The IC module that ultimately made me decide to scrap this unit, a VCR0369 is the comb filter IC, and I did accurately diagnose this part. Believe it or not it is still available according to some parts dealers. The part runs about 80.00 which is still more than I want to put into this beast, as there are still problems with the control buttons, even though the remote still works.
12voltvids great video, I like your diagnostics, I own a Panasonic NV-J35 which has a problem not initializing correctly. When power ON, LED is ON for 7 seconds and powers OFF. PSU has all correct voltages, it is the CPU applying the PWR OFF at pin 62. I am trying to understand what erroneous input to CPU causes it to shut down power. Any suggestion?
@@Brasto1 If this was a JVC, I have heard from one online source is that the gears under the heads are sticking. If you move them with your fingers as soon as you power up the deck, the unit will reset and you should be good to go. But the gears will need to be lubricated so it doesn't happen again. Unfortunately the Hitachi VT-730A also seems to have this stuck gear problem. I can't move the gears under the head as they are not open as was the case with the JVC. So, no manual movement of those gears on power on is possible. Still working on a solution for this deck but it's frustrating...
I remember 20+ years ago a shop I worked at was dealing with an AG-1970 that had power but was inoperable. Since at the time we were not a Panasonic authorized servicer, to get help from Panasonic to troubleshoot the issue was like pulling teeth as they wanted to charge an arm and a leg for technical help. Thus, we put the machine on the back burner for a few weeks to see if we could come up with a solution later. As time went on, another AG-1970 came into our shop with a different issue and I had the bright idea of using this machine as a guinea pig to help us troubleshoot the issue and help us get it down to what board was the problem. Sure enough, we found the issue in no time at all and was able to order a new control IC (I think) to get the unit working again. Anyway, I never liked Panasonic even before this issue since I worked for them briefly and they are one of the more crappier companies to work for. However, I was even more pissed with their lack of interest in helping to provide better service in general (our shop later became an authorized service for them and my boss felt they were a nightmare to deal with for warranty claims). I guess that says a lot since they aren’t really much a player in consumer electronics anymore.
Panasonic stopped building any "built-like-a-tank" products, beginning in January 1984 pivotal year. Since 1984, I have watched the reliability gap difference between Panasonic and Toshiba products widened by over 10 times of quality difference. Today, Toshiba is a far superior, more-reliable brand than Panasonic, all products that you can name of.
Ooooh, nice! I've got one too but it's so long since I used it I've forgotten what's wrong with it haha. That's why I'm here ... so wish me luck! :D [edit] No, I now see I have a NV F65 but I don't know what the difference is. Can I ask what was wrong with yours and what was the remedy?
@@HowlingUlf Mine had a problem with he PSU and I replaced the capacitors. The rest was just some cleaning in the mechanism. Unsure what the difference is between the 55 and 65 as they look very similar. Also I used the information of this video: th-cam.com/video/eErlcvfD_Ds/w-d-xo.html
@@HowlingUlf all the best with it! I am sure you can work it out. Dave's video has helped me with a lot of repairs. I am sure if you need help you can send Dave a DM or ask the question here. 👍
And speaking of VCR’s being dead, I got a Panasonic VCR at a yard sale for $2, and it’s a model PV-945H and it still works perfectly without any issues, and the picture looks great. It’s a perfect replacement from the Samsung DVD/VCR combo from around 2007 or 2008 which was Funai, but the Panasonic one was not Funai.
I knew about Panasonic back in the day, when there were a line of their VCRs, that utilised a device called a Digital Scanner. This device looked like an oversized pencil or pen and one would scan a barcode in the TV Guide and point it to the VCR, push the transmit button and let it record a programme at the set time automatically. Sometimes one forgot to load a video cassette, then it did not record anything ! LOL. At the moment, I have a 30 year old Panasonic NV-SD3 VCR and had the unit from new. I need to service the tape transports with white lithium grease and replace the belts though, because these are a bit worn and my brand new video tapes are getting stuck inside and eaten... Even after correctly cleaning the heads and the drum, the VCR still has the eating bug ! 😅😂🤣
Yes I remember that model with the bar code scanner and it came with a plastic sheet with bar codes for each channel and times every 30 minutes. It was a flop. We sold a few at the shop and they all came back because the demographic they were targeting, old people couldn't figure it out. Out local cable company had the channels on different numbers than the cable company in the big city which is what the tv guide and news paper printed. So naturally they got the wrong program recorded and it came back as "defective" yes defective as in defective customer! 😄
oh, did not expected a write off. The one shown in this is NV-FS200 (consumer version) in Europe. I have had three NV-F70 (a PAL 7 head HiFi with jog/shuttle - top of the line VHS of its time) from 1988. One I bought myself 1988, the other two are bought "dead" from eBay. I just replaced three capacitors on the PSU. After that the PSU "started", autotracking was back alive and the color was reproduced "as new" again. My onw did not survive due to my stupidity during a cleaning job I touched something on the big board wile it was active. Today you won't get the F70 cheap from eBay any more. Too many found out how to fix the PSU. Then I got an another Panasonic HiFi of the period; all are up and running like new. The G-Deck is what needs to be handed gently. I don't own a K deck recorder yet, but have two Z decks that are more troublesome than the old G deck.
The Panasonic 1980p ags are still thought of as the best VCR with EP tracking and with VHS-C tapes and also one of the worst VCRs ever manufactured. Definitely everything 12volt said is true. Great when they are running until they aren’t. They sell for over a grand refurbished.
I had more ep tracking issues with my 1970. It was / is a terrible machine. I have 2 that i was considering trying to get one running from the other but I just can't bring myself to do it. There were so many other machines that were superrior. Namely the sony r5, r1000, svo2000. Anyone that would pay a grand for one needs their head examined. What did they have going for them? Aluminum chassis? Big deal Mitsubishi had the same and made better machines with nine if those ceramic substrate modules which are now ubobtanium.
@@duncanmacleod2136 tbc is useless. Real capture cards don't need one. Back when i did use the 1970 I had to turn it off as it destroyed the picture. Every capture device I have owned and i have right now about 6 including he devices that capture from component only the old hauppague needs a tbc ahead of it. Every other one does not require it because it is built in. The Panasonic tbc is just a 3 line tbc which is pretty useless. A full frame store is what is required and no consumer or industrial machine has that and pro models definately not because they expect you to use a real tbc. So perhaps your 20.00 dazzle might look better but a proper capture device won't care because it already has a full frame buffer. At least all the ones known except for the old hauppague does. My Sony converter does, as does my Panasonic and Toshiba, and my CA capture boards. If I need to strip macrovision I loop through my old videonics mx1 as it has a full dual channel frame store with broadcast stability tbc which is many times better than the little 3line tbc that was put in consumer VCRs so salesmen could sell them to their Kool aid drinking customers that don't know one tbc from another. Doesn't take much to call it a tbc bit there is a world of difference between what is in the ag1970 and a real one. Go find a Samsung sv5000 multi system converting VCR. It has a full frame store tbc as that is required for the systems conversion.
@@12voltvids I have a Panasonic 1980p ag, a Datavideo TBC 3000, and a pinnacle 710 which has an LSI chipset. My TBC 3000 is a later generation it was made in 2004 and I bought it off of a college professor. I drove to his house and got it. It has barely any use and it’s been kept inside. Anyways I thought it was neat when I got it the day before my birthday at the end of august. Yeah I tried capturing VHS-C before without a frame TBC and I got a bunch of dropped frames and my capture software would crash. It was a headache.
@@duncanmacleod2136 i used a micro dc30+ for awhile and never dropped frames. My second system a matrox rt2000 and again never dropped frames. I do know people that did have issues and it was always their pc. My system used ultra scsi 10,000 rpm hard drives. Again I did it professionally and spent a ton to build my system. It didn't care what type of crap video I put in it always looked great. 1 gig per minute for SD capture.
I have an AG 1960 that I bought in the early 90s. Suddenly, I have sound and no picture. The BNC connector is kind of wobbly. Maybe solder broke? But why wouldn’t the s vhs cable not work? Any ideas? I’m not a vcr repairman
Those machines use a comb filter module that has a bunch of sme caps that leak into the board and damage it. The part was about 80 last time i checked about 10 years ago. Have seen quite a few with the same fault.
Okay, so I got up some nerve and opened a bunch of VCRs today. The Panasonic AG-1980 I inherited from a friend doesn't load tapes but is beyond my ability to repair. Looks like it will have to be sent in to the last local shop to see if they can help. If not, it's down to the TO repair/restoration place. I checked the boards and maybe I'm just lucky...no bulged or leaky caps! So, I guess it's a mechanical problem? The Zenith VRE550HF SVHS deck was nice. All direct drive motors and very little rubber. If there were any belts, I could not get at them. I have the rubber repair kit for that one, so I'm keeping it for now. Everything seems to operate as normal on MOST tapes but every once in awhile it gets finicky and eats one. But that is a rare occurrence. Next was the Hitachi VT-730A editing deck. Also nice kit but something is jammed somewhere and the tape inside is stuck. I need some help with that one. Oh yeah, the Zenith was made by JVC as all the motors, etc. have JVC stickers on them. Any help much appreciated...thanks...
I bought an AG-1950 new back in the day. It gave up the ghost after nearly 30 years of trustworthy service. Now I’m looking for a used machine to transfer some old home movies to digital. I’d like to get something fairly heavy duty, maybe a commercial or industrial machine. What brand and model would you recommend?
Mine didn't last no 30 years. Mine lasted less than 10. Keep in mind that any VHS machine you find now will be well work. The industrial machines were no more reliable than most consumer versions. I use a JVC HRS-9911U for my archiving. It has an internal TBC and has been very reliable for me.
I once found on the net the website of a repairman in Ohio, who works on AG1980 (etc.) exclusively, and charges a hefty fee to recap troublesome boards.
I wouldn't pay much to fix one as these were not that great if machine. I have 2 broken 1970s, both have major problems. One has a bad drum too. Perhaps i will take parts from one to try to get the other running some day.
Howdy, I'd like to say that your 3/4" VCR repairs helped me out a ton back in the day. From what I learned from watching many of your videos saved a VO-4800 that I used to have. I have one of those Panasonic (NV-8420) portable units. It looks just like an "economy" model AG-6400, albeit nearly verbatim build-structure from what I can tell opening up both, for picture reference. All it does is try to play the tape, pauses, there's a humming sound, then it de-threads and rewinds a bit before it reverts to STOP. All other mechanical and electrical functions work perfectly. I just can't get it to properly move any tapes at all. You're a huge channel, possibly the biggest for this kind of thing, and I was wondering how I could go about getting your 2 cents or more about what the problem(s) might be. Thanks, Nineball69
@@12voltvids no.. I am unable to pull it out , just affraid to break it.. I am not sure how you managed to do it on ag1980 because it is very similar to other old panasonic vcrs like nv-fs200.. unfortunately it is not shown on the video. The part where you remove the video cba is not there ((
Goof morning I need to use some of these vcr in Europe In ag-2560 and ag-2570 models (for example) do you know if the ac/dc is replaceable with a 220v 50Hz ac/dc?
Hi Sir, are you a panasonic technician? If yes, help on Panasonic NV-SD350. There are 2 black wires with brown connecter broken from circuit pannel need to know from were so I can solde back.
Don't know the model. I couldn't tell you where it went even if i was familiar with it without the manual. You should take pictures before taking apart.
I probably wouldn't use the word "bad" when describing *all* Panasonic VCRs, as from my memory they produced lots of consumer-marketed VCRs [the "PV" models] that were fantastic. In all the years of scouring thrift stores I would have to say Funai was the worst VCR manufacturer as I have never ever seen a Panasonic AG-19x0 VCR at any thrift store I've been to and all of the Funai VCRs I've tried at thrift stores ate tapes or had some other thing wrong with them. Unfortunately I worked at a broadcast TV station as a video technician and bought into that Funai garbage for the facility, and ended up with two of their VCR/DVD player combinations. These units were barely over $300 each and both broke down with relatively few hours compared to the 1984-99 Panasonic "PV" VCRs we owned over the years. Keep this in mind if you plan on buying one of those Funai VCRs as that company is full of shitty VCRs, and some of them are monaural only. Also watch Past Time Tech's video demonstrations of Panasonic "PV" VCRs - Teddy can tell you he hasn't had a Panasonic "PV" VCR break on him.
Panasonic had some good models but unfortunately their AG professional series were not that good. Agw1 was a very expensive converting machine and mine had lots of problems lots of surface body caps inside modules that went bad. Then there was the infamous power supplies which were design ass backwards. This would have been in the mid 80s I forget the models but there was quite a few of them where one little capacitor in the power supply would dry up and cause the frequency of the inverter to increase. They screw up on this design was how they control the voltage of these power supplies was to change the frequency to move the frequency closer to or further away from the residents of the transformer ideally the higher the frequency the further away from residents you got which caused the voltage to drop as the efficiency of the transformer dropped off well on some of these bad ones the frequency was on the lower side of residence so they went backwards they drop the frequency to reduce the voltage they increase the frequency to increase the voltage. What it ended up happening was as the capacitors in the power supply primary started to drift the frequency started to increase it caused the voltage to spike up and they did not have any crowbars on the secondary to limit the voltage increase. I remember over about a 6 month period having close to 100 VCRs come in at every integrated circuit had a whole blown in it because the 12 volt rail went up to about 30 volts. All past warranty too bad so sad. Then Panasonic realized oops so they started putting zener diodes for protection that would short and then blow the chopper transistor. They still took about 3 years to redesign the power supply so that they would drop in voltage instead of increase as capacitors went bad. My favorite VCRs of the era were always the Mitsubishi's. Not the ones at the guidepost came loose on either. Now the early food I and Daewoo machines were horrible however they did get much better and they were the last company still making VCRs in Japan. I remember my business partner buying 25 cheap Hi-Fi machines for duplicating tapes and these machines were running everyday all day. They never broke down they never ate tapes they never jammed they are always working well the other machines that we had in the duplicating chain were various Panasonic JVC RCA Hitachi Sharp but I was always having to fix those. Warren belts worn idlers you name it I was always having to fix those machines. Now mind you they were older and they had lots of hours on them the food eyes were new but I never had a problem with the phone eyes right up until my business partner passed away and all the equipment got sold in 2005.
A friend of mine is selling a used Panasonic AG4700 (PAL). He asks 10usd for it. Tape loads, all buttons work, but no video signal. Would you think it could be a good bargain and a easy fix? I plan to use it for VHS to DVD conversion.
@@12voltvids Huge thanks Dave. Sorrry for the double post. What vcr (brands or models) would you recommend for VHS to DVD Conversion? A vcr buying guide from you would be a huge help for the retro video collector. I have a Sony SLV-L86HF that I recently fixed: an IC whas blown over 12yrs ago in a power surge and Sony Argentina didn't have replacements, neither the electronic stores or electronic services (they said the IC number didn't exists). I was lucky an ebay chinese seller had'em. Thank you again for answering and upload this videos. I love'm.
@@12voltvids thank you again for sharing your knowledge in this matter. A stupid question: When using common PAL vhs you can capture the signal from the SVideo aboiding the issue of b/w images when ussing composite?
@@12voltvids Would be nice to get one inside Canada at a decent price rather than trying to get one off eBay or from the restoration outfits in the US. Since most will only ship to the border and I have no wheels anymore to go pick it up, that pretty well ends it for now for me. I did get an AG-1980 recently. Nice cosmetic condition but won't load tapes. I can hear a clicking sound from inside. Guess I should see if any of the Sally Anns have an old Omnivision or other old Panasonic vcr I can can cannibalize for parts. Maybe a better basket? Also been getting a lot of higher end decks but they are all broken in one way or another. Too bad. My old Zenith (made by JVC) however still works fine and I recently was able to get the replacement rubber parts for it. Just have to make time to put them in. OT but how do you feel about using a hot air workstation for parts removal? I notice a lot of restoration outfits using these instead of soldering irons.
hi,,I have an ag 4700 to which I remove the front panel. remove to clean inside and assemble carefully. I was able to get the cassette deck to work with the remote control and everything works fine, but when I reinstall the front panel the commands work incorrectly. I want to put stop and it goes to play. I want to fast forward and pause etc etc. Is there a reset that I should do? what will be the problem ?? '. Thank you
When I don't respond to a question it means i don't know the answer. No need to keep posting the question on multiple videos. That is a sure fire way for me to test the mute button on you.
Strange that the similar looking nv fs200 doesn’t use smd capacitors on this board, normal through-hole caps there My unit had been in (a cold) storage for several years, so not ideal!!, but working perfectly.”, no leaky caps on the mainboard or any of the modules, didn’t check the power supply, as its working fine (for now) Maybe they used different parts for the european/PAL version?
Hello my dear Dave! I just received my two AG4700 (Both por 20usd, so wasn't so bad of a deal). Sadly the seller wasn't very honest (or didn't know) that they don't work ok. Both vcr's turn on, but when I put a tape, it stops a mid position and eject the tape. I insisted at a point it got in, but it didn't load the tape (ribbon) into the head. Would you be so kind of gime some tips of what to look for? Meanwhile I am going downtown to buy some Isopropanol 99% and lithium grease.
@@jonka1 I have a Sony SLV-825NP (One of the best Sony made) i got it for 10€ didn't turn on ,always remained in standby Needed new caps on the PSU and it's been good since Also lubed the mech up to help it out
I put 15 hours into a AG-1980 a few months ago and sold it for $875. That being said, I'll never do it again. I'll take a Sony SVO-2000 over it any day.
Dave, could you do a vid of this model mode switch cleaning? I have a FS88, wich is kindda similar but it's seems impossible to get into the mod switch. The service manual doesnt give many details con it. Thank you again for your great job and amazing work with these old decks!!
@@12voltvids Oh man! You are the best! Even if not repairable, it's nice to see your vids for disassembly instructions are quite usefull! This things are a b*tch to work in it and having your experience translated in a video makes me feel reasured on what to do and do not, what to look for or how to do certain things. You are a great guide into the tape repair world and I cant emphatize enough how important is your comments regarding on what usually goes wrong and what to look for, common faults, so on. I'll be waiting on that vid!
My AG 1960 was stored for 30 years, cranked it up, no picture, cleaned the heads, got picture back fine, few years later, cranked it again, tiny bits of scrambled video but full audio. My mistake, I think, was cleaning the heads too many times, now I have no picture at all. Do you still do repairs? Thanks for posting.
Not on those old pieces of crap. Those panasonic AG series VCRS were terrible. The problem you have is likely the comb filter module. The power supplies were also crap on Panasonic.
@@12voltvids Okay, thanks for replying. I kept it in my barn for 30 years, it did work until I took it out a second time. Mine was good for at least 30 years.
@@billcallahan9303 The problem with electronics that used those surface mount electrolytic caps was sitting was the worst thing for them. It was made during the capacitor cancer era. All those old camcorders are in the same boat.
The 1970 cost around $1500 brand new back in the day, the AG1980 was the big boy that cost I think $2200 brand new back in around 1988-1990ish. Panasonic VCRs were often simply rebadged JVC machines as they were all owned by the same company; The AG-1980 and AG-1970 were both based on JVC models and vice versa. Their reliability is very questionable as with the JVC decks, and I am not sure why anyone would spend $500 on a 1980 or even $250+ on a 1970 when you can get a Mitsubishi HS-U80 for around the same price and are almost always FAR more reliable and look much nicer in a hi-fi rack (the HS-U80 looks right at home with a Sony ES rack from the mid to late 80s and built with the same care and quality as a Sony ES stack).
I had an AG-1980 for a number of years. Great machine, but it developed a problem where it would show an F04 error on the front display and eat the tape. Brought it in for service a couple of times, and even after duplicating the problem, I could not get it fixed.
Hello. Maybe you can help me with my Panasonic AG-1950? It appeared to have some kind of grease problem because it took several power cycling and re-inserting to finally get the mechanism to be able to play a cassette (and sometimes it ate them)... After that it worked until I stopped using it for some time and then it was back to not doing anything without several power cycling and re-inserting... Some of the old grease was really really sticky too so I was sure it was a grease problem. So I removed the old grease I could find on the top and underside of the mechanism and applied new one (super lube). Somehow, this was an awful, *awful* idea... The VCR now accepts a cassette everytime so that's good, it also always rewind and fast forward without complaining. But, playback is totally broken. When I press play, the tape guides barely advance and then immediately retract. How much they advance is different each time I press play but they never go very far. The only way to get the tape guides to wrap the tape around the video drum is to eject the cassette, cut the power, re-apply power, the mechanism then does some things for some reason (it always did that and is the reason before to get it working I needed to do several power cycling, because it makes the mechanism move), and then if I insert a cassette there is a chance that the tape guides will wrap the tape around the video drum. But when this happens the video drum does not spin at all, and the tape quickly slips off the (P3?) guide and yeah it's not very good (what does any of this have to do with grease by the way?)... After that I have to cut the power again and all that stuff I just mentioned if I want to have another chance at having the tape guides wrap the tape around the video drum... How did I manage to break the mechanism this much without even trying?? Ugh and I needed this VCR because it is the only one I had that could do clean, stable pauses...
That black grease was horrible. You need to tear down the entire mechanism, clean all residue of that old grease and relube with lithium grease, and then reassemble and time the mechanism. I have a few videos up that deal with that chassis design, and the mechanical timing aspect of it.
Oh so you are saying that I did not do any irreversible damage? Good. Although taking everything apart does not sound fun at all... I'm still wondering what the heck I did wrong to make it even less functional than before. Is something really wrong with super lube? What about all those forum posts recommending it?? Did I put too much and it went in places it shouldn't have? I could not find any videos dealing with this mechanism... I searched "Panasonic" on your channel search and came across a U-matic, and mechanisms with belts. Mine does not have any belt.
There are 2 videos I did a few years ago. One deals with the cassette housing and the top side of the mechanism, and the other the bottom mechanical timing. I don't remember if I listed it with a model number. Probably as listed as Panasonic bottom mech, or top side alignment as it was very generic as it covered tons of models sold under Panasonic, RCA, GE brands ect that all came out of the same factory.
It's a shame that these were built as they were looked like a beautiful well built unit very disappointing for you not getting it repaired nevertheless great video as always.
Begs the question...where would you buy a good JVC like your one with a TBC built in? Other than my friend who gave me the AG-1980 and who always bought top notch equipment that I could never afford, I have never seen units like these in any of my travels, at estate sales, etc. My restored Sony SLHF450 Betamax is still chugging along just fine but getting a restored SVHS deck is as of right now, my only option. I went looking for the JVC you mentioned. Good, fixable ones can be had out of the U.S. for under $300CAD but in Canada is elusive. I can't seem to fix the SLHF750 Super Betamax, even with the service manual. There are just too many parts in there I have to remove to put the thing back on its rails. When Fedex dropped this unit, they made sure it was dead. There are no more factory trained techs left in my town who can even look at any old decks (or who want to). They have either retired or died. Lost a lot of tech friends over the past 10 years...
I got my JVC from a studio I used to service for. They had about 20 of them. The studio was a "casting" studio where actors would do their reads on camera and the studio used about 20 of these machines to make copies of their clients work that would be sent to casting directors. At any given time I would have a couple of machines in for maintenance. I just so happened to have this one when the company went tits up and it was abandoned. Finding good working machines is like finding a needle in a haystack. In good shape they fetch top dollar. Same with beta. The last beta I sold I got 500 for and I have another I will part with if the price is right. I have had 3 slv1000 svhs decks shipped in for repair that the owners put over 300.00 in by the time shipping was added. That gives you an idea what these are worth to those that have svhs or beta tapes they need to play. You are correct about the difficulty finding anyone that wants to work on any of these machines anymore. Many are dead and those that are still around have little interest going back to work on stuff.
@@12voltvids Yeah, one of my best friends was a service tech and had a shop for over 20 years. I offered him good money to take a look at the Beta. He said he was RETIRED...ie. NO! But there is one shop left in town. They also have been around for a very long time. There is an upfront $50 fee to just look at the deck (and with the number of people who will stiff you on anything these days i can see why they do that) but that's minor compared on the fee to ship the deck(s) to Toronto to have them serviced. A 1500 km. one way trip by mail or Purolator is expensive these days...
@@hawleygriffon9290 I am the same these days. I say sorry I am retired from the business more than not. I am not looking for business these days. I work on the odd thing but turn down more than I accept.
Reminds me of the garbage audio module JVC put in their SVHS models in the early 90s. Only 6 SMD caps on there, but by the time they failed, the traces were already far gone and barely repairable. I also have an early Panasonic DVCPro model with several hundred (!) SMD caps on a dozen boards or so. All of them failed over the course of the last 9 years when the unit was in storage. Their pro SVHS models from the same time (AG-7700/7750) are notorious for the same failures. Why the hell did ppl go for SMD caps anyway when you can use miniature TTH ones? (Tho only marginally more reliable).
@@NuGanjaTron ag was the commercial division but as they turned out were far more problematic than the cheaper consumer gear. The idea was field replacable modules. The problem was the replacement modules went out of production as soon as the model changed and because they were so problematic to begin with the parts became unavailable quickly. I remember we had an ag1980 at the shop on display as we were a Panasonic proline dealer. People would come in and look but when a consumer svhs was 1299 at the time and the ag1980 was 1799 it was hard to convince them that it was worth 500 more. It sat on the shelf for years. We used to use it for copying tapes for customers. One day it had a bad picture. They sent it into the back. Needed a video board. Panasonic said no longer available. Sure the machine had 5 birthdays at the shop but we couldn't get parts to fix. Thank gawd it hadn't been as because that would have been very angry customer unable to get warranty work. Panasonic eventually bought the machine back along with all the other proline crap that just sat there not selling. I wanted the video mixer but couldn't justify the high cost so i went with the video is mx1 as it was half the price, made in USA and still works!!!!!
HOOLY SMOKE ..IHAVE NV-FS200 HAVE SAME BROBLEM IN THAT IC..ITS HIGH QUALITY WHEN IT NEW..I NEVER SEE QUALITY PLAYBACK AND RECRORDING MACHAIN SAME THIS ..BUT AS YOU SAY...THAT IC IS NO LONGER AVAILBLE.
The melting point of cooper is 1984°F, so how are you saying the copper (that are sprayed) tracks would get damaged ? What else can I say to convince you to finish fixing this machine ? :)
Duh, the electrolytic that leaks out eats the copper traces away. So there are no traces left. How can you convince me to fix it? Buy me the parts how does that sound.
@@12voltvids I tried to find that part but it's no longer available, not even in www.ued.net. If I find one somewhere I'll get back here... Are you sure it's not possible to repair the traces with bridges ?
@@machannel8746 Use liquid defroster line paint from the auto store. hahah. It's a gettho ass approach but it works on all kinds of electronics for DC power traces. Paints on like nail polish.
Looks almost identical to my Panasonic NV-FS200. My machine still works, but it does have some noise in the picture. Some diagonal lines when playing NTSC tapes. PAL tapes seem to be fine at the moment. Front panel display is also very dim. This is my third machine in almost 5 years... Trying to find another machine that is just as good, or better, than this model. Any suggestions? Would love to get it repaired, but after seeing this, I guess I should give up.
Seems to be a Japanese thing. Musical instruments are not immune: Roland put similar shitty modules in some of their analog synthesizers in the mid 80s, and they always fail.
+12voltvids hey awesome ! im looking for some of the plastic gears on the bottom, namely the planetary gear set , as mine has a worn teeth on it that will inevitable fail soon after I get it lined up - , I can send a pic too for reference. also service manual for exact lineup - I posted on your other excellent video as the marks are slightly different on mine. probably a few more items as I work through it...
+12voltvids id go for the gears for sure, can you email me in what your asking wise for drum head? can you see my email here or no? jcarron2 at gmail dot com .... thanks !
hey, I didn't hear from you, but wanted to let you know I actually found new gears for my unit! I actually got the whole "kit" online and the vcr works perfectly, the only thing it (the kit) didn't come with is grease! what grease do you use for r & r these days ? thanks, Jonathan
jcarron2 hey Jonathan it's me sam you bought the ag-1970 from me I lost you're number as I got a new phone I've been trying to contact you for a while, please inbox me you're number or email as I have a few Vcr's maybe you can buy them off of me or charge me you're respective rates and diagnose the Vcr's or something you're the only guy who still repairs Vcr's ! Thanks in advance ! -Sam
+Donald Ellett Not really. These caps were from the era of the capacitor scandal in Japan. If you want to look that up, there is all kinds of info floating around, some rumours, and some factual.Back in the early 90s the rumour that was floating around went something like this. Names have been deleted to protect the guilty. I will only refer to them as brand x and brand y. Brand X spends much time and money developing a new type of capacitor that does not use harmful chemicals in the electrolytic, as they need to comply with new ROHS regulations coming into effect. Brand X is not going to share their secret recipe for their new electrolytic with brand Y or anyone else. Competition is fierce, and brand Y and Z are working on their own formulations too. Then one day a disgruntled engineer offers the recipe for a price to brand Y. The problem was this engineer didn't know a key ingredient, or intentionally left it out of the recipe in order to sabotage, and therefore damage brand Y and everyone else down stream from brand Y that they whored the recipe to. This is where the discrepancy in the story goes. Brand X claims that they set up the disgruntled employee to see if he would steal it, and Brand Y claims they were sabotaged.Regardless of this, what happened was a key ingredient was missing, and it was this key ingredient that kept the PH stable during charge and discharge cycles. The changing PH of the electrolytic caused the rubber seal where the leads enter the capacitor to slowly dissolve, and eventually you had corrosive capacitor juice leaking onto your PCBoard. Now I read about this on an official service bulletin issued by Sony regarding leaking Elna capacitors. Oops, I just leaked one of the brands, but Elna was not the only ones that got stung by this electrolytic scandal of the late 80's early 90's. It is also pretty easy to figure out brand X that developed the new type of high temperature 105'C capacitor, as if you have electronics from that vintage that the capacitors are not leaking, well then you know the brand.
I need your advice! I have a Panasonic NV-FS200 (European version of AG-1970)...The problem with it is that when I turn the TBC on, the picture turns black. This doesn't happen every time but once the machine warms up...Is it a capacitor problem?
Fivos Sakellis Yes I would say it is a capacitor problem, most likely surface mount electrolytic in the TBC module. That happened on this unit years ago, and I swapped the TBC module as we had a spare at the shop I worked at. I still haven't bothered fixing this machine, it is on the back burner, some day when I am feeling ambitious I will tackle it again, but as you see in the video it has developed multiple problems, and due to the fact I have at least 4 working SVHS machines, this one isn't high on my list of priorities at the moment.
Actually you're wrong on that one fun I made very good VCRs. I have plenty of food and machines and how about lasted all the Panasonic crap especially the so-called professional Panasonic ones which all died a very early death. My business associate ran the tape duplication center. He had 50 recorders. Combinations of various different brands Hitachi Panasonic JVC funai Daewoo. I had to maintain the machines when they broke and the ones I was always seeing was the panasonics and the jvcs and the hitaches. The phone is just kept on going and these machines were running day in every day for like 10 hours a day. When we were doing corporate videos on VHS they were typically 5 to 10 minute long videos where we were making hundreds upon hundreds of copies some runs had upwards of five or 6,000 copies done repeatedly over and over. I did the production work on the video did the shooting and editing I sent the tape over to gord my business associate he ran the duplication center because he had all day just to change tapes. We use them ag-1980 as a playback machine because the tape was super VHS and all the copies were made on his bank of cheap recorders. I think we had 30 funai and 20 machines of other brands and I had to fix them when they broke and I never saw the funai decks. They just kept on working whereas the other machines I was getting them on a regular basis for everything that could possibly go wrong idler's failing plastic parts breaking you name it I had to repair them usually it was the front loader that would bug her up on most of them.
@@12voltvids I probably wouldn't use the word "bad" when describing all Panasonic VCRs, as from my memory they produced lots of consumer-marketed VCRs [the "PV" models] that were fantastic. In all the years of scouring thrift stores I would have to say Funai was the worst VCR manufacturer as I have never ever seen a Panasonic AG-19x0 VCR at any thrift store I've been to and all of the Funai VCRs I've tried at thrift stores ate tapes or had some other thing wrong with them. Unfortunately I worked at a broadcast TV station as a video technician and bought into that Funai garbage for the facility, and ended up with two of their VCR/DVD player combinations. These units were barely over $300 each and both broke down with relatively few hours compared to the 1984-99 Panasonic "PV" VCRs we owned over the years. Keep this in mind if you plan on buying one of those Funai VCRs as that company is full of shitty VCRs, and some of them are monaural only. Also watch Past Time Tech's video demonstrations of Panasonic "PV" VCRs - Teddy can tell you he hasn't had a Panasonic "PV" VCR break on him.
+Donald Ellett That wasn't a cheap machine. Over 2000.00. Doesn't seem to matter these days. Surface mounted electrolytic caps affected everyone back in the 80's.
Well I’ve had this exact VCR brand new since 1994 and I’ve had absolutely zero problems with it. It’s outlived most regular VCRs and is a work horse. For one, I don’t tinker around and disassemble with any of my machines for the sake of making a video on TH-cam, except to clean them or blow dust and tape particles out. If it ain’t broke I don’t fix it and I’ve used them since the mid 70’s. No, it’s not perfect but no VCR since they were invented are. You want to whine about a piece of pure crap, you should have had the ‘Quasar Great Time Machine’ and I’ll personally buy you a box of tissue and a tiny violin to go with your belly aching about this one.
The AG-1970 was incredibly trouble-free and reliable when they were brand new, until all the surface-mount caps dried up, and hundreds of other caps go bad at dead-end. The only way to avoid this problem was to not allow the unit to overheat, do not stack, blow A/C directly onto top of unit, and always unplug the unit after each use.
@@haweater1555 well that was a Panasonic machine. Stacked reels. Used the same technical specs as far as the video signal and color under as betamax and umatic. There was the sanyo vcord format as well which the cassette looked more like an 8 track and slid in sideways. There was initially 4 formats that JVC, Panasonic, Sony and sanyo were all involved with. They were all "borrowing" from Sony. The betamax was the best performing of all the formats and Sony thought everyone was on board to make betamax with Sony getting a nice royalty for every one made. JVC had other ideas and took the VHS format which Sony had also co-developed and launched as their own format. They made a fee changes, namely to the FM carrier, deviation and color recording to make them just different enough so Sony couldn't sue them.
The IC module that ultimately made me decide to scrap this unit, a VCR0369 is the comb filter IC, and I did accurately diagnose this part. Believe it or not it is still available according to some parts dealers. The part runs about 80.00 which is still more than I want to put into this beast, as there are still problems with the control buttons, even though the remote still works.
12voltvids great video, I like your diagnostics, I own a Panasonic NV-J35 which has a problem not initializing correctly. When power ON, LED is ON for 7 seconds and powers OFF. PSU has all correct voltages, it is the CPU applying the PWR OFF at pin 62. I am trying to understand what erroneous input to CPU causes it to shut down power. Any suggestion?
@@Brasto1 If this was a JVC, I have heard from one online source is that the gears under the heads are sticking. If you move them with your fingers as soon as you power up the deck, the unit will reset and you should be good to go. But the gears will need to be lubricated so it doesn't happen again. Unfortunately the Hitachi VT-730A also seems to have this stuck gear problem. I can't move the gears under the head as they are not open as was the case with the JVC. So, no manual movement of those gears on power on is possible. Still working on a solution for this deck but it's frustrating...
You`ve GOT to be kidding...Panasonic always made rock solid VCR`s.
I was thinking the same thing. I also thought he said the same thing as well!
I remember 20+ years ago a shop I worked at was dealing with an AG-1970 that had power but was inoperable. Since at the time we were not a Panasonic authorized servicer, to get help from Panasonic to troubleshoot the issue was like pulling teeth as they wanted to charge an arm and a leg for technical help. Thus, we put the machine on the back burner for a few weeks to see if we could come up with a solution later. As time went on, another AG-1970 came into our shop with a different issue and I had the bright idea of using this machine as a guinea pig to help us troubleshoot the issue and help us get it down to what board was the problem. Sure enough, we found the issue in no time at all and was able to order a new control IC (I think) to get the unit working again. Anyway, I never liked Panasonic even before this issue since I worked for them briefly and they are one of the more crappier companies to work for. However, I was even more pissed with their lack of interest in helping to provide better service in general (our shop later became an authorized service for them and my boss felt they were a nightmare to deal with for warranty claims). I guess that says a lot since they aren’t really much a player in consumer electronics anymore.
I like Panasonic stuff until the 70s
Later stuff seems to be worst quality compared to Sony or Sanyo etc
Panasonic stopped building any "built-like-a-tank" products, beginning in January 1984 pivotal year. Since 1984, I have watched the reliability gap difference between Panasonic and Toshiba products widened by over 10 times of quality difference. Today, Toshiba is a far superior, more-reliable brand than Panasonic, all products that you can name of.
@@waltchan I guess my 3 (still working and very reliable) Panas from 1984 eluded the pivot, then.
Hi Dave. You have outstanding videos. I successfully repaired a NV-F55 with your tips and it works like a charm. All the best!
Ooooh, nice! I've got one too but it's so long since I used it I've forgotten what's wrong with it haha. That's why I'm here ... so wish me luck! :D
[edit]
No, I now see I have a NV F65 but I don't know what the difference is. Can I ask what was wrong with yours and what was the remedy?
@@HowlingUlf Mine had a problem with he PSU and I replaced the capacitors. The rest was just some cleaning in the mechanism. Unsure what the difference is between the 55 and 65 as they look very similar. Also I used the information of this video: th-cam.com/video/eErlcvfD_Ds/w-d-xo.html
@@charlesboer6441 Cool! Thank you. And I've found the other video on my own hehe. Great channel this! :D Now I dare to open the box at least ...
@@HowlingUlf all the best with it! I am sure you can work it out. Dave's video has helped me with a lot of repairs. I am sure if you need help you can send Dave a DM or ask the question here. 👍
And speaking of VCR’s being dead, I got a Panasonic VCR at a yard sale for $2, and it’s a model PV-945H and it still works perfectly without any issues, and the picture looks great. It’s a perfect replacement from the Samsung DVD/VCR combo from around 2007 or 2008 which was Funai, but the Panasonic one was not Funai.
I knew about Panasonic back in the day, when there were a line of their VCRs, that utilised a device called a Digital Scanner. This device looked like an oversized pencil or pen and one would scan a barcode in the TV Guide and point it to the VCR, push the transmit button and let it record a programme at the set time automatically. Sometimes one forgot to load a video cassette, then it did not record anything ! LOL. At the moment, I have a 30 year old Panasonic NV-SD3 VCR and had the unit from new. I need to service the tape transports with white lithium grease and replace the belts though, because these are a bit worn and my brand new video tapes are getting stuck inside and eaten... Even after correctly cleaning the heads and the drum, the VCR still has the eating bug ! 😅😂🤣
Yes I remember that model with the bar code scanner and it came with a plastic sheet with bar codes for each channel and times every 30 minutes. It was a flop. We sold a few at the shop and they all came back because the demographic they were targeting, old people couldn't figure it out. Out local cable company had the channels on different numbers than the cable company in the big city which is what the tv guide and news paper printed. So naturally they got the wrong program recorded and it came back as "defective" yes defective as in defective customer! 😄
oh, did not expected a write off. The one shown in this is NV-FS200 (consumer version) in Europe.
I have had three NV-F70 (a PAL 7 head HiFi with jog/shuttle - top of the line VHS of its time) from 1988.
One I bought myself 1988, the other two are bought "dead" from eBay. I just replaced three capacitors on the PSU. After that the PSU "started", autotracking was back alive and the color was reproduced "as new" again.
My onw did not survive due to my stupidity during a cleaning job I touched something on the big board wile it was active. Today you won't get the F70 cheap from eBay any more. Too many found out how to fix the PSU.
Then I got an another Panasonic HiFi of the period; all are up and running like new. The G-Deck is what needs to be handed gently.
I don't own a K deck recorder yet, but have two Z decks that are more troublesome than the old G deck.
The Panasonic 1980p ags are still thought of as the best VCR with EP tracking and with VHS-C tapes and also one of the worst VCRs ever manufactured. Definitely everything 12volt said is true. Great when they are running until they aren’t. They sell for over a grand refurbished.
I had more ep tracking issues with my 1970. It was / is a terrible machine. I have 2 that i was considering trying to get one running from the other but I just can't bring myself to do it. There were so many other machines that were superrior. Namely the sony r5, r1000, svo2000.
Anyone that would pay a grand for one needs their head examined.
What did they have going for them? Aluminum chassis? Big deal Mitsubishi had the same and made better machines with nine if those ceramic substrate modules which are now ubobtanium.
@@12voltvids you can’t really compare an SVO 2000 to a pannasonic 1980p ag when it comes to digitizing because the SVO has no TBC.
@@duncanmacleod2136 tbc is useless. Real capture cards don't need one. Back when i did use the 1970 I had to turn it off as it destroyed the picture. Every capture device I have owned and i have right now about 6 including he devices that capture from component only the old hauppague needs a tbc ahead of it. Every other one does not require it because it is built in. The Panasonic tbc is just a 3 line tbc which is pretty useless. A full frame store is what is required and no consumer or industrial machine has that and pro models definately not because they expect you to use a real tbc. So perhaps your 20.00 dazzle might look better but a proper capture device won't care because it already has a full frame buffer. At least all the ones known except for the old hauppague does. My Sony converter does, as does my Panasonic and Toshiba, and my CA capture boards. If I need to strip macrovision I loop through my old videonics mx1 as it has a full dual channel frame store with broadcast stability tbc which is many times better than the little 3line tbc that was put in consumer VCRs so salesmen could sell them to their Kool aid drinking customers that don't know one tbc from another. Doesn't take much to call it a tbc bit there is a world of difference between what is in the ag1970 and a real one. Go find a Samsung sv5000 multi system converting VCR. It has a full frame store tbc as that is required for the systems conversion.
@@12voltvids I have a Panasonic 1980p ag, a Datavideo TBC 3000, and a pinnacle 710 which has an LSI chipset. My TBC 3000 is a later generation it was made in 2004 and I bought it off of a college professor. I drove to his house and got it. It has barely any use and it’s been kept inside. Anyways I thought it was neat when I got it the day before my birthday at the end of august. Yeah I tried capturing VHS-C before without a frame TBC and I got a bunch of dropped frames and my capture software would crash. It was a headache.
@@duncanmacleod2136 i used a micro dc30+ for awhile and never dropped frames. My second system a matrox rt2000 and again never dropped frames.
I do know people that did have issues and it was always their pc. My system used ultra scsi 10,000 rpm hard drives. Again I did it professionally and spent a ton to build my system. It didn't care what type of crap video I put in it always looked great. 1 gig per minute for SD capture.
I have an AG 1960 that I bought in the early 90s. Suddenly, I have sound and no picture. The BNC connector is kind of wobbly. Maybe solder broke? But why wouldn’t the s vhs cable not work? Any ideas? I’m not a vcr repairman
Those machines use a comb filter module that has a bunch of sme caps that leak into the board and damage it. The part was about 80 last time i checked about 10 years ago. Have seen quite a few with the same fault.
@@12voltvids thanks for the info. I just wanted to use it to transfer my final SVHS tapes to digital. I’ll keep it as a reminder for now
Okay, so I got up some nerve and opened a bunch of VCRs today. The Panasonic AG-1980 I inherited from a friend doesn't load tapes but is beyond my ability to repair. Looks like it will have to be sent in to the last local shop to see if they can help. If not, it's down to the TO repair/restoration place. I checked the boards and maybe I'm just lucky...no bulged or leaky caps! So, I guess it's a mechanical problem? The Zenith VRE550HF SVHS deck was nice. All direct drive motors and very little rubber. If there were any belts, I could not get at them. I have the rubber repair kit for that one, so I'm keeping it for now. Everything seems to operate as normal on MOST tapes but every once in awhile it gets finicky and eats one. But that is a rare occurrence. Next was the Hitachi VT-730A editing deck. Also nice kit but something is jammed somewhere and the tape inside is stuck. I need some help with that one. Oh yeah, the Zenith was made by JVC as all the motors, etc. have JVC stickers on them. Any help much appreciated...thanks...
I've got a clicking. When it works, it works fine. But then cuts off. Any idea? Thanks.
I bought an AG-1950 new back in the day. It gave up the ghost after nearly 30 years of trustworthy service. Now I’m looking for a used machine to transfer some old home movies to digital. I’d like to get something fairly heavy duty, maybe a commercial or industrial machine. What brand and model would you recommend?
Mine didn't last no 30 years. Mine lasted less than 10.
Keep in mind that any VHS machine you find now will be well work. The industrial machines were no more reliable than most consumer versions. I use a JVC HRS-9911U for my archiving. It has an internal TBC and has been very reliable for me.
AG-1950 was the most-reliable and most-durable of the entire editing VCR lineup from Panasonic.
I once found on the net the website of a repairman in Ohio, who works on AG1980 (etc.) exclusively, and charges a hefty fee to recap troublesome boards.
I wouldn't pay much to fix one as these were not that great if machine. I have 2 broken 1970s, both have major problems. One has a bad drum too. Perhaps i will take parts from one to try to get the other running some day.
Howdy,
I'd like to say that your 3/4" VCR repairs helped me out a ton back in the day. From what I learned from watching many of your videos saved a VO-4800 that I used to have.
I have one of those Panasonic (NV-8420) portable units. It looks just like an "economy" model AG-6400, albeit nearly verbatim build-structure from what I can tell opening up both, for picture reference.
All it does is try to play the tape, pauses, there's a humming sound, then it de-threads and rewinds a bit before it reverts to STOP. All other mechanical and electrical functions work perfectly. I just can't get it to properly move any tapes at all.
You're a huge channel, possibly the biggest for this kind of thing, and I was wondering how I could go about getting your 2 cents or more about what the problem(s) might be.
Thanks,
Nineball69
Hi Dave , did you need to desolder this video board from the main board? How is it connected? Is it ok just to pull it?
Plug in boards
@@12voltvids should be ok to pull it out then
@@12voltvids no.. I am unable to pull it out , just affraid to break it.. I am not sure how you managed to do it on ag1980 because it is very similar to other old panasonic vcrs like nv-fs200.. unfortunately it is not shown on the video. The part where you remove the video cba is not there ((
@@dudedude7849 if i remember most unplug. I have 2 of these. One day I might try to get one going.
@@12voltvids thanks Dave!
Goof morning
I need to use some of these vcr in Europe
In ag-2560 and ag-2570 models (for example) do you know if the ac/dc is replaceable with a 220v 50Hz ac/dc?
This is actually a highend consumer unit not a TV station pro model. Those are a complete different beast.
12:36. "So to recap...". Great groaner as a pun.
And that's what it needs. The pun was intended.
Hi Sir, are you a panasonic technician? If yes, help on Panasonic NV-SD350. There are 2 black wires with brown connecter broken from circuit pannel need to know from were so I can solde back.
Don't know the model. I couldn't tell you where it went even if i was familiar with it without the manual. You should take pictures before taking apart.
I probably wouldn't use the word "bad" when describing *all* Panasonic VCRs, as from my memory they produced lots of consumer-marketed VCRs [the "PV" models] that were fantastic. In all the years of scouring thrift stores I would have to say Funai was the worst VCR manufacturer as I have never ever seen a Panasonic AG-19x0 VCR at any thrift store I've been to and all of the Funai VCRs I've tried at thrift stores ate tapes or had some other thing wrong with them. Unfortunately I worked at a broadcast TV station as a video technician and bought into that Funai garbage for the facility, and ended up with two of their VCR/DVD player combinations. These units were barely over $300 each and both broke down with relatively few hours compared to the 1984-99 Panasonic "PV" VCRs we owned over the years. Keep this in mind if you plan on buying one of those Funai VCRs as that company is full of shitty VCRs, and some of them are monaural only. Also watch Past Time Tech's video demonstrations of Panasonic "PV" VCRs - Teddy can tell you he hasn't had a Panasonic "PV" VCR break on him.
Panasonic had some good models but unfortunately their AG professional series were not that good. Agw1 was a very expensive converting machine and mine had lots of problems lots of surface body caps inside modules that went bad. Then there was the infamous power supplies which were design ass backwards. This would have been in the mid 80s I forget the models but there was quite a few of them where one little capacitor in the power supply would dry up and cause the frequency of the inverter to increase. They screw up on this design was how they control the voltage of these power supplies was to change the frequency to move the frequency closer to or further away from the residents of the transformer ideally the higher the frequency the further away from residents you got which caused the voltage to drop as the efficiency of the transformer dropped off well on some of these bad ones the frequency was on the lower side of residence so they went backwards they drop the frequency to reduce the voltage they increase the frequency to increase the voltage. What it ended up happening was as the capacitors in the power supply primary started to drift the frequency started to increase it caused the voltage to spike up and they did not have any crowbars on the secondary to limit the voltage increase. I remember over about a 6 month period having close to 100 VCRs come in at every integrated circuit had a whole blown in it because the 12 volt rail went up to about 30 volts. All past warranty too bad so sad. Then Panasonic realized oops so they started putting zener diodes for protection that would short and then blow the chopper transistor. They still took about 3 years to redesign the power supply so that they would drop in voltage instead of increase as capacitors went bad. My favorite VCRs of the era were always the Mitsubishi's. Not the ones at the guidepost came loose on either. Now the early food I and Daewoo machines were horrible however they did get much better and they were the last company still making VCRs in Japan. I remember my business partner buying 25 cheap Hi-Fi machines for duplicating tapes and these machines were running everyday all day. They never broke down they never ate tapes they never jammed they are always working well the other machines that we had in the duplicating chain were various Panasonic JVC RCA Hitachi Sharp but I was always having to fix those. Warren belts worn idlers you name it I was always having to fix those machines. Now mind you they were older and they had lots of hours on them the food eyes were new but I never had a problem with the phone eyes right up until my business partner passed away and all the equipment got sold in 2005.
A friend of mine is selling a used Panasonic AG4700 (PAL). He asks 10usd for it. Tape loads, all buttons work, but no video signal. Would you think it could be a good bargain and a easy fix?
I plan to use it for VHS to DVD conversion.
In my experience I have found most of those ag series Panasonic vcrs has many problems. Not my favorite machines
@@12voltvids Huge thanks Dave. Sorrry for the double post. What vcr (brands or models) would you recommend for VHS to DVD Conversion? A vcr buying guide from you would be a huge help for the retro video collector.
I have a Sony SLV-L86HF that I recently fixed: an IC whas blown over 12yrs ago in a power surge and Sony Argentina didn't have replacements, neither the electronic stores or electronic services (they said the IC number didn't exists). I was lucky an ebay chinese seller had'em.
Thank you again for answering and upload this videos. I love'm.
I use a JVC HRS9911 myself. That is a super vhs deck that has a TBC built in. Will play pretty much anything I throw into it.
@@12voltvids thank you again for sharing your knowledge in this matter. A stupid question: When using common PAL vhs you can capture the signal from the SVideo aboiding the issue of b/w images when ussing composite?
@@12voltvids Would be nice to get one inside Canada at a decent price rather than trying to get one off eBay or from the restoration outfits in the US. Since most will only ship to the border and I have no wheels anymore to go pick it up, that pretty well ends it for now for me. I did get an AG-1980 recently. Nice cosmetic condition but won't load tapes. I can hear a clicking sound from inside. Guess I should see if any of the Sally Anns have an old Omnivision or other old Panasonic vcr I can can cannibalize for parts. Maybe a better basket? Also been getting a lot of higher end decks but they are all broken in one way or another. Too bad. My old Zenith (made by JVC) however still works fine and I recently was able to get the replacement rubber parts for it. Just have to make time to put them in. OT but how do you feel about using a hot air workstation for parts removal? I notice a lot of restoration outfits using these instead of soldering irons.
Thoughts one the ag-2560 and 2570?
Hitachi was guilty of using these crap modules also. An example was the RCA VPT695HF. There were a lot of those "fish caps" also.
Yes I know. I have an rca 695 and it has a bad glass module. Junk
hi,,I have an ag 4700 to which I remove the front panel. remove to clean inside and assemble carefully. I was able to get the cassette deck to work with the remote control and everything works fine, but when I reinstall the front panel the commands work incorrectly. I want to put stop and it goes to play. I want to fast forward and pause etc etc. Is there a reset that I should do? what will be the problem ?? '. Thank you
When I don't respond to a question it means i don't know the answer. No need to keep posting the question on multiple videos. That is a sure fire way for me to test the mute button on you.
@@12voltvids I just want to know if someone can help me as soon as possible. no need to add comments
Strange that the similar looking nv fs200 doesn’t use smd capacitors on this board, normal through-hole caps there
My unit had been in (a cold) storage for several years, so not ideal!!, but working perfectly.”, no leaky caps on the mainboard or any of the modules, didn’t check the power supply, as its working fine (for now)
Maybe they used different parts for the european/PAL version?
Hello my dear Dave! I just received my two AG4700 (Both por 20usd, so wasn't so bad of a deal).
Sadly the seller wasn't very honest (or didn't know) that they don't work ok.
Both vcr's turn on, but when I put a tape, it stops a mid position and eject the tape.
I insisted at a point it got in, but it didn't load the tape (ribbon) into the head.
Would you be so kind of gime some tips of what to look for?
Meanwhile I am going downtown to buy some Isopropanol 99% and lithium grease.
90% of working equipment from ebay and most other places doesn't work properly. The seller sees the power light and that's good enough.
@@jonka1 I have a Sony SLV-825NP (One of the best Sony made) i got it for 10€ didn't turn on ,always remained in standby
Needed new caps on the PSU and it's been good since
Also lubed the mech up to help it out
@@BavarianM Glad that worked. I only ever seem to buy stuff with cascade failure of the entire chipsets.
No intro? Did I find one of your earliest videos? Still interesting to watch. I found this by TH-cam suggestion. Late, huh?
9 years ago.
I put 15 hours into a AG-1980 a few months ago and sold it for $875. That being said, I'll never do it again. I'll take a Sony SVO-2000 over it any day.
Why did you sell it?
Do you have any idea regarding the cause of the non working panel buttons ? I have two FS200 that have that problem!!
Dave, could you do a vid of this model mode switch cleaning? I have a FS88, wich is kindda similar but it's seems impossible to get into the mod switch. The service manual doesnt give many details con it. Thank you again for your great job and amazing work with these old decks!!
What good timing. Just got 2 of these pieces of crap in. Don't know yet if they will be repairable or not. Will look at them next week.
@@12voltvids Oh man! You are the best! Even if not repairable, it's nice to see your vids for disassembly instructions are quite usefull!
This things are a b*tch to work in it and having your experience translated in a video makes me feel reasured on what to do and do not, what to look for or how to do certain things. You are a great guide into the tape repair world and I cant emphatize enough how important is your comments regarding on what usually goes wrong and what to look for, common faults, so on. I'll be waiting on that vid!
@@12voltvids dont forget to make the vid! :) Just a reminder.
My AG 1960 was stored for 30 years, cranked it up, no picture, cleaned the heads, got picture back fine, few years later, cranked it again, tiny bits of scrambled video but full audio. My mistake, I think, was cleaning the heads too many times, now I have no picture at all. Do you still do repairs? Thanks for posting.
Not on those old pieces of crap. Those panasonic AG series VCRS were terrible. The problem you have is likely the comb filter module. The power supplies were also crap on Panasonic.
@@12voltvids Okay, thanks for replying. I kept it in my barn for 30 years, it did work until I took it out a second time. Mine was good for at least 30 years.
@@billcallahan9303 The problem with electronics that used those surface mount electrolytic caps was sitting was the worst thing for them. It was made during the capacitor cancer era. All those old camcorders are in the same boat.
@@12voltvids Thanks 12 Volt. You know more about it than I do by far.
Really Interesting thanks. I was wondering about your use of chassis to measure hot side DC cap voltages. I thought that was fir secondary voltages
The 1970 cost around $1500 brand new back in the day, the AG1980 was the big boy that cost I think $2200 brand new back in around 1988-1990ish. Panasonic VCRs were often simply rebadged JVC machines as they were all owned by the same company; The AG-1980 and AG-1970 were both based on JVC models and vice versa. Their reliability is very questionable as with the JVC decks, and I am not sure why anyone would spend $500 on a 1980 or even $250+ on a 1970 when you can get a Mitsubishi HS-U80 for around the same price and are almost always FAR more reliable and look much nicer in a hi-fi rack (the HS-U80 looks right at home with a Sony ES rack from the mid to late 80s and built with the same care and quality as a Sony ES stack).
No, the AG-1970 and AG-1980 was 100% fully-designed and made by Matsushita Electric Industrial. JVC was not involved with the design at all.
I had an AG-1980 for a number of years. Great machine, but it developed a problem where it would show an F04 error on the front display and eat the tape. Brought it in for service a couple of times, and even after duplicating the problem, I could not get it fixed.
I had 2 Panasonic AG series. This one and an AGW1 system converter. They both failed and were unrepairable as no parts available.
Who worked n you 1980? Was it tgrant or deter?
Neither. It was a local TV repair shop in my area that eventually went out of business in 2014
Hello. Maybe you can help me with my Panasonic AG-1950? It appeared to have some kind of grease problem because it took several power cycling and re-inserting to finally get the mechanism to be able to play a cassette (and sometimes it ate them)... After that it worked until I stopped using it for some time and then it was back to not doing anything without several power cycling and re-inserting...
Some of the old grease was really really sticky too so I was sure it was a grease problem. So I removed the old grease I could find on the top and underside of the mechanism and applied new one (super lube). Somehow, this was an awful, *awful* idea... The VCR now accepts a cassette everytime so that's good, it also always rewind and fast forward without complaining. But, playback is totally broken. When I press play, the tape guides barely advance and then immediately retract. How much they advance is different each time I press play but they never go very far. The only way to get the tape guides to wrap the tape around the video drum is to eject the cassette, cut the power, re-apply power, the mechanism then does some things for some reason (it always did that and is the reason before to get it working I needed to do several power cycling, because it makes the mechanism move), and then if I insert a cassette there is a chance that the tape guides will wrap the tape around the video drum. But when this happens the video drum does not spin at all, and the tape quickly slips off the (P3?) guide and yeah it's not very good (what does any of this have to do with grease by the way?)... After that I have to cut the power again and all that stuff I just mentioned if I want to have another chance at having the tape guides wrap the tape around the video drum...
How did I manage to break the mechanism this much without even trying?? Ugh and I needed this VCR because it is the only one I had that could do clean, stable pauses...
That black grease was horrible. You need to tear down the entire mechanism, clean all residue of that old grease and relube with lithium grease, and then reassemble and time the mechanism. I have a few videos up that deal with that chassis design, and the mechanical timing aspect of it.
Oh so you are saying that I did not do any irreversible damage? Good. Although taking everything apart does not sound fun at all...
I'm still wondering what the heck I did wrong to make it even less functional than before. Is something really wrong with super lube? What about all those forum posts recommending it?? Did I put too much and it went in places it shouldn't have?
I could not find any videos dealing with this mechanism... I searched "Panasonic" on your channel search and came across a U-matic, and mechanisms with belts. Mine does not have any belt.
There are 2 videos I did a few years ago. One deals with the cassette housing and the top side of the mechanism, and the other the bottom mechanical timing. I don't remember if I listed it with a model number. Probably as listed as Panasonic bottom mech, or top side alignment as it was very generic as it covered tons of models sold under Panasonic, RCA, GE brands ect that all came out of the same factory.
Would it be a good choice to wear gloves
Are all surface mounteds are garbage or just the old ones, have they improved
Most are garbage
Does this share any similarities with the NV-FS88 (purchased in the UK), they look identical
It's actually the same as the FS200 which has a time-Base corrector.
It's a shame that these were built as they were looked like a beautiful well built unit very disappointing for you not getting it repaired nevertheless great video as always.
I have 2. Some day I will see if i can get one running from the 2 decks. Not holding my breath but one day when i am board i will tackle it again.
i have this same vcr i bought off of ebay a few years ago for about $40
So the entire module is bad, not only the surface mount capacitors that are on it?
Good luck changing them. They are mounted on a ceramic board with painted traces
12voltvids
But, if by chance you could find a new module, you could fix it right?
@@mrmagnetoscope
Last time I searched the module was available for 95us and I won't spend that to fix it
Begs the question...where would you buy a good JVC like your one with a TBC built in? Other than my friend who gave me the AG-1980 and who always bought top notch equipment that I could never afford, I have never seen units like these in any of my travels, at estate sales, etc. My restored Sony SLHF450 Betamax is still chugging along just fine but getting a restored SVHS deck is as of right now, my only option. I went looking for the JVC you mentioned. Good, fixable ones can be had out of the U.S. for under $300CAD but in Canada is elusive. I can't seem to fix the SLHF750 Super Betamax, even with the service manual. There are just too many parts in there I have to remove to put the thing back on its rails. When Fedex dropped this unit, they made sure it was dead. There are no more factory trained techs left in my town who can even look at any old decks (or who want to). They have either retired or died. Lost a lot of tech friends over the past 10 years...
I got my JVC from a studio I used to service for. They had about 20 of them. The studio was a "casting" studio where actors would do their reads on camera and the studio used about 20 of these machines to make copies of their clients work that would be sent to casting directors. At any given time I would have a couple of machines in for maintenance. I just so happened to have this one when the company went tits up and it was abandoned.
Finding good working machines is like finding a needle in a haystack. In good shape they fetch top dollar. Same with beta. The last beta I sold I got 500 for and I have another I will part with if the price is right. I have had 3 slv1000 svhs decks shipped in for repair that the owners put over 300.00 in by the time shipping was added. That gives you an idea what these are worth to those that have svhs or beta tapes they need to play.
You are correct about the difficulty finding anyone that wants to work on any of these machines anymore. Many are dead and those that are still around have little interest going back to work on stuff.
@@12voltvids Yeah, one of my best friends was a service tech and had a shop for over 20 years. I offered him good money to take a look at the Beta. He said he was RETIRED...ie. NO! But there is one shop left in town. They also have been around for a very long time. There is an upfront $50 fee to just look at the deck (and with the number of people who will stiff you on anything these days i can see why they do that) but that's minor compared on the fee to ship the deck(s) to Toronto to have them serviced. A 1500 km. one way trip by mail or Purolator is expensive these days...
@@hawleygriffon9290
I am the same these days. I say sorry I am retired from the business more than not. I am not looking for business these days. I work on the odd thing but turn down more than I accept.
Reminds me of the garbage audio module JVC put in their SVHS models in the early 90s. Only 6 SMD caps on there, but by the time they failed, the traces were already far gone and barely repairable.
I also have an early Panasonic DVCPro model with several hundred (!) SMD caps on a dozen boards or so. All of them failed over the course of the last 9 years when the unit was in storage. Their pro SVHS models from the same time (AG-7700/7750) are notorious for the same failures.
Why the hell did ppl go for SMD caps anyway when you can use miniature TTH ones? (Tho only marginally more reliable).
Panasonic AG series. The AG stands for absolute garbage.
@@12voltvids I thought AG was their premium/industrial line! So what does the (consumer?) NV stand for? Never Vorks? 😃
@@NuGanjaTron No Video!
@@NuGanjaTron ag was the commercial division but as they turned out were far more problematic than the cheaper consumer gear. The idea was field replacable modules. The problem was the replacement modules went out of production as soon as the model changed and because they were so problematic to begin with the parts became unavailable quickly. I remember we had an ag1980 at the shop on display as we were a Panasonic proline dealer. People would come in and look but when a consumer svhs was 1299 at the time and the ag1980 was 1799 it was hard to convince them that it was worth 500 more. It sat on the shelf for years. We used to use it for copying tapes for customers. One day it had a bad picture. They sent it into the back. Needed a video board. Panasonic said no longer available. Sure the machine had 5 birthdays at the shop but we couldn't get parts to fix. Thank gawd it hadn't been as because that would have been very angry customer unable to get warranty work. Panasonic eventually bought the machine back along with all the other proline crap that just sat there not selling. I wanted the video mixer but couldn't justify the high cost so i went with the video is mx1 as it was half the price, made in USA and still works!!!!!
@@12voltvids 😵
HOOLY SMOKE ..IHAVE NV-FS200 HAVE SAME BROBLEM IN THAT IC..ITS HIGH QUALITY WHEN IT NEW..I NEVER SEE QUALITY PLAYBACK AND RECRORDING MACHAIN SAME THIS ..BUT AS YOU SAY...THAT IC IS NO LONGER AVAILBLE.
That's the way it is.
The melting point of cooper is 1984°F, so how are you saying the copper (that are sprayed) tracks would get damaged ? What else can I say to convince you to finish fixing this machine ? :)
Duh, the electrolytic that leaks out eats the copper traces away. So there are no traces left. How can you convince me to fix it? Buy me the parts how does that sound.
The $80 you mentioned for VCR0369 is in CAD or USD ? I'll pay you half of that part if it's CAD, is that ok ? :)
@@machannel8746 That would have been USD and that was quite awhile ago.
@@12voltvids I tried to find that part but it's no longer available, not even in www.ued.net. If I find one somewhere I'll get back here... Are you sure it's not possible to repair the traces with bridges ?
@@machannel8746 Use liquid defroster line paint from the auto store. hahah. It's a gettho ass approach but it works on all kinds of electronics for DC power traces. Paints on like nail polish.
Holy smoke its awesome !
It's funny the text at the beginning says Mitsubishi > Panasonic when Panasonic manufactured the Mitsubishi SVHS machines. :)
I had a similar problem with mine I had the 1820 (I think, no longer have it) was a little cheaper.My problem was gear timing went out of time.
Maybe the position encoder switch had oxidized contacts and the cpu couldnt find the exact location of the gears for every function.
Very interesting.
Looks almost identical to my Panasonic NV-FS200. My machine still works, but it does have some noise in the picture. Some diagonal lines when playing NTSC tapes. PAL tapes seem to be fine at the moment. Front panel display is also very dim. This is my third machine in almost 5 years... Trying to find another machine that is just as good, or better, than this model. Any suggestions? Would love to get it repaired, but after seeing this, I guess I should give up.
This video reminds me of Star Wars.
Seems to be a Japanese thing. Musical instruments are not immune: Roland put similar shitty modules in some of their analog synthesizers in the mid 80s, and they always fail.
Would you consider selling parts from this one?
+jcarron2 I have some brand new spare parts for this machine that are still factory sealed. What are you looking for?
+12voltvids hey awesome ! im looking for some of the plastic gears on the bottom, namely the planetary gear set , as mine has a worn teeth on it that will inevitable fail soon after I get it lined up - , I can send a pic too for reference. also service manual for exact lineup - I posted on your other excellent video as the marks are slightly different on mine. probably a few more items as I work through it...
+jcarron2 I probably have those on one of my machines. I do have a brand new upper drum/video head assy that has never been opened too.
+12voltvids id go for the gears for sure, can you email me in what your asking wise for drum head? can you see my email here or no? jcarron2 at gmail dot com .... thanks !
Hey, by chance did you get my email address?
"...so, lets recap, I re-cap'd...."!! Funny! :)
hey, I didn't hear from you, but wanted to let you know I actually found new gears for my unit! I actually got the whole "kit" online and the vcr works perfectly, the only thing it (the kit) didn't come with is grease! what grease do you use for r & r these days ? thanks, Jonathan
jcarron2 hey Jonathan it's me sam you bought the ag-1970 from me I lost you're number as I got a new phone I've been trying to contact you for a while, please inbox me you're number or email as I have a few Vcr's maybe you can buy them off of me or charge me you're respective rates and diagnose the Vcr's or something you're the only guy who still repairs Vcr's ! Thanks in advance ! -Sam
sent you an email to your rogers
jcarron2 which email for Rogers ? Email me at 80sforever02@gmail.com
So it's leaking out of the bottom - unusual isn't it??
+Donald Ellett Not really. These caps were from the era of the capacitor scandal in Japan. If you want to look that up, there is all kinds of info floating around, some rumours, and some factual.Back in the early 90s the rumour that was floating around went something like this. Names have been deleted to protect the guilty. I will only refer to them as brand x and brand y. Brand X spends much time and money developing a new type of capacitor that does not use harmful chemicals in the electrolytic, as they need to comply with new ROHS regulations coming into effect. Brand X is not going to share their secret recipe for their new electrolytic with brand Y or anyone else. Competition is fierce, and brand Y and Z are working on their own formulations too. Then one day a disgruntled engineer offers the recipe for a price to brand Y. The problem was this engineer didn't know a key ingredient, or intentionally left it out of the recipe in order to sabotage, and therefore damage brand Y and everyone else down stream from brand Y that they whored the recipe to. This is where the discrepancy in the story goes. Brand X claims that they set up the disgruntled employee to see if he would steal it, and Brand Y claims they were sabotaged.Regardless of this, what happened was a key ingredient was missing, and it was this key ingredient that kept the PH stable during charge and discharge cycles. The changing PH of the electrolytic caused the rubber seal where the leads enter the capacitor to slowly dissolve, and eventually you had corrosive capacitor juice leaking onto your PCBoard. Now I read about this on an official service bulletin issued by Sony regarding leaking Elna capacitors. Oops, I just leaked one of the brands, but Elna was not the only ones that got stung by this electrolytic scandal of the late 80's early 90's. It is also pretty easy to figure out brand X that developed the new type of high temperature 105'C capacitor, as if you have electronics from that vintage that the capacitors are not leaking, well then you know the brand.
12voltvids
Did Hitachi VHS camcorders have good capacitors?
I need your advice! I have a Panasonic NV-FS200 (European version of AG-1970)...The problem with it is that when I turn the TBC on, the picture turns black. This doesn't happen every time but once the machine warms up...Is it a capacitor problem?
Fivos Sakellis Yes I would say it is a capacitor problem, most likely surface mount electrolytic in the TBC module. That happened on this unit years ago, and I swapped the TBC module as we had a spare at the shop I worked at. I still haven't bothered fixing this machine, it is on the back burner, some day when I am feeling ambitious I will tackle it again, but as you see in the video it has developed multiple problems, and due to the fact I have at least 4 working SVHS machines, this one isn't high on my list of priorities at the moment.
+12voltvids Is the TBC module on the bottom of the machine?
I like your hair dryer
Funai VCRs/VCR/DVD combos and clones from 2001-2016 REAL pieces of shit VCRs!
Actually you're wrong on that one fun I made very good VCRs. I have plenty of food and machines and how about lasted all the Panasonic crap especially the so-called professional Panasonic ones which all died a very early death. My business associate ran the tape duplication center. He had 50 recorders. Combinations of various different brands Hitachi Panasonic JVC funai Daewoo. I had to maintain the machines when they broke and the ones I was always seeing was the panasonics and the jvcs and the hitaches. The phone is just kept on going and these machines were running day in every day for like 10 hours a day. When we were doing corporate videos on VHS they were typically 5 to 10 minute long videos where we were making hundreds upon hundreds of copies some runs had upwards of five or 6,000 copies done repeatedly over and over. I did the production work on the video did the shooting and editing I sent the tape over to gord my business associate he ran the duplication center because he had all day just to change tapes. We use them ag-1980 as a playback machine because the tape was super VHS and all the copies were made on his bank of cheap recorders. I think we had 30 funai and 20 machines of other brands and I had to fix them when they broke and I never saw the funai decks. They just kept on working whereas the other machines I was getting them on a regular basis for everything that could possibly go wrong idler's failing plastic parts breaking you name it I had to repair them usually it was the front loader that would bug her up on most of them.
@@12voltvids holy freaking crap CHECK YOUR GRAMMAR IT'S ALL OVER THE PLACE!
@@NigelMontezuma big fucking deal.
@@12voltvids I probably wouldn't use the word "bad" when describing all Panasonic VCRs, as from my memory they produced lots of consumer-marketed VCRs [the "PV" models] that were fantastic. In all the years of scouring thrift stores I would have to say Funai was the worst VCR manufacturer as I have never ever seen a Panasonic AG-19x0 VCR at any thrift store I've been to and all of the Funai VCRs I've tried at thrift stores ate tapes or had some other thing wrong with them. Unfortunately I worked at a broadcast TV station as a video technician and bought into that Funai garbage for the facility, and ended up with two of their VCR/DVD player combinations. These units were barely over $300 each and both broke down with relatively few hours compared to the 1984-99 Panasonic "PV" VCRs we owned over the years. Keep this in mind if you plan on buying one of those Funai VCRs as that company is full of shitty VCRs, and some of them are monaural only. Also watch Past Time Tech's video demonstrations of Panasonic "PV" VCRs - Teddy can tell you he hasn't had a Panasonic "PV" VCR break on him.
time to rebuild those parts with a 3d printer ;)
I always thought Panasonic was better than that??? build them cheap as possible!!
+Donald Ellett
That wasn't a cheap machine. Over 2000.00. Doesn't seem to matter these days. Surface mounted electrolytic caps affected everyone back in the 80's.
Panasonic went a lot cheap in material construction quality, but sold at highest prices. Too much profit...
ihave panasonic nv-j27am with same picture problems>> thanks
yes>>holly smoke
Great Video ! 10x for a info.Sub & like.
can u sell this for parts to me?
These old vcrs are just horrible. The newer ones are better
The old ones had so many more parts to fail and fail they did.
Stupid surface mount capacitors, because of them all portable VCRs and S-VHS VCRs from the late 80s and 90s are dead.
You are forgetting video cameras as well. The Sony portable betamax and 3/4" decks are ok because they used thru hole.
12voltvids
Video cameras of course, all 8mm camcorders from 1988 - 1995 are dead now.
IMO all Panasonic stuff is crap .. I would never buy anything from that brand !!!
Well I’ve had this exact VCR brand new since 1994 and I’ve had absolutely zero problems with it. It’s outlived most regular VCRs and is a work horse. For one, I don’t tinker around and disassemble with any of my machines for the sake of making a video on TH-cam, except to clean them or blow dust and tape particles out. If it ain’t broke I don’t fix it and I’ve used them since the mid 70’s. No, it’s not perfect but no VCR since they were invented are. You want to whine about a piece of pure crap, you should have had the ‘Quasar Great Time Machine’ and I’ll personally buy you a box of tissue and a tiny violin to go with your belly aching about this one.
I have 2 of these pieces of crap and they are both junk.
The AG-1970 was incredibly trouble-free and reliable when they were brand new, until all the surface-mount caps dried up, and hundreds of other caps go bad at dead-end. The only way to avoid this problem was to not allow the unit to overheat, do not stack, blow A/C directly onto top of unit, and always unplug the unit after each use.
@@waltchan Panasonic used really bad caps around the time these were made
The old 70's Quasar "VX" format. Ah, the pains you go through with bleeding-edge "extreme early adopter" .
@@haweater1555 well that was a Panasonic machine. Stacked reels. Used the same technical specs as far as the video signal and color under as betamax and umatic. There was the sanyo vcord format as well which the cassette looked more like an 8 track and slid in sideways. There was initially 4 formats that JVC, Panasonic, Sony and sanyo were all involved with. They were all "borrowing" from Sony. The betamax was the best performing of all the formats and Sony thought everyone was on board to make betamax with Sony getting a nice royalty for every one made. JVC had other ideas and took the VHS format which Sony had also co-developed and launched as their own format. They made a fee changes, namely to the FM carrier, deviation and color recording to make them just different enough so Sony couldn't sue them.