Weird VCR behavior

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I didn’t put this in GQ since I’m not planning on getting the thing fixed, but I am curious as to the weird behavior of one of my VCR’s.

It’s a Philips/Magnavox 4-hjead mono unit. It’s about 4 years old and in the past year or so it has been doing the following:

I use it mainly to tape stuff I want to watch, but not keep, so the timer is set to record the same stuff everyday (like Letterman). The next day when I turn it on and hit the rewind button, it stops, turns itself off and the tape indicator light, the timer indicator light, and the number “1” will flash off and on in the display. When I turn it back on, the tape will eject itself. I push the tape back in and hit rewind and it’s ok. It doesn’t matter what kind of tape I use - old or new.

Any clues?

2

Do you still have the manual? It could be an error code, something like “Clean My Heads, Bitch!”, but then in VCR-ese.

The Philips head office is a couple of blocks from here. Want me to throw a brick at it on the way home?

3

I had a similar problem, although my vcr ended up just turning itself off (JVC if I recall). If I powered it back on, it would stay on for about 5-10 seconds, but then power down. I attempted to get it fixed, however there was something wrong with the motherboard of the VCR and after 5 months, they determined that it would cost me more to fix than to buy a new one.

4

Try dropping the same question at this site http://audioreview.com/ chances are they can give you better advice.

From my point of view I would consider buying a new VCR.

5

The flashing number 1 is an error code. Do a Google search on your model number (both web and groups) and you might find some more info about the kind of problems it typically has.

In my experience, most VCR problems are mechanical. In your case, I would look at the following:

  1. Belts.
  2. Idler tires.
  3. Mode switch.

Note that belts are cheap are (usually) reasonable for a handy person to change.

Sam Goldwassers www.repairfaq.org site might have some info, but I don’t think he has specific error codes.

I know you are going to buy a new VCR and you’ll get a $70 piece of crap. I just want to let you know that it’s US consumers buying such inherently awful electronics that has made it impossible for those of us who don’t like to waste money to buy quality electronics anymore. I.e., the cheapest is not the cheapest in the long run.

6

Thanks for the info. It doesn’t do that thing every time and it does function properly in every other way. This is the first time I’ve seen something like this and I have gone through at least 15 VCRs in the past 18 years. While I worked at a pawn shop, I would get used VCRs for about $40-60. If they lasted a year or two, I felt that I had gotten my money’s worth (new ones at the time ranged form $150-400).

7

:rolleyes:

Way to jump to conclusions and generalize.

So, if there aren’t any quality electronics out there any more for people who like quality to buy, what are YOU using?