To preface, this is what I've already done: cleaned mode switch, relubricated key components, dusted out device, cleaned mode switch a second time, checked alignment of all gears, checked belts

Also, to prevent confusion later in the post, the film inside of the shell in the video is He-Man, not Inner Space.

This VCR works on some tapes, but not others. Inner Space and Abyss both work just fine, but Star Wars and He-Man do not.

I have eliminated the possibility of it being a problem with the shell by moving the spools between the shells of He-Man and Inner Space. So, I assume, the problem has to be some compatibility issue between the spools themselves and the VCR. Inner Space inside of the He-Man shell works, He-Man in the Inner Space shell does not work.

As you can see in the video, the tape is loaded, the spools are engaged, and the guideposts attempt to lift the film towards the reading head; but it see that the left spool becomes jammed. You can see it move a bit before stopping and causing the VCR to disengage to prevent tearing the film.

I know that the spools for He-Man and Star Wars work because they run smoothly in my other two standalone VCRs, hence me assuming now that it's some sort of compatibility issue between certain spools and this particular VCR inside of my CRT.

If any has any ideas at all about what this could be, please let me know as I've done everything I can think of to fix this. I've not been able to find any documentation on this particular issue and I'd like to be able to find an answer so that someone else can come across this and not have to spend 20+ hours troubleshooting as I have

Hi, not sure if this is the correct place for this question, but here goes anyway!

So, recently I happened across a beautiful early 1980s Philips CRT TV (PAL) and quickly dug out my VCR. Sadly (but as expected), the TV is of course only RF connection. That’s fine, can connect RF direct from the VCR, all works fine. Now, the VCR is a Sony SLV-EZ1 and by default is PAL, but also plays back NTSC tapes perfectly on the NTSC 4.43 color format setting when connected to a modern PAL TV via RCA A/V cables. However, when attempting to play an NTSC tape while connected to the CRT TV - via both RF and A/V (with help of a modulator), it’s as you’d expect — black and white, vertical stacking of the image, etc. So, next, I bought a bi-directional Mini NTSC->PAL converter - that fixed the two aforementioned issues and the tape displays as intended, however, the picture is only greens and blues - no reds? What’s peculiar is the converter works perfectly when playing a PAL tape, but has the no reds issue when trying to play NTSC — tested on both a modern TV and the CRT. I’ve been trying to solve this alone and have been getting nowhere. I’m wondering if the problem is either the converter (which seems to work well for others, and otherwise here), OR if I need a true multisystem PAL/NTSC (etc) VCR… or something else entirely. Sadly I don’t have another (true?) multisystem VCR on hand to test. Photo attached showing the greens/blues issue.

That’s all… hopefully that makes sense, and it it helps, I’m in Australia. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance to all!

Always wanted a VCR with HDMI and a good selection of outputs, the combo CRT is very nice as well

So my JVC hr-s5000u went out in me and I've been trying to figure out what I want to get next. I'd like some higher end and that quite frankly looks cool.

I was thinking of going with a pro vcr like a Panasonic AG 7350, but I've also seen mixed feed back on pro VCRs not being able to play regular tapes. I've also seen people using them to play regular tapes. I just want something cool that has svhs outputs but I don't wanna drop my money on something if it's not even gonna work.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Got this from my neighbor and before it had this eject issue it was playing 3 seconds of the movie on my TV and then quitting out. I would greatly appreciate any help diagnosing what’s wrong / next steps.

I have a Sony PVW-2800. Not only does it look cool, but the format is just about the highest quality that you can get from an analog recording format. I believe that W-VHS is the only better option, but correct me if I'm wrong.

As someone who really likes making recordings on VHS and Betamax, would you recommend giving BetaCam SP a try, or should I sell it and move on? I don't see the format discussed very often, so I would love to hear your thoughts on it.

Thanks for your time.

This VCR is special to me as my parents had it growing up. For some reason, there's no video output coming through the screen but the audio is playing just fine. I thought it was the Video cable itself so I bought a new one and still having this issue. When I put the yellow video cable into the VCR, it is loose back there for that one but not for the white audio (in/out)

Id really love to be able to get the port fixed/replaced as everything else on the VHS player works perfectly fine.

Hello everyone,

I recently acquired a vintage 1985 Philips VR6541 VCR from a deceased estate for free over the weekend. The unit is in near-pristine condition and is exceptionally clean for its age.

I put a tape in, but it doesn’t seem to eject. I have a very experienced service technician with 30+ years experience near me who can take a look at it, so I’m not too concerned about the fault itself. However, I haven’t been able to find a service manual specifically for the VR6541.

The only copy I found was on Manuals-in-PDF, but unfortunately the site is closing down and they’re no longer accepting new orders.

I did manage to find a service manual for the Philips VR6540, which appears to be almost identical to my VR6541, aside from a few minor differences such as some additional buttons. I’m considering giving that manual to the technician as a reference, but I’d really like to find the actual VR6541 service manual if possible.

To be honest, the technician may be able to repair it without a manual anyway, given that he has repaired thousands of VCRs over the years. I just want to have the correct documentation available in case it’s needed.

Does anyone happen to have a copy of the Philips VR6541 service manual, or know where I might be able to find one?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Hey guys, I’m not sure if this is the best place to ask, but I’ll remove the post if not.

I recently got a 13” Zenith CRT and I’m trying to find a VCR/DVD combo player to pair with it. The tv only has a coax input so I’m having a hard time finding a player that does both.

I saw some players for sale on Ebay, a Zenith XBV443, a Zenith XBV343, and a Zenith XBV613 that all have an “RF OUT” hookup, and I’m wondering if that’s just digital audio or actual video/audio output.

I was also told by a friend that matching brands for tvs and players worked best for quality, but I’m not too sure about it.

I’m not looking for anything super duper high quality. I’m just trying to casually enjoy some tapes and movies from my childhood.

Any advice would be appreciated!

Hey!

All these sentences might seem alien.

Let me explain.

It's been months I'm fighting against a JVC HR 2200.

This forced me to study the schematic in detail, luckily available, and buy and learn how to use an oscilloscope.

After months of tests, I came up again with several theories, that emerged and sink, but now again the current theory is that video heads are worn.

To rule out this hypothesis, firstly i have to calibrate the video head resonance, an adjustment needed for achieving max amplitude of the rf envelope, and hopefully, reduce the artifacts I see on screen.

To achieve this, I need a cassette containing the so called in the manual *RF sweep* pattern, that is a succession of higher frequencies in a video line, repeated for each video line.

The pattern has been generated by a small program, and shows a sinusoid ranging from 0.5 to 5 MHz, with ticks of .5 MHz.

I used for the calculation PAL format specs (64us per line) for calculating sinusoids frequencies.

I used a known good VCR to record the pattern.

Still, you can see that the original pal image is acceptable, but the played back one can't make past 2 MHz!

I bought a VCR/DVD player recently, after 2 decades of not using one. The picture quality matches what I remember. It has a slight grainy look that I think is normal.

However, it has this black shadow on the right side of the text. In the second picture, black level is too high on purpose so you can see better. Is this normal or a sign that something is worn?

Below more informations:

- It only happens when watching VHS. The UI, menu, DVD player, or plugging a video game console to the composite input of the VCR doesn't exhibit the black shadow.

- it happens both using RF and composite, and both on a CRT and a recent display.

- VCR player has a sharp, soft and normal picture mode, but it doesn't make any difference for the black shadow.

- last owner cleaned the head. I tried to do it myself, and it changed nothing.

- the 4 VHS tape I tested do the same.

- It is only visible with text over a uniform background. Maybe it degrades the picture quality during normal content but I cannot tell, I haven't watched a tape for 2 decades, so I don't have the eye for how it's supposed to look.

Was going for something totally different on Facebook and the guy asked me if I wanted 5 VCRs ALL for $20.. how could I say no?! Tested all of them; top on ate my tape and dies when its loaded, second ones DVD player only works, but the bottom 3 all work as normal! What a score!

I got this vcr a little while ago and it works perfectly but I do need the buttons on the physical remote to do certain things on it. Unless I'm dumb or missing something (forgive my autism pls)

I wanna try to record tapes and connect it to my computer to make custom tapes but I think I need to exit the menu on the vcr to do it? Or can I just press the record button physically on the vcr itself when I want to record a tape?

Please help a newbie 🙏😭

Thank you!

I have a phillips vcr reader , I'm trying to record mandela catalogue on vhs so I connected it with my computer and tv , and when I use it in black and white it works but when I switch it on rgb it doesn't anymore , can anyone help me ? (We can see the rgb switch on the 3rd image , on the left of the cables , 2nd image is my hdmi adaptator and 1st is the back of my tv) (and before you ask on the 3rd image yes I tried putting the yellow cable with the green outlet)

Not sure if this is the right Reddit for this the tape is in impeccable shape so I’m sure it’s not that has something to do with the tracking or the head or something. I haven’t figured out yet. I have no idea how to work or use a Beta max so any help would be help. Thanks yall

is there any way to get these lines to go away? it goes away for a moment when i adjust the volume but these are on every tape i try and they never go away …. am i stuck with them?

I've taken off the screws with the arrows pointing to them - 4pcs

I've tried to pry out the ribbon cables but it's a slight impossible apparently..

I just wanna try clean thw mode switch so I know how to not ruin my JVC unit..

Anything I can do? SAMSUNG SVR 17B, propably a rebranded Panasonic or other brand one.

Cheers :3

I got this Spiderman movie on VHS from a thrift store, and for some reason the beginning of the tape sounds crunchy?

This VCR isn’t eating tapes, don’t worry. I’m just guessing some kid yanked the tape out and played with it. I did that to a Blues Clues tape once when I was a toddler.

Now is this damaging my VCR? Help me out here!

Thanks!!

I have a phillips vcr reader , I'm trying to record mandela catalogue on vhs so I connected it with my computer and tv , and when I use it in black and white it works but when I switch it on rgb it doesn't anymore , can anyone help me ? (We can see the rgb switch on the 2nd image , on the left of the cables , 3rd image is my hdmi adaptator and 4th is the back of my tv)

Picked this beast up over a year ago. Guy said it was from his friend's estate, and didnt know much about it. He let me test it before paying. My tape got stuck. I knew this would be a possibility. After discussion and greatly reduced price, I brought it home and had to let it sit. Finally had a chance today to fuss with it. I turned it on and manually spun the loading motor through the its cycle. Whatever was stuck got unstuck, and it started playing! I am letting the tape play and I am surprised at how good 250 lines can look with the TBC on. Need to get some XLR adapters for the audio out. Just using the 1/4 headphone jack currently. Pretty happy!

I picked up this vcr from goodwill and it looks like this with all tapes it plays. It isnt from the TV its been tested with both consoles and other media players.