This just happened last night, so I haven't had time to open up the VCR or anything, or really investigate, so please forgive me if this post is premature.

I've had this SR-MV55 for about two years from lordsmurf and it's been doing light conversion duty on-and-off reliably since I got it. Last night though I went to digitize a tape and it refused to load. I thought it was the tape, but I've since tried several that I already digitized without issue and no dice.

Here's a preliminary video of what happens: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qwfbL-kvi0, hoping that it's a common enough issue that someone here can just by looking at it go, "Oh yeah, that's when the such-and-such fails" or whatnot.

Thanks!

-- merged --

Update:

I was able to get a tape playing, but the machine didn't sound great and it produced very wavy lines in the picture while playing.

What I was hoping was a blown capacitor or something, it now seems like it might be a mechanical issue...

-- merged --

I cracked open the case and discovered what was making the awful racket!

There's a roller on tape-left side of the machine that seems to be the cause, like it's out of tension. Pushing on it from either direction makes the noise go away, and I've gotten the VCR to start playing again, but I'm not sure what a more permanent fix might be.

Any advice would be appreciated

Photos: https://imgur.com/a/HTDNyIZ