Panasonic AG-W1 stops when in PAL mode

[smartiro]

Hello Everyone,

I recently acquired a Panasonic AG-W1 video recorder for converting some old family VHS tapes into some digital format. The recorder I purchased is in very good condition and seems to be lightly used and kept clean overall. It plays tapes in different color systems without any issues. One issue I noticed though is that when I play a tape and select to playback in PAL system, it starts stopping the playback after some time. The timing of stopping is random. When I restart playback by pressing Play, it starts playing without issues but then stops after some time. I tested with several tapes, it's the same behavior when it's in PAL mode. But when I play the same tapes in the THROUGH mode, basically without color system conversion, it plays fine without stopping all the way to the end of the tape. I would really appreciate any feedback on this issue if anyone encountered the same and have an idea what could be causing it.

Thank you in advance!

[dellsam34]

Describe what you mean by "stops", Does it mean it shuts down, the motors stop but the VCR stays on, it stops playback and unlaces the tape .....? A video of the operation probably better than words.

[smartiro]

What I mean by "stops" is that it stops the playback and returns back to the Stop state. It's like if I would press the Stop button on the control panel or the remote. The VCR stays on in Stop state and waits for a command. When I press Play, it plays fine and then stops after some time. The timing is so random that it would be difficult to predict when it will stop so I could take a video. I'll try capturing a video if I can.

Some more info from today's playback.
I was playing a tape and had the SECAM system selected. I wanted to see if it would stop after some time. It did stop after playing the tape like 30-40 minutes. Then I tried the MESECAM and NTSC systems, it also stopped after some time, like 5-10 minutes after. I was surprised that it even stopped in the THROUGH mode today, which didn't happen earlier. It was only stopping the PAL system was selected before. So I'm thinking this might be some kind of mechanical issue, like the take-up reel loses torque, when the VCR warms up after playing for some time, and can't keep up with taking the tape in and triggers to stop the playback. I know those VCRs have a speed sensor under the clutch that feeds the take-up reel. I can probably confirm this when I open the VCR and play it with open cover to observe what's going on.

Any other idea about what else could be causing this issue would be very appreciated.

[smartiro]

So, I have been playing a tape and watching how the reels and whole upper mechanism work. As I was suspecting and mentioned in my previous post, right before the VCR stops the playback, the take-up week stops and the tape spools up a bit in the area of the pressure wheel, without jamming or damaging the tape. It's the problem shown in this YouTube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYvfoQnld18. The difference in my case is that it doesn't stop playing right away, it plays the tape for some time and then when for some reason the take-up reel stops, it breaks the playback process and goes back to Stop state. I will now need to investigate what's casing the take-up reel to stop randomly. Please let me know if anyone has any idea how to fix this. Thank you!

[dellsam34]

It probably has an optical sensor that detects the rotation of the take up reel, If it sense non movement or very slow movement it will stop the playback to avoid damage to the tape/VCR, I would remove the take up table and inspect the clutch pressure pad and roughen the surface a little bit to increase the torque.

[smartiro]

Thank you very much for the suggestion. I will do that and report back.

[smartiro]

I just had a chance to look into the stopping issue I was having earlier with my Panasonic AG-W1. I was about to remove the clutch that spins the take up reel and see what is going on with it. Before doing that, I decided to see how it operates with the tape in playback mode. Upon looking at the mechanism from the bottom while pressing the Play button, I have noticed that there is a lever in the bottom part of the mechanism that is supposed to lift up the pin of the breaks of the take up reel to disengage the breaks and it was not doing it. The lever that I highlighted in yellow in the attached image has a tip at an angle (highlighted as red line in the image) that's supposed to engage with the break pin (highlighted as red dot in the image) and it was just slipping over the pin and keeping the break engaged during playback. So, I have bended the tip of the lever just a bit towards bottom and now it's engaging with the breaks pin and disengaging the breaks as it was supposed to. I've played a couple of tapes in a row for like 6 hours continuously and didn't have any stops so far. I guess there was no issue with the clutch, rather it was powerful enough to still spin the take up reel even with the breaks engaged. I am still not sure how the issue occurred. Nevertheless, I'm confident that the issue is fixed now. I will continue using the VCR and report back if the issue occurs again.

[Attachment 84606 - Click to enlarge]