JVC SR-V10 quality problems?
 

Hi! First of all , thanks for this amazing site. :laugh::congrats:
I have been reading it from years ago. This is my first post.

I have bought recently a JVC SR-V10. Seems to be supposedly a great VCR selected to preserve VHS tapes.

i don't know if my unit is not working properly , but at this point is useless for me....

The problem is that seems to be really sensitive with the tapes. Some tapes plays correctly but some seconds after start to loose image and audio.
Happens with toons of tapes, originals, home recorded, all the same problem.:question:

I had recently cleaned the drums and inside seems to be good.

I also have recorded 4 example videos to show you.

the first two videos are just the VCR directly to a Telefunken TV with composite cable.

the other two videos are 2 captures from my pinnacle 510 usb card of two tapes. One original and the other a home recording.

All these tapes plays perfectly in all my other 12 VCRs that i have.... And are in a perfect clean condition.
(recompressed to upload here)

Thanks you so much for all the help!

The heads are likely damaged.

Good VCR model, bad unit.

Let me guess: it came from eBay? "tested" and "working", right? I keep warning others about this:
- https://www.digitalFAQ.com/forum/new...-buy-tbcs.html
- https://www.digitalFAQ.com/forum/new...buy-parts.html
... and several others.

This happens often now. Get a good deck, but be careful with eBay as the source. The sellers there are mostly liars and idiots. They have no idea how a VCR should work, not just a device that flashed lights and gives a random quality image on a TV screen.

That doesn't look like head damage (unless you mean control head but that seems a bit unlikely), it's an issue with tracking somewhere, either control head, cable or associated circuitry.

I does seem control/tracking related, I agree.

I've had this happen in a couple of JVCs of that 'era' (or something else showing these symptoms). They were going slightly out of alignment... mechanically and/or electronically. Given the once-over, heads were A-OK. Apparently, these latter-days JVCs are infamously susceptible to mere gravity and time. And the flat cables inside, prone to failing/breaking, as Hodgey also hinted at.

Double-check your tapes aren't getting feathered/rippled at the edges!

This is one of the cases that a VCR alignment has to be checked by an alignment tape and an oscilloscope observing the waveform envelope, Aligning a VCR with good known tapes is a hit or miss.

I've seen these cyclical error before. It was always the head cylinder. I could literally swap it out from another deck, and it was then fine. (Though the swap would sometimes add overscan size issues.)

That sort of cyclical issue is never mere alignment.
But that assumes that you've tried to adjust the alignment. Did you? If not, perhaps try. What are you going to do -- break it more? (Rhetorical. Answer = no.)

Check the whole tape path.

And hoping you didn't make the mistake of cleaning it with Q-tips.

Hey! first of all, thanks for all your replies.

It comes from a private user. I have bought also a Matrox MXO LE and a Panasonic AG 7650 (this one have also other kind of issues... I will open a parallel post just to show you )
They were really great of price.

Curiously, one of the tapes that I have sent in the attached videos, plays perfectly . The only difference is that is not HIFI.

Also, the 8-10 seconds of HiFi sound that I have capture from other tapes, compared to the sound of VCR like the Sony SLV-SE810 that I have are worse. My Sony have a great noise/db level and seems that work really good to save HiFI audio (not for video).

Is possible to repair the deck and get a perfect machine?
thanks!

-- merged --

No, don't worry.
I normally use A4 Paper cut in little parts with alcohol isopropyl.
Also, no, I didn't tried to adjust the alignment. How could I try that?
Thanks!

-- merged --

I have captured 3 videos with Svideo to my Pinnacle 510.
Video Settings are in default in this moment. I also show you all the preferences in one of the videos.
Also, how it rewinds while showing the image.

Hope it helps :D:unsure:

If it's an alignment issue it would be the A/C head that needed adjustment most likely, tape guides cause distortion on top/bottom of image, not cyclical like this. If the A/C head is very misaligned it won't pick up the control track properly or at all and it could cause an issue like this (you get similar symptoms if e.g the cable to the A/C head is not plugged in.

The service manual for the deck (and others with the same mechanism) will cover how to adjust the A/C head ("height and tilt", don't mess with "X-Value"), though since alignment tapes are unobtainium the remaining option is to adjust by ear. Basically what you do is to use a commercial tape, set the vcr to linear audio (i.e not hi-fi) and adjust the screws on the A/C head assembly carefully to get the clearest audio output. (Use a tape you don't care about in case you accidentally adjust the head assembly too high/low and damage the tape edge, or slip)
This video illustrates the process on a different mechanism, but it's gonna be mostly the same with 3 screws (though you mainly adjust 2 of em):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fazLIPQqKLk

Whether this is the cause I don't know, I do know it can cause this sort of problem if it's very malaligned (have observed it after swapping the A/C head between decks.

Yeah if there is some serious issue with the cylinder, or cylinder motor/hall sensors it could cause tracking problems too. E.g The mech on of the late 80s/early 90s JVC decks have a SMD electrolytic cap below the drum that goes bad and causes weird tracking issues, though it looks a bit different than this (same youtuber have some videos of it).
If the actual heads are damaged the noise will be more constant and you can get get streaking and what not, or just no signal at all.

I highly doubt this problem has anything to do with the video drum, Albeit there is a control circuit that synchronizes the capstan motor to the video drum motor but if that goes bad the problem will be permanent and consistent for any tape you put in. While this is tape related the VCR should be forgiving for a wide range of problematic tapes, But due to the age of the machines, lack of calibration tools and the cost to repair one can overcome this by having multiple VCR's and use the one that works for a tape at hand.

Yes, that was an issue with one of the troublesome decks I referred to previously.

On the other hand... tape tension/slack?