SLV-795HF runaway timer
 

*counter, not timer.

Well this is odd.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAC1orob1OA

Any ideas? At first the picture coming out of the unit was dark, like it had no luma but had chroma, there was color, but nothing filling in the screen. Restarted the VCR and this is the result.. It does record and play, but it certainly isn't keeping time correctly on the counter, unless it's recording or playing.

hmmm... The counter sees the 30 Hz CTL pulse when playing. So maybe it's picking up 60 Hz hum or noise making it count twice the speed while sitting stopped? Strange one! I'd have to take a look at the PB CTL pulse output probably a test point somewhere, or maybe a pin on the servo IC for CTL pulse.

The video starting out dark like no luminance then gradually getting normal looking sounds like bad electrolytic(s) to me.

Hmm, I'll need to look into interference, but also caps.

I need to take back that the recordings are good. When played back on other VCR's, the picture is "jumpy" and seems to at times lose sync and the audio pitch goes up for a second then goes back to normal. Also, it seems to not be recording hifi sound at all (we do utilize sound in our security cameras, it's recording only linear audio tracks however, and no hifi tracks like it normally does).

With all those problems I would start making sure all the power supply voltages are correct and clean.

Alright, I'll be starting with that.. I wonder if 60hz noise is getting in from the PSU itself, not fully rectifying and filtering the line.