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Panasonic NV-VHD1 Combined VHS and DVD Player

About

This is very much bog-standard consumer player is nothing special.

Annoyingly even though it does have s-video out, this is for the DVD signal only.

It certainly has its foibles (see Faults section) so I keep the lid screws taped to the top of the machine.

Connectivity

  • SCART in (passthrough)
  • SCART out
  • RF in
  • RF Out
  • RCA Stereo Audio out
  • RCA Composite Video out
  • Optical out (DVD only)
  • S-Video out (DVD only)
  • RCA Stereo Audio out (DVD only)
  • RCA Composite Video out (DVD only)
  • RCA Video in (front panel)
  • RCA Stereo Audio in (front panel)

Machine history

I think this was a Facebook Marketplace find for a tenner.

Service Manuals and User Guides

Original documentation is freely available on the web.

Faults

Note: This is not exhaustive, these are only the faults and fixes I’ve experienced.

F498 Error

This appears to be infamous with this model, however it only affects the DVD part of the player so I haven’t attempted a fix.

From what I’ve seen this is normally attributed to a cold solder joint. I have noticed that after I’ve taken the lid off to clean the heads, on next power on the DVD seems to function fine - so most likely I’m inadvertently putting pressure somewhere which is correcting the issue. The fix doesn’t last long though.

Operation of the VCR part is totally unaffected by this error though.

Tapes get stuck when ejecting

I’ve had this a few times. Something seems off with the alignment of the cassette which can cause the tape to ‘stick’ inside when ejecting. The player attempt an eject, spools the tape back in to the cassette, but the media gets caught on the way out. The player notices this and sucks the cassette back in to the machine. The machine then turns itself off.

Opening lid, performing an eject and nudging the tape as it gets stuck solves the problem.

No remote

I’ve not had the need to use the remote for anything yet so no loss!

Standard maintenance

Belts

I haven’t replaced any belts in this machine yet.

Head cleaning

The head assembly is readily accessible with the lid off. I use chamois swabs with IPA and gentle pressure while rotating the head assembly to clean them before every new tape capture.

ToDo

  • Fix the F498 error.
  • Look for diag points on the mainboard to see if I can get S-Video out for the VCR side.
  • Find a remote!