dim display or hissing capacitors or noise in the picture or wavy lines gets taken care of in the rebuild. When the boards and Y/C cards are rebuilt it fixes all of that.

    The expectations of late are getting crazy. People are complaining about the overscan picture with the TBC on or off and they want like a digital picture were the edges are perfect. They think I have some special ability to fix VHS overscan lines.

    The TBC on or off will create a slight color shift in the picture. The greater the difference usually means a problem.

    These AG-1980's have never played the color red very well. If you press stop and play on a segment with heavy red in the picture you will get a slightly different tone of red each time.

    Just did two units for a guy down south and one unit turned out way better than the other. Unlike the JVC decks these AG-1980's always play back slightly different than the next.

    Once in a while I get a machine in that plays to like an 11 or 12 but most of them are like an 8 or 9.

    You never know some of the worst machines with the most problems turned out the best.
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    daveemory I was doing the examples with the left and right audio turned off with the secondary audio source and in those clips I sent you the AG-1980 turned the Van Halen recordings in to a pseudo soundboard recording. If you leave the left and right channels on if the tape is recorded in stereo with channel separation it will play back in that manor.

    The best audio are the broadcast Panasonic decks with the metered audio on the front panel and the mic outputs on the back. Granted they only play SP tapes.

    As I said, personally had better success with the JVC units when working with the secondary audio source.

    Most of my personal recordings from the 80ties and 90ties on VHS were not broadcast in stereo nor was it in HiFi but when playing back on the AG-1980, I leave the left and right audio channels on and the sound is fine but it is not in stereo or HiFi.
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