Sony - Upper Drum Cylinder NTSC vs PAL
 

Hi there

I'm currently in a loosing battle trying to get my Sony SVHS repaired.

Can some technically minded people please explain to me.

Would a NTSC Upper Drum Cylinder be compatible in a PAL machine? What would be the result if that happened? Would that machine now play NTSC and not PAL?

How difficult is it to repair a video head amplifier?

Thanks

It wouldn't suddenly play NTSC instead, that's up to the electronics. I know at least one difference between NTSC and PAL drums is the angle between the video heads and hi-fi ones. The size/width of the heads may be slightly different as well to optimize for slightly different track width in the different standards. I'm not sure if directly swapping one with the other may be optimal or even work, especially for Hi-fi sound.

That said I did try to exchange the mech + heads between a Samsung SV-7000W multi-system decks, and a pal hi-fi deck from around the same time and it did work for SP PAL video at least. Not sure if it would work well tho as it was only a quick test. There is some cross-compatibility between head assemblies between similar decks with the same standard tho.

Whether it would be hard to repair a head amplifier would depend on what's wrong with it.

Thanks Hodgey, that gives me some hope.

The deck is a PAL 5600P with new upper cylinder coming from the NTSC equivalent 5600. I have been advised there is a signal now coming from the 5600P with the NTSC head. To what extent, I guess we won't know until/if the head amp can be repaired. But the main symptom is a black screen, regardless of what function is selected.