Mitsubishi HS-U770 snowy picture
 

Hi everyone new here and enjoy reading the tips thanks for them! I recently purchased a used HS-U770 and believe it or not the loading mechanism is in great shape and the VCR functions as it should. The issue is when playing SVHS tapes the picture is a little snowy and appears to be lower resolution and almost cartoon looking. Regular VHS plays ok only SVHS is an issue. Heads cleaned and everything else looks good. My guess is a bad cap somewhere has anyone dealt with this before? Thanks for any advice.

Hi there, and welcome to the site! :)

That's an odd error, and one I've not seen before. But yes, it does sound like bad caps are causing it.
I forget off-hand if the Mitsubishi HS-U770 is a suggested VCR or not. (I don't use one.)

it is a mid 90's plain vanilla S-VHS deck
no TBC - i would not bother trying to fix it.

the only good Mitsubishi deck is the HS-HD2000U - and that is an EXCELLENT unit
it has the JVC TBC/DNR with a better transport mech

Thanks
 

Thanks for your input on the poor quality SVHS picture. I see a large shielded snap in card behind the video head I think I will remove it and take a closer look. It has an orange cap on it that stands out. From reading about issues with old Nakamichi's and orange caps I may start there. I know this isn't up to the high quality of the Mitsu-2000 but I like to tinker so I'll give it a try. I'm getting a very nice picture from my Mitsubishi HS-U747 running through my Pioneer receiver with 1080P up-conversion and HDMI out to the 52" LCD. Quite amazing in S-VHS actually.

This is why I keep some old low-end JVC VCRs -- fun to tinker with! :hmm:

Tip: On my JVCs, the interesting thing is that we can purposely "break" them, misalign them to the needs of the tape. The guides posts on some JVC VCRs are easily changes without allen wrenches (hex keys), and without needing precise and specialized calibration equipment. That's been VERY handy a few times through the year, when it comes to restoring truly fubar videos. Figure out if this VCR has similar uses.