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Tape stuck in VCR

L

Live Bait McKinney

Jan 1, 1970
0
(First, if you want to contact me by email, pls send to
[email protected] -- never check yahoo.)

Greetings! Common problem. Tape stuck in the VCR.

Trying to avoid the $80 repair shop or $20 service manual (parts lists
and schematics only).

Symptoms:
Turn on the power -- motor spins then stops.
Hit eject - first time, "EJECT" appears on screen but no motor or
eject.
Every time after that, no "EJECT" on screen, no sound of motor
spinning.
Same using remote control or front panel.

Tried unplugging power cable... and back in. Same story.

This is one of the TV/VCR combos (Panasonic PVQ-2512 -- similiar to
PVQ-1312W, PVQ-2012. Bought Dec 2002 - now 5 months out of warranty.
Repair cost is $80 (minimum charge) at the local authorized station.
It's not worth that much to me since this is a 2-head and stand-alone
4-head VCR's are that price or lower.


~~~~~~~~~~~

For others looking at a Panasonic TV/VCR combo unit, I'll give you
some feedback from my own use of this one -- Purchased Dec 2002 -- low
usage for past 17 months.

I almost returned this the first day because, after taking it out and
setting it up, I found out you can't watch one channel and record
another. Since this is one of the main reasons for buying a VCR, I
should've taken it back and gotten the TV only version. Wish they had
stated that on the box. "Marketing communications" at work. Decided to
keep it and get a 2nd VCR for copying tapes, etc.

About the TV, the CRT picture is great - no complaints there. Sound is
good and there are jacks on the front panel.

When you switch channels with the remote, there is a 1/4-second
black-out which is OK during the day, hard on the eyes in a dark room.

But (and this is a big butt) I have had it 17 months, little VCR use
and, besides the tape mechanism problem, when you start to record, the
tape rewinds about 3-minutes of tape, then starts, so, unless you let
the tape run an extra 3 minutes, you can chop off the last 3 minutes
of the previous program. The way I look at it, this is one of those
"it's a pain but you get used to" problems.

The remote control is not intuitive, like their other products. I have
never had trouble learning or using many other VCRs, including my last
Panasonic, but (another big butt) this one is not very user friendly.
The buttons are not logically grouped, etc. etc. If everything else
was OK, probably would just buy a universal remote.

What else.... Panasonic usually makes such great products -- I am
still amazed at the problems with this one. I notice this one was made
in Mexico - doubt that makes any difference on the design though. I
have a Samslung TV (1992) made in Mexico that takes a licking and
keeps on ticking.
 
R

RonKZ650

Jan 1, 1970
0
Common problem was the drive rack/cam gear wearing. It's not a do it yourself
repair.
The model you got is a pretty good combo. No combo ever built can record one
channel while you watch another because they only have one tuner, so you can't
blame Panasonic for that.
The main problem with any combo is the VCR. Stay with separate components for
better reliability.
Ron
 
A

Art

Jan 1, 1970
0
All depends how much you value your tape. You can attempt taking it out
yourself and risk damaging the tape and mechanism further or cut to the
chase and pay to have it done for you. A combo units from the FUNAI to the
other classic brands like Brocksonic, Zenith, Sharp, Panasonic, et al fin,
will tend to have mechanical problems far before they have electrical
failures. Due to the fact that most all vcr mechanisms are basically plastic
and do break with even moderate use. As far as the features of the product
you willingly purchased, all combo units use a single tuner.
 
K

KLM

Jan 1, 1970
0
(First, if you want to contact me by email, pls send to
[email protected] -- never check yahoo.)

Greetings! Common problem. Tape stuck in the VCR.

Trying to avoid the $80 repair shop or $20 service manual (parts lists
and schematics only).

For $80 you can buy a new VCR and return/exchange that under warranty
if it craps out fast. For $80 + $20 you can even buy a better made
one although there is not really that much difference between them
once behind the covers.

Might as well use your present VCR as a learning exercise. A stuck
tape is a mechanical problem where you can actually observe the
sequence of the problem developing. Open the covers and knock
yourself out.
 
S

Sofie

Jan 1, 1970
0
Live Bait McKinney:

This is not a do-it-yourself repair for the inexperienced. Improper
dis-assembly can cause expensive damage. Find another shop with a better
price.

As far as not being able to view one channel while recording another
channel...... you can NOT do this with any available TV-VCR combo because
they all have just one TUNER circuit that is shared between the TV and VCR.

Obviously NO manufacturer would indicate in their literature or on the box
exactly what the VCR will NOT do...... nobody does that ! For example, a
cheap mono TV won't tell you in precise words that it will not produce
stereo sound, that it doesn't have a comb filter, that it doesn't have
picture-in-picture, that it is not multi-standard and multi-voltage, that it
doesn't have A/V input and output jacks, or an S-Video jack, or SCART
connectors, etc.

Buyer beware and identify features that you want and are willing to
purchase..... the more you want, the more you will pay.
 
S

sherwood

Jan 1, 1970
0
Turn on the power -- motor spins then stops.
Hit eject - first time, "EJECT" appears on screen but no motor or
eject.
Every time after that, no "EJECT" on screen, no sound of motor
spinning.

Probably a longshot, but look inside the VCR front door with a
flashlight to make sure there is not something stuck in there, like part
of a tape label, sticker or something. The combo units from Panasonic
are a major pain to disassemble. They obviously designed them without
easy serviceability in mind. I always thought they should have made them
so that the VCR mechanism would slide out through the front, kind of
like the old "docking" portable models. Would obviously make it a lot
easier to do a cleaning or any other maintenance work. But that would of
coarse cost $$ and today it is all about "cheap".

The remote control is not intuitive, like their other products. I have
never had trouble learning or using many other VCRs, including my last
Panasonic, but (another big butt) this one is not very user friendly.

I totally agree with you. I have been a Panasonic fan for decades and
have always loved their products. But one area they severely lack in is
remote control design. They must have total morons designing these,
obviously people who never use them. It's like they put all of the
buttons in a hat, mixed them up, and then tossed them onto the design
sheet in whatever order they landed. They are not laid out logically at
all. Buttons that you always use are inconvenient to use and buttons
that you never use are in the easiest to reach locations. Ever tried to
find the miniature "Pause" button in a dark room?

One of the worst and most frustrating design goofs is on several of the
VCR remotes. Located on the bottom left is a button labeled "SAP/Hi-Fi".
The problem? Right next to it are the Volume Up/Down buttons, ones that
you use ALL the time. The buttons are so tiny that is is incredibly easy
to hit the SAP/Hi-Fi button, and of course the next sequence for that
button switches it to "SAP". That's not as much of a problem if you are
watching a movie as you would see the on-screen display pop up. But if
you are watching TV with the VCR on, as I do a lot (waiting to record
something coming up for example), and you hit the button, you
unknowingly hit this SAP button and put it in the SAP mode. Then what
happens is when you go to record a show you have NO AUDIO!! I can't tell
you how many shows I have recorded only to find out when I go to watch
them there is no sound. Talk about pissed off. I cus those Japanese
moron engineers everytime this happens, not believing how someone could
be so STUPID to design something like this. Like MOST people I will
NEVER use SAP in my lifetime. Common sense would dictate to put this
feature in a on screen menu so it could not be accidentally selected by
mistake. I may end up having to take the remote apart and cut off the
button or place a barrier there so it no longer is functional. I am
tired of having to verify that I have audio everytime I record a
program.

That's just one of my "remote" complaints, I could go on forever. The
DVD remotes are just as bad. I guess they figure everyone has
"magnification vision" and that everyone can see in the dark (you know,
how everyone watches TV most often). The most used buttons should be
larger and in a convenient location - like Play/FF/RW Pause and Record.
But noooooo, they just put them anywhere they feel like it.
Unbelieveable from a company such as Panasonic.

SW
 
J

Jeff Strieble

Jan 1, 1970
0
Common problem was the drive rack/cam gear wearing. It's not a do it yourself
repair.
The model you got is a pretty good combo. No combo ever built can record one
channel while you watch another because they only have one tuner, so you can't
blame Panasonic for that.
The main problem with any combo is the VCR. Stay with separate components for
better reliability.
Ron

I agree with you 100 percent. I have never owned a combo TV/VCR
and do not intend to--they work well when they are right, but are just
too much trouble to repair when the VCR goes and, as I am about to
explain, some VCR problems in these combos can render the TV useless
as well. A friend of mine had a Symphonic 13" TV/VCR combo a few years
ago; a tape jammed in the VCR, immediately rendering it and the TV
useless (the jammed tape caused the VCR's motor to draw so much
current it dropped the output voltage to a point where the supply
would not so much as operate the TV, let alone the VCR.) My friend has
since gotten a new TV and uses a separate VCR with it; no problems so
far. My own audio/video system consists of separate components as
well (Aiwa shelf stereo, RCA 19" TV, Panasonic VCR, Motorola digital
cable box)--no problems whatsoever with anything but one component in
the last couple years. Had to replace the VCR about two years ago
(tape stuck in the one I had; I tried to get it out, but wound up
wrecking the machine in the process). Since everything in my system is
separate from and independent of one another, it was only a matter of
connecting two cables to the new VCR, setting it back onto the shelf
under the TV (it, the TV and cable box are on a modified utility
cart), plugging it in, turning it on--and I was back in business. (The
then-new Panasonic VCR, as well as the one it replaced, has an
automatic setup function which makes initial setup a breeze--all one
has to do is connect the machine to the TV and antenna or cable, turn
everything on, and in a matter of seconds the VCR is ready for
immediate use--no fiddling with channel mapping, clock setting or
anything else.)

The inability to watch one channel and record another with a TV/VCR
combo is yet another reason I don't like these units. They are
space-savers, to be sure, but they have their drawbacks, as has been
noted here. Some of the better (and, of course, more expensive) units
are made with external A/V jacks, to which a separate external VCR may
be connected if the one built into the combo goes West for any reason.
This arrangement is usually found in 19- and 25-inch combos, but I
suppose there have been 13" models with external A/V connections as
well, made by manufacturers such as Zenith (pre-GS models), Panasonic,
etc.

Kind regards,
Jeff, WB8NHV (mailto: [email protected])
Fairport Harbor, Ohio
 
B

Bill

Jan 1, 1970
0
(the jammed tape caused the VCR's motor to draw so much current
it dropped the output voltage to a point where the supply
would not so much as operate the TV, let alone the VCR.)

Bzzzzzt! Wrong answer.
 
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