omg....I have a Mitsubishi HSU-54 and I had the *exact* problem as the one featured in this video. Tape got stuck, wouldn't eject, blah, blah, blah. Watched your video and...gulp....took the plunge. Followed your instructions and now my machine works like a charm and the video cassette was saved without damage. Couldn't have done this without you. Thanks ever so much.
Wow. Great job. I would have had a panic attack after removing the first two screws let alone over half of the machine! As far as reliability goes, I don't know a lot about the Mitsubishi units, but the Matsushita's from the 80's seemed rock solid.
I hate when they make them so hard to get too, hidden catches, pushing down tabs to release plates etc etc, under case screws, it's like cracking a secret code on some of these machine. I kid you not, I had a Philips model the other day where a board to deck screw was strategically placed under a tight ribbon cable to stop you unscrewing it, also most the ribbons were hard soldered on. Some of these machines really weren't designed to be serviced. I love the ones where the drive deck just comes out via 4 screws on top, wish more were nice to work on.
wow. Lots of good questions about vcrs and vhs care....its really nice to see that this stuff is explained so anyone can understand :) I haven't posted on here in a long time and I'm always very interested in watching your videos 12voltvids...
Hi i wanted to ask you, do you know what light blue/greenish color grease is called? our supra sv91r vhs from 94 uses it and id like to use the same. im surprised that grease is still soft and working, but the bottom part on which parts slide has some wear marks so i assume i should add some more maybe the grease has somehow partially disappeared.
Those dang belts! Aha, the mystery of "simply" changing a belt. I prefer the sledge hammer method. But IF you know the secrets, (and few people do), it's a doable fix. I have a very old RCA Selectavision CED "video record player", a two bit belt ad the old relic worked fine. Our local GW had a bunch of CED records, I took them all at 1$ each. One guy asked me if they were laser disks, I explained what they are. I also have a very fine old Pioneer LD player. It's like playing 16mm film on my B&H, or a reel to reel tape, some of us enjoy the technology and engineering behind that old stuff. But sometimes, the hard part is to leave that sledge out in the shed, when...
Thanks for sharing all this great information. From the way you were talking, I suspect you've repaired lots of these machines. I've got an older Mitsubishi S-VHS VCR that is very heavy. I'm guessing it's one of the older, better machines. Regards, Tom
+THOMMGB I was the master service tech in a busy warranty depot for Sony, Panasonic, Mitsubishi, Toshiba, JVC and RCA between 1984 and 2003 when I formally retired from the consumer electronics service business, and changed careers. Now it is more of a hobby. Some guys golf, or go hunting and fishing. I tinker with old electronics, and play with cameras in my spare time. The money I make from these videos funds my main hobby which is an expensive two. Photography and Ham radio. Both of those have expensive toys. My wife never complains when I walk in with a new 1000 lens now because she knows that it is essentially a free lens thanks to my channel.
Interessante Videos, sehe ich mir sehr gern an. Lehrreich sind sie auch. Danke dafür! Grüße aus Deutschland! Interesting Videos, I like to look at this. Instructive they are too! Thanks for that. Greetings from Germany!
Is there a timing marking on that side gear that you have to set the tension on? How do you know that it needs tension and how much tension to set it at?
I have one of those VCR's, great machine, I'm experiencing unstable picture on my Sony Led TV, on the top portion and some shaky lines all over, maybe needs some maintenance. thank you for sharing this amazing video. 73 from YS1ER.
I have a dead HS-U780, wondering if I may have a similar issue. If I find I do have a bad drive belt, do you have any go to sites online where I may be able to order them? Also, where do you find the part numbers of the parts you need?
I have an HSU760 I'd like to restore for exactly the reasons you gave Nick Washburn a year ago (plus, I like to tinker with things). The thing is 25 years old, and when I cracked the case open I found the belts had turned to goo and gotten in the gears. I cleaned up the goo, but it took forever. Before I go any any further down the rabbit hole (looking for belts to install), I noticed that although both motors cycle when the unit gets power, the loading motor does not run (no whirring) when I insert a tape. Does this mean that even after I replace the belts the unit still won't load a tape? Or is the HS-U760 somehow smart enough to just refuse to spin it's wheels if it detected something was wrong with the belt situation at power-up?
I forged ahead and replaced the belts. I confirmed that everything works, just not when it's supposed to. One of the gears unexpectedly just fell out when I was working on replacing the drive belts (before I found your video and viewed your warning not to let the gears get misaligned.) Now when I press PLAY, the parts align for fast forward (I think), while REWIND (fast version) wraps the tape around the head as if to play... I can't figure out how to align the gears properly. So close, and yet so far! Any ideas on how to align the gears correctly? I know it's too much to wish for, but a video would be awesome. I see you're still active, I hope UA-cam forwards this message to you!
+Fivos Sakellis Most of the mutsubishi vcr had linear. Much more reliable. So did the Sony beta. Hitachi also used real transformers. I should do a service on my old Hitachi multi system (Netscape, pal, secam) machine. It is a real beauty. Old as the hills an like an old timex watch just keeps on ticking. Speaking of old timex, when I was in kid if you had a timex, you were considered 2nd class. People thought they were junk. Man I wish I still had my old electro mechanical timex electric watch. That would b worth a few bucks these days. The balance wheel had a coil on it and it used a small battery to drive it. This was long before the accutron or quartz watch. I do still have my old seiko quartz though. I sold my timex electric to a friend to buy the seiko.
+Fivos Sakellis The early ones were very poorly designed. They used frequency control to regulate and operated on the lower side of resonance.To increase voltage they raised the frequency which would bring the transformer closer to resonance and the voltage would come up. Lower the frequency and the transformer falls out of resonance and the voltage drops. The problem when capacitors dried up the frequency would continue to rise and the power supply couldn't regulate. Eventually the transformer ended up in full resonance, and the 12V rail shot up to something like 70V and the dummys didn't have a crowbar on the power rails. The first few of those units I opened up I just looked in the top and said "Cool" then got on the phone excited to tell the customer that their 2 year old 1000.00 VCR had literally blown up. All the capacitors had exploded, there was schrapnal all over the inside, and all the chips had nice holes burned in them. I knew what was coming, an irate customer that would scream at the owner for selling them a piece of junk, and it put a smile on my face knowing that my boss was in for it on Saturday, as that is usually when pissed off customers came in It was payback for the crap I had to put up with.Of course that quickly got me relived of the duty of telling a customer that their unit had just blown up real good.
+alphabeets The yellow stuff I use is what used to come in the pinch roller assembly box from Mitsubishi. White lithium grease is also good. The black graphite grease dried out and gets sticky.
This is a wonderfully helpful video, thank you! Do you happen to know what size of belts you used for this machine? I have one that needs new belts but I don't have the room to take it apart and let it sit while I have new ones ordered in.
I do have a vcr question, I recently purchased a Toshiba S VHS Hi-FI F990 vcr ...from what I read on line that they were considered one of the best Toshiba has ever made...What is your thoughts on this unit ??
I wonder how much people are paying to repair these 25+ year old machines that are worth im guessing worth less than 20 dollars. What am I missing here? What makes these machines worth repairing other than nostalgia? I love your videos and find them fascinating and very informative. I also love the idea of fixing things rather than just throwing them out. I hate the fact that we make so much cheap garbage that just ends up in a landfill. But that being said, the economy is what the economy is. Just curious on your take.
VHS came in 2 flavors standard VHS and super VHS. Standard VHS recorded about 230 lines of resolution. Super VHS 400. The tapes are the same size. Super vhs would record and play standard tapes. If a special super vhs tape was in the machine it was recorded in super VHS format. Super VHS tapes will not play on your run of the mill standard VHS. Recording frequency and bandwidth different. Most people that used svhs did so for a reason. To record their family videos from their cameras at the highest quality we had available. Now they have videos of family they want to digitize and the only machine to play the tapes is broken and working svhs machine like working beta machines command a high price on Ebay. Lots of untested (broken) machines around. So owners of these high end decks want to fix them.
I have a Mitsubishi HS-U100. It plays, fast forward, records, however when it rewind's or tries to rewind, it blows the fuse. Any idea what the issue could be?
Check the belt on the capstan pulley that drives the take up/supply Hubs. Belt has been know to get really sloppy and when going into rewind it binds jamming the capstan motor and causing fuse to blow.
Hi Dave, I have a Sony SLV795HF model VCR where the fast forward and reverse and play do not work. Could you give some advice as to what I could do to fix this.
Smashing job, another vcr saved from the bin :-D Im glad that im not the only one that cleans the heads that way, for really bad heads that dont want to come clean, i use cardboard from a cerial packet, works every time :-D. Im not a lover of the single pcb type, i like to remove the plate to see all the machanism. But im a stick in the mud lol :-D.
+zx8401ztv The older designs with the separate boards were very easy to work on. In leter years VCRs became a throw away commodity. I have a few vintage units I would like to put up, but they are going to need belts, and at the price of some belts these days it is questionable if I should even bother for a machine that will go back in storage and never be used.For really dirty heads I use the back of the fingernail trick I have shown in other videos, It is just the right hardness to remove a stubborn head clog, and not risk damaging the heads. Essentially what I do is run the machine with a tape that has something recorded on that I don't care about, as the tape will get scratched in this process, and then hold the back of my nail up against the tape allowing the head to pass under the tape / nail. The resulting slight impact of the running drum will dislodge the most difficult clog, and deposit that dirt onto the tape. I made a sacrifice cleaning tape with color bars on the entire tape just for that purpose. Once a pictrure shows up I stop it, eject tape. Then clean in normal way and verify operation. When the tape gets to the end I chuck it.
+12voltvids Ive never heard the fingernail/tape method, i used cardboard as its soft enough not to kill the heads but works like a porus file. Whatever works is the way :-D I have an old jvc piano key video, i dont use it as i gave up on tv, but when i replaced the heads and dc head motor it worked quite well for many years, but the dc motor wore out and the picture began to sway/breathe and i could not adjust the analog servo to make it stable. Just lost interest, it happens :-(
12voltvids .I wish you were here near Toronto Canada . I had to drive 40 miles to a Mitsubishi repair shop 3 times within a year of purchase. I had also payed $150.00 for 3 years warranty. When it ran there was nothing better than my Mitsubishi RSU 1100. It had a full metering leveler for sound . I would go over to friends and record all of the compact discs they had that I wanted. I had a great recording of U2 's Joshua tree and dIRE sTRAITS first disk with money for nothing . My favorite was all of Black Sabbath my brother had all of them up to Mob Rules. And of course The Scorpions . But as I said I got a lemon. That's what the repair man said in broken english. He said he was trained in Japan as an expert. Moved to Canada and had his own repair shop in toronto because of all of the japanese vcr's that we were buying . He said he took the arm causing the problem over and over and gave up. I had bought a nice traveling case for it to bring to friends to watch movies and listen to music . Sadly it started eating tapes and when it destroyed my sons first recording in 1988 that was it and the warranty was bring it in and we will look at it but it would be weeks before they could see it. Anyhow watching you it seems to me it would not have been that hard to fix if he really wanted too. It sat in my basement for 15 more years and 3 different locations . I wanted to transfer my 1986 wedding from beta to vhs but had to pay for that. I watched my wedding with my kids when we bought a dvd - vhs combo that was 20 years ago . All vcrs are gone only the case remains . My next step is to have 150 plus super 8 transferred to digital before my kids forget what we did for them thought the years including all christmas presents from 1990 to 2018 .
Hi, I really appreciate your work, doing such interesting things that less by less fade out in time...old electronics begin to be forgotten, happy to see people with high quality skills doing videos on yt. I have a little(I hope) problem with my GoldStar Super VHS VCR-1993 , after a while collecting dust and counting years, I decided to bring him alive from oblivion.. all works fine but when I want to fast forward / rewind a tape it doesn't do the command, it's preparing but not starting. What can cause such a faulty behaviour, any thoughts ? Thanks and keep doing such interesting and educative videos !
Mitsubishi HS-F5601V ( it's the same mechanism ) - all the mechanism is blocked... the deck mechanism seems to be fragile and also the small manual wheel for the motor ) - problem n°1 : the 2 belts have melted ; I changed the 2 belts but nothing is better, I'd say it's worst. but there is probably an other problem that I don't understand. where to find the service manual for this mechanism on this planet ? ( Mitsubishi Electric does not care, they don't reply when we ask for it )
I have a Panasonic omniVision VCR and got it for free but when put a tape in it would load but not turn the take up real then I pulled the tap off the video head and pushed reject it took up the slack and gave it back to me then moved the take up real be hand throw tape and it played but I thought it was the belt and since it was made in 2000 I didn't want get out of alignment. my new Panasonic DVD\VCR\USB\SD card reader and Digital tuned. it has been very well oiled.
+Darkwing duck videos Take up reel not turning could be a worn belt. Some units have a large belt that drives from the capstan, and a thin play belt from the clutch assy that sits between the take up and supply hubs. Also these clutch assy tend to get gummed up when the grease dries up in them.
+12voltvids thanks for the help vcr from the same place a Samsung CRT wich I use for old shows like darkwing duck because it has better picture then my flat screen . I have vcr that still works but the Hi-Fi doesn't its sounds like static on one channel and the other channel works think its the audio head .
+Darkwing duck videos Yes you are on the right track.It very well could be the audio head that is wearing.VHS HiFi uses a technique called deep level FM recording.The audio is recorded to a deep layer of the tape using a +30 and -30 degree recording angle. Then the video heads come along and record the video, in the same frequency band on top of the audio. The carrier for the FM video erases much of the audio track, but because the angles are vastly different, the video head that records over top of the +30' audio signal is at -6" and the -30 audio is overlaid by the +6 video head. That gives 36' angle separation between the tracks.Ths system works, fine until the audio AFM heads start to wear. Then the already weak signal becomes even weaker and you het that classis FM white noise where the signal drops below the demodulation level required.By contrast Betamax uses the same heads, they just shifted the video carrier up by 400KHz, so create enough space for 4 FM carriers to be inserted between the chroma low frequency, and the video FM carrier.Beta needed 4 carriers to prevent cross talk between the video tracks, because the head angle on Betamax was +-7' and therefore there is a fair bit of signal from adjacent tracks present, so they went with 4 separate carriers to prevent this. VHS had to do it the way they did due to the smaller head drum, and lower video carrier frequency. There was not enough space to shift the carrier up, but that is what they did with S-VHS. The widened the bandwidth, and shifted the carrier way up. Naturally that used a different tape formulation to achieve this.
+Mathew Lerandeau The problem with vhs on an HDTV is the picture looks like crap due to the up scaling. A 720 set isn't as bad as a 1080, but nothing looks as good as a standard definition TV. The best one I have is that 42" SD plasma that is in the background of my work bench. That Panasonic has a fantastic picture on all sources. It will accept an HD signal and down res it to 480 but it is still very clear. SD content looks as good as any SD content I have ever seen. Mind you that TV was 7500 in 2004, and it was given to me.
+Mathew Lerandeau The upscale capability of your TV makes a huge difference - Not all HD TVs are equal in that regard. I've got a Phillips that upscales standard definition exceptionally well, and no matter what source I throw at it it looks amazing, but I've got a newer Panasonic (much higher spec) HD TV and SD video of any source (VHS, Amiga, Atari ST, Neo Geo etc) looks absolutely terrible and full of pixelation. It depends how they resize the image and what post processing filtering they apply. But with regards to some tapes looking good and some foggy - very odd, maybe its the source material on the tapes themselves. I do remember some VHS tapes looking far shaper and clearer than others, even when connected to a CRT TV.
+GadgetUK164 I have a Panasonic Plasma T.V. I've had my T.V since 2010 and I bought a new VCR cause my other one wouldn't play the tapes anymore and on that VCR I always had a crystal clear picture but with my Funai VCR some tapes are foggy and other tapes are like a DVD picture. Why is it like that?
+GadgetUK164 Many factors can affect this.Is it an original or a copy? 2nd and 3rd generation tapes deteriorate quickly, and that deterioration is many times more apparent when viewed on newer TVs.I have a plan. I am going to make a video, and show the difference in quality, when shooting the screen of different TVs showing the same content played on the same VCR, and show multi generation copies of the same clip. I will probably shoot this in 4K resolution for the very best representation on youtube, but I will show it on CRT, LCD, 480P plasma, 720P plasma, and a couple of 1080p Plasma, so you can see the difference in the quality of displays showing identical content.
+fadhle matrook Any of the S-VHS machines should do a fine job of transferring standard VHS material to DVD. SVHS machines, due to the requirement to handle higher frequencies used in Hi band recording will play standard VHS tapes to their full potential. Some cheap VHS machines don't. They cut corners and put in just the bare minimum as far as equalization and noise canceling.
Belts are getting very hard to find these days. Most can be ordered online. Retail parts suppliers aren't stocking many now because there isn't the market there once was. Belts for 3/4" and reel to reel tape decks are getting really hard to find.
VCR's are a dime a dozen now... but just wait in 20 years these will become collector items just like all failed technologies ...the high dollar super VHS will be the most desirable...
Svhs command quite a high price these days. I did find a nice JVC Svhs et machine at a thrift store for 15 bucks Nad just about fell over myself. Yes I grabbed it and it works perfectly. No remote though. Most do sell for several hundred dollars especially the high end units. The main reason people look for these is archiving family videos or people setting up small video archiving companies like I do. We provide that service for people with small numbers of tapes to archive where they don't want to invest in the equipment or learn how to do it or just don't have time. I really can't see anyone recording onto video tape these days. I haven't used tape in 10 years at least. The last tape format I used, and Stu have cameras for is hdv and with the exception of the odd video I have done on the channel, the last time I used that gear professionally was 2006, when I shot my last wedding. I haul it out from time to time to do a retro technology UA-cam video just to exercise the gear. I should shoot one using my fx1 camera some day because it really is a good camera. 3 ccd so the color is fantastic. Only down side is I have to download the tape onto the computer and that takes time. With file based I just plug the SD card in the computer and drag the files to my storage drive and go.
Very good job mate but you didn't remove an important thing. The auto head cleaner arm! These are piece of shit when they get old. They make the heads dirtier and they can damage them too.
+Fivos Sakellis Right I didn't show it on the video, but I did remove it. I have the shots in the can for a future video covering that very topic. I figures out long ago that I can make more by making several videos that just cover a single topic rather than do everything at once. That's a reason for example I did the diagnostics on a plasma, and then did another video of the parts replacement procedure. You'll see the cleaning / auto cleaner removal arm in a month or so.
Remembering where all the screws go is a big memory thing. Good repairing. You've taught me a lot, too. Thank you.
omg....I have a Mitsubishi HSU-54 and I had the *exact* problem as the one featured in this video. Tape got stuck, wouldn't eject, blah, blah, blah.
Watched your video and...gulp....took the plunge. Followed your instructions and now my machine works like a charm and the video cassette was saved without damage. Couldn't have done this without you. Thanks ever so much.
That the point. To show that there is really nothing that scary, and when shown how these things work many can get their old units working again.
You not only saved the machine... You saved Frosty! Great work!
Excellent repair as always dear mate. You give very nice tips for beginners to troubleshooting such machines. Regards,
It's like a story telling exercise. Have learnt quite a bit from you and put it to good use. Thanks.
Another excellent repair! Happy New Year!
Always amazed at your knowledge
Wow. Great job. I would have had a panic attack after removing the first two screws let alone over half of the machine! As far as reliability goes, I don't know a lot about the Mitsubishi units, but the Matsushita's from the 80's seemed rock solid.
Happy new year 12voltvids and we are happy you are still repair.
Awesome video, I learned so much about VCR. Thanks
I hate when they make them so hard to get too, hidden catches, pushing down tabs to release plates etc etc, under case screws, it's like cracking a secret code on some of these machine. I kid you not, I had a Philips model the other day where a board to deck screw was strategically placed under a tight ribbon cable to stop you unscrewing it, also most the ribbons were hard soldered on. Some of these machines really weren't designed to be serviced.
I love the ones where the drive deck just comes out via 4 screws on top, wish more were nice to work on.
yes. My Mitsubishi HSU-54 has those four deck screws right in plain sight and easy to remove to get to the components below.
Used to hate those things glad to see the back of them, good post HAPPY NEW YEAR
THANK YOU! I was able to repair my U510 with 2 mushy belts!!
wow. Lots of good questions about vcrs and vhs care....its really nice to see that this stuff is explained so anyone can understand :) I haven't posted on here in a long time and I'm always very interested in watching your videos 12voltvids...
Brilliant work, thank you so much for this video .
Wow!!! You definitely know what you're doing. AWESOME!!!
I just remembered that the digital counter/timer started to run by itself without a VHS tape in the machine a few days before the VCR stopped working.
Hi i wanted to ask you, do you know what light blue/greenish color grease is called? our supra sv91r vhs from 94 uses it and id like to use the same. im surprised that grease is still soft and working, but the bottom part on which parts slide has some wear marks so i assume i should add some more maybe the grease has somehow partially disappeared.
It's the same stuff as mollykote. Lithium grease. Comes in every color of the rainbow.
Those dang belts! Aha, the mystery of "simply" changing a belt. I prefer the sledge hammer method. But IF you know the secrets, (and few people do), it's a doable fix. I have a very old RCA Selectavision CED "video record player", a two bit belt ad the old relic worked fine. Our local GW had a bunch of CED records, I took them all at 1$ each. One guy asked me if they were laser disks, I explained what they are. I also have a very fine old Pioneer LD player. It's like playing 16mm film on my B&H, or a reel to reel tape, some of us enjoy the technology and engineering behind that old stuff. But sometimes, the hard part is to leave that sledge out in the shed, when...
Thanks for sharing all this great information. From the way you were talking, I suspect you've repaired lots of these machines.
I've got an older Mitsubishi S-VHS VCR that is very heavy. I'm guessing it's one of the older, better machines.
Regards, Tom
+THOMMGB I was the master service tech in a busy warranty depot for Sony, Panasonic, Mitsubishi, Toshiba, JVC and RCA between 1984 and 2003 when I formally retired from the consumer electronics service business, and changed careers. Now it is more of a hobby. Some guys golf, or go hunting and fishing. I tinker with old electronics, and play with cameras in my spare time. The money I make from these videos funds my main hobby which is an expensive two. Photography and Ham radio. Both of those have expensive toys. My wife never complains when I walk in with a new 1000 lens now because she knows that it is essentially a free lens thanks to my channel.
nice fix hopefully it will now work for a good few more years.
Interessante Videos, sehe ich mir sehr gern an. Lehrreich sind sie auch. Danke dafür!
Grüße aus Deutschland!
Interesting Videos, I like to look at this. Instructive they are too! Thanks for that.
Greetings from Germany!
Is there a timing marking on that side gear that you have to set the tension on? How do you know that it needs tension and how much tension to set it at?
Out of curiosity, was that frosty the snowman tape a vhs or svhs tape?
Just a VHS.
@@12voltvids ok just wanted to be sure.
I have one of those VCR's, great machine, I'm experiencing unstable picture on my Sony Led TV, on the top portion and some shaky lines all over, maybe needs some maintenance. thank you for sharing this amazing video. 73 from YS1ER.
Awesome video as always ! I'm waiting for two `blue gears` that I ordered for both my Sony HIFI VCR`s .Happy New Year !!Thank you
I have a dead HS-U780, wondering if I may have a similar issue. If I find I do have a bad drive belt, do you have any go to sites online where I may be able to order them? Also, where do you find the part numbers of the parts you need?
I have an HSU760 I'd like to restore for exactly the reasons you gave Nick Washburn a year ago (plus, I like to tinker with things). The thing is 25 years old, and when I cracked the case open I found the belts had turned to goo and gotten in the gears. I cleaned up the goo, but it took forever. Before I go any any further down the rabbit hole (looking for belts to install), I noticed that although both motors cycle when the unit gets power, the loading motor does not run (no whirring) when I insert a tape. Does this mean that even after I replace the belts the unit still won't load a tape? Or is the HS-U760 somehow smart enough to just refuse to spin it's wheels if it detected something was wrong with the belt situation at power-up?
I forged ahead and replaced the belts. I confirmed that everything works, just not when it's supposed to. One of the gears unexpectedly just fell out when I was working on replacing the drive belts (before I found your video and viewed your warning not to let the gears get misaligned.) Now when I press PLAY, the parts align for fast forward (I think), while REWIND (fast version) wraps the tape around the head as if to play... I can't figure out how to align the gears properly. So close, and yet so far!
Any ideas on how to align the gears correctly? I know it's too much to wish for, but a video would be awesome.
I see you're still active, I hope UA-cam forwards this message to you!
Also I noticed that this VCR has a good old linear power supply instead of a switching one.
+Fivos Sakellis
Most of the mutsubishi vcr had linear. Much more reliable. So did the Sony beta. Hitachi also used real transformers. I should do a service on my old Hitachi multi system (Netscape, pal, secam) machine. It is a real beauty. Old as the hills an like an old timex watch just keeps on ticking. Speaking of old timex, when I was in kid if you had a timex, you were considered 2nd class. People thought they were junk. Man I wish I still had my old electro mechanical timex electric watch. That would b worth a few bucks these days. The balance wheel had a coil on it and it used a small battery to drive it. This was long before the accutron or quartz watch. I do still have my old seiko quartz though. I sold my timex electric to a friend to buy the seiko.
Most of the Panasonic's from that era have switching and capacitors always go bad.
+Fivos Sakellis The early ones were very poorly designed. They used frequency control to regulate and operated on the lower side of resonance.To increase voltage they raised the frequency which would bring the transformer closer to resonance and the voltage would come up. Lower the frequency and the transformer falls out of resonance and the voltage drops. The problem when capacitors dried up the frequency would continue to rise and the power supply couldn't regulate. Eventually the transformer ended up in full resonance, and the 12V rail shot up to something like 70V and the dummys didn't have a crowbar on the power rails. The first few of those units I opened up I just looked in the top and said "Cool" then got on the phone excited to tell the customer that their 2 year old 1000.00 VCR had literally blown up. All the capacitors had exploded, there was schrapnal all over the inside, and all the chips had nice holes burned in them. I knew what was coming, an irate customer that would scream at the owner for selling them a piece of junk, and it put a smile on my face knowing that my boss was in for it on Saturday, as that is usually when pissed off customers came in It was payback for the crap I had to put up with.Of course that quickly got me relived of the duty of telling a customer that their unit had just blown up real good.
I see there are a few different formulations for the Molykote. Which do you recommend for general lubing of consumer electronic gear? Thanks!
+alphabeets
The yellow stuff I use is what used to come in the pinch roller assembly box from Mitsubishi. White lithium grease is also good. The black graphite grease dried out and gets sticky.
+12voltvids Thanks. I'd be curious what the formulation number is on the packet you got from Mitsubishi.
+alphabeets PG-641
This is a wonderfully helpful video, thank you! Do you happen to know what size of belts you used for this machine? I have one that needs new belts but I don't have the room to take it apart and let it sit while I have new ones ordered in.
I do have a vcr question, I recently purchased a Toshiba S VHS Hi-FI F990 vcr ...from what I read on line that they were considered one of the best Toshiba has ever made...What is your thoughts on this unit ??
I wonder how much people are paying to repair these 25+ year old machines that are worth im guessing worth less than 20 dollars. What am I missing here? What makes these machines worth repairing other than nostalgia? I love your videos and find them fascinating and very informative. I also love the idea of fixing things rather than just throwing them out. I hate the fact that we make so much cheap garbage that just ends up in a landfill. But that being said, the economy is what the economy is. Just curious on your take.
VHS came in 2 flavors standard VHS and super VHS. Standard VHS recorded about 230 lines of resolution. Super VHS 400. The tapes are the same size. Super vhs would record and play standard tapes. If a special super vhs tape was in the machine it was recorded in super VHS format. Super VHS tapes will not play on your run of the mill standard VHS. Recording frequency and bandwidth different. Most people that used svhs did so for a reason. To record their family videos from their cameras at the highest quality we had available. Now they have videos of family they want to digitize and the only machine to play the tapes is broken and working svhs machine like working beta machines command a high price on Ebay. Lots of untested (broken) machines around. So owners of these high end decks want to fix them.
Thanks for the reply :)
Great info...Just wondering what the call sign is and are you fairly active on the bands. Happy New Years 73 cul de ab2bj Fred
I have a Mitsubishi HS-U100. It plays, fast forward, records, however when it rewind's or tries to rewind, it blows the fuse. Any idea what the issue could be?
Check the belt on the capstan pulley that drives the take up/supply Hubs. Belt has been know to get really sloppy and when going into rewind it binds jamming the capstan motor and causing fuse to blow.
@@12voltvids Thank you. It is working now. I hope one day you will come across old Hitachi top loaders and do a video.
Hi Dave, I have a Sony SLV795HF model VCR where the fast forward and reverse and play do not work. Could you give some advice as to what I could do to fix this.
Smashing job, another vcr saved from the bin :-D
Im glad that im not the only one that cleans the heads that way, for really bad heads that dont want to come clean, i use cardboard from a cerial packet, works every time :-D.
Im not a lover of the single pcb type, i like to remove the plate to see all the machanism.
But im a stick in the mud lol :-D.
+zx8401ztv The older designs with the separate boards were very easy to work on. In leter years VCRs became a throw away commodity. I have a few vintage units I would like to put up, but they are going to need belts, and at the price of some belts these days it is questionable if I should even bother for a machine that will go back in storage and never be used.For really dirty heads I use the back of the fingernail trick I have shown in other videos, It is just the right hardness to remove a stubborn head clog, and not risk damaging the heads. Essentially what I do is run the machine with a tape that has something recorded on that I don't care about, as the tape will get scratched in this process, and then hold the back of my nail up against the tape allowing the head to pass under the tape / nail. The resulting slight impact of the running drum will dislodge the most difficult clog, and deposit that dirt onto the tape. I made a sacrifice cleaning tape with color bars on the entire tape just for that purpose. Once a pictrure shows up I stop it, eject tape. Then clean in normal way and verify operation. When the tape gets to the end I chuck it.
+12voltvids
Ive never heard the fingernail/tape method, i used cardboard as its soft enough not to kill the heads but works like a porus file.
Whatever works is the way :-D
I have an old jvc piano key video, i dont use it as i gave up on tv, but when i replaced the heads and dc head motor it worked quite well for many years, but the dc motor wore out and the picture began to sway/breathe and i could not adjust the analog servo to make it stable.
Just lost interest, it happens :-(
12voltvids .I wish you were here near Toronto Canada . I had to drive 40 miles to a Mitsubishi
repair shop 3 times within a year of purchase. I had also payed $150.00 for 3 years warranty.
When it ran there was nothing better than my Mitsubishi RSU 1100. It had a full metering leveler for sound . I would go over to friends and record all of the compact discs they had that I wanted. I had a great recording of U2 's Joshua tree and dIRE sTRAITS first disk with money for nothing . My favorite was all of Black Sabbath my brother had all of them up to Mob Rules.
And of course The Scorpions . But as I said I got a lemon. That's what the repair man said in broken english. He said he was trained in Japan as an expert. Moved to Canada and had his own repair shop in toronto because of all of the japanese vcr's that we were buying . He said he took the arm causing the problem over and over and gave up. I had bought a nice traveling case for it to bring to friends to watch movies and listen to music . Sadly it started eating tapes and when it destroyed my sons first recording in 1988 that was it and the warranty was bring it in and we will look at it but it would be weeks before they could see it. Anyhow watching you it seems to me it would not have been that hard to fix if he really wanted too. It sat in my basement for 15 more years and 3 different locations . I wanted to transfer my 1986 wedding from beta to vhs but had to pay for that. I watched my wedding with my kids when we bought a dvd - vhs combo that was 20 years ago . All vcrs are gone only the case remains . My next step is to have 150 plus super 8 transferred to digital before my kids forget what we did for them thought the years including all christmas presents from 1990 to 2018 .
another good one, thank you...
Hi, I really appreciate your work, doing such interesting things that less by less fade out in time...old electronics begin to be forgotten, happy to see people with high quality skills doing videos on yt.
I have a little(I hope) problem with my GoldStar Super VHS VCR-1993 , after a while collecting dust and counting years, I decided to bring him alive from oblivion.. all works fine but when I want to fast forward / rewind a tape it doesn't do the command, it's preparing but not starting. What can cause such a faulty behaviour, any thoughts ?
Thanks and keep doing such interesting and educative videos !
Mode switch most likely
Mitsubishi HS-F5601V ( it's the same mechanism ) - all the mechanism is blocked... the deck mechanism seems to be fragile and also the small manual wheel for the motor )
- problem n°1 : the 2 belts have melted ; I changed the 2 belts but nothing is better, I'd say it's worst.
but there is probably an other problem that I don't understand. where to find the service manual for this mechanism on this planet ? ( Mitsubishi Electric does not care, they don't reply when we ask for it )
I have a Panasonic omniVision VCR and got it for free but when put a tape in it would load but not turn the take up real then I pulled the tap off the video head and pushed reject it took up the slack and gave it back to me then moved the take up real be hand throw tape and it played but I thought it was the belt and since it was made in 2000 I didn't want get out of alignment. my new Panasonic DVD\VCR\USB\SD card reader and Digital tuned. it has been very well oiled.
+Darkwing duck videos Take up reel not turning could be a worn belt. Some units have a large belt that drives from the capstan, and a thin play belt from the clutch assy that sits between the take up and supply hubs. Also these clutch assy tend to get gummed up when the grease dries up in them.
+12voltvids thanks for the help vcr from the same place a Samsung CRT wich I use for old shows like darkwing duck because it has better picture then my flat screen . I have vcr that still works but the Hi-Fi doesn't its sounds like static on one channel and the other channel works think its the audio head .
+Darkwing duck videos Yes you are on the right track.It very well could be the audio head that is wearing.VHS HiFi uses a technique called deep level FM recording.The audio is recorded to a deep layer of the tape using a +30 and -30 degree recording angle. Then the video heads come along and record the video, in the same frequency band on top of the audio. The carrier for the FM video erases much of the audio track, but because the angles are vastly different, the video head that records over top of the +30' audio signal is at -6" and the -30 audio is overlaid by the +6 video head. That gives 36' angle separation between the tracks.Ths system works, fine until the audio AFM heads start to wear. Then the already weak signal becomes even weaker and you het that classis FM white noise where the signal drops below the demodulation level required.By contrast Betamax uses the same heads, they just shifted the video carrier up by 400KHz, so create enough space for 4 FM carriers to be inserted between the chroma low frequency, and the video FM carrier.Beta needed 4 carriers to prevent cross talk between the video tracks, because the head angle on Betamax was +-7' and therefore there is a fair bit of signal from adjacent tracks present, so they went with 4 separate carriers to prevent this. VHS had to do it the way they did due to the smaller head drum, and lower video carrier frequency. There was not enough space to shift the carrier up, but that is what they did with S-VHS. The widened the bandwidth, and shifted the carrier way up. Naturally that used a different tape formulation to achieve this.
How do you watch your VHS tapes? Do you use a HD T.V or a standard T.V?
+Mathew Lerandeau
The problem with vhs on an HDTV is the picture looks like crap due to the up scaling. A 720 set isn't as bad as a 1080, but nothing looks as good as a standard definition TV. The best one I have is that 42" SD plasma that is in the background of my work bench. That Panasonic has a fantastic picture on all sources. It will accept an HD signal and down res it to 480 but it is still very clear. SD content looks as good as any SD content I have ever seen. Mind you that TV was 7500 in 2004, and it was given to me.
12voltvids I have a HD T.V and some tapes look like new other tapes are foggy. Do you know why that is?
+Mathew Lerandeau The upscale capability of your TV makes a huge difference - Not all HD TVs are equal in that regard. I've got a Phillips that upscales standard definition exceptionally well, and no matter what source I throw at it it looks amazing, but I've got a newer Panasonic (much higher spec) HD TV and SD video of any source (VHS, Amiga, Atari ST, Neo Geo etc) looks absolutely terrible and full of pixelation. It depends how they resize the image and what post processing filtering they apply. But with regards to some tapes looking good and some foggy - very odd, maybe its the source material on the tapes themselves. I do remember some VHS tapes looking far shaper and clearer than others, even when connected to a CRT TV.
+GadgetUK164 I have a Panasonic Plasma T.V. I've had my T.V since 2010 and I bought a new VCR cause my other one wouldn't play the tapes anymore and on that VCR I always had a crystal clear picture but with my Funai VCR some tapes are foggy and other tapes are like a DVD picture. Why is it like that?
+GadgetUK164 Many factors can affect this.Is it an original or a copy? 2nd and 3rd generation tapes deteriorate quickly, and that deterioration is many times more apparent when viewed on newer TVs.I have a plan. I am going to make a video, and show the difference in quality, when shooting the screen of different TVs showing the same content played on the same VCR, and show multi generation copies of the same clip. I will probably shoot this in 4K resolution for the very best representation on youtube, but I will show it on CRT, LCD, 480P plasma, 720P plasma, and a couple of 1080p Plasma, so you can see the difference in the quality of displays showing identical content.
I have quastion about S-VHS, What brand of machaine is Beter to TransportOld VHS tape to DVD, ?? >
+fadhle matrook Any of the S-VHS machines should do a fine job of transferring standard VHS material to DVD. SVHS machines, due to the requirement to handle higher frequencies used in Hi band recording will play standard VHS tapes to their full potential. Some cheap VHS machines don't. They cut corners and put in just the bare minimum as far as equalization and noise canceling.
Same issue only with my Emerson EWD2202 combo player as it's on the VCR side the DVD side is fine though.
Thanx for the video, it helped, only problem is where I can puchase the drive belts :(
Belts are getting very hard to find these days. Most can be ordered online. Retail parts suppliers aren't stocking many now because there isn't the market there once was. Belts for 3/4" and reel to reel tape decks are getting really hard to find.
Several hundred repair in the day. No wonder dvd and dvr replaced the vcr.
Great repair
Cheers bro I'm subscribed 😎 greetings from Germany
VCR's are a dime a dozen now... but just wait in 20 years these will become collector items just like all failed technologies ...the high dollar super VHS will be the most desirable...
Svhs command quite a high price these days. I did find a nice JVC Svhs et machine at a thrift store for 15 bucks Nad just about fell over myself. Yes I grabbed it and it works perfectly. No remote though. Most do sell for several hundred dollars especially the high end units. The main reason people look for these is archiving family videos or people setting up small video archiving companies like I do. We provide that service for people with small numbers of tapes to archive where they don't want to invest in the equipment or learn how to do it or just don't have time. I really can't see anyone recording onto video tape these days. I haven't used tape in 10 years at least. The last tape format I used, and Stu have cameras for is hdv and with the exception of the odd video I have done on the channel, the last time I used that gear professionally was 2006, when I shot my last wedding. I haul it out from time to time to do a retro technology UA-cam video just to exercise the gear. I should shoot one using my fx1 camera some day because it really is a good camera. 3 ccd so the color is fantastic. Only down side is I have to download the tape onto the computer and that takes time. With file based I just plug the SD card in the computer and drag the files to my storage drive and go.
I will tell you that these ads go on for about 4:45 long , there is 4 massive ads
Very good job mate but you didn't remove an important thing. The auto head cleaner arm! These are piece of shit when they get old. They make the heads dirtier and they can damage them too.
+Fivos Sakellis Right I didn't show it on the video, but I did remove it. I have the shots in the can for a future video covering that very topic. I figures out long ago that I can make more by making several videos that just cover a single topic rather than do everything at once. That's a reason for example I did the diagnostics on a plasma, and then did another video of the parts replacement procedure. You'll see the cleaning / auto cleaner removal arm in a month or so.