I've got two Panasonic AG-1960 VCRs (without remotes or manuals, but with the video editing controller). I understand they're not a recommended model, but I got them for free, and I plan to use them to capture some lower-value tapes that I want to capture.
I've searched online, but I haven't been able to find a manual. The best I found was a scan of a brochure on
this post. There's nothing in the
Index of User Manuals. Panasonic's website doesn't seem to have anything, and I can't find anything with Google (lots of sketchy websites, and everything that looked promising was mislabeled).
Does anyone have a copy of the operating manual for this unit that they could share?
If not, I'd appreciate some advice guidance about the front panel controls and recommended settings for capture. I don't understand many of the labels, but I assume a lot have to do with editing features I won't use. I've highlighted the ones I have the most doubts about in
red.
- PICTURE SOFT/SHARP - This appears to make the picture sharper/more blurry. Should I leave it set in the middle for capture?
- COLOR LEVEL - This seems to make the colors duller or more vivid. Should I leave it set to the middle for capture?
- AUDIO REC LEVEL - I'm not really sure, but I'm guessing this adjusts the volume when you're recording a tape? Am I correct to assume it's no relevant for playback?
- NORMAL/DETAIL/EDIT - What's this? What setting should I use? I assume NORMAL?
- OSD - What's this? I have no idea.
- MONO - What's this? I assume it's mono/stereo and I should set it to OFF to get stereo.
- DIGITAL TRACKING - I believe this is a pretty common setting that I should leave set to ON.
- S-VHS - I assume this selects the recording format, which doesn't matter if I'm only playing tapes.
- MTS - What's this? I have no idea.
- TAPE SELECT - It seems like it has something to do with tape lengths, but I have no idea why it'd need a setting for this.
- SIMUL - What's this? I have no idea. But I feel like it's a recording input feature, not for playback.
- INPUT SELECT - I assume this is the input the recorder will write to the tape. I'm assuming it doesn't really matter for playback.
- [B]VCR/TV[B] - Not really sure what this is. I vaguely recall there was a button on VCRs that were outputting via RF to switch between passing through the input signal and blocking it and transmitting on channel 3 or 4. Is that this?
- PRESET/FINE/NORMAL - What's this? I have no idea.
- CHECK/PROG - What's this? I have no idea.
- TRACKING -/+ - I assume these are the manual tracking controls if I turn DIGITAL TRACKING to OFF.
- NEXT - What's this? I have no idea.
- ANT SELECT - What's this? I have no idea.
- UP/DOWN arrows - What are these used for? I haven't seen any menus on this machine.
- OTR ON -/+ and OFF -/+ - What's this? I have no idea.
Panasonic AG-1960 Front Panel.jpg
Thanks!
