Panasonic NV-HS no video or audio
 

Greetings all.

I have a Panasonic using a z-mech and getting zero picture or audio from scart or s-video, have tried a spare chassis giving the same results.

Outside of the chassis I'm unsure where to approach next for diagnosis.

I don't think it coincides but the original mechanism intermittently ejects the tape or it becomes stuck half way towards lowering, maybe this helps or not with the lack of AV signal issue.

No picture or audio, that sounds especially either easy to fix, or dire.

Is the time-code advancing when you play a video, on the front display? Does it have a headphone socket you can try for audio?

Those were my thoughts also, the heads are clean on both original mech and spare leading me to think it's not a mech fault but would be good to know if my thinking is wrong.

When the tape was threaded around the head drum I could rewind and fast forward which showed on the display, I think it was playing too but will double check given the time.

No headphone jack to try although I've not tried the RCA yet, have tried both scart sockets and the switch for Normal and S-Video Out.

I'm leaning towards dire being a fault with the input which may have become damaged somewhere through its life only as I've tried a spare working mechanism with the same results.

The mode switch does not seem especially of significance at this point.

I've just been taking another look at the vcr and it appears to be something not related to the mechanism, it has all functions but still no picture or sound.

Does it output the on-screen display/menu, and does it output anything directly from the inputs? (test composite in -> s-video out in particular as that will go through more stuff in the vcr)

What model is it specifically?

Hey hodgey.

No signal, image, picture or sound at all so far, today I tried composite and aerial connection and so have exhausted all outputs currently and it is a nv-hs930 model.

As it is appearing not to be a mechanical issue it must be electrical?

Like I said, see if the time-code advances on the front display.

Forgot to add it does advance.

Are all output connections linked?

It's most likely an output problem, if you have a TC the tape is being "read" electronically.

Is there any audio out? Time code just means the control track is being read. If there is not video output at all, not even menu or video from inputs, it's some electronics issue yeah. If it was just an issue with the mechanics you would still get the menu screens, video from inputs or tuner, and probably some noise if the menu is not active. I have the NV-HS870 which is mostly the same, though with only DNR and not TBC, and it always has this tape library thing popping up on the screen whenever a tape is inserted.

As you can see on page 84 of the attached SM, the outputs all go through a switcher/mixer IC, so maybe the issue is there somewhere.

Thanks for the service manual, I tried looking for it before and got the runaround from various pages, I look forward to reading through it in my spare time.

I'm sure you will know but can't you turn the library function off?

I was passed a machine with library feature which had been used and no longer required so once I cleared the data it was no longer active if I remember correctly and I think it always came up because it was looking for the tape that was indexed, it was some time ago now.