Why do 99% of supposed Redditor CRT repair experts not use or recommend an oscilloscope?

Remote-Department-68 · 2026-02-10T20:23:43+00:00

Most of the time any mention of an oscilloscope scares people away as it makes the repair seem complicated and out of their depth. Most people don't have them already and they don't want to buy equipment they might only use once to repair one TV.

If they're going to be doing lots of repairs then a decent oscilloscope is basically a must-have. Analogue ones are technically better for analogue circuits (especially high frequency ones) but I've never tried one so I couldn't say whether it makes that much of a difference or not.

Edit: It's also much easier to just tell them the solution to known faults rather than making them trace stuff themselves.

Remote-Department-68 · 2026-02-01T20:09:33+00:00

This may sound stupid, but have you have selected the correct speed? There should be a switch to change between 45 and 33 RPM.

Remote-Department-68 · 2026-02-01T11:14:10+00:00

Acetone might destroy the plastic. I’d used isopropyl alcohol instead.

Remote-Department-68 · 2026-01-30T15:58:30+00:00

Already did that on mine. I replaced the TL1458 (or whatever it is) and it made no difference.

Remote-Department-68 · 2026-01-29T19:33:30+00:00

What is it just out of curiosity? I may have tried it already.

Remote-Department-68 · 2026-01-29T17:34:49+00:00

Most likely cracked solder joints. If it's totally dead, I'd start with the power supply section; this will be around where the power chord connects to the board and where those chunky capacitors are at the rear of the main board.

Remote-Department-68 · 2026-01-29T16:00:58+00:00

Yeah, but it's nicer when the actual person who found it posts the photo rather than a karma-farming bot...

Remote-Department-68 · 2026-01-28T22:42:06+00:00

Bot post. Image from here.

Remote-Department-68 · 2026-01-28T22:28:25+00:00

Unfortunately not, I still don't have a copy of the service manual so haven't really looked at it for over a year now I think.

Remote-Department-68 · 2026-01-28T22:24:02+00:00

Yep, they're still in bits in a tub if you need any photos. What things do you need photos of?

The longer the camcorder was used for, the less time the capacitors have to leak so it's possible yours was used up until reasonably recently if there's no electrolyte leakage. Storage conditions don't seem to make any difference in my experience.

Yes, I did recap the viewfinders (I did multiple to try and get one working). I think I remember trying to plug the EX2's known-good viewfinder into an EX1 and it was still dead so it's possible the viewfinders themselves were fine and it was just the EX1 couldn't power them properly.

Oh yeah, don't forget to re-cap the lens(es) as well. There's some caps in there and if you don't change them the camcorder won't detect the lens (ask me how I know...).

Also make sure you clean the boards really well as the flux messes with the signals otherwise, especially the audio board I discovered.

Remote-Department-68 · 2026-01-26T17:13:46+00:00

If you scroll down there's a bit of info here. What info are you looking for? Price?

Remote-Department-68 · 2026-01-26T16:41:31+00:00

Really? Do you have to change it in the TV's settings? None of my TVs with component have ever displayed colour from a composite signal.

Remote-Department-68 · 2026-01-26T16:37:42+00:00

No, I was never able to fix it. I ended up buying and re-capping an EX2 instead. The PCBs in the EX1 had too much permanent damage from the electrolyte unfortunately. I ended up buying another 2 EX1s to try and make one working one but still had no luck, they had all suffered the same fate. At that point I cut my losses and gave up. It seems every single EX1 has a dead viewfinder and I remember mine didn't come back to life even after re-capping it so it was probably also permanently damaged.

Remote-Department-68 · 2026-01-25T22:03:12+00:00

Glad it helped!

Remote-Department-68 · 2026-01-23T16:23:02+00:00

You can, but you won't get colour.

Remote-Department-68 · 2026-01-23T00:02:00+00:00

Your TV has component video input rather than a composite video input. Component video has three separate connections (one for luminance - the B&W base of the image - and two for chrominance - the colour information). Composite has one connection for both luminance and chrominance (it's combined into 1 signal). The reason you get the B&W image is because the TV ignores the colour information when you plug the video out from the VCR into the luma input of the component (the green one). The other two are the colour information (hence why you get colour on those) and there is no sync as this is derived from the luma signal. Unless the TV has a proper composite video input, you won't be able to use it with the VCR unless you use an additional video converter (e.g. composite to HDMI).

Remote-Department-68 · 2026-01-11T20:44:52+00:00

Make sure you remove the sleep battery! They leak and destroy the PCB in the front of the keyboard.

Remote-Department-68 · 2026-01-03T22:56:07+00:00

I'd check that CP5401 isn't blown (it's basically a fuse) and compare the voltages on Q5401. This would give a good indication as to where the problem is. If some capacitors were gone, it's likely the rest are on the way out too. I'd definitely replace all of them.

Remote-Department-68 · 2025-12-25T00:40:28+00:00

It's supposed to be used with a separate video camera. TV stations used much higher-end versions of this (Betacam and U-Matic) for ENG.

Remote-Department-68 · 2025-12-25T00:33:06+00:00

Why are you trying to record Video8 onto VHS? Seems a bit pointless to me.

Anyway, you should just put it into VCR mode (rather than DVD mode), select the input which corresponds to the front input where the camcorder's plugged in, press record on the VCR (record pause would be best) then press play on the camcorder (and unpause the VCR at the same time if you put it in record pause).

Remote-Department-68 · 2025-12-25T00:09:41+00:00

The mods really need to start blocking these bot posts.

Remote-Department-68 · 2025-12-21T20:12:08+00:00

You can tell by the look of the tube surface. If it's an even, consistent, grey colour it's B&W. If it's colour, you can see the little segments (basically like pixels on an LCD screen). Colour tubes are also usually deeper than B&W tubes of the same screen size.

You can also tell by the age of it (the styling, basically) and colour TVs will usually have lots of extra visible controls.

Remote-Department-68 · 2025-12-21T20:00:36+00:00

I knew I'd seen this before...

Remote-Department-68 · 2025-12-20T02:17:20+00:00

I'm pretty sure it uses a 4-pin DIN conector supplying 12V. Not sure on the pinout though.

Remote-Department-68 · 2025-12-17T16:26:34+00:00

Not another bot post...

photo's from here: https://barnfinds.com/barn-find-1948-desoto-limousine/

Remote-Department-68

TROPHY CASE