I have removed the auto clean arm on all my VHS, when I get a "new" one --> open, remove auto clean arm, clean tape path (all), dry with hear dryer, power on... latest find was a JVC HR-J507MS, a multi system with PAL, NTSC, MESECAM and SECAM; never opened before
I swear you are reading my mind Jan! lol. About 5 days ago I fished out a NOS VCRs still boxed. I just never got around to inspecting it. The idea I have is to use an AV2HDMI upscaler connected to an Elgato Game Capture HD. I managed to do a quick test last night and the quality/output is beyond anything I have tried in the past! I just need to service the vcr as it tends to not like rewinding the tapes :(
Bit further on in the vid now, the Philips unit is showing that the heads are still dirty, a few more careful cleaning sessions would sort that out, also beware of old tapes that are poorly stored & disintegrating, as they can shed the magnetic media onto the heads, akin to what happens in old flppy drives, contaminating them as they go resulting in a picture like that VCR had, so don't give up just yet, have another go at head cleaning... :D
One of my VCRs has a broken head causing the picture to be horribly noisy no matter what I do with the tracking. I've cleaned it over and over again to no avail - but as it still moves the tape, it is still useful for checking unknown tapes in case they are horribly dirty or have splices. (I frequently buy boxes of old tapes on eBay lol)
FYI: The connector on the Philips machine is a IEC C8 socket, which takes a C7 plug that is on the lead you found. Very common in portable mains operated devices, its a little rarer on "installed" devices like this VCR, although I can recall a lot of Philips devices I have had that used them, so maybe it was one they preferred.
I have Panasonic NV-J35 EE. It is from 1990. It is with remote and user manual. In 2007 it stop work and can't turn on. Before a few years ago I opened it and replaced all 15 electrolitic capacitors in Power block, lubricated it and cleaned the head with paper bars with rubber alcohol and now it is alive!
The two vertical rods are the idlers nut you're right about replacing the heads, you would need a dedicated micrometer, good luck finding one of them. Good video Jan
SONY has very compatible remote controls between their devices. Its very possible to use RC from different model of Sony VCR. Many of Sony remote controls also have toggle switch between tv/dvd/vcr - its easy to find and should work fine Sorry for my english :/
Here at least, commercial sellers are required to have powered devices tested by someone with the appropriate certification. It's a cheap test, but a number of sellers simply cut off the power cable instead.
estimado colega , lo que tiene que hacer es ajustar las giias de deplazamiento para que la cinta consiga con los cabezales hay unos destornilladores eepeciales para este ajuste , consulte con los manuales de la maquina y el modelo del equipo , atte marcel palanque de chile vai vaia colega......
My experience with those Philips VCRs is that you can't clean the heads the normal way. You got lucky one of them had a picture. You have to hold your fingernail to the head while it's playing the tape, that sounds aggressive but it was the only way I found to clean them. I know someone who has a VCR like this and never uses it, it had no video output from both heads and I used the fingernail method, watched a movie and when I came back to the place, again there was no video output.
I'm surprised to see all english printed on the front of the VCR. I'm surprised Sony and Phillips didn't print German on any of these for the German market. Did they maybe just make one model for all of Europe, and figured they'd just use english to save making a different case for each country?
Hi, i also have a silicon spray like you, a runny liquid one, but i dont understand how am i supposed to use it on a vcr? because its very runny like water. the original grease leftover looks like actual grease, its light blue and sticky, but i dont know what it is.
I think the Philips is still dirty. You can try to clean it again. Go counterclockwise this time, I think that's the proper way to clean the heads. Also, I can tell you from personal experience, don't be afraid to apply some force into it. If tracking is the issue, the guide posts that take the tape next to the heads can be adjusted with a screwdriver. I think the left one adjust the bottom half of the picture, whilst the right one the top. It's better to use a CRT when adjusting those guide posts, or better yet, an oscilloscope. I suggest you check 12voltvids channel for VCR repairing videos.
Vhs movies is proven they are full screen at all times everything proven people don't never set up tv picture settings up right from the beginning at all everything proven people like myself are fixing tv picture screen settings and everything proven people start playing with there tv settings the truth will come out at all times
Nice find. The little sponge inside might have had a purpose for the average user back in the day but is not worth saving now, one of the first things I do when I clean out a VCR is pull it out just in case it causes problems. When the picture or sound starts degrading it's not a big deal to open it up and do another round with paper+ipa
I'm 31 and It's always nice to see people saving things like VCRS from the trash heap since I grew up with one in my house throughout the 90s-2000s and yours is the first video I watched involving VCRS that were abandoned/thrown out. So you're a Sony fan, eh? I have a Sony too but it was from during the DVD era since it's a combo unit. Unfortunately it started eating tapes so now I've been searching ebay for a better VCR since I'm not an expert in repairs and I guess it wasn't a high end model. The only reason I picked it (it's a Sony SLV but I don't recall the rest of the model number since it's not in front of me at this moment) is because I still have the original remote and ebay sellers often never have the remote included because they lost it or got the VCR from a thrift store or something. The Sony machine I had before which was an exact twin of the one I've been using now never ate tapes and only had the issue of the DVD tray not opening anymore, it just got completely stuck.
Not surprised that the Sony worked....I think Sony makes excellent A/V equipment. At least back then not sure about now. Never bought a new modern Sony A/V unit in years.
@@stephanemignot100 I have had problems with their cd players (mostly low end boom box style) but their DVD players and rack style CD players I think are pretty decent. Or maybe i've just been lucky. Bought many sony CD changers used and every one has worked right out of the box. I personally have never used their VCRs so I dont have any experience with that. Panasonic does make a very good VCR I do know that. Very well made and robust. Myself I am a Pioneer guy mainly their receivers.
I've been using my old Panasonic to do exactly what you mentioned: taking the signals from Apple II and C64s and massaging the output for a TV that can't deal with the signals directly. The VCR is a lot more forgiving of the signals.
Neither are Hi-Fi stereo machines, but usually these mono decks are good enough if you just want to watch the odd cassette. They also won't have the issue of Hi-Fi stereo drop-out, which is usually the first thing to go when the heads start to wear-out!
I'm still a bit annoyed with my parents for throwing away my old VCR after I moved out. It was a top of the line Panasonic model from the era just before they started getting really cheap and dropping features. A few years ago I bought a similar high-end Sony one just so I've got one. I've only got a couple of pre-recorded tapes and a few sealed blanks, all the home recorded tapes at my parents' place were thrown out with my old recorder, but I managed to find the blanks at the back of a cupboard, so I kept them. I figured I should buy a decent recorder while they were still cheap, since there's no point having tapes that I can't play or record onto. But what I really want is a D-VHS recorder. We used to have one at work, which was actually the first one in the country. It was a pre-production model that our senior engineer got from the manufacturer on a trip to the US. They wanted to evaluate the format to see if it's worthwhile using it in production. But it turned out to be a lame duck since they were already using Digital Betacam. Anyway, the format never really launched here in Australia, and they eventually threw out the D-VHS recorder when the guy retired and cleared out his office. But similar to the blanks at my parents' place, I also found the blank D-VHS tapes at my work, and rescued them from the e-waste.
Hi Ian. When cleaning the heads you should spin the drum anticlockwise and best way to clean very dirty heads is with the back of your nail when the VCR is in operation. Also part of routine maintenance is to clean the mode switch. It's usually located under the mechanism
Excellent video. It's nice to see an unwanted item saved from the rubbish tip. I agree with twocvbloke below though, that I would not give up on the Philips VCR just yet, and give it another good head clean. I've had many VCRs do this, and multiple runs with a good head cleaning tape have solved this problem - I can see that the machine is trying hard to work. I think it's just another clean or two away from working again. :)
I really enjoyed this. I love all your computer content too but it's nice to also see you also working on some non-computer electronic equipment, as I don't think I've seen anything non-computer related since you last worked on the Nad amplifier. Pleased to hear at the end that you are looking to work on some CRT televisions in the future. Can't wait to see that content and also of course more of your regular computer related upgrades and repairs.
Hmm, with the Sony working as well as it does, I'm baffled as to why someone would just cut off its cord and chuck it. If it's about just salvaging the cord then that's a dumb way to do it! And what were they gonna do with the remote control that they kept behind?
Whats the common in VHS and Netflix? No freaking commercials, that's why I don't watch the idiotbox since 20 years :D brings me back good times watching Mortal Kombat and other classics from VHS, some more advanced could actually automatically turn off when recording to skip the ads.
Decades ago, a german student invented and built a device which kept track of the TV channels logo (usually in a corner of the screen). When commercials were interrupting the movie, the logos were not shown, so the device switched the VCR into „pause“ during the recording. But I think at that time VCR‘s were already on the death row…
@@kaidzaack2520 Fantastic idea when logos are shown but we didn't have them before cable and satellite. The cue-dot could be used though if there was some way of detecting the end of the ads. Maybe just a timer set by the user at the first ads. Reminds me of Pausing then cueing up ready to resume. This was normally a 2-step process; go slightly further than intended, wait a minute then back it up to the correct resume point. The reason for this? .. the ad breaks were often JUST long enough for the pause function to time out (5 minutes?) and the VCR going to stop mode, buggering up the edit.
cutting off power cables seems to be some malicious German thing along the lines of "If I don't use it anymore, noone shall!" Somebody I know from a retro forum found a small flatscreen TV next to the trashcans behind the house. Power cord cut off. Ironically the cord was attached with a plug, just like on the Philips VCR. He just put a new cord in and the thing worked like a charm. No idea why people do that seriously. Yes, "never assume malice where stupidity is a sufficient explanation." But I struggle to come up what kind of stupidity, aka what thoughts would compel people to cut power cords that can just be unplugged.
Naah copper thieves cut the cord on everything. I once put out a perfectly fine 486 PC (just as they started to stop being totally worthless) with a "Works - for free" sign on it, after an hour, all (ALL) the wires were cut off. Even those that were just plugged in. I see this happening all the time. I live in a smallish town, you could call a suburb, in the big city, you can't put anything with a CRT in it on the curb, it'll be smashed to shreds. There once was an arcade (as in a Retro Arcade, not back in the day, but in 2016) in Worms (I think the English name for the city is Vossen) which was foreclosed and someone broke in, smashed all the machines into small pieces and then ripped out the wires for like 50 cents of copper from a machine that's worth 4000 Euros. As in "I didn't know a negative number on an IQ test was possible"-stupid.
If I throw something out with a cable. Old, but working. Or it's broken. I cut it off. It's just to avoid an annoyance when throwing something out. If it's detachable, than I just toss the cable.
You are correct, they were introduced in a latter year of VHS. If you notice the mechanism was positioned in the middle compared to older ones on the left hand side.
On the first VCR recorder, the head cleaner probably smears your head. I had to remove it because the plastic probably lost its primary state. After that, there was no more snow.
I have a Schneider VCR that looks exactly like the Philips on the inside, but when I press play it plays sound but it doesn't show picture, I pressed the tracking buttons but still nothing. The only picture I get is from the RF input and there is no blue screen when powered on
I don't know if this is useful but technology connections did a video on Vhs tapeva few years ago. Of course he lives if formerly NTSC land and you in formerly PAL land but check it out. I don't know what the vcr differences are between the 2 standards. I also don't know how 220v vs 110v would affect things.
I also still have about 200 original VHS tapes, if you want some.. I’m in the Netherlands.. My college gave me a JVC SVHS recorder. I still have to service it, but it does still work, mostly..
My only remaining (working) VHS recorder is a Philips model, found in the garden shortly after moving into this house (garden belongs to next door, but the uncle now lives there) and the owner had cleared out everything into the garden before taking it to the dump, I had fun picking that pile, even got a lawnmower out of it and a boxed original copy of the PC version of Grand Theft Auto too... :D
cool cool cool just picked up a huge pile of these up from my old highschool about 25 VCRs they were abandoned and left to rot there for years Im so happy Ill be able to bring some back to life and recycle/harvest parts out of all of them. They are maybe worthless to many but I bet Ill sell some like the 10 or so that have builtin DVD players.
"Damals" haben sie für die Kopfreinigung immer sogenannte Reinigungskassetten empfohlen die man mit etwas Iso tränkt und dann für ca. Eine Minute durch den Recorder schickt. Ich denke, deine manuelle Papierreinigung erfüllt denselben Zweck...?
Joa, selbes Prinzip. Vermutlich ist es mit den Reinigungskassetten deutlich schwieriger, die Köpfe zu verbiegen. Andererseits ist die manuelle Methode wahrscheinlich etwas gründlicher. Vor allem weil man den Dreck sehen kann, der auf dem Papier bleibt und einfach so lange putzen, bis nix mehr sichtbar ist.
Everything is proven people like myself are fixing a break vhs movies with Scotch tape it starts playing again with out no problem's and clean out a mode switch everything proven internet causes more problems on people's thinking now days everything is proven vhs tapes don't lock up at all like internet does in the future
On the Phillips. Clean the heads more. As a last resort you can try adjusting one or both of the tape guides that thread the tape. Sometimes only a small amount of change will lock the picture back in.
I don't know how far you live from the Netherlands. But if it is close you can try a Dutch thrift shop. do you have bins full of remote controls for euros each or 2 euros. Greetings from Emmen Netherlands.
Der Philips VR475 ist ein 4-Kopf-mono Videorekorder! :) Entferne unbedingt den Kopfreiniger! Dieser befindet sich gleich hinten rechts neben der Kopftrommel (das weiße Plastikteil mit dem gelben "Rädchen")! Dieses verschmutzt dir sofort wieder die Köpfe! Wenn du ihn entfernt hast, führe die Reinigung nochmal durch! Dabei bitte die Kopftrommel gegen den Uhrzeigersinn drehen!!! Dann sollte es mit dem Bild wieder klappen.
Hi. The rubber cleaning thing on these philips vcrs tends to instantly clog the heads when activated. Strongly suspect that's the issue here. Happened on all 3 ones I got, I guess it's due to the aging rubber or something, probably worked great in their day. Would try to remove the auto head cleaning arm (it's just clipped on) it and then clean the heads. Also, as someone else already mentioned the other main failure point on this mechanism is the gear that sits on the rot driven by the loading motor, which has a tendency to crack, causing it to slip. If this happens the vcr will fail to load tapes properly. I've "fixed" it by using epoxy to glue the gear to the metal rod but I don't know how well that holds up long term. If you look up the service manual for it you can also show how many drum hours it has and some other things. I know some of these late model Sony VCRs (at least the fancier hi-fi variants of this one) have some power supply capacitors that can fail eventually. Don't know for sure if this is an issue with this base model in particular though. One good alternative for remotes for VCRs if you can't find the original is a "superior freedom micro usb", you can select the vcr model from the computer interface and it has support for nearly every vcr I've encountered. They're like €20 on ebay.
Keep your mode switche clean out everything proven people keep there mode switch clean out in there VCR player itself people will never have playing problem's at all or eating problem's at all or tapes don't go in at all everything proven dirty mode switches causes problem's like that all the time everything proven online how to clean out a mode switch in a VCR player
Keep in mind if you want to digitise your band videos, these aren't using the HI-FI sound standard. If you tapes were recorded with hifi they'll sound WAY better than standard audio. It's actually really interesting, hifi uses the whole tape width from the drum head, but standard audio is on the edge and separate.
Wow, you found these near the street? Great to see that at least the Sony does still work! Headcleaning with normal paper? Isn't that too rough for these sensitive heads? 😲 This video reminds me that I also still have a Panasonic VCR which needs a service/repair. It has a mechanical issue, as it doesn't start the tape (error message) and/or sometimes ejects the cassette right after inserting it. 🤔
People cut the cords on appliances sitting on the side of the road for the scrap value of the metal. But it's almost certainly not worth their time. They'd be better off getting a minimum wage job at a fast food restaurant.
I like Sony products I bought a 40 something inch Sony Bravia from a charity shop for 20 pounds it had no remote but I found a brand new one online for 7pounds 50 pence what a deal 😁
Hey Jan. I belive you can fix this Philips video quite easy. I belive you must just adjust the tape alignment. You can try to do this without a Ocilloskope. But if you want it absolutly perfect , you hook up a Ocilloskope to the RF testpoint. Dont give up on this one! You will fix it.
That is not a tape alignment issue as the image itself is steady, it just has a lot of drop out, the heads are worn out, one possible temporary fix would be to increase the pressure on the back tension arm.
Worn out videoheads are rare. I belive the heads are fine. The heads could still be dirty thou. The correct way to clean them is to do it counter clockwise several times. I belive he can fix this unit. We want part 2 😊👍
Cool finds and good that at least one of them is working fine :) I have a Philips VR140 VCR, bought it new in 2003, and only recently it has started showing signs of age, with intermittent temporary malfunctions. For instance, last time I used it (few days ago), everything was fine at first, but during watching a tape, image went bad, grainy, kind of interference at the image and distorted colours, but it was bad even when I stopped the tape, so it didn't have anything to do with the tape heads. Then I rewinded the tape to the beginning, and some motor sounded weird for a while, the VCR shut itself off and started blinking number 2 on the front panel display. It started again immediatly from power button and ejected the tape. Now, as I watched this video, decided to try again what it does now, and everything is back to normal operation, image is good, tape plays fine, rewinded it back to the beginning, no problems at all. Strange problem, hard to catch the actual root cause with this kind of intermittent symptoms :P
They were sitting under a tree on the side of the road so they were somewhat protected by that I guess. It was not raining that heavily, too. And thankfully both units don’t have a lot of cooling vents etc for the water to get in so it was mostly a bit of dirt on the outside. :)
The Philips VCR certainly looks like one of the heads is dead. There's nothing to align directly on the head drum. So you've not misaligned it with your cleaning. Only things to align are the synchronization of the thead switching with the sync head (electronic adjustment with a potentiometer usually) and height of the infeed and outfeed roller pins (mechanical adjustment by screwing them up/down). Those two settings together make the overall alignment of the tracks on tape to the path of the heads on the drum when the tape is passing by. It's certainly 20 years ago since I repaired VCRs - but back in the day we used special wooden spatulas with very smooth and soft leather on the tips and IPA. Cleaning the heads with normal paper is something I would not suggest. That seems to me much too abrasive. These heads are really delicate. Maybe that's what's given one of those heads the rest...
Einfach toll! I still have my original Sony Hi-Fi VCR, which I haven't powered up for many years. My Sony CD player from the '90s doesn't play CDs, but I think it has a belt issue. Nice video and it inspires me to fix my older devices, so they can work along side my Amigas and C64 ;-). Danke Dir!
It does very much look like a worn out/clogged video head but check the position of the tape on the 'ruler' around the lower head drum, the tape mustn't be too high or 'rippling because it's too low. Common problem used to be that the guide rollers would work loose. Donberg Electronics may have spare head drums, there was also Grandata and a few other old time places. A quick and dirty way to check for head alignment is to record something and play it back, if it plays back better than a pre-recorded tape then it's a pretty good indication that the deck is out of alignment but heads are OK
I loooove VCR/VTR repairs. Audio tape deck repairs are fun and all, but all the mechanisms for U-matic, Beta, and VHS, and the intricacies of the spinning drum, make them very special.
We just tend to call them "figure-eight" connectors .. and the 3-pin version often found on laptop power bricks sometimes refered to as "mickey-mouse connectors" although I think the correct name for the latter is "cloverleaf".
Only 8 minutes in and the 1st unit you trash picked is much cleaner than the one I bought from a thrift store 5-6 years ago. The one I got had been owned by a chain smoker. After cleaning the head 4-5 times with alcohol it sort of worked. I cleaned it twice more with acetone and so much more cigarettes nastiness came off it was astonishing. After the second cleaning with acetone it worked great. I used to fix VCRs and this is the only one I have had to use acetone on.
Are you sure it's not just the tape? I never saw you try the same tape on each VCR. The first one you tried looked like some poorly recorded over Star Wars with something else. I mean, I know it's the first rule of troubleshooting and the great Jan Beta would never overlook that, so I'm probably mistaken. :)
Oh, I used the same tape for all the tests. It’s episode IV but it has a longish documentary-style ad for episode I before the actual movie starts. That’s why there’s random interviews etc showing on screen.
My guess is the reason the power cable detaches is to sell the same VCR in the UK as you sell in Germany, just swap the power cable. We don't have that issue her in North America, since we all use the same plug.
I collect vfd displays and every time I see a vcr for like $5 I pick it up but I don't have the heart to scrap them just for the display even if theyre crappy vcrs
I bought a Sony VCR last week at the thrift store. Haven't had a chance to try it. Hoping for the best. I was always jealous of European residents as they got SCART connectors which seemed so much easier and elegant a solution for connecting equipment. Consumer television equipment didn't have composite or line-in Jack's in the US until the late 80s or 90s. You had to go to a high end monitor class TV to get such options. Everyone else had to use the horrible modulator output to the antenna of the TV and then have an antenna switch.
@@JanBeta, I just found an Onkyo TX-8220, one of the cheaper receivers that someone left in the original box and had written on it, "3 years old, no sound". They left it by the dumpster at my apartment, can't wait to dig in haha. But yes, I agree with the salvaging :)
