Deter's AG-1980 Repair Service

[lordsmurf]

my PV-S4990. It's a SVHS machine somewhat similar to the AG-1980.

Nope. But it may sorta-kinda be similar, maybe, to the older AG-1960. In general, it's just an ancient VCR that's too old for digitizing tasks. The AG-1970 was better than 1960, but still very degraded compared to 1980.

[bromius88]

do you replace the belts when doing a refurb?

[nicholasserra]

Hey Deter,

My repaired units are going strong! Wondering if you've ever messed with the NV-FS200 series (PAL equivalent). I need to pick up a PAL VCR. Figured this might be the best option, but wanna see if anyone over here is working on them. Thanks!

[sidthesurf]

I’m new here, but I’m old and don’t know what I’m doing. So, if this is posted in the wrong place…..well…I’m old and stupid!

I have a Panasonic 1980p VCR that I bought new back in the 90’s. I need to get it repaired. If anyone here can help, please let me know, but I probably won’t be able to find your response!

[Deter]

Deter's repair shop is temporary closed. Have 8 or 9 units which have been put on delay until February / March and not accepting any new units at this time.

[nicholasserra]

Hey Deter, happy new year! Hope you can make it through your backlog without much issue :P

I picked up a NV-HS950B PAL unit. Wondering if you'd be interested in refreshing it. Has some nasty audio issues, tracking crackles on HIFI only. Would love to be put into your queue.

Thanks!

[Deter]

nicholasserra, I don't do PAL units, try cleaning the video heads or using another tape.

[Deter]

Back open again however the flat rate of repairs on AG units has just increased to $525, the costs have gone up and on the last batch it was not very profitable. So all units sent in from this point forward are a flat $525 for the repairs.

It is looking like we are going to have extra inventory.

Right now

3 AG-1980 Units
1 AG-1970 Unit

1 NV-SV1 from Japan and everything on the Menu is in Japanese, the unit has a built in TBC and a DNR filter which you can turn on and off.

[Deter]

Deter's repair shop is closed again until future notice.

Right now we have 12 units on the bench and not talking in anymore repair jobs.

We have AG units for sale and they are listed at DigitalFaq market place.

[aramkolt]

Do you recap any of the audio boards? I know there's that upside down mounted AudioII board that has a bunch of SMT caps on it, and I honestly can't tell the difference between recapping that and not, so I'm not even sure if AudioII is even used for VHS playback.

What actual adjustments do you do in terms of the potentiometers inside? Or do you generally leave those at factory settings unless there's a playback issue?

Do you do a 100% recap of all boards, or just the ones that commonly go bad?

[Deter]

aramkolt,

These units are rebuilt and refurbished. Many of these units have loading and tape transport issues and last time I checked you don't have capacitors in the loading mechanism. These units are for sure calibrated. It is very simple I see other websites and restoration services for these machines but I always seem to get those units shipped to me.

I think most of the repair shops can re-cap the Y/C card but other than that the boards are usually a mess when someone went happy with a soldering iron.

Many times over the last few years many of these units got damaged when they were shipped back and sometimes shipping damage is a nightmare like a bent frame or the board gets dislodged.

The AG-1980P vs AG-1980 you have a difference on the board mounting.

Just did 11 units and 12 more on the bench that is enough for me and I am going on a very long break.

[lordsmurf]

It is very simple I see other websites and restoration services for these machines but I always seem to get those units shipped to me.

Yes you do. I know this for fact, because you've gotten several from me. I remember you had to reject one of my decks fixed by "the other guy" because it was just that fubar.

[sophisticles]

Let me preface this by saying this is not meant to troll, nor do I want to derail this thread and I do not want this becoming an argument or anything like that; this is a genuine question so that i can increase my knowledge.

What is it about the AG-1980 that has allowed it to become such a sought after VCR?

I guess what I am asking is assume someone had an unlimited budget, money was not an issue and wanted the absolute best VCR for general playback and capture, is the AG-1980 the start and finish of the discussion or is there something superior?

Because I do not want to interfere with Deter's business, if someone wants to answer via PM, that is fine.

Thanks.

[lordsmurf]

No, the JVC decks are better for a single "the best" unit. The AG-1980P has specific strengths that make it desired for certain EP, VHS-C, and linear audio needs. It has weaknesses compared to the JVC too. It's not all better. One of those weaknesses is with build quality, and repair ability. Deter provides a community service here.

[FrontierDK2]

I have a fully working NV-FS (the EU version) - works flawlessly. So they do exist

[drkampfe]

I have a ag 1980P that needs your loving care.
what is my next step

info@sdvideolab.com

[Deter]

Still on break and closed down. Sorry

[sirius244]

Hello, I'm still looking for someone who will be able to recap my AG-1980P. I have hundreds of rare VHS tv shows that I would like to archive on my youtube channel and I want the best possible quality. Let me know.

Thank you.

[WillC]

I just now joined this forum. I tried to private message "Deter" about a JVC HR-SC1000U VCR with an interesting problem but was denied access by the system. Any suggestions?

[Chase8332]

Deter - Is your shop back open?

[sirius244]

If it's still closed send me a pm I have found a guy who made an excellent job on mine.

[spencerforhire]

Sorry to make a public post for a 1980P service request, but I am also unable to to PM Deter due to some permission restriction on my new account.

[sirius244]

Sorry to make a public post for a 1980P service request, but I am also unable to to PM Deter due to some permission restriction on my new account.

Hello I sent you a PM with the name of a guy on this forum who recapped mine.

[DJsDarkside]

Hello. Are you still fixing these VCR’s? I have one that needs the Deter special sounds like. All the symptoms you’ve seen with these as far as color, lines, darkness all happening.
Mine is the P version and would like to keep it a little while longer.
If still repairing, please let me know the details. Or if someone knows who does, please send along info.
Thanks in advance.
-DJ

[ShaneJensen]

Hi Deter. I'm currently looking to get an AG-1980P for my continuing project of VHS capturing. I used to have just an AG-1980 that I purchased on Ebay back in late 2006. I had it for a few years before it completely died on me. It just stopped powering on at all. Sat in storage for a few years before I threw it away when cleaning out my stuff. I regret doing that now as I could have just shipped it to you to repair. I've digitized a lot of my VHS tapes over the years, but I still have four dozen or so to get through, and perhaps some that I want to redo. I've done some searching around the forums here and reading your post I see that you mention the AG-1980P is better.

So the problem in 2025 is where to find one. I've been searching Ebay and most of the listings are for parts only. This model is getting harder and harder to find in 2025. I've found a few for around $600 that are NOT listed as parts only, but just "used". Thing is, I don't know to trust it or not. They are not specific in the listing when it comes to quality.

So my big question is, how or where can I go about finding one of these units from a reliable source? I see ones going for $1000 as well. Ouch. I'm not sure what to do. I've been procrastinating returning to this project for the past ten years because of these issues, but I'm tired of procrastinating. The longer I continue to procrastinate, the worse this situation will be. Any assistance or advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Deter]

Because people are always wanting this service and I still get lots of emails I am going to open up shop until mid to late April and everything will be done and completed by mid may and than I am closing up for the rest of the year. If you want your AG-1980 repaired now is the time to do it.

[TimH]

I was having a problem sending you a PM but I've figured it out.

Tim///

[ShaneJensen]

Hi Deter. I'm currently looking to get an AG-1980P for my continuing project of VHS capturing. I used to have just an AG-1980 that I purchased on Ebay back in late 2006. I had it for a few years before it completely died on me. It just stopped powering on at all. Sat in storage for a few years before I threw it away when cleaning out my stuff. I regret doing that now as I could have just shipped it to you to repair. I've digitized a lot of my VHS tapes over the years, but I still have four dozen or so to get through, and perhaps some that I want to redo. I've done some searching around the forums here and reading your post I see that you mention the AG-1980P is better.

So the problem in 2025 is where to find one. I've been searching Ebay and most of the listings are for parts only. This model is getting harder and harder to find in 2025. I've found a few for around $600 that are NOT listed as parts only, but just "used". Thing is, I don't know to trust it or not. They are not specific in the listing when it comes to quality.

So my big question is, how or where can I go about finding one of these units from a reliable source? I see ones going for $1000 as well. Ouch. I'm not sure what to do. I've been procrastinating returning to this project for the past ten years because of these issues, but I'm tired of procrastinating. The longer I continue to procrastinate, the worse this situation will be. Any assistance or advice would be greatly appreciated.

I want to followup on my previous post. Almost a month ago I have found a Panasonic AG-1980P on Ebay from a fellow who had refurbished it, replaced the heads, rollers, and caps. Fully calibrated everything. $750. I've been using it to digitize tapes every day and the quality is amazing. I use the Canopus ADVC-300 to capture the video signal. I've had that capture box since 2004 and I find it to be the best device to capture native 480i VHS signals from the AG-1980P. Very happy with the results.

So the key here, to answer my own past post, is to just keep your eye on Ebay. I had a search term saved and got notified of the listing as soon as it went online. Of course I looked at the seller's history and rating before I made the decision. The VCR would have been bought up quickly if I had hesitated too long.

[Deter]

Honestly I don't really trust ebay that is what got me in to all this years ago cause every unit had problems no matter what the seller said.

Replacing the video heads? I don't buy it, that is like a major surgery and there are not many AG-1980 doctors around.

Pinch rollers the only place you can get those parts are off of other machines and same with the video heads and considering destroyed non working AG 1980's sell for $400. Well.....

In my opinion, based on the price of $750 I don't think someone is going to replace all the capacitors, put in new video heads, change the pinch rollers outs and somehow calibrate the machine and whatever else this highly skilled sales person / technician did. These machines sold for $2,400 in 1995.

My experience some 14 or 15 years ago:
This is what happened I thought the machines were good and later to find herringbone blue pattern noise in the picture, the color levels were off and other issues as well. Than realized that I personally lost hundreds of hours from recording my tapes to DVD or digital cause I had faulty units and had to re-do all them once I was able to get a fixed up AG-1980 unit which at that time took almost a year to get.

[Deter]

It is 2025, most tapes that recorded stuff pretty much died out 20 years ago so now we are looking at trying to salvage 20 to 45 year old recordings.

If the material was recorded on a good aligned VCR in SP mode you can still get good results.

However you are still going to get picture tearing, damaged frames and rolling teares in the picture and maybe some sound issues were the HI-FI goes in an out or you just have to turn that feature off.

Next is the playback, on a modern day LCD VHS looks terrible and even on YouTube most of the professional stuff aka old sports from like the TV networks they never fix the aspect ratio to 16:9 to fill in the screen. These little thing are big like also cropping or chorma keying out the VHS scan lines for PC or Online viewing.

The real key to all this VHS stuff is to get a good machine to play the tapes back on and than to figure out how to code them to mpeg2 videos with out what I call digital destruction. That is why I used to preach the JVC MV5 recording to FR-80 than ripping the DVD to the PC with VOB2MPG v3 than editing and using a good edit render program.

However in 2025 the DVD or Bluray drive are not standard issue with computers anymore.