Video Walkman: Sony's 1991 Portable 8mm VCR!

hey everyone it's colin how's it going you're probably familiar with vcrs but this one it's a bit different [Music] [Music] i picked up a sony gv500 that came with its original box but was otherwise in unknown condition it's a so-called video walkman there's a four inch backlit lcd screen that can tilt upwards and it accepts eight millimeter videotapes for playback but that's not all it's limited to the gv500 has a built-in tv tuner with an antenna that unfolds from the top the right side features a set of rca jacks that can serve as either an output or an input and next to them is a multi-pin socket for connecting the optional ccd g1 camera so that means the gv500 is capable of not just playback but also recording the front folds down to expose additional controls for things like the on-screen menu as well as the mono speaker likewise there are more buttons underneath the screen to change the input turn the lcd on or off and adjust some tape functions power options for this unit are pretty flexible as you'd expect given its portable nature the bottom has a slot for a rechargeable battery which also gets used if you want to power the device externally mine came with a car power adapter in the box but i had to turn to ebay to pick up an ac adapter it turns out it's just a standard sony camcorder charger which has a 7.5 volt dc output jack to which you plug in a dummy battery and attach to the video walkman with a way to power it i set out to test if it actually worked it sprang to life and went straight to the tv tuner of course it can only receive analog signals and all broadcast tv stations in my area switched to digital years ago so there wasn't much to see other than static but the on-screen menu worked and the lcd's backlight appeared to be decently bright the tape transport on the unit is interesting it motors forward then pops up so you can insert a tape i dropped in a cassette that i knew had a recording on it then hit play but nothing it was definitely going through the motions but no video ever appeared [Music] i looked a little closer and noticed that the menu was showing some ghosting a bit of research suggested that it and the lack of video during tape playback were caused by the same all too familiar problem failed electrolytic capacitors that meant disassembling the unit there was a lot of technology packed into its compact chassis so i had my work cut out for me i got the tape cover removed and its ribbon cable disconnected then i could take out the screws securing the lcd screen it was connected through a single flat flex cable which sony was kind enough to leave fairly long to make it easy to access a single screw held in the antenna from the bottom next i took out the board for those buttons that hide under the lcd it connects through a short wire harness the pcb underneath performs several functions it contains the tv tuner has the lcd driver circuitry and does some dc power conversion and regulation with its cables disconnected and screws removed i could lift it out of the case to reveal another pcb this one handles the video processing and it seemed likely that these surface mount caps were the cause of this unit's problems but replacing caps in such close quarters is difficult at best so the disassembly had to continue the pcb with the av connectors needed to come out next it was secured with a single screw then i could use a spudger to help separate it from the video board next i unscrewed and removed these metal plates on either side of the tape mechanism which serve to protect it when the transport is popped up the mechanism was then just held in with a pair of long screws from the bottom and i could flip the unit over and lift it away this would prove to be a tricky recap the pcb i needed to work on was separate from the mechanism and attached with a pair of screws but had a flex cable tying it to another board that was soldered down on both ends i found that i could unscrew the board and simply flip it on top of the mechanism without worrying about detaching that cable which is good because flex cables like these can be very difficult if not impossible to remove and re-solder without special equipment i decided to start with the easier part of the repair and replace the caps on the tv tuner board first if the caps on the video board were bad they likely weren't any better on this one so i might as well replace them all while i had the unit apart i used some heat resistant kapton tape to help protect components like the plastic connectors then applied flux to all the caps solder joints there are many ways too and opinions on removing surface mount caps but i've always preferred using my hot air rework station i just think it presents the least risk when it comes to lifting solder pads on the pcb which can be hard to fix thankfully all the caps came off without much fuss and there was no damage to the board i removed the old solder with my iron and some braid then i could clean up the flux with an alcohol wipe from there i applied fresh solder to the pads and got the new caps put into place taking photos of the board before starting any work is a good idea so you can reference them later and confirm you're putting the right parts in the right places [Music] with the tuner board done i could tackle the video board i was able to clamp it in place so it would be easy to access and in addition to the kapton tape treatment i used a piece of aluminum foil to shield all the flex cables underneath the old capacitors came off just as easily as before and the solder pads cleaned up well while i'm definitely not skilled enough to produce factory quality work the original caps were installed by a robot after all i do think the results here are plenty serviceable with both boards recapped i could get the video walkman put back together in the 80s and 90s sony had a reputation of working magic when it came to miniaturizing components and the gv500 is no exception everything fits together very precisely with parts and boards looking almost like they were origami during the disassembly process i had been taping the screws i removed to the relevant pages from the service manual and this made it easy to make sure they went back into the spots they had come from i plugged in the unit and turned it on so far so good and i noticed one immediate improvement that ghosting of the on-screen menu was completely gone the text looked sharp and noise free tape playback however you said there wouldn't be there shouldn't be any cross referenced and verified an unidentifiable life-form reading yeah still no video audio was working fine but the screen just stayed blank out of curiosity i hooked the unit up to a tv to see if it was a problem with the built-in lcd but oh no you don't regulations specifically state nothing shall be beamed aboard until danger of contamination has been eliminated still nothing i took the machine apart again to check my connections and digging a bit deeper i found something yeah you know that thing about origami there were caps i had missed because they were hidden inside the tape mechanism i removed this metal bracket to give myself some more wiggle room along with disconnecting a couple of flex cables but otherwise like before i'd have to recap these boards while they were still connected to the mechanism some of the caps had the same values as ones i'd replaced earlier but a couple were different and i got lucky by finding appropriate new ones in my parts bin these boards fared just as well as the others sometimes when capacitors fail they start leaking and corrode surrounding connections but these didn't the pcbs looked quite clean and the solder pads were in excellent shape there were a few solid capacitors on the board but these fail very rarely so it was a safe bet to just leave them as is a cap i did end up replacing was this lone through-hole part that had been installed on its side it looks like it might have started leaking a little but didn't cause any problems i had a suitable replacement on hand and could bend and trim its leads to match some of the new caps i installed were slightly bigger physically than the original ones so to be safe i put a piece of tape on them in case they touched anything on the opposite board with tolerances as tight as they were in this thing they just barely fit [Music] i tested the deck again this time finally expecting it to the logical work is obvious beaming down to the surface is permitted but yeah the same as before i had replaced every electrolytic cap inside the walkman and checked all the connections my best guess is that ultimately it's a problem with the video head or its associated components i had tried cleaning it but that didn't help the tape moves through the mechanism as it should and the fact that the audio works means at least part of the video head is fine but diagnosing further is simply out of my ability which is a bummer because the gv500 was the top of the line model from its range when it was introduced in 1991 while it could only record to video 8 tapes it could play back high 8 media and also supported stereo sound during the 80s video 8 was poised to potentially replace vhs with some movie studios having been convinced to sell titles on the format sony released eight millimeter home vcrs and pushed the format with the claims that its small size was more convenient for consumers this certainly was true when it came to camcorders vhs models were big and bulky by comparison but for playing back movies it didn't matter as much it's just as likely that sony was still a bit upset about its betamax format losing out to vhs earlier in the decade and wanting to undermine its competition clearly that never worked out for sony but along the way we did end up with some interesting devices like this one the gv500 wasn't cheap selling at first for about fourteen hundred dollars u.s the price fell to 900 bucks by early 1993 though likely due to lack of demand as a portable entertainment device it seems compelling being able to watch tv and movies on the go but with video 8's limited catalog of titles people weren't in a hurry to ditch vhs later models in the video walkman series adopted new tape formats like minidv and hdv in the form of playback review systems for checking footage shot in the field as for this unit i haven't given up clearly it's going to need more replacement parts likely from a donor unit gv500s don't show up on the used market very frequently though so i might be waiting a while which is probably just as well because i don't exactly have much to watch anyway if you like the video i'd appreciate a thumbs up and be sure to subscribe you can follow me on social media at thisdoesnotcomp and as always thanks for watching [Music]

Channel: This Does Not Compute

Views: 1,293,791

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Id: 5KpJRj_rDCA

Length: 13min 57sec (837 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 22 2021