Any professional VCRs that play LP and SLP/EP?
 

Are there any professional VCRs that can play LP and EP. I know there are some time-lapse VCRs that play those modes but they play at x2 speed since they are time-lapse. I already have a JVC BR-S822DXU for my sp vhs and it works great I just need something like it that can play the other modes. I want it to at least have interlaced componet preferably sdi and xlr.

Yes.

But you may be thinking only of "big Bertha" type medical VTRs, or Panasonic editors for use in studio settings. Those type of units, no. EP/LP was consumer, not pro usage. The "prosumer" decks came first, then a latter generation of "professional" decks came next (prosumer + pro features, of that era).

It's not just the poor availability of pro VCR's for those slow speeds. Very slow speed/narrow track analog video and audio formats are the hardest to play back optimally and so require the greatest expertise. Dirt on tapes and tape paths, slight tape imperfections, even slight misalignments etc have more of an effect on picture and sound than on larger, more rugged formats. It takes more skill, not less, to extract the best out of the most economical formats.

Yea Im going to modify my VCR to play lp and ep. Still deciding the best way to go at it.

Modify? Funny joke. You would have to remove the original drum and put a double azimuth one in place for narrow tracks, Replace the capstan motor control chip with one one that operates at 2 or 3 speeds and hope that the drum servo gets along with the capstan servo, Essentially getting a different VCR.

The Panasonic prosumer AG-1980 may be about as close as you will get to a good playback of consumer LP/EP/SLP recordings. They have the narrow track playback heads needed to read SLP cleanly. No SDI or XLR; however, you can easily convert the audio from unbalanced RCA to XLR and adjust the level from the nominal consumer -10 to professional +4 with an economical device, e.g., a simple 2 channel mixer parked next to the VCR.

VHS is recorded as Y and C signals on tape. You can easily convert to SDI as needed downstream after your TBC and Proc Amp. Where in the chain to do the conversion is a matter of identifying the best point considering the relative quality of conversions the various pieces of gear are capable of.

Modifying a working SP-only VHS VCR to play SLP is reinventing the wheel. It might prove an interesting project, but only if time is not worth money. However, it is possible that some equipment might have to slower speed capabilities built into the machine's components, just not activated in the controls and or firmware. Identifying that is problem.

This reminds me of guys that will get a car, then replace almost everything on the car, to make it like another car. When done, it cost 2x+ as much as simply getting the other car. Okay?

Yea Im thinking of getting the hr-w5. Is it a good vcr?

That's a W-VHS deck, It is not professional it is just high end deck, But if that thing breaks down good luck repairing it, there is no parts for it, For the money you would spend on that dinosaur you can get 3 S-VHS decks and some money left for maintenance.

Yea it can play normal vhs too. But the breaking down part sounds like a panasonic thing. Ive been able to repair many jvc vcrs. Im thinking of getting the hr-x7 now. It should be better for normal vhs since its an svhs player.

It's like riding the Rolls Roys for a doctor appointment, Yes they play S-VHS tapes and so does a S-VHS deck, Stick with what's known to work reliably unless you have W-VHS tapes and want to digitize them. The HR-S#### series are the most common and parts can be exchanged between them.