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  1. Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2020
    Location
    Italy
    Search Comp PM
    I知 capturing VHS and S-VHS tapes with a Panasonic FS88 S-VHS VTR and if I use the S-VIDEO out, the image turns black and white after about five minutes, no matter where I am in the tape. If I use composite instead, the video is always in colour.
    Of course I知 not going to do the capture with composite, so do I have any chance to make s video work?

    On some forums they say it痴 the electrolytic capacitors going bad, but with some warming-up the image should get better. My case seems the opposite though, as the image starts perfectly and then gets worse. I even tried to play a full tape beforehand, but with no result.
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  2. Try different SVHS cables, if you haven't already done so. These tend to develop issues that lead to common problems like color going to BW intermittently: often changing the cable brings back steady color.

    If changing cables doesn't work, your VCR may need servicing (consistently dropping from color to BW with all SVHS cables means something went defective with age). FS88 is one of a small "family" of similar Panasonic VCR models known for high performance but poor reliability. Yours probably needs repair to the part of the video circuit board that feeds the SVHS output. Sometimes we get lucky and its just something simple like a bad solder joint at the SVHS socket, more often luck runs out and the unit needs very expensive recapping service.

    The European PAL versions of this VCR design were more durable than the North American NTSCs, but time has caught with them and recently many more FS88, FS200 etc owners have been reporting breakdowns. "Letting it warm up" is usually an urban myth: the video output remains unpredictable at best and continues to degrade until the VCR is properly recapped.

    Service Manual for FS88 can be downloaded here, but be advised this model series is unusually difficult to service at home: it is recommend to seek help from a skilled professional tech experienced with these units specific repair challenges.
    Last edited by orsetto; 7th Aug 2021 at 17:14.
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  3. Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2020
    Location
    Italy
    Search Comp PM
    Wow, this IS a problem. Thank you for the exhaustive answer tough.
    I知 sure this is not an S-VIDEO issue, since I tried 3 different cables. I値l see if I can get it repaired.
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