JVC GR-C1 Camcorder - can anyone help?

[IanNVJ35]

Its important to not be lead astray by 'red herrings'. Even an adapter may add some problems of its own if the tape shell is a bit damage etc., so what I would do is load the reels of the tape into a full size VHS shell and play that. Its important that you do any testing on fully functioning equipment, not items that are themselves dodgy.

If you want to send me a recording made on this camcorder I would be happy to play it on a fully serviced and aligned AG broadcast deck and let you know what I see, then return the tape.

[asprinwizard]

Hello again,

Last week I gave the camera a thorough head clean, changed the tape to a 30 minute one and only played back through my VHS VCR. It seemed one, or a combination of, these 3 things had done the trick. I did numerous test shots around the house, changing settings as I went, and the issue did not occur at all. So yesterday I decided to take the camera out and do some filming and I'm sorry to say the issue is back. I have uploaded the footage I took: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_hF0MVf9tc

This is the full footage, not edited, taken over about 20-30 minutes at Alexandra Palace. As you will see I travelled around the area a bit to get all the shots and during this time the camera was left in record/pause mode - I didn't turn it off at any point.

You will see how the problem is present right from the first shot but does disappear in some shots. I would say it's there around 80% of the time. There is also a lot of colour flashing, which may in part be due to the VCR used for playback, and there is also a prevalent green tinge, which I think may also be a feature of this camcorder but I mention it in case it might be a clue as to what is going on.

Tomorrow I'm going to get someone to take a look at this so if I could be as informed as possible as to possible causes that would be appreciated. Do we still think capacitors? I'm pretty certain the issue is not playback only, as the issue appears on each machine I've tried. I was thinking it could be something loose in the transport mechanism which, in this case, was aggravated by the movement of the camera being carried around.

Thanks again for any help you can give.

[asprinwizard]

Hello again,

I took this along to be looked at but unfortunately I'm still none the wiser in terms of what might be wrong. We opened it up and from what I saw the capacitors seemed fine. Also there doesn't appear to be a drive belt so I guess that's not it. Various further options were offered - from requiring head demagnetisation to head alignment needing adjusting but none of these seem to suggest why the problem is intermittent.

The machine doesn't seem to allow you to play or record without the casing being on so it was hard to test if something is loose in the mechanism.

So I guess I'm going to require an expert's opinion. Does anyone know of any people or companies who still fix these things? I've googled as many as I can but there aren't many so any recommendations would be appreciated.

Thanks again,
Richard

[IanNVJ35]

Hi Richard,

I think you will be out of luck sadly as what prevents repairs is usually lack of parts. If you would like me to look over it and give my opinion on what is wrong I am happy to do that FOC, but you would need to either drop it in or post to me - I'm in Hemel Hempstead. I'd keep it for a couple of days and may get you on the right track at least. Capacitors rarely look bad, but the value drifts and circuits no longer operate as they should. I could take a look at these and check a few for ESR etc.

I'm just an ordinary A/V engineer, but have repaired a few VCR's etc.

Perhaps you could put an ad in the serviced wanted section here - may be someone with real experience on these machines on the forums.

lastly, have you looked online for what footage from these recorders looks like when working correctly?
As an extra last point, if you have a VCR with TBC you may find that playing the tapes back on that resolves the picture wavering and colour shift - not ideal but a thought.

[emeritus]

I can only echo the problems of getting spare parts: a couple of years ago my local authorised JVC repair agents were unable to source a replacement circuit board for my then-12 year old JVC DV camcorder that contained the circuitry for manual selection of manually-selectable functions such as shutter speed and special effects. Evidently an age-related failure, as I have come across two other JVC camcorders of the same vintage with exactly the same problem. At least it still works on Auto.

[asprinwizard]

Thanks again for your help.

Ian - I may well take you up on that. I'm only in North London so could drop it off easily enough. Thanks for the offer.

I'm going to run a few more tests on it. There are some people on the net who claim to deal with vintage video equipment. I fear their charges may be a little out of my league, but worth getting some quotes anyhow.

Cheers,
Richard