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Starting to work on my conversion setup and I've bought multiple HR-VS30U's from different sources and they all seem to have low color saturation/chroma in VCR mode (both composite and S-Video) in playback and when in VCR mode including the "blue background" menu.
When switching over to the MiniDV side and looking at the blue background, the blue is vibrant and full as expected. The fact that this has happened with all of these players makes me think there's either some capacitor that almost goes bad which is drawing down chroma levels or there's something I'm missing here. I do believe that the blue menu on the miniDV side is probably generated by a different OSD chip on the deck there since the 30Us can have their VHS side work with the MiniDV drive and circuitry completely removed/unplugged, so the miniDV/VHS sides seem to work very independently of each other, they just seem to share the same output plugs and power supplies.
I only refer to the background because it is obvious and easy to reproduce and it is easy to see what "true blue" should look like when swapping over to the MiniDV side. Actual VHS playback also looks washed out color-wise.
Since I've experienced it with all 4 of my units and to the same degree, I take it others have had this problem with theirs, or is this something that is better to correct with an in-line proc amp?
The service manual mentions something about color levels using a waveform monitor and requiring a JIG remote for internal adjustments which is essentially impossible to find these days. Even if I did have one, I probably would screw that sort of adjustment up worse than it already was since these 4 units are at least consistent with each other.
I just find it odd that they all have dull color on the VHS side and to the same degree. Could be this is how they are "supposed to be" for all I know though.
My plan is to eventually record some color bars from a pattern generator and play them back looking at the VCR's output on a waveform/vector scope to verify that the VCR is indeed crushing the color internally, but thought I'd ask here if this is a known issue that I should be looking to address in the hardware with a certain capacitor change or something.
Anyone with a HR-VS30U or HR-DVS3U (apparently same units with different model numbers/case differences) - when you switch between VHS and MiniDV side - do use see a noticeable difference in the intensity of the blue background?
Once I have my capture card up and running, I can post the differences in the blue backgrounds.
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