Hi everybody

Ages ago I bought the Mishibishi HS-M55 to be used for taping music only, at half speed. I was extremely pleased with the high quality machine. The performance was impeccable and the sound characteristics (wow & flutter, for instance) better than in my B 77.

The weak point, of course, are the rubber belts that dry unfunctionable. They were changed at least once but now there's no spares to be found anywhere - let alone finding a repairman who would work with these oldie goodies .. . .

My big question is, is there a machine with similar or better performance than the HS-M55 but designed with rods instead of rubber belts ? I do realize that the whole VHS concept is way out-of-date, only that I have 40-odd tapes filled with good music, 300+ hours.

If I find, with the help of you, that there is/was a high quality Hi-Fi Nicam Stereo VHS player with half-speed and rods, then I can start chasing it from e-bay or similar places. They sometimes offer the weirdest unused machines in unopened factory packages . . . Well, one can always hope !

Appreciating all your help in beforehand.


Best regards,

Kare Ojaniemi
Helsinki, Finland

"Ages ago I bought the Mishibishi HS-M55 to be used for taping music only, at half speed. I was extremely pleased with the high quality machine."

Half speed is a bit of a mystery. The VCRs sold here had three speeds, SP, SLP and EP. But your question is more about the mechanism. Being where you are you are proabaly not on the NTSC system used in the US, it is much more likely you are on the PAL system. The only real functional difference is the color decoding and the rotary head speed is like 1,500 instead of 1,800.

When you talk about a hifi VCR you are talking about an AFM hifi system, which inherently has zero wow and flutter.

On V HS this was accomplished with an extra set of heads, which beta did not need. They had better bandwidth and could handle it.If your unit is on PAL it has a slower head to tape speed.

But your question is really about the mechanism and that should be about the same as what was sold here in the US. If so there are alot more things to go wrong than just belts.. I did many of them that required a serious teardown to replace some components down underneath. I made good ****ing money doing that because not many people can.

If it is actually the same mech, there is a clutch asenbly underneath that is unbobtainium. There is no reason for the mu7ch to be different in another country. To have PAL instead is just a matter o the board, not the mech.

There are companies out the which will sell you belts of any dimensions. The question becomes, will they ship to you ?

Kare Ojaniemi wrote:

My big question is, is there a machine with similar or better performance
than the HS-M55 but designed with rods instead of rubber belts ? I do
realize that the whole VHS concept is way out-of-date, only that I have
40-odd tapes filled with good music, 300+ hours.


Can you try to explain what "rods" are?

If you are complaining about belts, I'd figure you mean you are looking for
machines using direct drive, but for VHS, there were very few of those and
generally didn't work well.

And "half speed" is the EP or "6 hour mode"?

I know some japanese machines (like JVC) didn't have the 4hr mode, just SP
(2 hour) and EP (6 hour) but not sure how you get half using those two
figures.

-bruce