MISU (YouTube) - Vietnamese VCR Expert!

[John123]

Hello All,

I stumbled across this channel a few weeks ago. Though he's featuring Japan-sourced VCR's, naturally there are a few familiar-faces to those of us in PAL-land. It's also quite intriguing to see some of the technologies that were totally exclusive to the Japanese market!

The chap seems very knowledgable, and has demonstrated creative and sometimes quite involved repairs to get some of the machines going. Though his narration is in Vietnamese, the Close Caption [CC] button does provide full English subtitles for most (if not all) of the videos, and some of the comment replies and on-screen prompts are also in English.

Definitely worth a look if vintage VCR's are your thing! 📼

[greg_simons]

He's good, just watched him replace an individual head chip on a head disc, that's something I've never attempted on a customer machine.
Greg.

[John123]

Indeed, I was quite impressed by that as well! With one machine he repaired a split gear with multiple turns of thread, and superglue or epoxy. Resourceful chap!

[Retrotechie]

He is certainly very detailed (drawing out circuits etc) and has a several rare models in his collection and they seem to be in very good condition. Oddly though, they seem to be NTSC standard and I thought Vietnam was PAL, but I guess he’s imported what he could find at a reasonable price. On one his videos, he rewinds part of the rotary transformer on a Panasonic M2. Not all his videos have English subtitles though.
I must do some videos of my collection!

[John123]

Originally Posted by Retrotechie

I must do some videos of my collection!

Oh please do!

[whiskas]

Just saw this post, he surely has some amazing video recorders, clearly Japanese domestic market models with lavish specs and features that never reached us here.

[John123]

Yes I love the quirkiness of some of those designs, often quite surprisingly from manufacturers whom were better known over here for their budget offerings!

They keep all the good stuff for themselves!

[TIMTAPE]

Originally Posted by greg_simons

He's good, just watched him replace an individual head chip on a head disc, that's something I've never attempted on a customer machine.
Greg.

He seems to gauge head protrusion by comparing it with one of the good heads. Lacking the proper protusion gauge, very sensible.

As time marches on, this could become necessary to keep VTR's, VCR's going for tape transfer/digitization projects.

I've seen other videos of overseas workers using whatever tools and techniques they have available to get the job done. Impressive.

[winston_1]

Originally Posted by Retrotechie

Oddly though, they seem to be NTSC standard and I thought Vietnam was PAL.

Before unification I believe Vietnam used PAL in the North and NTSC in the South.