I would love to buy some cosmetic parts from the scrapper, but being in the UK, they would be a pain to send. Working on a Japanese market HF900 right now.
The only thing I liked about Beta was the fact the head-chips (disc) rotated and not the upper drum, unlike VHS. Lost count of the number of technicians that I worked with (and myself) had things fall in to a running open VHS machine from the top of the bench hitting the rotating assembly.
Another advantage is if the tape had something sticky on it (apple / orange juice ect) it wouldn't stuck to the spinning head and end up with 30 feet of tape wound up inside it.
I have a machine with a similar issue with the drum. It spins, but catches. I would assume it would be easier to just replace the drum completely, or is there a way to get in and repair it?
Should have had that done under warranty. I changed several. Even after the 1 year warranty was done Sony was fixing it. There was a service bulletin issued so all the authorized service centers knew. I discovered that problem btw. I reported it and sony investigated and found the problem and fixed it
Excellent! Any that can be saved from parts from dead units are a plus! I never had a beta machine. But wish I did. The only encounter I had with a beta machine was to play training tapes at a place I worked. I had to change the tapes myself to watch them all. 1989. Was interesting that only one reel was visible on the cartridge. (Is it considered a cartridge?)
You got it. I pulled this from the 900 that I used the drum motor to fix that 300 that also had a bad head. I put a good head from my parts machine in to fix that one, so its only fair that I trade the drum from this one (same person sent me the 300 and 900) so I swapped heads.
I don't know how it was in Canada but Here in the USA Betamax only stuck around for about a year then all the machines and tapes went to VHS and Betamax disappeared.
Beta held a 45% market share throughout the 80s and wanted in the 90s. We sold them right to the end at the shop. Even after Sony brought our VHS beta continued to sell. Mostly to people that already had beta. They wanted a new machine to keep them going when the old one died. Mist used them for time shift and had laserdisk for rentals.
It is possible to modify an SL-HF900 to allow it to record and play on the βIs speed. Have you ever performed that modification or serviced a machine that had been modified like that?
Question, been working on my Technics SL-P1200 professional CD player. On the motherboard the L and R Chanel’s voltages are controlled + and - side by a B941 and D1266 power transistors 3A 60v. It seem these might be arranged in a push pull configuration. I have noticed by testing there is a unbalanced voltage between +and - rails Borge should be 13.1 v .however one rail is being pulled down to 12.0v. The other thing is one D1266 power transistor is getting red hot very quickly in powering up,laser can be seen to focus,but no disc spins or TOC read? Any thoughts as to why the D1266 is getting so hot and guidance where to look. I’ve ordered some new B941 and D1266 from Panasonic to see if this makes any difference, my theory being possible one Power Transistor might have shorted. Thanks jason
That’s a happy ending! Here’s my SLHF900. This BIII tape playback tracking drifts on some tapes. Plays back fine on another machine. Do you think this is bad heads, CTL track head, servo, etc? Hoping to get an idea where you would go with this? Here’s a quick clip: ua-cam.com/video/982eSz94bOY/v-deo.html
Hi Dave, I have just bought an sl-hf900 from japan and it has that fault, is there anything other than swapping the head disk i can do, it has the clogging fault.....Cheers Aaron UK.
Not that I am aware. They filled the gap with epoxy bur i doubt that can be done on an assembled disk as it would have been done before the chips installed and heads lapped.
Well done Dave, Another decent machine saved :-D
I have never seen glue go as black as coal.
I would love to buy some cosmetic parts from the scrapper, but being in the UK, they would be a pain to send. Working on a Japanese market HF900 right now.
the copper coil mb set up use for experiments with magnets etc
I had the 1st ever domestic portable Betamax VCR. Sony SL-3000 back in the early 80s
The only thing I liked about Beta was the fact the head-chips (disc) rotated and not the upper drum, unlike VHS. Lost count of the number of technicians that I worked with (and myself) had things fall in to a running open VHS machine from the top of the bench hitting the rotating assembly.
Another advantage is if the tape had something sticky on it (apple / orange juice ect) it wouldn't stuck to the spinning head and end up with 30 feet of tape wound up inside it.
@@12voltvids yep! I think Sony had it figured out long before JVC did. You get the references.
I have a machine with a similar issue with the drum. It spins, but catches. I would assume it would be easier to just replace the drum completely, or is there a way to get in and repair it?
I still have my 900 with the clogging head problem.
Should have had that done under warranty. I changed several. Even after the 1 year warranty was done Sony was fixing it. There was a service bulletin issued so all the authorized service centers knew. I discovered that problem btw. I reported it and sony investigated and found the problem and fixed it
Excellent! Any that can be saved from parts from dead units are a plus!
I never had a beta machine. But wish I did. The only encounter I had with a beta machine was to play training tapes at a place I worked. I had to change the tapes myself to watch them all. 1989. Was interesting that only one reel was visible on the cartridge. (Is it considered a cartridge?)
You got it. I pulled this from the 900 that I used the drum motor to fix that 300 that also had a bad head. I put a good head from my parts machine in to fix that one, so its only fair that I trade the drum from this one (same person sent me the 300 and 900) so I swapped heads.
I don't know how it was in Canada but Here in the USA Betamax only stuck around for about a year then all the machines and tapes went to VHS and Betamax disappeared.
Beta held a 45% market share throughout the 80s and wanted in the 90s. We sold them right to the end at the shop. Even after Sony brought our VHS beta continued to sell. Mostly to people that already had beta. They wanted a new machine to keep them going when the old one died. Mist used them for time shift and had laserdisk for rentals.
It is possible to modify an SL-HF900 to allow it to record and play on the βIs speed. Have you ever performed that modification or serviced a machine that had been modified like that?
Yes it is possible, but I have't personally done it.
I have two Sony C7 devices, but I can't find a good repair technician here in Madeira Island.
Question, been working on my Technics SL-P1200 professional CD player.
On the motherboard the L and R Chanel’s voltages are controlled + and - side by a B941 and D1266 power transistors 3A 60v. It seem these might be arranged in a push pull configuration. I have noticed by testing there is a unbalanced voltage between +and - rails Borge should be 13.1 v .however one rail is being pulled down to 12.0v. The other thing is one D1266 power transistor is getting red hot very quickly in powering up,laser can be seen to focus,but no disc spins or TOC read?
Any thoughts as to why the D1266 is getting so hot and guidance where to look. I’ve ordered some new B941 and D1266 from Panasonic to see if this makes any difference, my theory being possible one Power Transistor might have shorted.
Thanks jason
No idea. Only ever worked on one, I was given one about 12 years ago. Got it going and sold it for 700.
@@12voltvids ok thanks anyway
Iron can get seized up sometimes....For example I went to an Iron Maiden concert in 1988 (age 14) and this tour was show stopping amazing!
Next-level 'dad joke'. I love it.
Your My Betamax Hero
I love Betamax fixing videos
Nice deck
And now back in storage.
SLHF900 Great Machine Beata Max , looks like a bad head drum
The one that was in it came out of the 1000 that sits in my studio to transfer tapes.
SL-HF900: I live, I die, I live again!
This one never died. Ur has the drum robbed to make the 1000 work again.
Halo sir my vcr modal vt-p88 Hitachi Head
I'm looking for a japaness 900 i dont like the american 900 because they dont record in B1s heck they wont even playback B1s
Yes it will play b1s but not b1shb
That’s a happy ending! Here’s my SLHF900. This BIII tape playback tracking drifts on some tapes. Plays back fine on another machine. Do you think this is bad heads, CTL track head, servo, etc? Hoping to get an idea where you would go with this?
Here’s a quick clip:
ua-cam.com/video/982eSz94bOY/v-deo.html
Could be the pinch roller
lable you please help me
IC chip CPU digons card
Hi Dave, I have just bought an sl-hf900 from japan and it has that fault, is there anything other than swapping the head disk i can do, it has the clogging fault.....Cheers Aaron UK.
Not that I am aware. They filled the gap with epoxy bur i doubt that can be done on an assembled disk as it would have been done before the chips installed and heads lapped.