Welcome to Retro Repair Guy, the ultimate destination for retro electronics enthusiasts. The channel is dedicated to restoring retro and vintage electronics from the 60s through 90s. I specialize in restorations bringing these beloved gadgets back to life, showcasing the beauty and functionality of these classic pieces.
It's a hub for like-minded individuals who appreciate the design and innovation of old electronics. My videos feature in-depth restorations of vintage electronic equipment, occasional reviews and entertaining rants about the golden era. My goal is to preserve and celebrate the nostalgia of these iconic gadgets, while also providing practical tips and advice for enthusiasts looking to repair and restore their own vintage electronics. My videos are designed to be informative, entertaining, and accessible to both novice and experienced enthusiasts and perfect for anyone who has a passion for retro electronics.
Things were made such good quality I still have my Childhood VCR 1985 Zenith thing is a tank . I’ve held onto most of my DVD players & collect physical media DVD , Blu-ray & 4K .
Thankyou this useful is coz I need to clean mine I’ve got the little brother the RX7, the reason I choose that over this was it has more sounds and the programmable effects that can pitch bend, delay and pan which is an amazing feature, just a shame there was no individual outputs but you just are sure you get the levels right before Edit I see you’re a big BTTF fan Me too 👍🏾
Hmm. I have an HR-S8000U that looks to have an identical mechanism. I recapped my power supply and I also applied rubber rejuvenator to the idle and pinch roller, but no luck. It has trouble playing on the first try. It also won't rewind, but it will fast forward. I found a company in Canada that has replacement pinch rollers, so I'm going to order one.
HI, I would like to know what was causing the buzzing sound you heard when turning the volume control. Was it a bad earth, capacitors, heads or something else? I don't recall hearing you explain what the actual fault was, except to replace certain parts, which is common when doing a refurbish or repair. I just watched your video because I have to repair a Defiant Reel to Reel, small form. Similar to the ones used in the M.I.P shows in the 60s. The Concorde FC 20, is the one I wanted but couldn't find one. Anyway, the only problem with the Defiant, is that it doesn't run FF, or FR but it does play, quite well. I know the motors are running so it shuold be easy to fix.
Hi! This proves to me you did not watch the video as I specifically said they used the 68 and 69 during the filming and used to change the tail lights to match and showed the brochure with the original tail lights. But thanks for watching.
Is it posible to separste a clock from the radio part , ... and Then... run the Clock as a separate peace ... ? ??? ( a) of course, knowing which additional new electronic cirqutery to build (or ... (?) cut out from the original unit )... b)previously , knowing how the Clock unit is In fact run and electronicaly controled . Can you make an episode along this idea, please ? I have a clock ... but have no clue how it works. Want to learn... to do this project. Thanks ! 🎉😂🎉.
What set of skills should one have to get into restoring old electronics? Are parts easily available or is cannibalizing other broken systems a better idea? I'd love to repair these as a hobby and maybe waaaay down the road make a small bis just selling refurbished electronics
Hi there! Skills are something you hone with practice. I would first suggest working on old stuff you find at a thrift store for a few dollars to experiment. I made a video a while back that might help a bit ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Hf8DBlH95nE.html Aside from that, I would NOT cannibalize any old units unless it's a part that you can't get. Especially because capacitors leak and get old and have a certain life span. I often talk of capacitors in my show but you can check this out ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-6s5ycAVZiHM.html it has more information on them. As for selling the equipment, there is definitely a market for both fixing and selling retro stuff. I have tons of emails from people in the US looking for someone to fix old VCRs, game consoles, TVs, tape decks, etc. You can easily get parts for the electronic boards from places like DigiKey. They are reputable and sell high quality capacitors. When it comes to belts and tires you will have to buy bags full of different sizes from China and match them. I have a whole chapter in this video where I talk about how to match belts ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-n-cj6yT5a_s.html Hope this helps and thank you for watching!
@@RetroRepairGuy yeh i have been thinking about pulling and soddering capacitors on my old Xbox and Thinkpad 390E since there is a possibility of leakage. Ill def watch any other vids you have on capacitor rules. My rule of thumb would be to replace them all or in the case of the xbox, just rip it since it only controls internal clock.
I have an RX15, has the hole markings in the back for individual outputs, is it possible to add them to the 15 like it’s more expensive sibling? I’d imagine the boards being the same just not populated with components on the cheaper unit.
Most electrolytic caps have a 15-20 year life span in general and this can vary because of manufacturing, use, heat, etc. I changed the caps in the power supply because this is crucial. However, even though it is working great, it could have benefitted having new caps in the camera as well. Most time the power supply fails and causes damage. If a cap in the unit fails you will see lines in image or problems in sound, etc. But it won't damage the unit. I did not see any leaked caps anywhere but the ones in power supply had high ESR (resistance). Thanks for watching!
Hi there! This is a very good question and it can be attributed to several factors. For example Engineers often select capacitors with higher voltage ratings than the actual operating voltage to ensure reliability and longevity. This safety margin helps protect capacitors from voltage spikes and surges that can occur in the circuit. Since capacitors are typically able to handle less than their maximum rated voltage, to improve their performance over time and reduce the risk of failure a higher capacitor could have been chosen. If there is no space constraint you are able to do this easily, and back in the day this was common practice. Also while today we have extremely low ESR capacitors as I showed in some videos, higher voltage capacitors often have lower ESR (resistance) and better frequency response. This was partly due to the availability and cost-effectiveness of certain capacitor types as manufacturers might have standardized on certain capacitor values and voltage ratings to simplify procurement and inventory management. If 50V capacitors were commonly used in other parts, it would make sense to use them in the Atari 2600 as well. I'm sure you wonder then can it be replaced with another of lower voltage, yes but I would advise always making sure to select one made for power supplies with very low ESR. When I replace components I try to always stay true to the original design unless I really don't have a choice. In summary, operating a capacitor well below its maximum voltage rating reduces the electrical stress on the component, which can lead to longer operational life. The use of 50V capacitors in the Atari 2600, despite the power supply being only 5V, was a design decision probably aimed at ensuring reliability, performance and longevity of the system while keeping cost to a minimum. Thanks for watching!
@@RetroRepairGuy Yeah that's all understandable but the Atari runs on an external linear voltage supply, not an internal switching supply so the frequency stress and thus heat would not be present here. Perhaps it's an older cap design thing? I couldn't find that cap on the schematic so I can't confirm but Id agree that maybe it's a parts availability thing with other systems, minimizing bill of materials. Either way, like you said, it's always preferable to go up a voltage level or two if space isn't an issue, and you've preserved the original specs more accurately. Well done!
Tiež mám DVP-S7700, má vymenené operačné zosilovače za lepšie, (štúdiová úroveň) čo zvuk posunul výrazne vyššie než je jeho továrensky štandart, ale ani ten nieje vobec zlý. Terraz je ten Sony DVP-S7700 porovnateľný s Mc.Intosh prehrávačmi a to je už naozaj veľmi vysoka úroveň! Mal som ich viac kusov, a toto je dôvod prečo som všetky ostatné predal. Možno aj ľutujem teraz...A nechal som si tento jeden. A ten nedám ani Bohovi 😀
awesome video, spreading this message help us keeping acknowledged that we are about to loose our freedom and get manipulated in another aspect of life that we are not aware of, or maybe we just underestimate how of a big deal it is. Thanks for shaing.
Hello I have an AKAI GX77 that stopped recording I have a full restoration kit Would you be willing to help repairing and restoring with remuneration ? Thank you
Hey RRG, Happy weekend. I remember last years review, and i completely forgot to go to their site. Thanks again for reviewing their products as it provides us options of tools to buy. Another great video we can enjoy....
15 or 20 years ago I had the white whale, a svhs jvc with a built in tbc. It quit working so I discarded it. I wish I held onto it. If you can even find those units today they're close to a thousand bucks.
How do you keep track of how to put everything back together when taking that much of it apart? That’s the main thing that scares me when I take things apart, that I won’t remember how to put it back together right.
Hi there! Well a few things. First of course there is the fact that I've been doing this for 30 years and made my share of mistakes over the years. In general it's like a puzzle and pieces can only fit one way and screws each have a purpose. If you're not sure or not used to it, just take a picture on your phone. Back in the day we didn't have that and could only refer to a service manual so I learned the hard way but today it's easy for that. If ever there is something very intricate or special you can always refer to it later. Or film it and explain to yourself where it goes pointing at it. At one point it's like a mechanic working on a car you just know how to do brakes but if there is something special you refer to the manual. Thanks for watching!
Thanks for this overview, I wonder how Cloner Allience compares to the Clearclick Video2Digital 2.0. I like that the Clearclick doesn't upscale, it just deinterlaces so you can upscale in post and stay as close to original resolution as possible. The Clearclick also correctly extrapolates to 60 unique progressive frames from NTSC, will the Cloner Allience do this?
Hi! Thank you. You don't have to upscale with this if you don't want, I just chose to set it this way in order to record the new footage at 1080P and the results as you see, were quite nice. But for transferring old footage I probably would not upscale and as you said, do it in post. I looked into the ClearClick which looks almost identical. However, I don't recall all the "whys" but I know the 2.0 was very similar but can only record in 720P, which for new stuff I did not like. Price for the 2.0 is $50 more but already did less for me. There are extensive reviews of it on RU-vid, some better than others. If memory serves, I would have needed version 3.0 and it's double the price. Also, the 3.0 has an integrated battery which I did not want. A personal choice, but I wanted to rely on external power like my battery pack and not have to deal with recharging the unit or stuck with changing an unknown battery in the future. Unfortunately I did not get to try the ClearClick for myself and the point of the video was more about recording without tapes and not a review on the Cloner Alliance. Thanks for watching!
Welcome back....Happy to see a video from RRG, and also seeing Mrs. RRG as part of your video. Let's get that boat restored and drive it on the RDP river from east to west of the city and rename the RRG express
Hi. It's mostly time consuming, not the parts. But many ask me and I tell them it's worth it if you have something of sentimental value or collector's item but for me it's just a passion and I love fixing old stuff and unfortunately I never count my valuable time in this. Thanks for watching!
Hi! I must admit I had this unit in my stuff for a while and did not know how great it was until I decided to dig into its history and restore it. I'm glad I did and someone somewhere is now making great music with it! Thanks for watching!
Hi! I'm sorry to say you have it backwards. No doubt the S7000 was the flagship but the DVP-S7700 became the new reference player. As noted in an article from Digital Bits dating from February 99 "...the 7700 is basically a refinement of the original Sony DVP-S7000 DVD player, which was widely regarded as the industry reference standard. As good as it was, lots of subtle refinements have been made under the hood, to make the 7700 even better". The 7700 also featured Sony's Precision Cinema Progressive (PCP) technology, which provided enhanced video processing for smoother and more detailed images compared to the DVP-S7000. In general Sony tends to make their next models better and not cheaper. I'm not saying it's always 100% the case, but certainly was when they built these units back in the 90s as they raced to be the best on the market. Thanks for watching!
@@RetroRepairGuy Hmmm....i have both models and do not believe in media articles....7000 have better picture performance without any artifacts...even if you see pictures from inside you will see that 7000 is better unit....7700 come only 3 years after...yes 7000 do not have DTS but overall 7700 seems like cheaped version. BTW i have 1996 demonstration prototype version of 7000 and 2001 7700 and 7000 do not have enhanced picture artifacts.
@@PedjoGT In this media article the author performed testing and measurements and said that the 7000 was better on some features but that overall 7700 had general improvements. In my opinion they were both great units with pluses and minuses. When I opened up the 7700 it was mostly high end audio capacitor, thick boards, large traces etc. as demonstrated in the beginning of the video. I'm curious what do you find better when opening up the hood? What stands out the most for you to say it was better built specifically?
I have an old GE vhs 3 spped vcr.. thought the front panel is cracked on the circuit board on the front near buttons..was looking for another board of the same type ?? so i could get it back working 100 %..
hi I a sharp reel to reel and a sharp sd 305h hifi I have been trying to replace the sd305h (google it) with no luck. by the way this was in 1972 I was18 workng in a hifi shop in belfast which was bombed. Are you a retired police officer? model police bike on the shelf behind you. my reel to reel was SHARP RT-727X deck only.
I have one and all around it's alright. It plays VHS and SVHS tapes fine, the camera is ok, a little fuzzy here and there but it shouldn't be much of a problem in the future. My big problem is, when I record video, I get a black mess with horizontal stripes. It stops every 20 seconds or so for a few more seconds, and then the black bars come back. As soon as I stop recording, everything is fine again.
Perhaps watching the video and the history you would understand why. I've said it often that this was a system that was sentimental to me for many reasons as it belonged to my uncle who past away. Not to mention the fact that on this channel I "waste my time and money" restoring old electronic equipment of every kind because I love the retro and vintage equipment.
Hi! Well believe it or not for many years I found that some of the best grease has been Lucas Multi Purpose White Lithium Grease it's great for so many things and a tube lasts me forever. I find it sticks well, does not leak and works well. I use it mainly for anything that has gears but here I used it on the rails as well. But make sure to clean the old one with alcohol and don't get any on the heads. Thanks for watching.
I had the slightly earlier model in 1989 the JVC HR-S5000. Almost identical to this one but it had a lot more switches and no menu button on the fold down panel, so maybe this HR-S5500 was one of the earliest VCRs to feature on-screen display and menu driven settings.
