An Albanian gentleman asked me to check this for him because he has lots of tape from home, and I don't have a clue about multi system VCRs. It's an Aiwa multi system VHS model HV-MX1.

It auto selects between NTSC and PAL when played back, and it has a selectable output of either.

When playing an NTSC tape, it auto selects NTSC and plays a perfect picture in color on an NTSC LCD TV via AV input. When a pre-recorded PAL tape is played, it auto selects PAL properly, but the picture on the monitor is black and white horiz bars, as if the horizontal hold was off just beyond lock.. However when PAL is selected as an output (despite the monitor being NTSC), the picture appears in black and white and with a "texture" to it (like playing a component input on the composite jack).

Not sure if something is wrong with the machine or some sort of incompatibility between equipment. He said it worked years ago the last time it was tried, but that was on an RCA analog TV.

It probably does not actually convert PAL to NTSC. Most likely meant to be used with a multi-system TV.

Converting PAL to NTSC is more involved than a line doubler, and you might know how expensive those things were. It is also difficult the other way around. Different scan rates and color subcarrier frequencies, and that phase shift deal in PAL that makes the tint (phase) control unnecessary.

Now, there should be cheaper convertors. There's probably a chip for that. (to the tune of "there's an app for that") Also, there are PC cards for video capture, I am sure there are PAL versions. After that, there are NTSC adapters for the video coming out of the PC. This would work. Or he could just burn a DVD and that would work as long as the software does not mark it anything other than region one. (NTSC)

On Tue, 8 Dec 2015 10:40:56 -0800 (PST), John-Del
wrote:

An Albanian gentleman asked me to check this for him because he has lots of tape from home, and I don't have a clue about multi system VCRs. It's an Aiwa multi system VHS model HV-MX1.

It auto selects between NTSC and PAL when played back, and it has a selectable output of either.

When playing an NTSC tape, it auto selects NTSC and plays a perfect picture in color on an NTSC LCD TV via AV input. When a pre-recorded PAL tape is played, it auto selects PAL properly, but the picture on the monitor is black and white horiz bars, as if the horizontal hold was off just beyond lock. However when PAL is selected as an output (despite the monitor being NTSC), the picture appears in black and white and with a "texture" to it (like playing a component input on the composite jack).

Not sure if something is wrong with the machine or some sort of incompatibility between equipment. He said it worked years ago the last time it was tried, but that was on an RCA analog TV.


We have 2 of these vcrs at work and they will play back PAL tapes with
an NTSC output if NTSC is set as the output in the menu and if the
tape is recorded in SP mode. EP recorded PAL tapes won't play back
properly.

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On Wednesday, December 9, 2015 at 9:22:58 AM UTC-5, Chuck wrote:
On Tue, 8 Dec 2015 10:40:56 -0800 (PST), John-Del
wrote:

An Albanian gentleman asked me to check this for him because he has lots of tape from home, and I don't have a clue about multi system VCRs. It's an Aiwa multi system VHS model HV-MX1.

It auto selects between NTSC and PAL when played back, and it has a selectable output of either.

When playing an NTSC tape, it auto selects NTSC and plays a perfect picture in color on an NTSC LCD TV via AV input. When a pre-recorded PAL tape is played, it auto selects PAL properly, but the picture on the monitor is black and white horiz bars, as if the horizontal hold was off just beyond lock. However when PAL is selected as an output (despite the monitor being NTSC), the picture appears in black and white and with a "texture" to it (like playing a component input on the composite jack).

Not sure if something is wrong with the machine or some sort of incompatibility between equipment. He said it worked years ago the last time it was tried, but that was on an RCA analog TV.


We have 2 of these vcrs at work and they will play back PAL tapes with
an NTSC output if NTSC is set as the output in the menu and if the
tape is recorded in SP mode. EP recorded PAL tapes won't play back
properly.

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I talked to the owner and he again told me that this machine played his PAL tapes on an RCA 32" analog CRT TV. It was put away for a while and now he wants to play some tapes from home for his grand kids, and that's why he tried it recently.

I tried it again today and it now plays the PAL prerecorded tape with a normal, clear, and stable picture when NTSC output is selected. Unfortunately, it's in black and white but at least it's now in horiz sync. I'm thinking there might be a horiz phase adjustment somewhere I can tweak. If the horiz is right on the edge of break, it might be causing the loss of color. I tried cooling the machine down to see if I could get the horiz to drift again, but it hasn't (suspecting aging electrolytics).

Anyone have a link to a SM?

"We have 2 of these vcrs at work and they will play back PAL tapes with
an NTSC output"

I stand corrected then. Probably a pretty expensive unit in its time.

I would first scope the NTSC output and see if there is a color burst. If there is it is likely too far off frequency. If there is not then the color killer is activated.

In any event, unfortunately for the guy this is liable to be fairly expensive repair. And then, my highest recommendation to anyone still using any format VCR is to copy everything to DVDs. In fact they now have super long lived DVDRs for archival purposes because they have found that the regular DVDRs do not last forever.

Sorry about my error, but the format convertor is not a standard feature of multi-rate VCRs.

On Wed, 9 Dec 2015 13:12:03 -0800 (PST), John-Del
wrote:

On Wednesday, December 9, 2015 at 9:22:58 AM UTC-5, Chuck wrote:
On Tue, 8 Dec 2015 10:40:56 -0800 (PST), John-Del
wrote:

An Albanian gentleman asked me to check this for him because he has lots of tape from home, and I don't have a clue about multi system VCRs. It's an Aiwa multi system VHS model HV-MX1.

It auto selects between NTSC and PAL when played back, and it has a selectable output of either.

When playing an NTSC tape, it auto selects NTSC and plays a perfect picture in color on an NTSC LCD TV via AV input. When a pre-recorded PAL tape is played, it auto selects PAL properly, but the picture on the monitor is black and white horiz bars, as if the horizontal hold was off just beyond lock. However when PAL is selected as an output (despite the monitor being NTSC), the picture appears in black and white and with a "texture" to it (like playing a component input on the composite jack).

Not sure if something is wrong with the machine or some sort of incompatibility between equipment. He said it worked years ago the last time it was tried, but that was on an RCA analog TV.


We have 2 of these vcrs at work and they will play back PAL tapes with
an NTSC output if NTSC is set as the output in the menu and if the
tape is recorded in SP mode. EP recorded PAL tapes won't play back
properly.

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I talked to the owner and he again told me that this machine played his PAL tapes on an RCA 32" analog CRT TV. It was put away for a while and now he wants to play some tapes from home for his grand kids, and that's why he tried it recently.

I tried it again today and it now plays the PAL prerecorded tape with a normal, clear, and stable picture when NTSC output is selected. Unfortunately, it's in black and white but at least it's now in horiz sync. I'm thinking there might be a horiz phase adjustment somewhere I can tweak. If the horiz is right on the edge of break, it might be causing the loss of color. I tried cooling the machine down to see if I could get the horiz to drift again, but it hasn't (suspecting aging electrolytics).

Anyone have a link to a SM?



John,

This one should be close.
http://www.manualslib.com/manual/469...-Hv-Mx100.html

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