Olympus QV101-B

FORMAT: VHS

DATE: 1983

PRICE: £600
[1994: £690]

xxcm

 
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This system was produced by Panasonic, but marketed under many different badges with only minor variations. At the time it was the top of the range, the system of choice for the discerning filmmaker.

Not much wider than the VHS cassette itself, the top-loading recorder is neat and compact. It is heavier than it looks, but still light enough at 4kg, including its battery pack, to sling comfortably over the shoulder in the matching carrying case. There is also a carrying handle built in, which swings down under the fascia when not in use.

Top-loaders were becoming less common by 1983, particularly in the up-market sector to which this machine comfortably belongs. But the top-loading approach reduces the height of the recorder dramatically, at least as long as the lid is closed.

All the normal tape transport controls are present, and are touch-sensitive buttons with full logic control. The small display uses liquid crystal technology rather than the (then) more common LED or gas discharge; liquid crystal displays use far less of the valuable battery power, although it does require an external light source. The battery pack is a 12 volt NiCad unit, and gives about 40 minutes continuous recording or playback.

The controls include audio dub and insert-edit. Insert is the opposite of audio dub, allowing new video to be recorded while leaving the original sound in place, but is much harder to achieve since it requires synchronising the new recording with the video tracks already present on the tape. It is however almost essential for serious editing: after cutting together the scenes you require, any abrupt joins can be covered by inserting a cutaway over them.

The machine is noisy in use, whirring motors and clunking solenoids accompanying every operation. Annoyingly for a battery operated machine, the power must be on in order to eject or insert a tape.

The matching tuner/timer unit also doubles as the mains power supply and battery charger, as for the Ferguson 3V01 system. There the similarity ends, however; the Olympus unit is fully automatic, and sends proper commands to the recorder rather than just switching the mains on and off.

The timer can handle 8 events over two weeks, plus daily recording. The events are set using controls under a flap along the bottom, which usefully has programming instructions printed on the back.

The tuner portion is an automatic search and store system, and can hold 16 channels. The time, program and channel information are displayed on a large gas-discharge display. There is a dimmer switch to reduce the display level, though I have never used the brighter setting!

The manual for the TTU specifically states that the recorder should not be placed on top of it, to ensure adequate ventilation. Unfortunately, the way the connections are arranged there is no other practical way to use the whole system. However, I ran one of these machines for years in the stacked position - and it was the recorder on top which died first.

Remote controls were available for both the tuner/timer and the recorder, though curiously only the TTU remote was infra-red - the recorder remote was connected by a wire.

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