Mitsubishi HS-HD2000U maintenance?

[homefire]

So I was over my aunt's house for my cousins birthday this weekend and I found an unexpected treasure. I was telling my aunt about how I was restoring all of the old home movies so she asked if I needed anything. I was expecting an old beat up toshiba or something and instead it was a mint condition HS-HD2000U wrapped up in plastic. It looks as if it were just taken out of the box yesterday but I know its old and some things don't age very well. The display is a little faded but I played a tape and it seems to be working well. The builtin TBC actually makes the video much clearer with better color.

The question is what can I do to make sure it is operating optimally? Is there anything I should do to clean or perform any maintenance on it? I opened it up and the heads look spotless, should I clean them anyway?

[jwillis84]

Oh Gosh (No) don't go anywhere near those heads. They snag on everything and break off with a slight whisper.. or maybe worse get bent out of alignment.

The entire design of a VCR is a feedback loop that produces a stable vertical and horizontal sync pulse.. that is either right or wrong.. there is no in between. If there is a problem you will know it and it will be either the loading mechanism broke, bent or got stuck.. or the heads got skewed out of alignment because someone tried to clean the track.. just don't do it.. resist the urge to perform spring cleaning. At most.. At Most.. gently spray some canned air across the board from far away to dislodge dust.. and keep a desk fan blowing on it so the static electricity doesn't pull it right back to where its been dislodged.

Head cleaning is really an experienced experts task.. not a thing you can pickup without destroying several VCRs.. you can swab the drum.. but make sure you know what the heads are, where they are.. and stay far far away from them.. or better just don't risk it. And don't get cute and use some magical rust remover or WD-40 on the parts.. just forget about cleaning the tracks, don't try to grease them.. don't do anything.. close it and forget you ever looked inside.

By its nature the track is mostly self cleaning, cleaning a VCR is way over hyped.. if you have to clean it then its a serious situation that has brought you to that conclusion and it needs real intensive care by an experienced person.

Better leave well enough alone.

For "extra" incentive.. just try looking up the cost of that model on eBay.. you'll run screaming into the night with your hair on fire.. asking what you were thinking.

[homefire]

When I was 12 I destroyed the brand new gateway my parents bought by taking it apart without ESD protection, so I learned my lesson early on. It wasn't pretty. From what I read it is a very solid VCR, that's why I hesitated before touching anything. I was in awe at the condition it was in. The remote was even with it as well which alone is worth more than the other VCR I was using. I see the DNR/TBC button, besides that is there any other configuration that I should set?

Also, I bought a DMR-ES10 before I came across this. Should I use both with the TBC & noise reduction on both, just the DMR or just the VCR? There have been several posts saying that the DMR should receive the lowest quality signal for correction. Is this true in this case?

[jwillis84]

TBC is a slightly over used term.

A VCR is a servo-feedback controlled device. Because of that it micro stretches and relaxes as the tape is pulled through from reel to real so that it maintains the correct playback "speed" (SP, LP, EP, SLP). The TBC in the VCR is called a line-TBC because it only seeks to compensate for the un-even line lengths in the video signal created by these micro-stresses. It digitizes the line and "adjusts" it to what it should be (making the vertical edges of the video frame, clean and sharp).. it does not reconstruct either the horizontal or vertical sync pulses. Because of that an "external TBC" which digitizes both the horizontal lines and the field or both fields which make up a frame are captured and then both the horizontal and vertical sync pulses are corrected.. so its called a "frame sychronizer" (both are called TBCs) (both do very different things).. but they can work at odds to one another and can create artifacting.. if they were identical then in theory they would simply be doing the same job twice..or just a little more.. but they are not the same thing.

The ES10 is a DVR, it preconditions the "frame" before presenting it for capture to the digitizer board in the DVR. It does not do the job of a "line TBC" but it can interact similar to an external TBC to produce artifacting, with (some) tapes. There is no general rule for when to use and when not to use it.. you have to try and see.. the most valuable experience you can get is seeing a bad situation and try turning the "line TBC" off or removing the ES10 from the signal path and judge which is the better situation. Sometimes you can get away with both on and inline, sometimes its best only with one or the other.

The ES10 is unique in that it is more than a frame TBC/sychronizer.. it also has "filters" which can do additional good or bad preconditioning depending on your taste.. some like it some do not.. people call it a "look" which you have to experience to judge for yourself (or) trust the recommendations of other people you trust.

The ES10 also has "pass-thru" which means on certain inputs the signal is always captured and preconditioned (made ready) for capture by the digitizer, but that same signal is also output through the normal outputs of the ES10 which can be piped into your own digitizer.. which means you do not need to burn a DVD disk on the ES10 recorder to gets its benefits.. further you can choose to feed the "ES10 pre-processed" signal into a PC capture card, or standalone video capture device.. which even for an HD capture device is better than trying to capture with an HD capture device than trying to capture the raw uncorrected signal straight from the VCR.. precisely because the the ES10 was designed with interlaced SD signals that need special corrections "in mind".. many HD capture device cannot make useful SD signal corrections before capture.

Tapes come with various amounts of "additional baggage" like one tape will be an original, one will be a copy of a copy. One tape will be recorded on a JVC brand VCR and then played back on a different brand for capture.. the situations vary all over. Each difference can introduce special problems and conflicts that simply cannot be predicted. The specific situation will dictate what problems have to be corrected (and) conflicts that arise when using extra equipment in the pipeline that does not effect one Tape but does effect a different Tape.

[ehbowen]

First, congratulations. The HS-HD2000U is a primo VCR! I have two of them, both work flawlessly, and neither has ever needed one bit of maintenance.

That said, it's always best to be prepared. You can download copies of the service manual and the owner's manual from this site right here...just check the (sticky) Index of Manuals thread under "Video Hardware Repair."

I second the recommendations to only operate the VCR from a good-quality UPS power source. It will be hard to find a unit of comparable quality to replace it. And if it does need service, look first for a company which still works on VCRs. They're out there; I've used Bammel TV in Houston to repair a JVC with the "LOADING" issue. Expensive, but they did a great job and I'd use them again.

Again, rejoice! Lordsmurf may hesitate to agree, but I think that you've got one of the very best VCRs ever made. All the bells and whistles, and it does almost as good a job with EP/SLP tapes as my high-dollar recapped Panasonic AG-1980P. You've got a find!

[homefire]

So the UPS would be to protect it from a surge (its already on a surge protector), make sure it gets enough power or prevent it from crapping out in a power outage? (Or all of the above)

I saw you also posted about an issue with ejecting tapes. Did you find a way to fix it or did you just continue to guide the tape out with your hands?

[fluffernutter]

So is the consensus here not to touch the inside of a vcr unless absolutely necessary? I have the same HD2000u purchased second hand and so far looks like it is playing back my test tapes with no problems. I was planning to clean the heads as a preventative maintenance step prior to starting my digitization project. If I can get by without opening the machine up, all the better.

As a follow-up question, what should I be looking for to determine that the heads might need to be cleaned?

[jwillis84]

Generally, don't open your VCR for cleaning.. unless you have reason to strongly suspect it has a problem (you) can fix, and your willing to give up all hope of it ever working again.

A VCR with worn heads will look fuzzy or have trouble tracking. There is nothing (you) can do, other than take it to a shop that has parts for it.. and those parts are getting mighty scarce unless pulled from a donor machine of the same model.

A VCR with dirty heads, shows up as snow, or sometimes erratic tracking.. but usually it starts snowing first.. it will continue to snow from tape to tape. That may be salvageable by a person with experience cleaning the heads.. but since there are no replacement parts commonly available.. its a last hope.. if the shop knows what its doing, they may be able to help you. You could (try) but its not a maintenance item. People get head strong and assume they can learn to do (anything) on their one and only, and most expensive and critical component in their capture chain. Imagine if it doesn't survive your learning phase.. imagine if its just plain ruined beyond salvage. Everything works on it perfectly, but all you get is a blank or sketchy picture you can do nothing to repair.. and a shop can't help you because you destroyed the heads.

These days its better to have a VCR in reserve, or be ready to give up on the VCR and move on to another if you get down to (thinking) a do it yourself head cleaning job is worth saving a a few bucks.

Its better to try your tapes in different VCRs you have on hand.. than scrub the heads with a brillo pad (that is a JOKE .. seriously, do not use a brillo pad! ) in hopes of improving the picture. And.. it could (shock.. horrors..) be the tape is too far gone and you risked everything to, learn how to clean the heads on your one and only VCR.

ps. Compressed Air can blow the heads into "tiny pieces" or twist tiny metal brackets holding them so they are permanently out of alignment. It can also rip capacitors and wires loose. A shop-vac can do the same things. Expensive Cotton swaps for audio equipment, even the rubber spongy type.. can snag and pull on tiny 64 gauge head wires like threads on a wool sweater and start unraveling them. You almost have to have or use a microscope, or big eye lens to even "see" how fragile the heads really are. Most people my age have poorer eye sight and have no hope of seeing any video heads that are not in 100x photos.

VCRs simply are not made any more. And more specifically, the VCR used to make the original recordings will be really hard to find if you have to replace the VCR. Where you might have once thought about risking a $65 VCR you were going to trash anyway after digitizing your collection.. that VCR is now probably your last and best hope of ever getting a chance to digitize your tapes.. you have to assess the situation properly and consider what your actually risking these days.

A "head cleaning job" is not the gamble it once was.. its much worse. Its an unreasonable risk, if you don't try the same tape in a different VCR and establish for sure.. that the VCR needs a head cleaning, and that you are the right person with the right skills to perform that risky job.

[ehbowen]

Quote:

Originally Posted by homefire

So the UPS would be to protect it from a surge (its already on a surge protector), make sure it gets enough power or prevent it from crapping out in a power outage? (Or all of the above)

I saw you also posted about an issue with ejecting tapes. Did you find a way to fix it or did you just continue to guide the tape out with your hands?

The UPS is to make sure that it gets clean power. You don't want a cheapo UPS. Power outage protection is just a plus.

The Mitsubishi with the tape eject issue still has it. About 2/3rds of the time the tape ejects properly. The other 1/3 it sticks...but if I just reach into the tape slot and pull up very slightly, it comes out. To me, it's not worth opening up and possibly messing it up for that minor issue. The second HS-HD2000U was actually purchased originally "for parts" as a potential donor machine; I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was still 98% in good working order.