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#11
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Hitatchi VCR Problems
.. wrote:
On 8/25/2017 5:11 PM, John McGaw wrote: On 8/25/2017 5:03 PM, Paul wrote: John McGaw wrote: On 8/22/2017 10:14 PM, Se7en wrote: I bought a early 1980's-era Hitachi VCR (billed as a VTR on its casing) and connections, dispays and buttons all work. Only thing not working is its heads (the most important part). Putting a tape in results in loud mechanical clanking sounds. The tape refuses to play, rewind, fast forward, or even rewind. The counter doesn't move, nor does the tape position. Does anyone have advice for repairing tape heads? Have you actually opened it up and watched what happens when you insert a tape? There are several actions involved but the most important thing is that the cassette door is popped open and the mechanism pulls a loop of tape out and wraps it through the mechanism and (partially) around the rotating video head. It is a very well-timed mechanical ballet when it works but when it goes even slightly awry... Wild guess is that you will find a stripped gear which drives the 'extraction' mechanism -- the plastic gears used there are usually total crap in consumer machines. Parts are probably impossible to come by unless you can find a couple of donor machines to strip. On my failed front-load Mitsubishi four head, the tape loading mechanism is controlled by a hardware sequencer. Rather than using digital electronics or an embedded processor, instead there is a wafer switch that rotates. The wafer switch had things like optical sensors connected to it. The wafer would advance from state to state, based on feedback from the sensors. There were two IR sensors that I could spot. I used an IR detector card (the kind sold at Radio Shack many years ago), to verify the IR LED on each was working. And putting a piece of opaque material in front of the beam, cutting it off, made the phototransistor output swing from rail to rail. So I knew that part was working. The motors used to advance the cassette, probably had overcurrent detection (to detect a jam, in-flight). But without a schematic, it wasn't possible to figure out the logic, or see what factors affected operation. The tape wouldn't stay in mine, and would be ejected again. At least some features of the hardware sequencer were working, but I couldn't figure out what input wasn't working right. I sent mine off to the recycler. And the $150 replacement (the only thing I could get locally), it's just not the same. Not worth owning one of those, as the heads aren't that good. Playback quality sucked. The last VCR factory, closed a year or two ago (there was a news article). There won't be any new machines, and what you see, is whatever stock is still on store shelves. And I wouldn't say I was "lucky" to get my $150 unit either. Yes, it "works" in some sense, but it isn't worth owning one unless you're desperate for entertainment (at the cottage, out of antenna range or no Internet etc). The mistake I made with my Mitsubishi, was turning off the power. For years, it sat there with power connected, and you could feel a tiny bit of heat from the vent. So it was a waster of electricity. Every time I stuck a tape in it, it worked. Then one year, I decided to unplug it. Thinking that nothing bad would happen. It sat without power for a year. And when I plugged it in, it would no longer ingest tapes properly. So much for the false economy of saving electricity. Paul If somebody just _had_ to buy a new VHS right now, it would be possible -- at least with deep pockets. For $700 you could buy a new "Sanyo DVD Recorder/VCR Combo" or a refurbished one for about half the price. Probably the guy who wound up with some of these "dead" products in the back of his warehouse a few years ago is feeling much better about it now. Ones from other makers like Funai are still hanging about too but I've never heard of some of them. I don't even know for sure where my last VHS machine disappeared to -- it is either in the "room of electronic mysteries" in the basement providing housing for unemployed spiders or it might have gone to the recyclers and I just forgot about it. Get a TV card such as the Hauppauge hvr1800 for $25 or less delivered, from Ebay. Get the software CD from the mfg for $10 or use the excellent free, open source MediaPortal software available from sourceforge and watch, listen and/or record ATSC, NTSC, ClearQAM and FM signals for either simultaneous or later playback. You'll thank me later. https://sourceforge.net/projects/mediaportal/ http://www.ebay.com/itm/HAUPPAUGE-WI...pid=1700241170 A question for you. How long does it take for that $10 CD to arrive ? ******* I'm still waiting for mine (10 days so far). If you buy the "OEM" version of Hauppauge cards, WinTV isn't on the CD in the box. *That's* what OEM means for their product line, no software. The CD has a driver and that's about it. I have a funny feeling that Hauppauge is toast, as one of their (downloads) web servers isn't working, and a lot of cut-rate cards are for sale. Like they were cleaning out inventory. That's why I'm a bit concerned that CD is never going to show up. The tracking info is the usual scam - the status is "pre-launch", meaning the shipper entered a USPS number, but the product never got scanned into USPS. This is a common practice with couriers, where the product shows up at your door, never having any real time scan data applied to its trip at all. The tracking number is... useless. As a result, I cannot tell if it actually shipped. I've been scammed before, where a tracking number was generated, and the product didn't actually enter a courier system at all. When I got a card, all I wanted to do was test it and make sure it wasn't duff. And it took me the better part of *two days*, to get it to do something. I got it running in Linux first, using w-scan to prove the receiver could see stations. Once I loaded the firmware file (.fw) into /lib/firmware, I started seeing a /dev/dvb folder, and w-scan started to work. Then I flipped back to Windows, armed with a detected channel list. And discovered I actually was expected to *hack* an XML file to turn on digital tuners in Win7 Windows Media Center. (By default, only analog is scanned, and we have no analog NTSC here any more.) That's why the damn thing wasn't doing anything in Windows WMC. Summary: Yes, buy the card. But makes sure you have extra hair on your head, as you'll lose some of it before you're done with the setup. I'd dearly love to test the WinTV software, but the CD isn't here yet. And the twits don't send an activation code or anything (having the CD isn't all that necessary, but the activation code is). ******* Most people want their VCR to work, because of their "legacy" VCR collection. That's one thing a TV Tuner card can't fix. Paul |
#12
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Hitatchi VCR Problems
snips
The mistake I made with my Mitsubishi, was turning off the power. For years, it sat there with power connected, and you could feel a tiny bit of heat from the vent. So it was a waster of electricity. Every time I stuck a tape in it, it worked. Then one year, I decided to unplug it. Thinking that nothing bad would happen. It sat without power for a year. And when I plugged it in, it would no longer ingest tapes properly. So much for the false economy of saving electricity. Paul Sometimes "plastics" just reach end-of-life .. Old Elna sewing machines - from 1967-1971 were very good - the last ones that were still made in Switzerland - but they have a little "plastic" teflon ? gear for the shuttle drive .. guess what fails after about 30 - 40 years .. regardless of use. I wonder if the modern plastics were made to exceed 20 years or 30 years .. ? dunno. We live in such a terrible "throw-away-and-replace-it" society. Also - the VHS cassettes might be aging-out soon ? I still play my Edison cylinder music once a year on my early 1900's Edison gramophone. John T. |
#13
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Hitatchi VCR Problems
On 8/25/2017 5:55 PM, Paul wrote:
. wrote: On 8/25/2017 5:11 PM, John McGaw wrote: On 8/25/2017 5:03 PM, Paul wrote: John McGaw wrote: On 8/22/2017 10:14 PM, Se7en wrote: I bought a early 1980's-era Hitachi VCR (billed as a VTR on its casing) and connections, dispays and buttons all work. Only thing not working is its heads (the most important part). Putting a tape in results in loud mechanical clanking sounds. The tape refuses to play, rewind, fast forward, or even rewind. The counter doesn't move, nor does the tape position. Does anyone have advice for repairing tape heads? Have you actually opened it up and watched what happens when you insert a tape? There are several actions involved but the most important thing is that the cassette door is popped open and the mechanism pulls a loop of tape out and wraps it through the mechanism and (partially) around the rotating video head. It is a very well-timed mechanical ballet when it works but when it goes even slightly awry... Wild guess is that you will find a stripped gear which drives the 'extraction' mechanism -- the plastic gears used there are usually total crap in consumer machines. Parts are probably impossible to come by unless you can find a couple of donor machines to strip. On my failed front-load Mitsubishi four head, the tape loading mechanism is controlled by a hardware sequencer. Rather than using digital electronics or an embedded processor, instead there is a wafer switch that rotates. The wafer switch had things like optical sensors connected to it. The wafer would advance from state to state, based on feedback from the sensors. There were two IR sensors that I could spot. I used an IR detector card (the kind sold at Radio Shack many years ago), to verify the IR LED on each was working. And putting a piece of opaque material in front of the beam, cutting it off, made the phototransistor output swing from rail to rail. So I knew that part was working. The motors used to advance the cassette, probably had overcurrent detection (to detect a jam, in-flight). But without a schematic, it wasn't possible to figure out the logic, or see what factors affected operation. The tape wouldn't stay in mine, and would be ejected again. At least some features of the hardware sequencer were working, but I couldn't figure out what input wasn't working right. I sent mine off to the recycler. And the $150 replacement (the only thing I could get locally), it's just not the same. Not worth owning one of those, as the heads aren't that good. Playback quality sucked. The last VCR factory, closed a year or two ago (there was a news article). There won't be any new machines, and what you see, is whatever stock is still on store shelves. And I wouldn't say I was "lucky" to get my $150 unit either. Yes, it "works" in some sense, but it isn't worth owning one unless you're desperate for entertainment (at the cottage, out of antenna range or no Internet etc). The mistake I made with my Mitsubishi, was turning off the power. For years, it sat there with power connected, and you could feel a tiny bit of heat from the vent. So it was a waster of electricity. Every time I stuck a tape in it, it worked. Then one year, I decided to unplug it. Thinking that nothing bad would happen. It sat without power for a year. And when I plugged it in, it would no longer ingest tapes properly. So much for the false economy of saving electricity. Paul If somebody just _had_ to buy a new VHS right now, it would be possible -- at least with deep pockets. For $700 you could buy a new "Sanyo DVD Recorder/VCR Combo" or a refurbished one for about half the price. Probably the guy who wound up with some of these "dead" products in the back of his warehouse a few years ago is feeling much better about it now. Ones from other makers like Funai are still hanging about too but I've never heard of some of them. I don't even know for sure where my last VHS machine disappeared to -- it is either in the "room of electronic mysteries" in the basement providing housing for unemployed spiders or it might have gone to the recyclers and I just forgot about it. Get a TV card such as the Hauppauge hvr1800 for $25 or less delivered, from Ebay. Get the software CD from the mfg for $10 or use the excellent free, open source MediaPortal software available from sourceforge and watch, listen and/or record ATSC, NTSC, ClearQAM and FM signals for either simultaneous or later playback. You'll thank me later. https://sourceforge.net/projects/mediaportal/ http://www.ebay.com/itm/HAUPPAUGE-WI...pid=1700241170 A question for you. How long does it take for that $10 CD to arrive ? Don't know, I had a CD from an HVR1600 which works fine for the 1800 too. Driver can be found here. http://www.hauppauge.com/site/suppor...t_hvr1800.html In a total of four PCs with all of the cards purchased used, I'm currently running two Hauppauge 1800's, and a 1600. I'm also running an Asus MyCinema EHC3150 for which I use the Media Portal v. 1.15 software The both Hauppauge OEM WinTV 6 (came with the purchase of a used 1600) and Asus OEM software aren't the best, but the former software CD allows for installation of the much superior WinTV v.7 software (the activation code is on the CD) and the MediaPortal software works very well for any and all of the cards, if you want to go that route. I'm still waiting for mine (10 days so far). If you buy the "OEM" version of Hauppauge cards, WinTV isn't on the CD in the box. *That's* what OEM means for their product line, no software. The CD has a driver and that's about it. Then use either the MediaPortal, or if running Windows 7, the Windows Media Center software. I've tried and used them all, and they all work, with WinTV easily being the simplest, WMC second and MP the most demanding to install and configure. I have a funny feeling that Hauppauge is toast, as one of their (downloads) web servers isn't working, and a lot of cut-rate cards are for sale. Like they were cleaning out inventory. That's why I'm a bit concerned that CD is never going to show up. The tracking info is the usual scam - the status is "pre-launch", meaning the shipper entered a USPS number, but the product never got scanned into USPS. This is a common practice with couriers, where the product shows up at your door, never having any real time scan data applied to its trip at all. The tracking number is... useless. As a result, I cannot tell if it actually shipped. I've been scammed before, where a tracking number was generated, and the product didn't actually enter a courier system at all. Ten days is hardly a long time to wait for a (mfg) low priority CD to be sent. When I got a card, all I wanted to do was test it and make sure it wasn't duff. And it took me the better part of *two days*, to get it to do something. I got it running in Linux first, using w-scan to prove the receiver could see stations. Once I loaded the firmware file (.fw) into /lib/firmware, I started seeing a /dev/dvb folder, and w-scan started to work. I've not used any of the above hardware or software on a linux machine but had no problems for many years on XP (initially WinTV6), W7 and W10. Prior to that I've used ATI All-in- Wonder and other cards on Win98SE. The WinTV software isn't anything special other than being easier and faster to install and configure than the MP software. Then I flipped back to Windows, armed with a detected channel list. And discovered I actually was expected to *hack* an XML You're likely referring to the hcwChanDB_5.mdb file file to turn on digital tuners in Win7 Windows Media Center. Despite having set these up for years on both customer and my own PCs, I've never experienced your issue. (By default, only analog is scanned, No WMC successfully scans Clear QAM, ATSC and NTSC signals when done right. and we have no analog NTSC here any more.) Both OTA (over the air) NTSC and ClearQAM (on cable) have been more recently dropped here, but the now required boxes have outputs for both standard definition analog coax and high definition HDMI, e.g. mini-box: https://www.cox.com/residential/support/mini-box.html That's why the damn thing wasn't doing anything in Windows WMC. Summary: Yes, buy the card. But makes sure you have extra hair on your head, as you'll lose some of it before you're done with the setup. If you had THAT much trouble installing/configuring the WinTV software on a Windows machine, I'd advise staying far away from the MediaPortal software or finding someone to help you ;^) I'd dearly love to test the WinTV software, but the CD isn't here yet. I've not had to purchase one but I wouldn't be surprised to learn that it arrives soon. And the twits don't send an activation code or anything (having the CD isn't all that necessary, but the activation code is). Hauppauge's software isn't required. ******* Most people want their VCR to work, because of their "legacy" VCR collection. That's one thing a TV Tuner card can't fix. Then again I've never seen a VCR that will record the far superior digital signals without a picture destroying converter (although there apparently was ONE rare, short lived model, the JVC HM-DT100U, that had an ATSC tuner). Paul |
#14
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Hitatchi VCR Problems
On 8/25/2017 10:04 PM, . wrote:
On 8/25/2017 5:55 PM, Paul wrote: . wrote: On 8/25/2017 5:11 PM, John McGaw wrote: On 8/25/2017 5:03 PM, Paul wrote: John McGaw wrote: On 8/22/2017 10:14 PM, Se7en wrote: I bought a early 1980's-era Hitachi VCR (billed as a VTR on its casing) and connections, dispays and buttons all work. Only thing not working is its heads (the most important part). Putting a tape in results in loud mechanical clanking sounds. The tape refuses to play, rewind, fast forward, or even rewind. The counter doesn't move, nor does the tape position. Does anyone have advice for repairing tape heads? Have you actually opened it up and watched what happens when you insert a tape? There are several actions involved but the most important thing is that the cassette door is popped open and the mechanism pulls a loop of tape out and wraps it through the mechanism and (partially) around the rotating video head. It is a very well-timed mechanical ballet when it works but when it goes even slightly awry... Wild guess is that you will find a stripped gear which drives the 'extraction' mechanism -- the plastic gears used there are usually total crap in consumer machines. Parts are probably impossible to come by unless you can find a couple of donor machines to strip. On my failed front-load Mitsubishi four head, the tape loading mechanism is controlled by a hardware sequencer. Rather than using digital electronics or an embedded processor, instead there is a wafer switch that rotates. The wafer switch had things like optical sensors connected to it. The wafer would advance from state to state, based on feedback from the sensors. There were two IR sensors that I could spot. I used an IR detector card (the kind sold at Radio Shack many years ago), to verify the IR LED on each was working. And putting a piece of opaque material in front of the beam, cutting it off, made the phototransistor output swing from rail to rail. So I knew that part was working. The motors used to advance the cassette, probably had overcurrent detection (to detect a jam, in-flight). But without a schematic, it wasn't possible to figure out the logic, or see what factors affected operation. The tape wouldn't stay in mine, and would be ejected again. At least some features of the hardware sequencer were working, but I couldn't figure out what input wasn't working right. I sent mine off to the recycler. And the $150 replacement (the only thing I could get locally), it's just not the same. Not worth owning one of those, as the heads aren't that good. Playback quality sucked. The last VCR factory, closed a year or two ago (there was a news article). There won't be any new machines, and what you see, is whatever stock is still on store shelves. And I wouldn't say I was "lucky" to get my $150 unit either. Yes, it "works" in some sense, but it isn't worth owning one unless you're desperate for entertainment (at the cottage, out of antenna range or no Internet etc). The mistake I made with my Mitsubishi, was turning off the power. For years, it sat there with power connected, and you could feel a tiny bit of heat from the vent. So it was a waster of electricity. Every time I stuck a tape in it, it worked. Then one year, I decided to unplug it. Thinking that nothing bad would happen. It sat without power for a year. And when I plugged it in, it would no longer ingest tapes properly. So much for the false economy of saving electricity. Paul If somebody just _had_ to buy a new VHS right now, it would be possible -- at least with deep pockets. For $700 you could buy a new "Sanyo DVD Recorder/VCR Combo" or a refurbished one for about half the price. Probably the guy who wound up with some of these "dead" products in the back of his warehouse a few years ago is feeling much better about it now. Ones from other makers like Funai are still hanging about too but I've never heard of some of them. I don't even know for sure where my last VHS machine disappeared to -- it is either in the "room of electronic mysteries" in the basement providing housing for unemployed spiders or it might have gone to the recyclers and I just forgot about it. Get a TV card such as the Hauppauge hvr1800 for $25 or less delivered, from Ebay. Get the software CD from the mfg for $10 or use the excellent free, open source MediaPortal software available from sourceforge and watch, listen and/or record ATSC, NTSC, ClearQAM and FM signals for either simultaneous or later playback. You'll thank me later. https://sourceforge.net/projects/mediaportal/ http://www.ebay.com/itm/HAUPPAUGE-WI...pid=1700241170 A question for you. How long does it take for that $10 CD to arrive ? Don't know, I had a CD from an HVR1600 which works fine for the 1800 too. Driver can be found here. http://www.hauppauge.com/site/suppor...t_hvr1800.html In a total of four PCs with all of the cards purchased used, I'm currently running two Hauppauge 1800's, and a 1600. I'm also running an Asus MyCinema EHC3150 for which I use the Media Portal v. 1.15 software The both Hauppauge OEM WinTV 6 (came with the purchase of a used 1600) and Asus OEM software aren't the best, but the former software CD allows for installation of the much superior WinTV v.7 software (the activation code is on the CD) and the MediaPortal software works very well for any and all of the cards, if you want to go that route. I'm still waiting for mine (10 days so far). If you buy the "OEM" version of Hauppauge cards, WinTV isn't on the CD in the box. *That's* what OEM means for their product line, no software. The CD has a driver and that's about it. Then use either the MediaPortal, or if running Windows 7, the Windows Media Center software. I've tried and used them all, and they all work, with WinTV easily being the simplest, WMC second and MP the most demanding to install and configure. I have a funny feeling that Hauppauge is toast, as one of their (downloads) web servers isn't working, and a lot of cut-rate cards are for sale. Like they were cleaning out inventory. That's why I'm a bit concerned that CD is never going to show up. The tracking info is the usual scam - the status is "pre-launch", meaning the shipper entered a USPS number, but the product never got scanned into USPS. This is a common practice with couriers, where the product shows up at your door, never having any real time scan data applied to its trip at all. The tracking number is... useless. As a result, I cannot tell if it actually shipped. I've been scammed before, where a tracking number was generated, and the product didn't actually enter a courier system at all. Ten days is hardly a long time to wait for a (mfg) low priority CD to be sent. When I got a card, all I wanted to do was test it and make sure it wasn't duff. And it took me the better part of *two days*, to get it to do something. I got it running in Linux first, using w-scan to prove the receiver could see stations. Once I loaded the firmware file (.fw) into /lib/firmware, I started seeing a /dev/dvb folder, and w-scan started to work. I've not used any of the above hardware or software on a linux machine but had no problems for many years on XP (initially WinTV6), W7 and W10. Prior to that I've used ATI All-in- Wonder and other cards on Win98SE. The WinTV software isn't anything special other than being easier and faster to install and configure than the MP software. Then I flipped back to Windows, armed with a detected channel list. And discovered I actually was expected to *hack* an XML You're likely referring to the hcwChanDB_5.mdb file file to turn on digital tuners in Win7 Windows Media Center. Despite having set these up for years on both customer and my own PCs, I've never experienced your issue. (By default, only analog is scanned, No WMC successfully scans Clear QAM, ATSC and NTSC signals when done right. and we have no analog NTSC here any more.) Both OTA (over the air) NTSC and ClearQAM (on cable) have been more recently dropped here, but the now required boxes have outputs for both standard definition analog coax and high definition HDMI, e.g. mini-box: https://www.cox.com/residential/support/mini-box.html That's why the damn thing wasn't doing anything in Windows WMC. Summary: Yes, buy the card. But makes sure you have extra hair on your head, as you'll lose some of it before you're done with the setup. If you had THAT much trouble installing/configuring the WinTV software on a Windows machine, I'd advise staying far away from the MediaPortal software or finding someone to help you ;^) I'd dearly love to test the WinTV software, but the CD isn't here yet. I've not had to purchase one but I wouldn't be surprised to learn that it arrives soon. And the twits don't send an activation code or anything (having the CD isn't all that necessary, but the activation code is). Hauppauge's software isn't required. ******* Most people want their VCR to work, because of their "legacy" VCR collection. That's one thing a TV Tuner card can't fix. Then again I've never seen a VCR that will record the far superior digital signals without a picture destroying converter (although there apparently was ONE rare, short lived model, the JVC HM-DT100U, that had an ATSC tuner). Paul Here is the very CD that is bundled with the HVR1600: http://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-WinTV-T...-/152678028141 It installs WinTV v. 6 but allows the user to update to the latest WinTV v. 7 software, but not version 8 which I've neither ever used nor is required for the HVR1800. |
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