Sony EDV-5000 Operating Noise

[McMountain]

It's my first time posting here, and I'm not tremendously experienced when it comes to working with VCRs. I have a decent capture workflow set up and have digitized most of my family's Hi8 collection, but it was time to move on to our extensive Betamax library. I wanted an EDV beta player mostly due to the S-Video output for capturing, so I finally pulled the trigger and bought a unit from Japan. I picked a seller that accepted returns, and I knew it would be a gamble to buy something like this sight unseen. Shelling out for one of Mister Betamax's units would be great, but it just wasn't financially viable.

Anyway, I received the unit this past week, and it had some dents and dings, but was in decent shape cosmetically. It loads tapes perfectly fine, the picture seems very good. Unfortunately, it makes a strange sound during playback. I recall other forum posts warning about worn-out head bearings on these units, and one user suggested returning a unit if it made noise during playback. I have attached a short video of the sound, and would greatly appreciate any opinions. The mic on my phone made the noise quite a bit louder than it is in the room.

If it helps, I can upload a short unprocessed AVI of a known good tape from VirtualDub. I was going to include a 100mb clip in this post, but I can't seem to upload it. I can hopefully attach it to a follow-up post.

Any input would be appreciated. The sound does not seem healthy to me, but I'm hoping it might be something minor. I have a much older SL Betamax VCR, and while it does make a whining noise, it is not quite as rhythmic as this EDV machine. I don't have anyone local to me (that I know of) who services VCRs, but I'm hoping there are some experts here who can offer some guidance. The options are: Keep using the unit to Digitize tapes despite the noise, return it and roll the dice on another Japanese EDV machine, or attempt to get someone to repair it.

Thanks

[McMountain]

Can't seem to upload an AVI segment.
Also, I do have a proper 120v-100v step-down transformer supplying power.

[dellsam34]

As long as there is no noise patterns I wouldn't worry about, Had an EDV-7500 the same way and it played tapes fine, Just make sure you get your tapes done before a new problem develops, They are known for rotary transformer coils lifting off and causing RF noise.
If you are skilled you can get the head bearings replaced or repair a lifted rotary transformer coil, MISU did a video doing some head repair, he can't speak English unfortunately.

[aramkolt]

Sounds like a pretty normal amount of noise to me based on the 8+ beta machines I've worked on. That's something you won't really hear much at all with the top cover on.

[McMountain]

Thanks for the replies, I feel better about the noise. I have very little experience with VCRs, so I really don't have much of a reference. I have experience fixing modern electronics, but I don't pretend to know anything about VCRs. It was enough of a gamble finding a working unit from Japan on eBay, so I'm not about to try my luck repairing any major components. I'm still in the process of testing the deck out and testing various tapes, but I have been pleasantly surprised with the picture quality. I have a couple of boxes of tapes from my family's old BMC-220 camcorders, and it's not likely I will have much more use for this VCR after they are properly digitized.

Thanks

[McMountain]

I'm now having tape ejection issues. The cassette is carried in, and the machine starts threading the tape, but it stops immediately at the same point and ejects the tape. I couldn't attach another video file, but I did upload it to the site. Here is the link:
https://files.videohelp.com/u/314628/20250920_044116-00.00.03.325-00.00.22.305.mp4

Any help would be appreciated. It looks like maybe there is some sensor that is telling the machine to eject. The mechanism always stops when the tape is moved in front of this part:

[Attachment 88835 - Click to enlarge]

Any ideas?