Electronic Memories

Last night I enjoyed using my fathers old VCR. I repaired this for him months before he passed. My mother let me take it home yesterday because she knew I would use it. Despite not being a boombox, it holds great memories for me growing up. We all would watch TV after school / work when my dad got home. From Star-Trek to Cheers to Married with Children...and later Frasier, we recorded the weeks events, news and settled down to watch them in the evenings at dinner. We never sat at the table. We ate in front of the TV Sometimes my dad would bring home a movie to watch on the weekends and/or we would go out as a family and stop by the video store while we were out. I can still hear the associates adding charges to a rental that came back not wound...lol. Be kind, Rewind was a popular slogan back then.

I am glad he was able to witness this machine working again before he died. I enjoyed seeing the expression on his face bringing a piece of equipment he has not seen working in 20 years, back to life.

At the core, electronics are all about the history and the memories. When I use this machine, they come flowing back. That to me is priceless and represents the soul of the electronic device for me. Not to mention that this was (at the time) one of the high end models that included the Hi-Fi meter on the front. This was when a VCR was a VCR! This Magnavox was built at the height of the VHS era. They only went down in quality after this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FL5c3HA432k

View attachment 48352View attachment 48353What a great story.

I understand this completely and share some of the same memories. Before cancer took my step father, I recall going to the video stores and renting movies religiously on Friday nights. We had an old Toshiba Betamax and it was a tank! However as things do, the market decided VHS was the consumers choice and he decided to go all out and get a HI-FI VHS unit and hook it up to the stereo system. We ended up with a Sony SLV-585HF and it was sweet.

I was sold right there on the capabilities of these units! Some even had signal to noise ratios approaching 90 dB! Now rented movies sounded closer to the theatres' sound.

It's those little things like this that sometimes connect us to our loved ones, that we keep and cherish.

I'd love to restore this unit but I admit I'm out of my wheelhouse on this one. The LCD display is fading and I'm sure the unit hasn't seen a video in 20 years and even then it was was probably my kids Franklin The Turtle flicks. lol

Took a few pics...but mind the dust. This is stored down in the basement with the kids PS4, DVD player and other electronics and as such doesn't get the housekeeping it deserves...

Thanks Brutus.

That certainly is a serious machine you have there. 4-Head and Hi-Fi stereo were top dogs in VHS and they were expensive. These older machines have a soul. A digital device that has no moving parts is dull and boring....even if it does produce a better picture. We still have Blue-Ray and 4K players which still have moving parts, so I guess all is not completely lost.

It's nice to have a devices to remember your past