On Saturday 09 August 2008, Nigel Henry wrote: >Sorry for this totally OT ? > >Some years ago, while on a boat in Belgium, which had a 3 phase shoreline, >some silly electrician who was going to work on the electrics, removed the >neutral first, which resulted in 400+ volts ending up in the tuner timer > unit of my Sony Betamax VCR, which killed it. Thankfully the VCR unit was > not running at the time, and I've recently hooked up a 12volt power supply > to the VCR, and a tape that has been stuck in the machine for some years, > played back a star trek episode on xawtv, like it was yesterday. > >Now thinking that all was ok with the player unit, I removed the cassette, > and tried another one, and that's where the manure hit the fan. The sound > was fine as it always was on Betamax, but the video is jumping all over the > place. Removed the new cassette, and replaced the original one. That too > still has good sound but the video is out to lunch now. > >I did have a head cleaner cassette for this machine, but can't find it, and >from googling they no longer seem to be available. > >Any suggestions as to what I can use to manually clean the video head? I'm >thinking cleaning fluids here. Advice from a now mostly retired broadcast engineer (and a C.E.T.) who used to have about 30 similar machines to keep running. Standard paint thinner alcohol is best, as is the "chamois on a stick", wet the chamois and apply very very gently, and only in the direction the head rotates, never scrub cross-ways as that can very easily break the ferrite tips off the head. When done with the head, toss that chamois stick, get a new one (never put the used one back in the can to wet it as it takes dirt back to the can) and clean the capstan shaft and pinch roller, then get another stick, wet it and clean the rest of the guides. And NEVER insert another tape until the machine has had a chance to dry completely! You can wind up with 30 feet of tape wrapped around the drum, and the tips broken off the heads. At that point you'll need a fresh head and all the tools to calibrate it, probably considerably over $1000 today for a beta machine. When you do put the tape back in and hit play, pay particular attention to how it is running over the guides on the exit side of the drum as it heads for the capstan/pinch roller. If either edge of the tape is being distorted in any way, either the capstan shaft is dirty, clean the oxide deposits off it again, or the pinch roller probably needs a fresh one and aligned. One of the few things you can do with nothing more than a new tape generally. >Much appreciation for any suggestions. I know this isn't a Linux ?, but am >trying to play my Betamax tapes on Fedora using xawtv. > >Nigel. > >btw: I'm currently listening to the Simpsons episode, where Homer gets free >cable tv. the sound is superb, but the video falls a bit short of the mark. -- Cheers, Gene "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed Howdershelt (Author) All great discoveries are made by mistake. -- Young -- fedora-list mailing list fedora-list@xxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list
