I came across your channel by accident when the algorithim offered the DAB+ line out addition. I find this channel fascinating because I had no idea what was occurring behind the scenes in commercial or professional video recording and playing. I had no idea these $47, 000 machines existed and had just presumed a top of the line commercial VHS machine was the main tool of the industry.
The main tools of broadcast were based on Beta rather than VHS. All TV studios used Betacam then Digital Betacam and sometimes HDCAM decks, which use tapes of two sizes. The smaller of those sizes is physically almost identical to a domestic Betamax tape, but the recordings themselves are different. So Beta outlived VHS, and surely Sony earned more money from Beta than anyone ever did from VHS. Now studios tapeless workflows of course.
I use three different Sony U-Matic decks for archiving my library of Raw Footage. On all three decks, I've encountered the lubricant on the spool reels has gotten tacky and significantly slowed the FF and REW functions. I solved this by removing the spool reels and cleaning the tacky lube off the spindle shafts. Then I hit them with a slight amount of WD40 and all three of them are drag-free and working perfectly.
have you ever cleaned belts in warm soapy water, hand soap works a treat, it just cleans the belt incase its clogged up and slips. Worth a try if you have not got a replacement handy.
Very nice design of those hinged circuit boards with serviceability in mind, you don't see that anymore. This machine or one like it was used in the first terminator movie at the LAPD police station when they are watching a video of Kyle Reese going nuts.
Well that seemed easy enough :-D The switch looks like the one on the back of the old piano key videos. They are quite reliable, often outlasting the rest of the machine. It's always good to repair, Although some hair pulling may be a side effect :-D.
bonjour je viens de récupérer 1 Sony hi8 evo-9800 p et je n'ai pas d'indications sur le panneau avant pourtant il avale bien les k7 mais aucune action sur les touches eject,rew,play,f.fwd pause le compteur n'est pas allumé ainsi que les diodes si vous pouvez m'indiquer ce qui se passe j'en serais reconnaissant. MERCI
Sounds like a power supply fault (PSU). You will need to get the service manual and check the voltages. The service manual is available online because I was able to download it from somewhere, so just Google search for that.
Thanks Colin another great video, keep up the good work, I was wondering if you can add a Y-C mod to one of your u-Matics and do a video about it? I know you don’t need it since you have a dedicated TBC for that but some may be interested in seeing a machine getting a proper Y-C output by tapping into the internals right before the composite stage and extracting that signal. There is a guy who did that on a US machine but I don’t seem to find that link anymore.
There isn't a Y/C signal available inside a Umatic, any such modification would be non-trivial. However some TBCs can be fooled into using the Composite Video signal as C and there's a monochrome signal available in the Dub connector for Y. That works because the compression in a Composite signal is in Y, not C. Taking the unmixed monochrome Y from Dub overcomes the problem. I suspect actually that's the way by TBCs do it internally.
I have a VO-6800 portable that's complaining about slack and eating tapes. What should I check on the mechanism? I've been looking at the guide pins but I can't figure out what the problem is.
My tv broke down this week, I'm hoping it will just be a capacitor or two. A nice man coming on Sat morning to have a look. If he can identify the fault, I should be able to fix it... fingers crossed.
Modern TVs can be a bit hellish to fix. If it's something like a capacitor or a power supply fault, then that should be OK. But if it's deep inside an IC somewhere, then often a new panel is the only real solution.
Not a machine I've worked on, nor particularly likely to. I don't tend to cover old VHS machines since they wouldn't be of any use to my business: I run VHS tapes on selected S-VHS decks. So they would only be done "just for fun" like I did a similar aged Beta once, and time is always against me for fun projects.
Thanks Colin for the video. I was wondering if You can help me to fix one U-Matic that I have, it dos not show a video but sound. I'm traing to fix it for a days but nothing I can see that can halp me. Please!
I am using a Sony VO9850 & Keysrobe Dub-optimser with a Panasonic MX70 for YC into a Startech PCI Express Capture Card with Great results; But, some, if not all, Umatic tapes need a cleaning first. I do that with VHS & 8mm for digitizing with great results. I also bake the tapes. So, what is your advice for direct cleaning of Umatic tapes, so to cut down on deck head cleaning, before committing them to the 9850? I have a national client with 100+ Umatic Tapes. Thanks for your time & expertise.
I don't clean U-matic tapes, I don't have equipment to do so. I do often bake them though. Sometimes I will have to run a tape through a machine twice, sometimes getting a better result the second time. I believe TapeChek do/did a U-matic cleaner but I've never seen one.
@@video99couk Thanks for your quick response. I suspect I need to replace that rewind belt, does it serve as the same drive for play? Do you know who might supply many belt sizes? Perhaps applying rubber belt conditioner? Any advice? Again thanks for your time & expertise. Just looking for simple advice, no guaranty asked for or implied. Just another man, or as the English say Bloke, trying to turn a profit in a business found fascinating.
do you know what kind of machine I would need to play DA-30 ampex 467 3/4 insh proffesaional digital audio cassette I believe its a U matic but I cant find an answer thanks
It sounds like a PCM1610/PCM1630 tape. I have kit for that. Ampex tapes were awful, it will certainly need baking before it goes anywhere near a machine, and there are bound to be dropouts on the tape which will affect the sound.
I've not worked on that model. You will have to study the schematics to see why the loading motor is not being operated. First thing to check of course is whether there is any voltage across the motor.
Umatic tapes can suffer sticky-shed syndrome, especially Ampex branded ones. But other brands such as Sony are less problematic and don't require baking so often.
Hello Colin. I have VO-9800p that suddenly turned black and white over night. The picture is crystal clear but no color. I have tested cables and capture device with other machines and it works fine so something has to be wrong with the umatic machine color. Have you ever seen this before?
I've not had that problem but understand it is likely to be bad capacitors on the chroma panel. I would suggest you pull that out and test any electrolytic capacitors with an ESR meter. Also look for any glue on the PCB which may have gone conductive. It would help if you could find another machine to temporarily do some panel swapping to confirm that the fault is on the chroma panel, but that may not be practical.
I recently picked up a Sony MiniDv camcorder and discovered it can convert a composite or s-video signal to DV. I tried it out by converting some VHS and Standard 8 tapes and was pretty pleased with the result. If you have tried this method out yourself how does it compare (in your opinion) to a good quality capture card? Loved the video as always!
Yes some miniDV and Digital8 camcorders can do this. Especially if you feed it with S-Video (where available, such as from an SVHS deck), the results can be excellent. I don't use this route because it's a bit fiddly to set up compared to a dedicated converter or DV deck, but there's no reason not to.
you are 100% right about the video archivists they have the gold bars my mate work in a place where they deal with home's when people died the price of any A/V gear has gone crazy VHS decks is silly a well the first run of hi-fi player decks is now silly man you know the one's
Hello UMatic community! I've been having an issue with my Umatic machine where the video sometimes plays back with stripes of color overlayed on entire video - perfect rainbow. When I stop and start it, it sometimes plays back with the proper coloration. Anybody have experience with this? Would love to hear how you fixed it. Thanks!
It could well be capacitor trouble in the chroma circuits. Tricky to resolve, but start by taking the chroma panel out and check to see if some of the electrolytic capacitors are going low value and/or high ESR.
Hi, I'm Zoran, I'm writing from Serbia and I have a problem. On one of our local sites where used things are sold pop ebay I found a sony umatic Sony V0-5800PS and the man wrote the following in the description of the device. Until recently it worked normally, and now it just pulls in the tape and can't play, rewind or record it. so I'm wondering if such a device has a belt that may have cracked so it won't let go of the tape. I am grateful in advance for the answer.
Hi I have no knowledge on gadgets, so I’m hoping you’d be kind enough to tell me if I can still buy a video recorder that’s not connected to phones/wifi..how they used to be. I’d like something compact & excellent quality too 😊
Brings back memories of repairing Sony broadcast products way back in the analogue days...
I came across your channel by accident when the algorithim offered the DAB+ line out addition.
I find this channel fascinating because I had no idea what was occurring behind the scenes in commercial or professional video recording and playing.
I had no idea these $47, 000 machines existed and had just presumed a top of the line commercial VHS machine was the main tool of the industry.
The main tools of broadcast were based on Beta rather than VHS. All TV studios used Betacam then Digital Betacam and sometimes HDCAM decks, which use tapes of two sizes. The smaller of those sizes is physically almost identical to a domestic Betamax tape, but the recordings themselves are different. So Beta outlived VHS, and surely Sony earned more money from Beta than anyone ever did from VHS. Now studios tapeless workflows of course.
I use three different Sony U-Matic decks for archiving my library of Raw Footage. On all three decks, I've encountered the lubricant on the spool reels has gotten tacky and significantly slowed the FF and REW functions. I solved this by removing the spool reels and cleaning the tacky lube off the spindle shafts. Then I hit them with a slight amount of WD40 and all three of them are drag-free and working perfectly.
have you ever cleaned belts in warm soapy water, hand soap works a treat, it just cleans the belt incase its clogged up and slips. Worth a try if you have not got a replacement handy.
Another trick, just for testing purposes, is to put the belt into boiling water for several minutes.
Very nice design of those hinged circuit boards with serviceability in mind, you don't see that anymore.
This machine or one like it was used in the first terminator movie at the LAPD police station when they are watching a video of Kyle Reese going nuts.
You're right, serviceability is not a priority any more.
Well that seemed easy enough :-D
The switch looks like the one on the back of the old piano key videos.
They are quite reliable, often outlasting the rest of the machine.
It's always good to repair, Although some hair pulling may be a side effect :-D.
bonjour je viens de récupérer 1 Sony hi8 evo-9800 p et je n'ai pas d'indications sur le panneau avant pourtant il avale bien les k7 mais aucune action sur les touches eject,rew,play,f.fwd pause le compteur n'est pas allumé ainsi que les diodes si vous pouvez m'indiquer ce qui se passe j'en serais reconnaissant. MERCI
Sounds like a power supply fault (PSU). You will need to get the service manual and check the voltages. The service manual is available online because I was able to download it from somewhere, so just Google search for that.
Could the shaft for the supply spool use some lubrication? I've had a few VHS machines do the same and lubricating the spools fixed them.
It's possible it would help and I may try that at some point.
Thanks Colin another great video, keep up the good work, I was wondering if you can add a Y-C mod to one of your u-Matics and do a video about it? I know you don’t need it since you have a dedicated TBC for that but some may be interested in seeing a machine getting a proper Y-C output by tapping into the internals right before the composite stage and extracting that signal. There is a guy who did that on a US machine but I don’t seem to find that link anymore.
There isn't a Y/C signal available inside a Umatic, any such modification would be non-trivial. However some TBCs can be fooled into using the Composite Video signal as C and there's a monochrome signal available in the Dub connector for Y. That works because the compression in a Composite signal is in Y, not C. Taking the unmixed monochrome Y from Dub overcomes the problem. I suspect actually that's the way by TBCs do it internally.
Thank you for the link on how it Chroma can be extracted in an S-Video way:
web.archive.org/web/20120609002928/captain18.livejournal.com/140367.html
Super
I have a VO-6800 portable that's complaining about slack and eating tapes. What should I check on the mechanism? I've been looking at the guide pins but I can't figure out what the problem is.
Had seen this u Matic VCR 30 years ago
My tv broke down this week, I'm hoping it will just be a capacitor or two.
A nice man coming on Sat morning to have a look.
If he can identify the fault, I should be able to fix it... fingers crossed.
Modern TVs can be a bit hellish to fix. If it's something like a capacitor or a power supply fault, then that should be OK. But if it's deep inside an IC somewhere, then often a new panel is the only real solution.
Do You have a video of the Panasonic nv-8400? Best regards, Kai
Not a machine I've worked on, nor particularly likely to. I don't tend to cover old VHS machines since they wouldn't be of any use to my business: I run VHS tapes on selected S-VHS decks. So they would only be done "just for fun" like I did a similar aged Beta once, and time is always against me for fun projects.
@@video99couk thank You so much. :)
Thanks Colin for the video. I was wondering if You can help me to fix one U-Matic that I have, it dos not show a video but sound. I'm traing to fix it for a days but nothing I can see that can halp me. Please!
Thank you! I have ome over here that could use some care.
I am using a Sony VO9850 & Keysrobe Dub-optimser with a Panasonic MX70 for YC into a Startech PCI Express Capture Card with Great results; But, some, if not all, Umatic tapes need a cleaning first. I do that with VHS & 8mm for digitizing with great results. I also bake the tapes. So, what is your advice for direct cleaning of Umatic tapes, so to cut down on deck head cleaning, before committing them to the 9850? I have a national client with 100+ Umatic Tapes. Thanks for your time & expertise.
I don't clean U-matic tapes, I don't have equipment to do so. I do often bake them though. Sometimes I will have to run a tape through a machine twice, sometimes getting a better result the second time. I believe TapeChek do/did a U-matic cleaner but I've never seen one.
@@video99couk Thanks for your quick response. I suspect I need to replace that rewind belt, does it serve as the same drive for play? Do you know who might supply many belt sizes? Perhaps applying rubber belt conditioner? Any advice? Again thanks for your time & expertise. Just looking for simple advice, no guaranty asked for or implied. Just another man, or as the English say Bloke, trying to turn a profit in a business found fascinating.
What is your experience with the 9850 & the Canopus ADVC 110 or ADVC 55 to digitize Umatic tapes. Is the TBC on the 9850 good enough for that? NTSC
The 9850 doesn't have a TBC, you need an external one.
Top! 🍻
do you know what kind of machine I would need to play DA-30 ampex 467 3/4 insh proffesaional digital audio cassette I believe its a U matic but I cant find an answer thanks
It sounds like a PCM1610/PCM1630 tape. I have kit for that. Ampex tapes were awful, it will certainly need baking before it goes anywhere near a machine, and there are bound to be dropouts on the tape which will affect the sound.
失礼致します。いつも動画を最後まで見ております。とても参考になります。別の話ですが、私のかなり前の古いVTR VO-3900 を持っておりますが。ローディングが回りません。この video recorderは44年経過したものと思われます。直したことはありますか？🤔
I've not worked on that model. You will have to study the schematics to see why the loading motor is not being operated. First thing to check of course is whether there is any voltage across the motor.
@@video99couk コメント頂きありがとうございます。ローディングモーターを分解して内部を見ましたが、まだ消耗しておりませんでした。他の不具合ですが、テープエンドに関係するシステムコントロール回路、ロジック基板などを調べているところです。😊
Good
Nice video. Do u need to bake umatic tape because of stucky tape syndrome?
Umatic tapes can suffer sticky-shed syndrome, especially Ampex branded ones. But other brands such as Sony are less problematic and don't require baking so often.
@video99couk thanks sir. I love your videos and I live in the USA.
Keep the videos coming.
@@video99couk I bake umatic from 10 hours to 15 hours at 135. But you are correct on everything you said.
Hello Colin. I have VO-9800p that suddenly turned black and white over night. The picture is crystal clear but no color. I have tested cables and capture device with other machines and it works fine so something has to be wrong with the umatic machine color. Have you ever seen this before?
I've not had that problem but understand it is likely to be bad capacitors on the chroma panel. I would suggest you pull that out and test any electrolytic capacitors with an ESR meter. Also look for any glue on the PCB which may have gone conductive. It would help if you could find another machine to temporarily do some panel swapping to confirm that the fault is on the chroma panel, but that may not be practical.
Thanks Colin. I will try that 😀
I recently picked up a Sony MiniDv camcorder and discovered it can convert a composite or s-video signal to DV. I tried it out by converting some VHS and Standard 8 tapes and was pretty pleased with the result. If you have tried this method out yourself how does it compare (in your opinion) to a good quality capture card? Loved the video as always!
Yes some miniDV and Digital8 camcorders can do this. Especially if you feed it with S-Video (where available, such as from an SVHS deck), the results can be excellent. I don't use this route because it's a bit fiddly to set up compared to a dedicated converter or DV deck, but there's no reason not to.
you are 100% right about the video archivists they have the gold bars my mate work in a place where they deal with home's when people died the price of any A/V gear has gone crazy VHS decks is silly a well the first run of hi-fi player decks is now silly man you know the one's
Hello UMatic community! I've been having an issue with my Umatic machine where the video sometimes plays back with stripes of color overlayed on entire video - perfect rainbow. When I stop and start it, it sometimes plays back with the proper coloration. Anybody have experience with this? Would love to hear how you fixed it. Thanks!
It could well be capacitor trouble in the chroma circuits. Tricky to resolve, but start by taking the chroma panel out and check to see if some of the electrolytic capacitors are going low value and/or high ESR.
Thanks for your reply -supremely helpful! Going to see what we can do@@video99couk
Hi, I'm Zoran, I'm writing from Serbia and I have a problem. On one of our local sites where used things are sold pop ebay I found a sony umatic Sony V0-5800PS and the man wrote the following in the description of the device. Until recently it worked normally, and now it just pulls in the tape and can't play, rewind or record it. so I'm wondering if such a device has a belt that may have cracked so it won't let go of the tape. I am grateful in advance for the answer.
I follow all your works on youtube and I can say that they are great. Keep it up,
It's hard to fault find remotely, but it certainly sounds like it could just need a new reel belt and/or idler tyre.
What's the equivalent USA version for DPS-375 with RF connector?
I think it may be DPS-275.
Hi I have no knowledge on gadgets, so I’m hoping you’d be kind enough to tell me if I can still buy a video recorder that’s not connected to phones/wifi..how they used to be. I’d like something compact & excellent quality too 😊
No new video recorders are being made, though lots of camcorders are, as are PVRs. What do you want to do with it?
beware get your gold bars out to buy this model price is now very high i was looking for one for some time
alot of u-matic fans out there
It's probably archivists who particularly like these machines and are pushing up prices.
9850p? you mean to say this thing shoots 10K video? 🤣🤣🤣