Philips VR1500 remote and TBC?
 

I recently bought a nice Philips VR1500 and I'm really impressed with the quality of playback. There is however one issue. I believe the seller gave me the wrong remote. It is a Philips remote and partially works, but I can't access the menus or pause playback. Right now I can start the tape and that is actually fine. See the pictures for what I have, and from the manual what the remote should look like.

Attachment 13395

My question is: Do I need to access the menus or are the default settings fine? And is there a way to operate the machine without a remote or with another method? I see these modern remotes, could they work? If I am correct this machine is the same as the JVC HR-S9600 so could I use those remotes for my machine? The JVC remote looks really similar to the one displayed in the manual and they are much easier to find online.

Another question, I also got my hands on a DMR-ES10. It was only 15 euros so I thought why not. However, do I actually need this passthrough TBC? The quality already looks really good to me and if I do need it, do I have to disable the TBC on the VCR?

Thanks for the help on this forum, I appreciate it a lot!

I know for at least for the VR1100, the JVC remotes do not work, presumably they used different IR codes. In europe, Philips both made their own vcrs for a while, and released ones that seem to share internals with other brands, including JVC, Funai, LG and even Sharp and Panasonic for some of their very old ones. I guess the remotes would not be cross-compatible between all of those. Maybe one for one of the other JVC-made ones would work, but idk. Besides the original, I have also used one of these universal ones which had codes for it (and most other VCRs.) so maybe one of those, or another type that's programmable via USB or similar could be an option. (Ones that can only be programmed by number codes are a bit more hit and miss.)

The main thing you do want to change in the menus is to turn off the on-screen display. Depending on the tape, it can be useful to change the picture setting too (DISTINCT is the equivialent of EDIT on the JVC models.) Unlike on the jvcs, it's changed with a button on the remote rather than a menu setting. I find the standard picture setting (NATURAL/AUTO) to often be a bit on the soft side but YMMV.

The ES10 can be helpful in any case, capture cards often don't like the signal you get from the VCR with the TBC on when the on-tape video is missing or bad. The TBC can also react badly to some tapes, and give tearing or jitter vertically, so it can be useful to turn off the TBC and let the ES10 deal with jitter correction instead.

Philips is JVc clone, so remote is required. You must access menus on JVC decks.

JVC LP20303 works on almost all JVC S-VHS decks. Not sure about this clone, but I'd suspect likely.

- JVC has excellent line TBC.
- ES10/15 has strong+crippled line TBC with non-TBC frame sync.

First like TBC in workflow wins. So if JVC on, ES10/15 is inert. Must turn off JVC to use ES10/15. While some may think it's then pointless to have JVC TBC deck, there are other reasons to own it.

I don't think the JVC LP20303 remote control works with the Philips. I have just tested the Philips with the JVC LP 20878-014, JVC LP20878-016 and the JVC LP20667-002. The Philips does not respond to the JVC remote controls.
The Philips is based on the JVC HR-S 8600 which is identical to the HR-S 9600 but without the flying erase head, manual set and erase index marks and the folding front panel.
You need the remote control to make settings in the menu: OSD, Digital 3R, DSPC (Digital Studio Picture Control checks the condition of the tape used during recording and playback and performs tuning for optimal recording and playback images).
The Smart Picture button to select Auto, Soft, Brilliant (Distinct), sharp and the Speed button to turn Auto tracking off or on (plus the Prog+ & Prog- programme buttons for manual tracking).
The remote control number is LP20402-007A.
There are a few on Ebay (originals and also replacements). I think the Philips remotes for the VR1000, VR1100, VR1600 can also control the VR1500.

Hi all, thanks for the replies! I understand that it is worth investing in getting a remote, to play around with the settings.

Thanks for testing it. I was also looking for the part number of the remotes, but couldnt find those.

Now I can search more specifically. I wonder how you know all these part numbers?

I might try out this option. It's much easier to get, and they do support my VCR. I also found out that the DMR-ES10 I have also does not have a remote. So this could be a great solution for both devices.


Thanks for the explanations once again. I'll try out what looks best once I have a capture device.