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How do I hookup my 1986 TV to DVD/VHS player? No RCA ports...

You know if someone could make an ATSC converter look like those old Philips/Jerrold/General Instruments cable boxes it would be great.
 
I thought it's a pretty ordinary TV in my opinion, a white 1995 G&E TV with a built in VCR.
Yes a combo unit, that's what I was thinking. These were often made in styles not found in regular TVs. Such as, in the case of yours, white plastic (never found on regular TVs of that era) and commands arranged in the style of a remote controller. It has a wooden swivel? Now, I'm not sure if that is a design feature normally found on these kind of sets. That seems pretty odd to me.
What's wrong with the VCR?
You can send pictures. This is the off-topic section after all...
It's pretty cool that my 1986 TV has styling that resembles TVs from the 60's!
Which ones? It does not look like a 60's television to me. I think that it could pass off as a 70's monochrome set, but 60's?
 

When I first got this used TV, the VCR was so badly neglected there was no picture at all. I used a cleaning tape and it completely fixed it! Wow! The VCR was working for about a couple years afterwords but then it stopped playing tapes. It's always had this odd issue where sometimes you have to turn the TV off and on to get it to play a tape. Now it will make a split second static sound with a picture jitter when I try to play a tape, then nothing else happens. I can't exactly describe it.

I usually have bad luck these years with used VCRs. (I can't afford new)

Used VCRs only last for up to a few months then they die on me. Mechanical failures or tape eating is what happens. I don't know how to fix them so I take them to the recycle center. Plus, if a VCR just once eats one of my tapes, it loses all my trust and has to go.

I will miss the good old days of casually watching VHS movies. I just stopped watching them this year because I'm tired of my VCRs breaking so often and I'm not made of money. I much preferred VHS over DVDs because the tapes are a lot more durable than discs. Also, many tapes I watched look surprisingly good after a couple decades of rot.

Now I plan to only play tapes if I'm digitizing them. (I still have to learn how)

R.I.P. VHS: Childhood to 2022.
 
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More pics:


The two little holes you see on the bottom left are labeled "focus" and "screen" with adjustment screws inside. Looks like an odd design idea if you ask me.

BTW... I'm not Allan White... As you can see, he was probably the original owner of the TV.

I'm at least the 3rd owner. It was given to me from one of my old friends. It's not ironic that vintage stuff usually has had multiple owners haha...

What I meant by saying I thought it was just an ordinary TV is just that I was only a kid back then so I don't really know what normal CRT TV's were like, other than more commonly being black units.
 
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Ok, I have to admit... I think it's weird that my TV was made by General Electric. That's the fridge company!!!
 
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General Electric was involved in (or OEM'd their name onto) everything.
TV's, radios, computers, home automation, appliances, lightbulbs, lighting (duh!).
I have the smaller version of that same TV without the VCR inside of it.
 
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General Electric's main line of business is industrial electrics, aviation, power generation and healthcare. They've been involved in finance, chemicals, broadcasting, appliances and yes--computing. They divested themselves of much of the stuff described in the previous sentence. Typical 20th century mega-conglomerate.
 
Now it will make a split second static sound with a picture jitter when I try to play a tape, then nothing else happens.
What's the picture? I'm guessing that it loads the tape, but fails to turn the reel. Are you able to rewind or fast forward? I don't recommend that you mess with a broken VCR with a cassette that you like.
I usually have bad luck these years with used VCRs. (I can't afford new)
Of course. These were devices that were meant to last a couple of years without breaking. Back then when spare parts were available you could fix many issues. But today, new parts will have to be made if people want to keep their machines running.
New VCRs aren't being made anymore. The last manufacturer was Funai. We're in the postmodern age now, enjoy your flash memory and cloud storage because it's all you're going to get. It's a travesty but it is what we're in now. The good years are behind us.
Used VCRs only last for up to a few months then they die on me. Mechanical failures or tape eating is what happens. I don't know how to fix them so I take them to the recycle center.
If I remember correctly, "tape eating" is most often due to a bad capstan belt. In most models, the capstan motor also runs the drive gear via a belt. If the belt is bad, what happens is that the capstan takes tape out of the cassette, but because of the loose belt the drive gear doesn't have time to put it on the take-up reel. This results in the infamous "eaten tape" when the cassette is ejected from the mechanism. Other reasons for this bad behaviour can be a broken drive system (for example, a dried-up rubber drive wheel if that's what the VCR uses) or a misaligned mechanism. In computer-controlled mechanism alignment, which I'm guessing is what 100% of VHS VCRs made after the 70's have, a broken or dirty "mode switch" is the most common culprit.
Taking them to the recycling center is a really bad idea. It takes parts out of circulation, and what about the people that collect them.. At least save the Sanyos for me if you get your hands on them. I've saved a couple of VCRs from going to the recycle center, including one of the first VHS model ever made. It's so old that it has mechanical tuners instead of computer-controlled ones. It's really cool if you ask me, even if it does not work.
I will miss the good old days of casually watching VHS movies. I just stopped watching them this year because I'm tired of my VCRs breaking so often and I'm not made of money. I much preferred VHS over DVDs because the tapes are a lot more durable than discs.
Yes. I came to the realization that this era was over in ~2017. I had a cathartic experience in 2016 after buying a TV series on VHS. With no working machine to view the cassettes in good quality (4 heads, hi-fi), I spent a month or two fixing my old Sears (Sanyo) VCR from the early 90's. I managed to keep it working for the duration of the 7 cassettes (approximately 18 hours). Watching the cassettes profoundly affected me, I will never forget that year of 2016. Unfortunately, the VCR failed not too long after and in 2017, after failing to acquire another one of similar quality, I came to the realization that the VHS era was definitely over. Because of the evil influence of recycling centers and propaganda, I cannot even find a good broken unit to fix, and even if I could there's the problem of the ever-diminishing quantity of spare parts. But, I continue to keep everything that I have that's broken. In the hope that one day, myself or someone smarter than me will figure out a way to make them sing again..
Another thing that I preferred about VHS was the superior picture quality. I've heard rumours that DVD has better technical specifications than VHS. Eh, it's probably true, but because DVDs are much more difficult to master than VHS cassettes, a bad DVD release will always be worse than a bad VHS one. With VHS, there's no such thing as low bitrates, interlace issues or pixelization.
The two little holes you see on the bottom left are labeled "focus" and "screen" with adjustment screws inside. Looks like an odd design idea if you ask me.
I bet these are the adjustments on the flyback transformer, nothing odd 'bout it.
I have the smaller version of that same TV without the VCR inside of it.
What's the model?
 
The reasons are I live in Alaska which is cut off of course, and I also don't have any friends I know of who both fix and use VCRs. But if anyone here is interested, I can spare my upcoming dead VCRs to sell.

Or perhaps I can pay someone here to fix my broken VCRs?


Back to the picture jitter issue:

When it happens, the screen stays blank. The tape does not turn or play at all. Fast forward and rewind do not work.
 
You know if someone could make an ATSC converter look like those old Philips/Jerrold/General Instruments cable boxes it would be great.
You gave me a great project idea! I was about to rescue my old 70s 13" color tv from storage for my office, and I have an old 80s cable box and an ATSC converter. Would be fun to combine the 2. :D
 
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