MITSUBISHI HS-U70 video input not working

[waltchan]

Originally Posted by Ed in Tx

"Video Mute" is the blue screen that comes on when video goes away. Turned Off you see will unrecorded tape noise and unused channel noise from the tuner, or a black screen if a video input is selected at the Input Select switch. Inputs should still work with video present.

Oh, yes, you're completely right. It's been five years since I owned my last Mitsubishi, which was a HS-423UR S-VHS. I still have the manual for it though, but it's at my storage.

[holmesuser01]

I see Mitsubishi's at the thrift all the time. Never pick them up. I got burned by them near the end of my repair shop years. Lots of bad capacitors, and that yellow glue. Hmmph.

[waltchan]

Originally Posted by holmesuser01

I see Mitsubishi's at the thrift all the time. Never pick them up. I got burned by them near the end of my repair shop years. Lots of bad capacitors, and that yellow glue. Hmmph.

Yes, it's amazing to see how many Mitsubishi VCRs survive in thrift stores today, despite they have acted as being more troublesome than most other brands. It's possible that the ones survive today have NEVER needed a single repair since new, and the only assumption we can know is that they donated them as still working and functional.

Consumer Reports did a survey on VCR reliability at one time, and, surprisingly, the percentage ratio of working Mitsubishi vs. broken Mitsubishi was much higher than most other VCR brands. Mitsubishi had always been rated more-reliable than Sharp, Hitachi, NEC, and Fisher (in-order) during the 1980s, as well as JVC, Sanyo, and Emerson (Orion) in some years. Only Panasonic (along with Quasar, Magnavox, GE, and Sylvania), Toshiba, and Symphonic (along with Funai and Shintom) guaranteed higher-reliability scores than Mitsubishi in all years of production.

Mitsubishi claimed and pretended like they were the 4th most-reliable VCR manufacturer at one time. It's EXTREMELY difficult to predict by most technicians and me if this was actually true. It may be right, OR it may be wrong.

Overall, Mitsubishi was rated as the seventh (#7) most-reliable VHS VCR brand:

http://www.videokarma.org/showthread.php?t=254206

And the sixth (#6) most-reliable Japanese video electronic manufacturer by fame and quality reputation traditionally:

http://www.videokarma.org/showpost.p...7&postcount=10

While difficult to predict, not everyone had that bad capacitor problems, actually, due to Mitsubishi buying capacitors from 5 different suppliers at the same time. You either got all Elna caps (which leaked) or Matsushita caps (that won't die). Some units got very little to few yellow glue, or tons of yellow glue all over, depending on how much glue a factory worker felt like putting. So, reliability varies largely between each unit and owner.

If for some reason someone luckily got one of the Mitsubishi VCRs with all Matsushita caps inside that are all defect-free, plus no yellow glue on the board (accidentally forgotten by the worker), I think I will easily agree that it's going to be more-reliable than Sharp, Hitachi, NEC, and Fisher, exactly listed in order by Consumer Reports. I found Mitsubishi's own chassis mechanism to be solidly well-made, smooth, robust, and sturdy, despite the idler-tire problem.
.

[waltchan]

Originally Posted by waltchan

Mitsubishi claimed and pretended like they were the 4th most-reliable VCR manufacturer at one time. It's EXTREMELY difficult to predict by most technicians and me if this was actually true. It may be right, OR it may be wrong.

Mitsubishi did their best with the 1989 VCR models with the HS-U#0 series:

HS-U20 (4-head)
HS-U30 (4-head)
HS-U50 (4-head Hi-Fi)
HS-U70 (4-head Hi-Fi, S-VHS)
HS-U80 (4-head Hi-Fi, S-VHS editing)

See attached photo for reliability comparison between all VCR brands provided by Consumer Reports (1989 median year).

[holmesuser01]

Notice that Fisher was at the BOTTOM of the list. I'll bet I've repaired 100 of them.

[Ed in Tx]

Notice the top 5 would have been all Matsushita-made for the most part, before Magnavox, GE, Sylvania changed, and Quasar disappeared.

I probably would have rated the Mitsubishis down between RCA and Fisher.