Setup menus on Panasonic Pro AG-DS545P S-VHS?
 

Preface:
I am working on an archival project with some borrowed and some ebay-ed player decks.

The sources were created on similar Panasonic and Sony S-VHS decks over a period of 18 years beginning around 1990.

I believe that the player decks that I have were used as feeders for simple editing suites - like for delivery to cable access.

Two of the Panasonic machines have scrambled, rolling, greyed and very weak video output. The tape transports and audio (including HiFi) work correctly.

The Panasonics have physical switches on the front of the machines and an extensive "Setup-Menu" that is viewable via the backpanel Video Monitor jack (BNC that I am using with an RCA adapter).

You flip through pages of the Setup menu with a combination of the Jog Wheel and the front panel buttons.

I don't have:
- A scope or a typical old school monitor.
- a source for reference video sync - happy to buy that if it would help
- any certainty that my old gear is working correctly.
- an actual manual for the Panasonic decks - I am using pdfs of other Panasonic decks

So, I am troubleshooting my way through this. It occurs to me that the Panasonic players may have been configured to suit the production scheme that they were pulled from.

I don't have a deep understanding of the menu choices or why they might have been tweaked one way or another.

There is something about the way the weak video looks that makes me wonder about phase.

Is there anything obvious that I should reset to begin with?

Since my objective now is just to play through the tapes for capture should I set some options for my new purposes?

I had a hard time Googling some of these options so let's make them easy to find here:

(ALL MENUS COPIED FOR COMPLETENESS- spacing retained - some are more obvious than others)

SETUP-MENU NO.1001
01 SYNC
02 STILL TIME SELECT
03 TAPE PROTECTION
04 READY OFF MODE SELECT
05 DIRECT SEARCH
06 SHORT FF
07 AUTO REW
-------------------
SETUP-MENU NO.2001
01 IMAGE MODE SELECT
02 VIDEO MODE
04 PB/EE SELECT
05 WIDE MODE SELECT
07 HSW BLANKING SELECT
08 V BLANKING SELECT
10 DOC SELECT

SETUP-MENU NO.2011
11 FREEZE AT READY OFF
12 FREEZE AT STOP
13 Y-DNR LEVEL SELECT
14 C-DNR LEVEL SELECT
15 TBC REMOTE
-------------------
SETUP-MENU NO.3001
01 DOLBY NR
06 AUDIO CH2
-------------------
SETUP-MENU NO.4001
01 CHARACTER BACKGROUND
02 CHARACTER H-POSITION
03 CHARACTER V-POSITION
04 STATUS SUPER
------------------
SETUP-MENU NO.5001
01 EJECT/STOP FNCTN REM.
02 9P DEVICE TYPE SELECT
03 9P FF/REW MODE SELECT
------------------
SETUP-MENU NO.6001
01 DROP/NON-DROP FRAME
02 AUTO PREROLL ENTRY
03 PREROLL TIME
04 PLAY DELAY
05 FRAME SERVO
------------------
SETUP-MENU NO.7008
08 TC OUT SIGNAL REGEN
13 9p VITC TO DUMMY LTC
14 9P INTERPOLATED VITC

END


TBC CONTROL
1.VIDEO LEVEL
2.SET UP
3.CHROMA LEVEL
4.HUE
5.YC DELAY
6.SYSTEM H PHASE
7.SYSTEM SC PHASE FINE
8.SYSTEM SC PHASE COARSE

various deeper setup screens for the above -3 0 +3 etc.

--

I am aware that there may be nothing more than hardware issues involved here. If there are obvious diagnostics feel free to share them.

You shouldn't have to set anything to get video to display. Like the AG-1980, the AG-DS line suffers from capacitor problems.

http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/news...empts-buy.html
http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vcr-...-ag-ds840.html
http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vcr-...html#post32030
http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/mark...html#post19942

I spent two hours messing with those menu options. No change.

Once I changed the capacitors I got a perfect picture.

Bear in mind that most options only have an effect with TBC enabled - thinks like head switch masking, DNR etc.

had the same issue - its those damn electrolytic capacitors!
 

Hi,
I bought a Panasonic AG-8700 - a nice PAL model with TBC, and has the exact same problem.
Got it for less than $70 because of this problem so I'm not complaining :-)
First I downloaded a free service manual, it also had a user manual in it so all functions and menus where explained. I tried to follow the diagram and diagnose the issue with an oscilloscope, but found out that many capacitors where defective. replacing a capacitor got me one step further on the path of the signal but then the next step was bad as well.
I had to change ALL the capacitors on the Video boards. It took about two days of work but it was worth it.
it was easier than trying to diagnose - So maybe half the capacitors I changes where actually OK... but it was just easier to take the board, remove 10 capacitors, install new ones and continue to the next 10. I replaced 100-200 capacitors. lost count somewhere after 50 :-)

The Audio boards and the servo boards are OK - they use a different kind of capacitors.
the boards I had to fix where two Y/C boards and two TBC boards.

Good luck...