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  #1  
Old 11-16-2015, 11:53 PM
Captainclock Captainclock is offline
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Early 1980s Hitachi VCR Having Video Problems

Hello Everyone, about a month and a half ago I had found at a local computer store's freebie pile an early 1980s Hitachi VT-8500A Top-Loader VCR that was in need of a little TLC (it needed a complete set of belts because it wouldn't rewind, fast forward or play) and I just got it in complete running order yesterday afternoon, the only issue is that its not putting out any video when the tape plays just a blank, black screen and that's it, and I'm not sure why its doing that. Its just so frustrating because I'm just so close to getting it running fully and the only thing keeping it from being a fully functioning VCR again is the lack of video playback currently.

Any ideas as to where I should start troubleshooting the no video playback issue?
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  #2  
Old 11-17-2015, 12:52 AM
Electronic M's Avatar
Electronic M Electronic M is online now
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Do you have audio? If you feed it an RF video signal with actual program material will it pass that to the outputs?

I ask because you mentioned in your old thread that you were testing with a flatpannel set and no signal to the VCR tuner....Some flat panels are finicky and won't show a picture unless the signal they get is near perfect.

If audio and video are dead even thru the tuner you will need to get a service manual and a oscilloscope to troubleshoot it....Or get an ESR meter and some new caps and HOPE it is a bad cap and that you manage to find and replace it.

If only the tape video is dead the tape heads are either dirty or bad, or the signal chain has a problem.
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Old 11-17-2015, 05:52 AM
Captainclock Captainclock is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Electronic M View Post
Do you have audio? If you feed it an RF video signal with actual program material will it pass that to the outputs?

I ask because you mentioned in your old thread that you were testing with a flatpannel set and no signal to the VCR tuner....Some flat panels are finicky and won't show a picture unless the signal they get is near perfect.

If audio and video are dead even thru the tuner you will need to get a service manual and a oscilloscope to troubleshoot it....Or get an ESR meter and some new caps and HOPE it is a bad cap and that you manage to find and replace it.

If only the tape video is dead the tape heads are either dirty or bad, or the signal chain has a problem.
I double checked it with an older CRT Television and it seems that the Tuner is working fine its just the VCR Part when playing a tape doesn't work right, all I get is a a blank black screen, and no audio either. So I'm not sure what's going on with it, the VCR Doesn't put out any video or audio when playing a tape in either the RF (channel 3 or 4) or the A/V outputs so somethings wonky about the video and audio signal going from the video and audio heads of the VCR to the output signal area.
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Old 11-17-2015, 06:03 PM
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Could be some old dried out electrolytic in the E-E V-V switching or muting since it's effecting both audio and video, that's when it switches from tuner source to video tape playback.
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Old 11-18-2015, 10:56 AM
Captainclock Captainclock is offline
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Originally Posted by Ed in Tx View Post
Could be some old dried out electrolytic in the E-E V-V switching or muting since it's effecting both audio and video, that's when it switches from tuner source to video tape playback.
Where would that circuit be in the VCR? Because I was definitely thinking the same thing but I'm not sure where I would find that circuit in this VCR, that's when a service manual would come in handy...
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Old 11-18-2015, 11:05 AM
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You need a service manual to track that down, unless you have a ESR meter and happen find a bad capacitor by checking all on the board.
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  #7  
Old 11-18-2015, 07:30 PM
Captainclock Captainclock is offline
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Originally Posted by Ed in Tx View Post
You need a service manual to track that down, unless you have a ESR meter and happen find a bad capacitor by checking all on the board.
Well That's going to be kind of tricky because from what some of the people on here were telling me, the service manual for the Hitachi VT-8500A was only available as a seminar handout and I wasn't alive in the early 1980s to be able to of acquired one, and I have no idea if sam's ever covered this VCR or not in their photofacts, and even if they did I can't afford to spend $25 on their website to buy the manual.
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Old 11-18-2015, 07:50 PM
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Don't now about that Hitachi thing we had the VT-8500A manuals I used many times since I was the one there that worked on the things and it was a popular model. There might have been a training manual that was passed out at training seminars. That was pretty common. We were an authorized Hitachi servicer, had a subscription to the printed manuals as long as they were available in printed form.

Anyway you might search ebay and then save the search, set it to email you if one ever shows up.

Meanwhile I will look in my old pile of manuals next time I drag all that stuff out to see if that one escaped the dumpster...




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Old 11-19-2015, 09:28 PM
Captainclock Captainclock is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ed in Tx View Post
Don't now about that Hitachi thing we had the VT-8500A manuals I used many times since I was the one there that worked on the things and it was a popular model. There might have been a training manual that was passed out at training seminars. That was pretty common. We were an authorized Hitachi servicer, had a subscription to the printed manuals as long as they were available in printed form.

Anyway you might search ebay and then save the search, set it to email you if one ever shows up.

Meanwhile I will look in my old pile of manuals next time I drag all that stuff out to see if that one escaped the dumpster...




Alright thanks, I really apreciate the info and I apreciate you searching for that manual for me in your stash. like I said I would really love to get this VCR going because it would be the oldest VCR I ever owned that was able to be restored to fully funtioning by myself. I actually had a late 1970s Panasonic toploader with the knob style tuner on it that someone at church gave me about a decade ago that had an issue with it only playing back videos in monochrome instead of color like it was supposed to and I wasn't sure how to fix that issue back then although I'm guessing it was probably something as simple as a bad electrolytic cap in the chroma board somewhere thinking back on it now, but like I said back then I didn't know about that kind of stuff and my mom didn't want me keeping that VCR around the house because I already had a lot of stuff laying around in my room that they were kind of wanting me to get it going and sell it or scrap it out because my room was becoming a fire hazard supposedly according to my mom.
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  #10  
Old 11-24-2015, 08:52 AM
Dude111 Dude111 is offline
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I wish you luck buddy!!!

Dont give up whatever ya do!!!! (Try not to)
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  #11  
Old 11-24-2015, 07:57 PM
Captainclock Captainclock is offline
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Originally Posted by Dude111 View Post
I wish you luck buddy!!!

Dont give up whatever ya do!!!! (Try not to)
I'm trying not to but this VCR is kind of got me stumped at the moment its strange, if it isn't one thing its another thing going wrong with it, first it was the belts and now its video and audio problems... I wish I could locate a service manual for this thing but I have yet to find one for it.
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  #12  
Old 12-21-2015, 11:35 AM
Captainclock Captainclock is offline
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OK So a little update on this VCR, I think I found the culprit that's causing the no video and audio issue for the VCR when the play button is pushed, I found a 470 MFD 10 Volt electrolytic capacitor in the bottom circuit board near the back of the circuit board that was bulging like crazy, whereas the rest of the electrolytic capacitors in the unit were just fine, its a Nichicon capacitor and I have a picture of the capacitor below. The only problem was that the circuit its in doesn't seem to be labeled as a mute circuit from what I can see but I'm guessing that's the circuit you were talking about where this capacitor is in.

EDIT: Figured out that the "bulge" on that cap was actually just an epoxy coating of some sort. Took everything apart again that I had unhooked before, and rehooked it up again and now I have video and audio now, but now I have a new problem yet again, it seems that the VCR is playing the tape too fast and I have no idea why it would be doing that. So any assistance with this issue would be helpful. This VCR is 95% running, just that last 5% is what's keeping it from being 100% (which is the issue that I'm having right now of it running too fast.)
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File Type: jpg DSCN2646.jpg (71.4 KB, 12 views)

Last edited by Captainclock; 12-21-2015 at 12:56 PM.
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  #13  
Old 12-21-2015, 07:17 PM
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As mentioned in the other topic, you probably are not getting the control-head pulses into the rest of the VCR, either from a dirty head or maybe the head or its wiring are bad.
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  #14  
Old 12-21-2015, 09:40 PM
Captainclock Captainclock is offline
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Originally Posted by ChrisW6ATV View Post
As mentioned in the other topic, you probably are not getting the control-head pulses into the rest of the VCR, either from a dirty head or maybe the head or its wiring are bad.
Well I've tried to clean the head a couple of times and it seems like its fairly clean (no black residue comes off of it.) And if the tape heads were bad, how hard would it be to get a replacement head for it?
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  #15  
Old 12-21-2015, 09:49 PM
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How is the capstan/pinch roller? If it ain't gripping the tape and controlling it's speed then the take up reel may be what is moving the tape (something that should not be allowed to happen).
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