Philips’ crazy Ski Slope Cassette Deck
A look at a rather unusual vintage cassette deck from Philips. I’ve wanted to demonstrate one of these for quite some years now.
The only videos on YouTube featuring this device in action have been shot with an out of focus potato. I thought it would be nice to finally do it justice.
This is a long video as it’s split between a repair and demonstration. I didn’t plan on having to attempt the repair as this was purchased as ‘working’ - I now believe that just meant it powered up. However opening it up did give me an opportunity to show how the mechanism works, so it all worked out for the best in the end.
In other news I’ve received a few nice messages from people recently and a couple of these have also offered to send over interesting tech they found. One of these is something I’ve never seen before, not even in a picture - and it’s BNIB - my favourite four letter initialism. So hopefully that’ll come off.
Oh before I go - does anyone have a commercially released SVCD (a pressed rather than a burned disc) …it’s a long shot but if so, please get in touch.
I trust your month is going well, but if it isn’t I hope it improves sharpish.
Take care.
UPDATE: Swapped out the video for a new version with one less typo.
Comments (106)
Is it just me that punched the air when the tape dropped into the tray for the first time after the record tab adjustment? Anyone? Lol!
Amazing that such a Heath-Robinson design could be made into something commercial back then. I kind of miss that!
You might already have one, but a long reach hook and pick set can be useful for getting drive belts into tricky places. The best ones come from old VCR repair tool sets. I have a very useful one that has an S-shaped end, great for pushing/threading belts where you can't get to the other side to pull them through. Alligator/crocodile forceps are also wonderful too, you can get cheap non-medical grade ones.
After I made this video I invested in some fondue forks for this exact purpose.
That was a real major effort -and I used to fix printers. Nice to see it working, and to hear the phrase “There goes Engelbert up the ramp” :D
I'm late to the party, but WOW! LOVED this video! I could watch those cassettes on the ski slope forever. I share my awe in the level of patience you exercise with others who commented. I feel lucky to have the advantage of watching it all play out in a few minutes. Thank you for your diligence, patience, and hefty sense of humor!
I’m glad you enjoyed it - the video has been more popular than I expected.
Amazing piece of history there. Mechanical design is a lost art. Just look at the sled. This thing is great and you really have to admire the folks who figured out how to make it work and, better still, how to manufacture it.
Wow. Great video! I really appreciate all the effort you put into getting the mechanism to work and also the great video production to capture and share with us. Thoroughly enjoyed your presentation and humor. I can only chuckle when I imagine some of the off-camera moments! And of course, “Flippin’ Heck!” Is especially appropriate for the Ski-slope!
I honestly love this deck design. Makes me wonder if there was ever a multi vhs or beta machine?
Sony had changers for some of their top-loader Beta machines.
Wow! Thanks for the great video Mat. You gotta wonder what people were thinking with this one, what a terrible idea for a product!
I love a good terrible idea.
I think it's a good idea to change the voltage to 245v instead of 220v in the device, since the UK uses 240v, while Continental Europe uses 220v (the 230v written on most devices nowadays is just a technicality). I'm guessing this uses a old linear transformer, so the voltage in the machine might be a bit higher by selecting 220v and pluging it into the 240v mains. No need to worry about damaging anything, it will mostly just get more warmer than usual.
Great video btw, I dunno why, but I always though these machines would shot the tape upwards the slope with a spring or something, instead of just, you know, pushing the cassetes one by one upwards.
Unfortunately had to put off viewing of this one, but finally got the opportunity. "I'm not very good at repairing things" ... 😳 Well I'd say you did some serious rocket surgery on this one, Dr. Techmoan! Nicely done. Looks set to be a hit, barring any algorithm shenanigans. Also happy to see the Swiss Army Knife. I hope it's part of the 'regular cast' now? 😃 Speaking of, after you mentioned them in the Odd-cast, I regained my interest in multi-tools and found a bunch of new resources. One of them is a YouTube channel run by a fellow countryman of yours who calls himself Jon Gadget. An entrepreneur, apparently he ran a franchise of EDC gadget stores in the UK, now reviews SAKs and more: https://youtube.com/c/JonGadget Hope it may be relevant to you and the community!
Thanks for the suggestion.
Great video and well done repair. That grove where the counter belt did not belong into but was full of gunk: I think there might have been a belt just around that wheel to give some friction to a breaking mechanism. The left wheel seems not to break properly because it is missing. Just a thought.
I thought the same, but there’s only four belts shown in the exploded diagram and four in the belt kit. It’s a bit of a mystery.
What a journey!!! Seeing it working after all made me cry <3
I remember those! (Not always the case with the things you find.) I remember one being used somewhere for background music - can't remember where though now. Congratulations on the repair, it's the sort of thing I enjoy doing - well - attempting. :)
As always...well done!
Well done for getting that thing working. I think I would have thrown it out of the window once that tape counter belt fell off for the 3rd time. A fascinating product though.
Excellent video all around!
You have the patience of Job. Great video. Thanks
Tape, tape, *penguin*, tape, tape, *penguin*...
Truly Techmoan is the king of belts - a great job to get this working to a state where it can be demoed! As a cassette multi-changer, I think the Panasonic carousel was the better solution.
Brilliant. An engineer solving an engineers problem. Love the 2020/1 hindsight gag too.
I’ve got to imagine that someone has used a variation of that joke before, but it did come to me in a flash out of the blue...so maybe I can claim it. How do I collect commission if someone re-uses it.
Mat, where do you store all the leftover parts after you've put something back together? There was a joke about a Russian pilot in the 1980s who landed in a US air base seeking asylum, and of course they had to have a look-see. They did hand the plane back, but the joke goes that they also had a box of parts left over that they didn't know where they went.
The only inappropriate Eastern Bloc tech joke I remember is about Skodas from the 1980s when they were a lot different - ‘Have you heard about the 16 Valve Skoda? Six in the engine and six in the radio.’ I suppose you had to be there. I’ll get me coat.
Wow, Mat, I remember seeing one of these in the window of the strangely named 'Munster Radio' shop in Fulham in the 1970s - probably 72 or 73 - and was intrigued as to what it actually did and how it worked. Now, thanks to you, I have finally seen one in action. Was it worth waiting 50 years for? Well, kind of - but I'm glad I didn't hold my breath. Respect to you for persevering with that repair - well beyond my patience and digital dexterity. Have a wonderful weekend!
I'm glad you enjoyed it - hopefully it makes up for a run of less than stellar videos recently.
This was great on so many levels. Caught the two-colo(u)r cassettes right away, particularly the Trek-themed ones ("Let That Be Your Last Battlefield"). I am simultaneously amazed and amused by this device. Amazed to think that Philips got this to work in the days of hand-drawn engineering drawings and amazed to think that anyone thought that this device would ever run longer than the warranty period ... and amused that they'd even try! What an AMAZING Rube Goldberg device! If this sounds like some sort of complaint, understand that this is EXACTLY why I am a Patreonizer of Mat's channel. Brilliant! And a well-done video to boot, as we've all come to expect. Thanks, Mat.
Well I should thank you - videos like this wouldn't be possible without the support of Patrons. If I spend all week trying to get something working without success and as a result have no video that week, whilst that week's income will be down, Patreon support means that I can still pay the bills and start again.
Wonderful video! I am sure everyone on Patreon gave a slight internal cheer when you first mentioned it wasn’t working and would have to repair it.
I've no idea if this information is any use to you, but the two regular Blu-ray players I've had won't play VCDs, but the UHD Blu-ray player will, though it does treat them as data discs, so you have to open the mpg files "manually" as it were.
Boss gave me the day off of work. I didn't know what I was going to do. A 40 minute video is exactly what I needed!
You could always go for a walk.
Found a possible svcd on ebay https://www.ebay.com/itm/The-Truth-About-Diabetes-svcd-/154357277521?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49286
I've had automated ebay searches active for a few years - just the occasional weird documentary oddities like this pop up (most likely mislabelled too) - you won't believe the number of VHS tapes people have called VHDs over the years - it must be into the hundreds now. I'm really hoping for a SVCD movie - I'm sure I saw some Hong Kong releases back in the day.
I've had to abandon repair of my CED player, since one of the capacitors (probably) snapped off, leaving me with no idea where it goes, and I've never soldered anything in my life. So, kudos to you for persevering with this. My Phillips reel-to-reel has similar tone/volume controls and I managed to tread on the clear plastic bit after replacing the belt. So now, I search in vain for a replacement!
These experiences sound all too familiar to me.
Thats a great video Mat. Love watching your audio repair videos. Those tape colours are pretty cool
Philip /= Phillips —- mind blown! I’d assumed they had the same spelling and were the same company. What you learn from Mr Techmoan’s. channel!
I assumed the same thing. Perhaps Philips avoided using Phillips screws because they thought Phillips had screwed them on the name. Maybe the Philips Philco issue is also a Philips Phillips issue.
Well done Mat, these beasties were a nightmare even when new, no-one at our firm had seen one. Muggins got the job. One I had to repair had had the string cut.
What do you use to lube the plastic gears? I can not find an answer as everyone has a different suggestion I figure you have dose enough of these to make a good recommendation. Thanks and love the Videos!
most plastic gears are nylon and they are self lubricating.
How chuffed were you when that tape finally moved to the bin? I'm just viewer and I just about found my breath!
It was definitely a bit of a relief - it meant I hadn’t wasted two days.
What is the relationship between power and a plastic wheel? Why would it need to changed simply because one country has 60Hz?
The motor doesn't care what frequency the power comes in at - it just spins, but at 60 Hz, it would spin faster. The different sized cogs compensate for that. The ol' πr² shenanigans :P My math brain isn't working well enough to try to figure out which way or anything CAV/CLV related though :P
Ugh! Did you lose the. will to live once you realized you couldn't access the guts? I would have really hesitated to move forward.
Absolutely worth the effort...seeing as I didn't have to do it.
When you first showed this ages back I assumed it was going to fire the cassettes up the ramp and back down again, so it worked with just one tape.
Could watch this all day — like having a tabletop fountain, but with background music 😊
Congrats at getting that damn fiddly thing working. The resultant video was great especially from a historical perspective. What's amazing is I can't imagine how much work must have gone into the initial design. How many iterations did they go through to bring it to market?
Yes it’s amazing how quickly they were on this, just a couple of years after the first home HiFi decks. They weren’t hanging around.
Really enjoyed seeing this after your Akai Invert-O-Matic video from back when - it's an at-long-last sequel. It's amusing seeing how folks back when went to great extremes just to do something we think is simple. Glad you got hold of one that was serviceable and that you took the time to fix it for us - much appreciated!
Splendid video! I saw a comment about cassettes possibly being heavier back in the day. My mother loved to tape record us as children. She then started to trot those tapes out 20...30...dare I say 40 years later to play for friends of mine when they’d come over. OH HOW I PRAYED those tapes would break! But, they seemed to be pretty good stock back then! Also the Longines Symphonette tape recorder they were made on took TONS of abuse from me!
Matt said they were short tapes. Maybe C90s with a full load of tape making them heavier would work better.
Flippin' heck thanks for that wonderful repair video :)
Did they ever make prerecorded multi-cassette sets that were automatically sequenced, which would be required for this player?
I don’t think they sold enough for that to be worthwhile - but then again Philips were in the BGM business so might have made a set of those that would have flowed in a certain order.
You don't do too badly at repairing things for someone who is just some one messing about.
Last time I saw a Q-Tip in real life was to stick up my nose for Covid testing... I use an EarScratcher for my ears: can't poke your eardrums with those... https://earscratcher.com/earcleaningset/product/earscratcher-2/
I’ve never seen those before, but I like it. The only “ear related” product I have seen looking anywhere close to that, is the tube cleaning tool that came with the Phonak custom molded silicone ear plugs i got in the army. (They basically look like a U shaped loop made of a ≈ 0.3mm. diameter (28 AWG) spring steel wire, at the end of a 2-3cm. plastic rod.
When it comes to pandemic preparedness, hindsight is 2020... Another cracking video Matt. Thank you!
12:54 🤔 I’m curious to see how long it’ll take, once the video goes public, for someone to notice and complain about that belt having a 180 degree twist right before the transition to the next scene! 😏 Matt. As always, your impassioned interest in mechanical solutions and quirks, and the willingness to film (using proper gear, and professional looking shot compositing) and talk about in great detail, is much appreciated. Thank you, and well done sir!
Well thanks -there were a few focus issues here and there but I think it’s bearable. As for your first point - if they do, they can have a link to this video I prepared earlier that explains more https://youtu.be/kOzmcVaQStU
Thank you for showing us the mechanism. Now I kind of know what to expect if I ever take mine apart. I have versions branded Philips, Norelco, and Ampex. Just slightly different controls. All have lost whatever adhesive holds the aluminum trim on.
It sort of reminds me of the pointless machine where the only thing it does is switch itself off.
It makes me think of a cross between that toy with an escalator on one side and a slide on the other where penguins automatically climb up the stairs, go down the slide and return to the stairs...and that money box with a skeleton that grabs any coins you put on top and pulls them inside.
30:02 - you're the only person I've heard use the verb "to wazz" in this context other than my father. Must be a Central Lancashire dialect thing.
In case you want to correct it before going public, your health advisory at 14:11 (which gave me a good laugh) has a typo.
Brilliant video , I'm always amazed at how calm you are when fixing stuff , I would of flung it across the room multiple times while repairing it 🤣
That’s hopefully going to be a Patreon Exclusive complete with bleeps and facepalms.
Just FYI, Matt, typo in the q-tip overlay: “Heath advisory”. Loved the video!
Flipping ‘L’.
You must have the patience of a Saint. For someone who says they know not much about the workings of inside your tech, you do a damn good job.
That was great. I know you are just a 'tinkerer' but it's great going on the journey with you. I watch loads of 'experts' fixing things in their workshops on YouTube often making a huge balls up whilst confidently patronising the viewer acting as if they know what they're doing. You dive in as I would and this is much more fun to watch.
As always - great show! Come to think of you today, when I saw this one, didn't know Elcaset were ever "portable".... "Sony EL-D8 Elcaset Portable Tape Recorder" https://i.postimg.cc/tRhvwdjL/bild.png
I’ve had one on my ebay wishlist for years. One did come up once in Japan for the price of a car.
Genuinely loved that video. Best one in a while imho. Great stuff.
"Hindsight is 20/20... And it's 2021 now" lol... Best line I've heard for ages. You only get 1 year to use it!
The "Fruit Salad" tapes were a great idea for the demo and also made for a very eye catching thumbnail. Curious if you'll see a spike in views for this one. Well deserved for all that work!
Long-form (BLT!) Techmoan is the best Techmoan! 🤗
I just hit pause at 14:40 to order a packet of pointy Q-tips, thanks for the... well, tip. :)
Finally on the Patreon credits:). Wooohooo can stop sending the Polaroid’s now:) Was waiting for this video since I saw the original with the single side version. Always thought it would shoot the tape around, pleasantly surprised to see it’s a lot smarter than that and just uses balance and pushing:). Kinda reminds me of domino rally back in the 80’s (especially with the yellow and orange tapes loaded).
I was pretty sure I have some pressed SVCDs but I only found pressed VCDs. I guess you have enough of those...
Yes plenty of VCDs - SVCDs have proved elusive.
I loved the rhubarb and custard cassettes. Really made it visually easier to see how it worked and was very satisfying as well. Also made me hungry for R&B boiled sweets.
🤤 Thanks a bunch.. You’ve got me salivating with that comment! 😄
Just a thought...I wonder if the cassette tapes of yester-year were slightly heavier than the ones you were using. It might make it a bit less "fiddley."
I had a feeling it might be weight or it might be rough edges on modern shells.
That was great! Shame to not see it fully functional in the audio department, but I understand your time constraints! Thanks!
Watching you do these repairs is so much more enjoyable than actually suffering through it myself. Thank you for your service (manual).
Cool, thank you very much for showing! Interesting design experiment indeed, just like the Akai (and for the Nakamichi solution we are most probably better of at other YouTube channels). My first cassette deck as I was a kid was from the early 70s from Philips, I recognise the way they are built. My N2520 was very plain top loader, with unspectacular specs compared to end-of-the-80s decks, but hat a few interesting "experiments" on it, like Philips' own noise reduction system DNL, and also Dolby B, both in discrete components and explained very nicely in the Service Manual (yes, I'm fortunate there that Dutch is my mother language!)
I remember having a Philips brochure in the1970s which included that eccentric device. I was a bit smitten with their Hi-fi kit in those days 😊
Wonderful! I was hoping that you would cover this fascinating machine since I first heard about it. These clever mechanisms from the 1970s/80s are fun to watch. I still love when my Nak RX202 pops out and flips the tape. Music was a bit of fun back in the day.
That is such a fantastic machine! So ingenious.
Bizarre, that's the better word. It reminds me of those mid 20th-century retro fantasies about the future where robots would do the paperboys' work throwing the morning papers at the people's porches.
Nice!
Oh wow you finally got a hold of one? Sweet
Yes - in ‘fully working’ condition too.