General VCR Playback issues that can happen to any old VCR

[@SergZak2023]

Thanks Dave for your outstanding quality content throughout the past year (before then, as well). Have a great new year in 2024.

[@12voltvids]

Yes 2024 was a good year.

[@astheros24]

Happy new year , sir . I wish you all the best .

[@alphabeets]

Happy new year, Dave. Thanks for all your videos I’ve learned a lot from you over the years. Much appreciated.

[@Kimble221]

All the best Dave and thanks.

[@terrym1065]

Happy New Year! Enjoy the new year and also enjoy making videos. Content is always first class.

[@12voltvids]

Considering I put zero effort into them.

[@sirdanielwatlingsmbe5625]

I’m one of those odd people, I still record onto VHS. Not a great deal but every now and again I might record a soap opera or such an event but i mainly just watch VHS. the first COVID lockdown turned me into a tape head for some odd reason and I’ve just been an enthusiast for pretty much all things tape since then, and just physical media as a whole.

[@alisharifian535]

I am one on those people too, I sometimes record some movie or tv series from 1990s and rewatch it,just because it feels more authentic.

[@12voltvids]

Not me. I couldn't wait to abandon the old formats.

[@chippedivory]

I record to VHS. And Hi-8, and MiniDV, and audio cassette. Looking into recording on beeswax or shellac. I'm just a technology enthusiast. Recording formats of all kinds, and really any kind of old technology, is fascinating to me, and I love collecting and interacting with it at any opportunity. Some of my old tech I think is genuinely built better, coming out of a better economy and being more user serviceable and durable. VHS is not one of those for me, it's merely a curiosity or hobby, and something I believe is historically important. Though I will say it feels nice to hold a recording in your hand, and play it through a tactile user interface. I feel we're losing something there by getting rid of it entirely.

[@sirdanielwatlingsmbe5625]

⁠​⁠​⁠​⁠​⁠@@12voltvidsI imagine 99% of the population held that mindset around the time DVD and other optical media began to overtake VHS from around 2000-2005, they couldn’t ditch analog quicker. mind you, I wasn’t around at that time so I never really had to live with the VHS format, maybe if I had I wouldn’t be so fond of it nowadays, or maybe I would. That will be forever one of life’s greatest mysteries.

[@elmofeneken4364]

Happy New Year 12 voltvids..............easy fix to end the year.

[@12voltvids]

Happy New Year to you too, 2023 is going to be a very difficult year for VCR collectors. WTF, ai speaking for me. Lol. Even got the year wrong

[@johnmarus8352]

Happy New Year, Dave! Take care!

[@timebomb72]

Nice work. Using a dental pick is a great idea for puling springs like that.

[@prakashm1468]

Happy New Year, 2025, Dave...wish your family & you, another great year of success and enjoyment in electronic world,and to us all...🎉🎉🎉

[@no.namewho]

Happy new year, love the vids!

[@Raptor50aus]

Happy New Year from Australia :)

[@ArtisticAutisticandAiling]

I'm proud to be one of the few VHS users. I record it to my PCI (with my DVD/VCR Combo as a middle man for picking up more noise and distortions; PCI can but it blues out the white noise) I upscale the captures to 720p at least too. And it's like watching the VHS tape itself :) Happy New Year :D

[@alphabeets]

Being that today is 1/1/2025 the date is exactly 25 years off! 😂

[@alphabeets]

I’ve found the best alternative these days to record and actually have the file in your possession, is a Cloner Alliance Box Pro connected up to a USB hard drive. Also it records ANYTHING you feed into it. Great great piece of gear.

[@AlbertAGhazaleh]

Happy New Years Dave 🎉

[@TheOriginalCollectorA1303]

Nice save, easy fix! I haven’t recorded anything lately on VHS but it’s great to watch on CRTs. DVDs and newer formats are always going to give a better picture, but considering I’ve got tapes and some machines, might as well use them.

[@12voltvids]

Crt and 480p plasma looks great for tape and DVD.

[@TheOriginalCollectorA1303]

Agreed, a decent tape can look great and provide excellent sound. At least if you use it with era matching hardware. DVDs can look good even on newer flat panels (with a decent player), but are still excellent on older displays.

[@noah-gabel]

Happy new year, and great video. I have definitely encountered this problem. I’m wondering, do you have any videos that talk about what causes the edge of a tape to get skewed or damaged during playback? Thanks again

[@Raptor50aus]

I fixed a Sony Hifi VCR with a similar issue. The plastic holder broke, the spring then fell down and under the mainboard causing both (look like resistors without the colour bands)thermal fuses to blow. Working fine now.

[@xordak]

On your video “JVC VHS VCR full mechanism tear down and reassemble” from 9 years ago, the spring is actually hooked to the post on the right side, so apparently it doesn’t really matter which post is used. A backup post?

[@12voltvids]

At the factory a tension tape would be played and the back tension set to which ever was closest to spec. It depends on the felt band.

[@xordak]

@12voltvids calibration on those machines was quite critical, I can see. Do you know what that metal tongue sitting right on top of the video head drum shaft is called? I have looked all over and no one seems to mention it or its purpose. To provide ground, I would think.

[@mrnmrn1]

​@@xordak Yes, it's a grounding spring, to prevent the upper drum picking up static charge from the tape. I'm not sure how it is possible for it to pick up a charge high enough to cause problems, since the lower drum is grounded, and the upper drum is coupled to the lower drum with all metal ball bearings and a metal shaft. Since the sideways load on the bearings is pretty much zero, the lubricant prevents the bearing balls from making a good electrical connection between the lower drum and the shaft, that's why the shaft needs a separate ground connection. But it is wild to me that a few microns of oil film is enough insulation to let static buildup appear. If you disconnect the grounding spring, white horizontal streaks will appear on the picture, that is caused by interference from the static discharge sparks inside the bearing. I guess the capacitance between a non-grounded upper drum and ground is high enough so a static charge in the order of just 100V or even lower will create a discharge spark of high enough energy to cause interference.

[@xordak]

@@mrnmrn1 No wonder why my JVC HR-J7002UM has that white streak in the middle of the picture (no spring installed, just the actual motor coils on a small board on top of the upper drum). When I carefully touch the upper drum (while spinning) with the tip of a metal object held in my hand acting as ground, the streak disappears for about half a minute. Your answer clarifies decades of mystery unsolved.

[@mrnmrn1]

@@xordak Some newer drums that are meant to be replaced as a whole (the upper drum is not easily removable) have the grounding integrated into the unit, probably they use a special bearing that guarantees good electrical connection. The streaks from the static discharge I mentioned are many tiny, thin and short speckles appearing on random places of the picture. A single, stationary noise bar in the middle of the picture will be something else. It is usually tape path alignment issue, but it disappearing when you touch the upper drum sounds interesting. Maybe they assembled the drum wrong, and the upper drum has some axial play. Can you lift the upper drum up relative to the lower drum? If yes, maybe it 'floats' up as it rotates.

[@jarecki83]

What is this thing to the left of the drum, I mean the rotating metal disk with two cutouts? And what is it responsible for?

[@alanarmstrong2323]

Happy New Year !!!

[@johnackley3982]

Happy New Year

[@RetrofIex]

Hi, just a quick question. I just picked up a free Dynex 20” CRT that appears to be in great cosmetic shape. However, when I turn it on, the green power LED light goes on, I hear two clicks and noise inside the set, but there’s no high voltage on the screen at all and no raster, just a blank screen… what do you think could be a common reason?

[@markmarkofkane8167]

Thanks. Happy New Year!

[@bernitasterling1253]

Happy New Year Found your amazing channel I love to fix things! Trying to troubleshoot my Sony 5 disc player. It plays fine but when on shuffle it will eventually stop playing and just spin. The mechanism will not pop up and meet the disc and play it. I’ve searched for help on this but nothing Have you trouble shot this? Thanks

[@skibabopi]

I just bought a Goldstar Hi Fi VCR from the 2000s for 44 bucks including shipping. Are those good?

[@12voltvids]

It's good

[@skibabopi]

@12voltvids phew, thanks, I've heard mixed opinions about those and I was doubting about buying it but now that I have another opinion from a technician, I'm happy. Thanks a lot.

[@crashbandicoot4everr]

Is that not an HR-D870U? Pretty sure I've seen this model dozens of times on your channel. Happy New Year!

[@m9ovich785]

Thanks Dave...

[@Tijrah]

Hey Dave Can you recap an AG-DS850? Is that a complicated job?

[@12voltvids]

I have an 850. Needs caps. Notice I haven't done it. Needs hundreds of them. Probably never going to happen. These were expensive back in the day and now even more expensive to repair.

[@12voltvids]

I have an 850. Needs caps. Notice I haven't done it. Needs hundreds of them. Probably never going to happen. These were expensive back in the day and now even more expensive to repair.

[@Tijrah]

​@@12voltvidsSeriously that many caps in it. Looks like a weekend project lol

[@12voltvids]

The main reason I haven't done anything with my 850 is because it's quite a useless VCR as far as a machine for archiving with because it is a single speed SP only machine. It will not play tapes recorded in LP or EP and considering that so many people used the EP speed in their stupid VHSC cameras or for those that copied their 8mm to VHS and then reused the 8MM tape their home deck was in EP when they made the copy, it makes it a relatively useless machine. My sony slvr1000 and svo2000 deliver a picture every bit as good and play all the speeds. The only thing the 850 has is linear stereo in addition to hifi. Might have a 3 line TBC but that is not required. My capture gear has a full frame store TBC so don't need it on the player. If every tape that was brought in was done in SP then I might, I say might have more incentive to invest the time and money to attempt to repair but because it will just collect dust it just isn't worth my effort. I think some people think I live and breath repairs, but I actually don't really enjoy it. I did it for a living for over 20 years and when I left in 2003 I just hated every aspect of repairing this crap. I retrained and went to work for the phone company, where I have been for the past 20 years and am now starting to think about retiring from that. I started doing repairs again about 12 years ago as a hobby and that became the youtube channel. I have become quite selective in what I work on. If it's something that I think can be reasonably repaired and I am confident that it will work for awhile I'm in, but for certain devices where I know that no matter what is done, and how many parts are changed it's still never going to be reliable, I tend to not want to do the repair because the last thing I want is to be married to something, and when you charge someone hundreds to "rebuild" something that is what they are expecting, and there is just no way one can guarantee that it will last.

[@douglashoff95]

Another one saved. Good job.

[@jean-lucjla2987]

Moi au lieu de secouer l'appareil, j'aurais déjà coupé l'alimentation secteur pour éviter que le ressort touche des pièces électriques. Instead of shaking the device, I would have already cut off the mains power to prevent the spring from touching electrical parts.

[@InaldoTavares]

🥳

[@joshuapowell1868]

Great video I still record with VHS tapes and am buying them offline if saying no one record with VHS tapes they are lying people now days everything proven they still record with VHS tapes

[@larryshaver3568]

i still use vhs the tapes work good far longer than dvdrw's

[@12voltvids]

I have DVDr that are 25 years old. No degradation unlike tape that the color fates as the signal gets weaker.

[@larryshaver3568]

@@12voltvids i only watch a tape 3 or 4 times before i re-record on it anyway

[@12voltvids]

The problem with tape is it's mechanical. The heads wear every time a tape passes over. They are only good for about 1000 hours before the wear starts to degrade the picture and you are not getting new heads these days. Sure you can buy parts machines, but that is a gamble. Had a guy bring me a camera that needed a drum and 2 donor cameras. Neither one was usable.

[@D725U]

@@12voltvids What about those Panasonic DynAmorphous metal heads? Never had one wear out (even the SVHS equipped ones) and my family still has a sizeable VHS collection. Usually it's the caps in the PS that crap out first

[@rickoneill4343]

The day you retire I hope you put all your KZbin videos on an EP xxxxxxxx VHS. 😅

[@12voltvids]

All my KZbin videos and all the raw footage is stored in boxes of hard drives. Some day i will revisit and totally reedit old videos from the current long form to short 5 minutes reviews. Remove all the disassembly and banter and just show the symptom final tests and solution. Of course the work load has to slow down. I currently still work full time but I am getting closer to pulling the pin. Put it to you this way if my work group is offered a package I won't be saying no. Then I will have 100% of my time to devote to yt and digitizing videos.

[@graygarrison2692]

​@@12voltvidsI hope that You don't retire

[@joshuapowell1868]

Vhs tapes more free whiching in your house now days more free whiching than my Disney plus is now days what I did had i got rid of my Disney plus

[@alphabeets]

Happy new year, Dave. Thanks for all your videos I’ve learned a lot from you over the years. Much appreciated.

[@fadhlematrook1248]

Happy new year