A sad Sony Video Walkman
 

I picked up this rather sad example of a Sony Video Walkman today. No idea how it ended up like this. Never seen one in the flesh before, wouldn't have thought the first time I laid hands on one it would be so slimy...

It's completely dead with no signs of life what so ever. Being early 90s I'm expecting it to be full oozing SMD electros. I doubt I'll get to it anytime soon, but I expect that to be tedious, but doable. I hold less hope for the tape transport, but I don't have anything to play on it anyway.

I did notice a Faroudja badge on that back. I wouldn't have thought a scaler would be necessary for a small SD resolution panel.

I did find a copy of the service manual - I have a feeling I'll need the disassembly instructions for this one. The schematics aren't included, probably removed by someone wanting to sell you a copy - Elektrotanya usually don't pull that crap (you can find the download code by viewing page source, no need to clickthrough potentially dodgy ads).

So what is that? A video 8 player?

Yeah, a Video 8 player, & recorder... IIRC, these puppies were pretty Mucho Dinero... Hard to see why/how someone who laid out the bread for one would let it get like that..

It has a rubberized cabinet. Be careful at what you use to clean it.. I'd start with just water, some cleaning agents will melt the rubber.

Sheesh! :no:

It came from the unsold pile at a local junk auction, I know there's a couple of vendors there that like to clean everything with WD40. Perhaps the sticky slime is the cabinet coating reacting with that (or whatever else they tried).

I haven't attempted to clean it yet. I think that'll wait until I disassemble it and can soak the casing.

Back in the days of 8mm/Hi8 and S-VHS recording. The higher end units had Faroudja processing. Sometimes as simple as better Y/C separation all the way up to 3D comb filters and video noise reduction processing.

The deck in that unit was a bit higher end, a lot of them had Hifi mono, yours is HiFi stereo and may even be able to play and record the PCM HiFi stereo trans as well as the standard AFM one

If you would like to attempt working on the deck I can provide you with an 8mm test tape.

I have a few Video 8 camcorders, but I've never seen a Video Walkman before.

Used to have a GV-500 many many years ago. Neat little toys, but they were a bear to keep aligned and happy, especially if you actually took them anywhere and used 'em. The GV-500 had a built-in tuner and was a 4" LCD...so it was actually quite handy and nice to carry on a trip and watch movies on or TV.

Back then...Columbia House actually had an 8mm version of their "club"...and I stuck around long enough to have like 15 "factory" movies on those little 8mm stereo tapes. I still have a few of 'em kicking around in different places of the house. I should get them all together in one place, because I still have one of these players.

I still have the newer one that is like a clamshell (S-50?)...and that one still runs like a champ. I got it with the intention of transfering some old tourist stuff to AVI files or something with a capture card and laptop. Of course I still have not done that.....like three years later :-P

The S-50 also has a tuner that plugs into the side of it, but mine does not work :-(

I'd LOVE to find just that little tuner pack some day and be able to put the little player in my micro-TV collection.

That GV-500 I used to have.....it lost it's backlight to the LCD, then later it would not sync playing tapes as an external deck. I had it in the car for some dumb reason one day...and someone reached in and just took it :-(

Thats a nice little rig there.I remember seeing the DVD recorder version at BJ's years ago.It was about the size is that set.To me the outside looks like it got swamped in something.Is the insides clean.

Wow, Columbia House offered 8mm films at one point? You guys really had it made back then. :)

Just to be clear, I believe he's talking specifically about 8mm magnetic videocasettes recorded in the usual helical-scan analog format, not 8mm optical-projection film. The same tape type is also used for digital video recording, digital audio tape and digital computer backup tape drives (like the common Sony, Exabyte, etc. 8mm DATs.)

Sony also made MiniDV and HDV versions of these recorders, although the HDV ones do not have monitors but it is the same basic form factor. And if you want to see something really wild they also made a larger one for the pro market that is BetaCam SP and took the 30 min "small" cassettes you could tie two of them together and edit with them. and then there was probably the oddest thing of all the DATStation it had 2 DAT decks built into it an EL display and edit controls on the front you put your source DAT tape in one and a blank in another and edit your concert or whatever you just recorded,

How cool is that?

I hope it is working soon. It'll be great to see how it performs.

I still have it, but I haven't done anything with it yet. Just haven't had the time or motivation for projects lately. Hopefully that will change soon...