JVC HR-S8500 - no sound on MONO tapes!
 

I have a problem playing mono VHS tapes on my new HR-S8500. The machine can play stereo tapes with no problems, and the picture quality is also perfect - but with mono tapes i get absolutely no sound!

I no that I have to switch manually the audio from hifi to norm, but none of the audio modes gives me any sound (and no sound level indications on the VU meter on the display so the problem is surely internally in the machine)

What could the problem be? I tried to play the mono tapes on my Panasonic 730 machine, and they play very well, but that machine does not have S-VIDEO output so I am not using it to transfer the tapes to my computer.

I have cleaned the video and audio heads, problem persist.

Please help...

How many tapes is it? Are they all from the same source recording camera/VCR? Some tapes do not have a linear track, especially tapes made on home cameras.

The HR-S8500 is not one of the suggestions machines by this site. I believe that one is too old by one generation.

The Panasonic may be playing the HiFi track, even if it says otherwise. It depends how sophisticated the deck is. What's the full model number of that unit? It doesn't sound like a S-VHS VCR that has those kinds of options (linear only audio playback).

Cleaning heads rarely does anything.

And welcome to the site. You're in luck -- I just happened to be on the site when you posted. :)

THe 8500 is very similar to the 7500 with 2MB TBC, and very similar to the 9500 according to the service manual. The SM for 8500 refers on the front page to the 9500 for any further info.

The mono tapes comes from different sources, home camera (C-VHS) older low-end VCR (Fisher, Sharp etc.), all plays audio fine on the Panasonic 710 or 730.

I think the problem must be on the audio playback circuit on the 8500, it is not able to play the baseband linear track..

it is a PAL deck, probably the HR-S8500E - looks just like a HR-S7500U

the Hi-fi uses rotating heads on the drum. the normal audio uses the fixed audio head.
possibly a probably with that head.
have to tried the audio "Mix" setting?