Vintage VHS Camera recording issue

Thread Starter

Robin Mitchell

Joined Oct 25, 2009
819
Hi All,

This will be hard to describe but I will do my best.

I have an old Panasonic VHS camcorder that records to standard VHS tapes (not the mini ones). When the camera is not recording I can see the image that the camera picks up on the little viewfinder. When I go into record mode the image becomes 4 thick grey bars.

Audio records fine, the recording head is clean and all caspins are clean too.
I have noticed that when any of the motors on the VHS system start to operate the image has random lines going across, almost like it is interference.

What would be my best approach?
I have a feeling that some filter caps may have gone bad but has anyone here seen this before?
 

wayneh

Joined Sep 9, 2010
17,496
No idea how to help, but to be clear, does the camera record properly, with the problem only being the display while recording?
 

Thread Starter

Robin Mitchell

Joined Oct 25, 2009
819
Nope, the viewfinder is accurate and the recordings are wrong. Audio is fine but the video is wrong. It is strange because when the system is not recording the image from the camera is fine except for random horizontal lines. As soon as the head begins to record the video feed goes into 4 or 5 thick blocks with some colouration.

When motors are operating the camera feed shows more "interference" lines
 

GopherT

Joined Nov 23, 2012
8,009
The big cylinder that the tape gets pulled across are not spinning correctly. Make sure it turns. The bearings on these old things are actually bushings made of oil-impregnated sintered powdered brass. The oil dries out over the years and just the additives are left. Resetting the additives with oil is a quest that requires much luck. It usually doesn't work. Even efforts to soak them or wash them out with solvent doesn't work.

Good luck.
 

Thread Starter

Robin Mitchell

Joined Oct 25, 2009
819
Im going to get some photos of the issue today.

I doubt it has anything to do with the head because the viewfinder probably takes the feed directly from the camera when its recording. The viewfinder shows the large bars, the playback shows the bars and when I play the VHS on a TV it shows exactly the same. It could only be the head if the camera took footage from the head during the record which seems unlikely.

For the time being (since I do not have any VHS tapes with some normal footage), assume that the heads are fine and it can playback a VHS (such as a movie).
 

Dodgydave

Joined Jun 22, 2012
11,285
The only way to break it down for fault finding, is first establish the heads play a normal pre recorded video that was recorded in another video,

then if that's ok you're looking at the recording section, so you will need a circuit diagram for that.
 

MrAl

Joined Jun 17, 2014
11,389
Hi there,

Just a little future history note here...

The very last VHS VCR machine was made about a week or two ago by a company in Japan.
From what i understand, there will be no more VCR's made anywhere in the world now.
How many are left in the world unsold as of today 10/02/2016 i dont know.
How many tapes are left unsold i also dont know.
 

Thread Starter

Robin Mitchell

Joined Oct 25, 2009
819
@Dodgydave thanks for your input, I will try and track down a working tape :)

One thing I will say, I am convinced that it's a power line issue. When any motor is operating lines appear that match the sound of the motor. When the drum spins there are many thin lines, when eject works there are bigger chunky lines, when the tape goes forward or backward more line appear. My guess so far is that either there is a fault with some power regulation or some bypass caps may not be functioning.
 

GopherT

Joined Nov 23, 2012
8,009
@Dodgydave thanks for your input, I will try and track down a working tape :)

One thing I will say, I am convinced that it's a power line issue. When any motor is operating lines appear that match the sound of the motor. When the drum spins there are many thin lines, when eject works there are bigger chunky lines, when the tape goes forward or backward more line appear. My guess so far is that either there is a fault with some power regulation or some bypass caps may not be functioning.
These cameras came out at about the same time smd electrolytic caps were introduced. Camera owners would generally buy a new camera if theirs didn't work in the late 80s /early 90s - mostly because few vhs repairmen existed. The few that were repaired seemed to be electrolytic caps (SMDs).

Now, since your problem appears to be the camera CCD. So, replace the caps on the CCD board. Any power fluctuations will feed right through if the caps across the power are bad and issues occurs when the load changes.

While I had it open, I would change the caps at the power in for the whole camer as well.
 
Hi All,

This will be hard to describe but I will do my best.

I have an old Panasonic VHS camcorder that records to standard VHS tapes (not the mini ones). When the camera is not recording I can see the image that the camera picks up on the little viewfinder. When I go into record mode the image becomes 4 thick grey bars.

Audio records fine, the recording head is clean and all caspins are clean too.
I have noticed that when any of the motors on the VHS system start to operate the image has random lines going across, almost like it is interference.

What would be my best approach?
I have a feeling that some filter caps may have gone bad but has anyone here seen this before?
Sorry to bump an old thread but I recently got one of these with the same exact issue and it turned out to be the external power supply. Try powering it with the car adapter if you have it and you'll see it works fine. I'm probably gonna replace the caps in the camera since the recordings have noise in low light
 
Alright for everybody having the same issue. its caused by the standard powerbricks they all got a fault, they output 19v instead of 12v so never intend to charge a abattery with them itll kill it. to the cameras itll destroy the step down component in the camera because its rated for arround 12v and not 19 so ull get the issue when using it with it that the camera turns on and turns back off after some seconds. so when getting a camcorder tell the seller to never plug that camera in again. when u got the cam u take a little potentiometer from 4-8kohms than u open up the psu and completely disassamnble it. than there are 3 potentiometers 2 visible when the metall shield is still atached and 1 only visible when the shield is detached.(the one on the left next to the small heatsink. ull desolder it take it out and place the new inside. then u take a multimeter messure the voltage it puts out on the 12v 1.2a pins or at the battery charger port. if u only want the charger to charge new batterys than set the voltage to 13.6v and if u want the camera to be used with powerbrick only set the voltage to arround 12v. close the psu again and lines will be most likely gone. some lines could stay because the too high voltage took out some caps wich had a lower rating than 19v. try it out itll work ;)
 
Sorry to bump an old thread but I recently got one of these with the same exact issue and it turned out to be the external power supply. Try powering it with the car adapter if you have it and you'll see it works fine. I'm probably gonna replace the caps in the camera since the recordings have noise in low light
did u change the capacitors in urs? did it work was it easy? im looking out to do it on my fully working grundig which u can see in my pp
 

xereeto

Joined Apr 30, 2021
3
Alright for everybody having the same issue. its caused by the standard powerbricks they all got a fault, they output 19v instead of 12v so never intend to charge a abattery with them itll kill it. to the cameras itll destroy the step down component in the camera because its rated for arround 12v and not 19 so ull get the issue when using it with it that the camera turns on and turns back off after some seconds. so when getting a camcorder tell the seller to never plug that camera in again.
Hi, I found this thread while searching for my issue which is that the camera has started shutting off when it tries to drive a tape. I checked the voltage on my power supply and, as you said, it's putting out 19V instead of 12V. Could that be causing this issue?

Everything was working fine until today, when it suddenly shut down in the middle of a recording and then kept shutting off every time I turned it on until I was eventually able to get the tape out. It was making a noise as if it was trying to drive the tape. Now it turns on and stays on as normal, but I daren't try another tape in it.

Thanks!
 

xereeto

Joined Apr 30, 2021
3
Actually, hang on a second... I just found a service manual for my camera, and it has a section about the power supply voltage output:
1619792954939.png
Note that it directs to turn the camera on before measuring the voltage. Perhaps this means the 19V is not a fault, but rather the PSU requires a load in order to output the right voltage? Just something that crossed my mind.
 

xereeto

Joined Apr 30, 2021
3
I tried to edit my previous post but I can't seem to. I just tested the voltage with the camera powered on and, sure enough, it's reading 12.8V. So my assumption was correct - at least for my camera, the supply reading 19V when it's not connected to anything is *not a fault*.
 
I tried to edit my previous post but I can't seem to. I just tested the voltage with the camera powered on and, sure enough, it's reading 12.8V. So my assumption was correct - at least for my camera, the supply reading 19V when it's not connected to anything is *not a fault*.
It's a fault because it charges the battery with 19v which is way to high for the battery. And I had 2 cameras dying because of that power supply's now I only use my cameras with a 12v psu from an old Nas hard drive but be careful with the polarity otherwise it'll kill it (accidentally killed mine that way). When I used it like that before I killed the camera the lines went from 4 thick bars and like no video at all to video and some little lines but it was way better than before. Try it but mind the polarity
 
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