U-max is possibly what we call U-matic, a Sony semi-professional video system. I don't know any more as I've not obtained a machine (yet!). V2000 is/was a Philips (machines were also made by Grundig, but AFIAK the standard was Philips) system. It was beautiful. For one thing tapes could be turned over like audio cassettes. For another there was no control track amd no tracking control. The video heads were mounted on piezo-actuators and a fairly complex servo system caused them to follow the video tracks on the tape, based on signals recorded on said tracks. Since the heads can follow the tracks no matter what speed (within reason) the tape is running at, you can have noise-free slow motion, fast motion, still frame, etc. I can't remember the bandwidth, but I think it was better than normal VHS (although probably not better than S-VHS). I have a pair of VR2022's (one UK-PAL, one SECAM) awaiting some bench space. They look interesting to work on - mechanically there's almost nothing - no belts, no idler, no mode switch, no back-tension band,etc. Just 5 motors (one for each spool, one forthe capstan, one for the video head, one for the loading mechanism), a few optoswtiches, a couple of microswitches, and not a lot else. Backtension, for example, is provided by applying a small current to the rwwind motor - something that's a lot simpler/more reliable than the VHS-style tension band But it makes up for that simplicity in the electronics. There's a dozen-or-so plug-in cards, 4 or 5 of them for the various servos. 2 microcontrollers (at a time when microcontrollers were not common in consumer stuff). Looks possible to repair, though, and I have the manual. -tony