JVC HR-C3U Compact Video Cassette Recorder

JVC HR-C3U Compact Video Cassette Recorder - Used Item IN STOCK and in good condition. All items have been previously used, but have been fully tested and include a 90 day exchange warranty. Since this is a used Item, it may show some minor signs of use but should not affect performance. 

Technical Details- 

The HR-C3U was the first true VHS-C machine, using a miniaturised mechanism. The C3U is a very neat unit, surprisingly sophisticated and modern-looking for its age, with LCD displays and touch-sensitive buttons.

All the controls and connecting sockets are on the top of the machine, and a neat sliding flap covers and protects the playback controls while the camera is being used to control it. 

Unlike many full-size portables, no power is required to load or eject the tape, and there is a another clever battery-saving feature which powers down the machine between recordings, without unlacing the tape. This allowed shooting to continue later, without introducing noise or picture disturbance at the start of the next shot; most other machines could only guarantee this if the machine was left on between shots.       

A tuner was also available to go with the machine, but timed recordings were not possible - VHS-C was not meant to be a home deck format.

In order to make the machines as small as possible, a reduced-sized head drum was used, 41mm rather than full-sized VHS's 62mm. To keep the recorded signals compatible with VHS, four heads were used, with the tape wrapped three-quarters of the way around the drum, and the drum spinning at 1.5 times normal speed (2250 RPM rather than 1500). The four heads take turns writing: as head 1 completes its scan, head 2 has travelled 3/4 of the way around and so is ready to start the next field.       

This reduced-sized mechanism allowed the HR-C3U to be extremely small, about 20cm square, and kept the weight down to a remarkable 1.9kg.