What power supply do i need for my VCR?

[Master Tape]

Just bought a Panasonic NV-HS860 from Germany, but it came with a 2-pin plug, which is no good here. I need a 3-pin UK plug but want to make sure i get the right one instead of putting any old one in lying around the house with the wrong voltage and doing some damage. The cable it came with is a 2.5a 250V plug. But on the back of the VCR itself, it says 220-240v 50/60Hz 28W, so have no idea what power supply i need or where to find it?!

[redwudz]

Not really familiar with 50Hz wiring.

But my understanding is that the power supply is internal on that VCR. If so you just need a power cord.
The third pin would be a ground pin and not really needed most times
.
The voltage would always be ~220VAC @50Hz. A chart of most 220VAC connections. http://www.internationalconfig.com/config_chart/index.asp

If you don't have it, this appears to be the user manual: http://www.manualslib.com/products/Panasonic-Nv-Hs860ee-3191748.html

[davexnet]

You should probably get the advice of an electrician, but taking a look here, Germany uses type C or type F; does you VCR have type C?
Seems to be unpolarized can be inserted either way. If this is the case, then I would think a UK style plug, type G could be attached and the
wires connected to live / neutral without concern for polarity.

Not sure what your concern is with power supply, both countries have the same voltage

http://www.worldstandards.eu/electricity/plugs-and-sockets/

[HarpMaster]

What you could do, is to get the type of mains adaptor plug, usually used for a shaver two pin plug to go into a 13 amp, three pin mains socket. Then just try it either way round to find the best polarity.The voltage is the same in the UK, so will not be a problem. The difference in the picture quality is easily recognizable.

[hech54]

Just bought a Panasonic NV-HS860 from Germany, but it came with a 2-pin plug, which is no good here. I need a 3-pin UK plug but want to make sure i get the right one instead of putting any old one in lying around the house with the wrong voltage and doing some damage. The cable it came with is a 2.5a 250V plug. But on the back of the VCR itself, it says 220-240v 50/60Hz 28W, so have no idea what power supply i need or where to find it?!

That's all?
Imagine if you'd bought a VCR from America.....talk about "no good here".
Wrong plug, wrong power requirements, wrong video format, no SCART connections.

[Master Tape]

What you could do, is to get the type of mains adaptor plug, usually used for a shaver two pin plug to go into a 13 amp, three pin mains socket. Then just try it either way round to find the best polarity.The voltage is the same in the UK, so will not be a problem. The difference in the picture quality is easily recognizable.

Oh i have one of those for my electric toothbrush, will try it out. Would this method not introduce additional noise?

[betwixt]

Oh i have one of those for my electric toothbrush, will try it out. Would this method not introduce additional noise?

Only if you leave the toothbrush running at the same time!

Voltage is the same, it's AC so the polarity is completely irrelevant and power is what it consumes so that's decided by the VCR itself.

To make it function, just chop off the two pin plug and fit a UK standard 3-pin one. For safety I suggest replacing the 13A fuse with a 3A one.

However, unless that VCR is multi-standard, if you try to use the antenna input or output it may not work as you expect. Some of the frequencies are different between countries. If you only use SCART, BNC or RCA (phono) plugs it will work fine.

Brian.

[HarpMaster]

The reason I suggested trying a shaver plug adaptor, is although the machine will work safely either way round, the polarity does make a difference to the audio and video quality. whenever I get a new equipment item with a removable figure of eight shaped lead with a plug for the equipment end with two holes, I'll try it both ways round to find the best performance.
If you're going to rewire the lead with a 13 plug, whether with a 3 or 5 amp fuse, I'd try wiring it one way round and trying it and then redo it the other way to check which is best to be sure.

[betwixt]

the polarity does make a difference to the audio and video quality.

The polarity reverses 50 times a second (60 in some countries) so it can not make the slightest difference which way it is wired. In any case, the AC is converted to DC inside the machine before being used.

I would not recommend using a shaver adapter, the reason is simple, they are usualy fitted with 1A quick-blow fuses. That's fine for a shaver but every VCR made in the last 25 years uses a switch mode power supply (SMPS) which takes a short current surge as it is first powered up. The fuse in most VCR is 2.5A or 3.15A anti-surge for that reason. The chances are the adapter fuse will fail.

Brian.
(45+ years of designing equipment and teaching electronics and 25+ years of video editing)

[pippas]

Posts #8 and #9 illustrate beautifully one of the biggest probelms with the internet... who to believe?.....

One says the polarity matters, and the other that it doesn't.....if you're not an expert, how do you know who's right?.....
It could be that the qualifications and experience that the poster #9 mentions are just made up.. how do you tell?......

By the way, that last post is right...it makes no difference.... so you can be pretty sure those qualifications are genuine!

But then how do you know if I'm right?....etc etc...

There's a lot of 'snake oil' sold in parts of the electronics industry... particularly in audio..... Good fun to read if you understand a little about the subject.... not so much fun if you don't

[betwixt]

Very true. If in doubt about my claims, I use the same name on www.edaboard.com where I'm one of the moderators. It has over half a million users and I currently rank as fourth most helpful.

But then I could just be impersonating them.......

Brian.

[pippas]

But then I could just be impersonating them.......
Brian.

[Master Tape]

I Googled what type of power supply this VCR needs, and stumbled upon my old thread from years ago i forgot about

I've long since lost the power supply it came with, so just got a standard 3-pin tv plug. But having read this thread again, i haven't realised that the power supply is inside the VCR itself. I've only just started capturing tapes after finally getting my capture card working, and have noticed some terrible herringbone on solid colours, especially reds. And have gathered this is usually caused by a power issue? So given the power supply is internal and i'm using a normal adapter, could i be overpowering my machine and introducing more currents and artifacts?

the polarity does make a difference to the audio and video quality.

The polarity reverses 50 times a second (60 in some countries) so it can not make the slightest difference which way it is wired. In any case, the AC is converted to DC inside the machine before being used.

I would not recommend using a shaver adapter, the reason is simple, they are usualy fitted with 1A quick-blow fuses. That's fine for a shaver but every VCR made in the last 25 years uses a switch mode power supply (SMPS) which takes a short current surge as it is first powered up. The fuse in most VCR is 2.5A or 3.15A anti-surge for that reason. The chances are the adapter fuse will fail.

Brian.
(45+ years of designing equipment and teaching electronics and 25+ years of video editing)

Could i swap out the 1A fuse in a shaver adapter for a 3A one?

[Sharc]

Don't tamper the fuse. You can't "overpower" your VCR by the plug adaptor or power cable. Your herringbones and color distortions have other reasons: Interference through poor screening/cabling of your video connections from VCR to the capture card, ground loops and similar. The capture device might also be subject to interference. Or there is something odd with the video settings (levels, saturation, video standard etc.)
Is it the same for all tapes/video sources, i.e. for tapes and TV reception? Can you try with another VCR if it is the same? There's perhaps also the possibility of faulty electrolytic capacitors in the internal power supply of your Pana VCR. Would need replacement.
Upload a sample of your capture. Maybe it's just a levels/saturation/dotcrawl/rainbows issue which can possibly be fixed with correct proc-amp settings.

[betwixt]

This is a very old thread but my advice still stands.
Never replace a fuse with one of higher rating, in any case the fuse in a shaver adapter is likely to be physically smaller than a standard plug fuse so you wouldn't be able to buy one from normal outlets.

German AC specification is almost identical to UK one so you can just chop the 2-pin plug off and wire a 3-pin UK one in its place. Ignore the earth pin, it isn't used in a two wire system.

The AC supply has absolutely no influence on the picture quality and there is no way you can 'overpower' anything. The VCR will only take as much power as it needs, all you have to do is make sure there is enough there to satisfy it and a normal AC outlet can provide about 3,000 Watts. The VCR probably only needs about 30W !

The herringbone pattern is normal for PAL recordings. It is an unfortunate side effect of the way composite video is put together and made slightly worse by the analog recording circuits. If you want to remove it, the best way is to post-process the captured video in software. If you can capture using S-Video instead of normal composite it will help but not completely eliminate it.

Brian.

[Sharc]

The herringbone pattern is normal for PAL recordings. It is an unfortunate side effect of the way composite video is put together and made slightly worse by the analog recording circuits. If you want to remove it, the best way is to post-process the captured video in software. If you can capture using S-Video instead of normal composite it will help but not completely eliminate it.

Brian.

Herringbones really "normal" for PAL recordings? You mean the Hannover Bars? Or perhaps the effects of luma/chroma crosstalk due to poor separating filters for composite, which is however not unique to PAL.
A sample from the OP would help.

[Master Tape]

This is a very old thread but my advice still stands.
Never replace a fuse with one of higher rating, in any case the fuse in a shaver adapter is likely to be physically smaller than a standard plug fuse so you wouldn't be able to buy one from normal outlets.

German AC specification is almost identical to UK one so you can just chop the 2-pin plug off and wire a 3-pin UK one in its place. Ignore the earth pin, it isn't used in a two wire system.

The AC supply has absolutely no influence on the picture quality and there is no way you can 'overpower' anything. The VCR will only take as much power as it needs, all you have to do is make sure there is enough there to satisfy it and a normal AC outlet can provide about 3,000 Watts. The VCR probably only needs about 30W !

The herringbone pattern is normal for PAL recordings. It is an unfortunate side effect of the way composite video is put together and made slightly worse by the analog recording circuits. If you want to remove it, the best way is to post-process the captured video in software. If you can capture using S-Video instead of normal composite it will help but not completely eliminate it.

Brian.

Thanks for the information. I'll just stick to the plug i'm using then if it's having no effect, i'm otherwise having no problems and the machine is fully working.

Ah i thought as much. I'm using S-Video but yeah it's still very much a problem.

The herringbone pattern is normal for PAL recordings. It is an unfortunate side effect of the way composite video is put together and made slightly worse by the analog recording circuits. If you want to remove it, the best way is to post-process the captured video in software. If you can capture using S-Video instead of normal composite it will help but not completely eliminate it.

Brian.

Herringbones really "normal" for PAL recordings? You mean the Hannover Bars? Or perhaps the effects of luma/chroma crosstalk due to poor separating filters for composite, which is however not unique to PAL.
A sample from the OP would help.

Ok i've picked out this random ad as an example, as it has alot of red text that exhibits the problem.

[Sharc]

If this is a TV recording? If so, I would assume that the herringbone is due TV cross-channel interference. There is luma/chroma crosstalk (dot crawl) as well in some oversaturated scenes, I think.
The colors look oversaturated and are partially clipped and crushed, which points to a problem with the levels at some stage. Can be somewhat improved with post processing. Eventually apply a denoiser.
Also, the video seems to have been deinterlaced, or was it originally a PsF source?

Perhaps a little better:


Football is on .....

[lordsmurf]

This thread is ridiculous.

The OP needed a plug shape adapter. That's all, the end.

In fact, most items use worldwide power now, so very often all you need is an adapter. That even includes 220 items that shows as 220-240 only, but do actually work in 110 in USA (aka many VCRs, especially JVCs starting in at least mid 90s). The only thing to worry about is 110 only in 220, that can end badly for the devices (or even you).

[Sharc]

All people are ignorant, only on different subjects

[Master Tape]

If this is a TV recording? If so, I would assume that the herringbone is due TV cross-channel interference. There is luma/chroma crosstalk (dot crawl) as well in some oversaturated scenes, I think.
The colors look oversaturated and are partially clipped and crushed, which points to a problem with the levels at some stage. Can be somewhat improved with post processing. Eventually apply a denoiser.
Also, the video seems to have been deinterlaced, or was it originally a PsF source?

Perhaps a little better:


Football is on .....

Yes ignore the saturation, this was captured before i discovered i was clipping the levels and left everything at default in the proc-amp settings. But i just plucked out this example, it's still there in clips captured within the 235 range.

I don't really see this issue when i'm watching the VHS on my tv when played directly from my VCR (unless the tv's processing is very good at hiding it)

And the video isnt deinterlaced, this is the original raw interlaced file.

And that's a big improvement! you even got rid of the original indoor aerial noise