Japanese Victor (JVC) HR-VX200 shuts down on power up?
 

I've owned this deck for a while, no problems. I did noticed it began to power off now and then on its own, but very rarely.

Today I was rewinding the tape and hit play and it switched off. It wouldn't play the tape after multiple attempts. It then miraculously worked, however now the video has constant streak (see image). I cleaned the heads thinking this would solve the issue. Image still bad.

Then deck then returned to powering off again with no playback. The deck powers on, but it then power offs after a couple of seconds. It will stay on slightly longer if I insert or eject a tape, but then powers off once attempting playback.

Any idea what's up? I've seen some posts from a long time ago indicating it might be something to do with the gears? Common JVC/Victor issues? :question:

There's not a bunch of information on that model that I can see, but I think that's one of the 9800U Japan equivalents, and if that is the case, it'll have a dynamic drum which will do exactly that when it fails. If it doesn't have a dynamic drum, then it'll be a different problem with one of the PCB components that I've seen before.

Other thing to keep in mind is that if you are in the USA, these were meant to run on 100V rather than 120V and it's always possible that some sort of damage could have occurred from using it at the higher voltage which may or may not be reversible. I think it's much more likely to be the above though rather than damage from a bit higher AC voltage since it uses a switching power supply.

If you don't want to attempt a repair like that yourself (main risk is damaging the head drum's ribbon cable - which I myself have caused once before my technique got better with experience), I'm confident I can get that back to fully functional for much less than other refurbishing services I've seen. If unsuccessful, I'd refund you the full amount paid less whatever return shipping comes out to be. If interested, PM me.

Thanks for your response! I'm based in the UK, I imported this from Japan and it has worked for ripping about 10 VHS tapes. I have used the correct transformer (230v to 100v voltage converter). Where are you based?

Darn, I'm in the USA and I'd hate to subject it to additional rounds of overseas shipping which would be both costly and potentially risky to the machine. I thought in the UK they were all about PAL haha.

Glad you were careful of the 100V input voltage!

There is a guide on how to disable the dynamic drum:
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/393383-JVC-Dynamic-Drum-Ultimate-Fix

...But like I say, the risky part is the ribbon coming off of the head drum being easy to tear and very short without much space to get in there.

That fix doesn't always work if there are other gears cracked which I've now seen 3 times like this:
https://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vcr-repair/14411-type-jvc-7600-a.html

That's super technical for my skillset... but if there is someone in the UK that could work on a Japanese VCR, with the corrector converter, that would be perfect! I'll look for UK repair people on the forum. Thanks for your help!

BUMP - Are there any UK repair specialists anyone could recommend? Following up as I found one person but I've had no response, thanks.

Try Colin at video99.co.uk, But he usually repairs his own gear, not sure if he takes external jobs, but doesn't hurt to contact him.

Contacted with response, but no luck. I'll need to find someone else :depressed:

Currentl I need to find the cheapest alternative to capture a horde of Japanese VHS via an S-Video TBC VCR deck for decent quality, and if I can't repair this deck I'm guessing that importing an American or Japanese machine are my only options.

How many tapes? too many to be sent to someone with more equipment?
I have a dozen of Japanese SVHS VCRs (Victor, Panasonic, Mitsubishi, Sony) TBCs, capture cards, etc , I can help depending on the volume.

Sometimes importing another one is cheaper, but don't get it in random used condition, get it from one of those vintage online shops in Japan, their gear is usually checked and better. If you need help with that drop me a PM.

If you still insist on repairing it and can't find anyone in the UK, then you may try VCRshop in NL, they refurbished many of my Japanese and French decks, but with shipping + customs between EU/UK (if any- depends on your luck) it might be simpler/cheaper to buy another one. Especially with the Yen being weak these days.

Also these guys are in the UK but with less specialized knowledge than Colin, Disclaimer : I don't know them, never tried anything from them, just came across their YT channel
https://www.youtube.com/@RetroElectronicRepair
https://www.instagram.com/retro_electronic_repair/