Hello everyone, I just got from a friend of mine to work on for him a 1982 vintage Betamax player/recorder that was refusing to load a tape properly (which it turned out to be a bad belt in the loading mechanism) anyways I have an old Betamax tape that I had inherited with my old Sony Hi-Fi Betamax VCR that I got from Goodwill and that Betamax Machine was from I think the mid 1980s or so but anyways this Betamax machine I'm working on seems to be able to record in βII and βIII but it seems it can only playback in βI, which kind of confuses me because if it can only playback in βI but not in βII or βIII then what's the point of the machine recording in βII or βIII if it can't play those speeds back? Which leads me to my question, concerning my inherited Betamax tape that is also my test tape, I went to play the tape in the aforementioned machine I'm working on to test it to see if it was functioning properly and all I get is a monochome picture that doesn't play at the right speed, am I to assume that the momochrome playback and wrong playback speed has to do with the fact that the tape was recorded in a speed that this machine can't handle? and if so am I to assume that I now have the machine fixed now seeing as I had the belt it needed for the loading mechanism to get the tape to load properly now?

UPDATE: I apparently read online somewhere that this particular model of Betamax machine had issues with bad electrolytic capacitors in the service board which is what's causing the VCR's playback issues, but my question is, which board is the service board on this machine? I'm assuming its one of the 2 boards on the bottom of the machine but as to which board it is I'm unsure of, so with this in mind completely disregard my question and comments reguarding the VCR's Playback speeds because I also found out that this machine indeed does playback all three Beta speeds (βI, βII, and βIII) but only records in βII and βIII.

SS-9 board. Every blue Sanyo capacitor on SS-9 board must be replaced. They failed a couple years or even months after purchase. There is also a switch on the back to switch between BI playback and BII/III playback.Good luck. SL-5000's are an absolute dog to work on.

Most common problem I used to see with those was the capstan motor, bearings would gradually seize. If the capstan spins freely by hand, probably OK. Good luck with that thing!

Capstan spins fine by hand, as for the SS-9 board which board would that be? because there's only 2 main boards on this VCR that could be it and they're both located on the bottom of the machine, and there are 2 different types of e-caps on the boards, some light blue ones and some dark blue ones, and neither caps has a manufacturer's name or emblem on them.

SS-9 board says SS-9 on it. I think it's the one that has the tracking control. This video should help. (https://youtu.be/ev1hzeD1Mrk)

SS-9 board says SS-9 on it. I think it's the one that has the tracking control. This video should help. (https://youtu.be/ev1hzeD1Mrk)

Yeah I took another look at the board today and saw that the board did say SS-9 on it in big white letters on the upper middle section of the board. But like I said my next question is which capactitors are the Sanyo Capacitors that need replacing? There are two different types of capacitors on the board some royal blue colored capacitors and some sky blue colored capacitors, both of which are not labeled with any manufacturer's name, just the capacitor's value and that's it.

The Sanyo caps are light blue.

The Sanyo caps are light blue.

OK, I thought those might of been it because they kind of looked like they were buldging from the bottom a bit because the plastic wrapping around the capacitors was flared up at the top which usually indicates a capacitor that has vented at the bottom as opposed to a top vented capacitor. Anyways it looks like there will be 11 electrolytics that will need to be replaced all of which are values that I can easily find at radio shack.

I've ordered those caps from Digikey or Mouser.. I never go to Radio Shack as I never find the values I need.. That's my video..

I've ordered those caps from Digikey or Mouser.. I never go to Radio Shack as I never find the values I need.. That's my video..

OK, well anyways most of the capacitors I saw in the VCR that needed replacing were of the 16volt variety which radio shack does carry electrolytics of the 16 volt variety of most of the common MFD ratings. that's why I said what I did.

Last time I bought small lytics from rat shack they all tested bad...

Last time I bought small lytics from rat shack they all tested bad...

Well now I've never had that issue, must of been a bad batch? :scratch2:
Now as far as buying them online goes I've not had any issues per se but I do have an issue with the outrageous shipping charges they tack onto a 80 cent order of capacitors, they charge like 10-15 dollars to ship an order of capacitors that only equals out to about 80 cents, to me that's highway robbery.

Well now I've never had that issue, must of been a bad batch? :scratch2:
Now as far as buying them online goes I've not had any issues per se but I do have an issue with the outrageous shipping charges they tack onto a 80 cent order of capacitors, they charge like 10-15 dollars to ship an order of capacitors that only equals out to about 80 cents, to me that's highway robbery.

Most shipping from the major parts houses is basically flat rate....So I order in BULK...$5-10 shipping on ~$100 of caps ain't bad in my book. I make an online order ~annually and buy about a year's worth all at once (100 x .047uF@630V for instance)...Mostly it is for tube stuff, but I salt in caps for SS gear and other stuff I need. Many sites give volume discount too so if you know you'll use 20,50, or even 100 of some part in a reasonable length of time, better to do it in one go and have cheap stock.:thmbsp:

Most shipping from the major parts houses is basically flat rate....So I order in BULK...$5-10 shipping on ~$100 of caps ain't bad in my book. I make an online order ~annually and buy about a year's worth all at once (100 x .047uF@630V for instance)...Mostly it is for tube stuff, but I salt in caps for SS gear and other stuff I need. Many sites give volume discount too so if you know you'll use 20,50, or even 100 of some part in a reasonable length of time, better to do it in one go and have cheap stock.:thmbsp:

Yeah, but most of the repairs I do don't warrant me needing to buy 100+ of each value of capacitors at once though because first of all I don't get that many customers at once, and secondly I don't $100 laying around to make that kind of an order. So for me I usually just order parts as I need them, because its usually cheaper that way.