I didn't use my MSC-4000 for a few weeks and, upon turning it on to watch Basic Instinct (1992) [PILH-1002] (and test another MUSE decoder), I was greeted by a massive white column and the MUSE decoding normally, but with picture shifted right and the missing part showing on the left.

With the Sony MSC-4000:


That was from the X0, I immediately tried the other MUSE input from the MSC-4000 with the X9 and it was exactly the same.

Then wondered if the video processor was going crazy and last night I tried 2 other MUSE decoders on the same video path (X0 -> MUSE decoder -> Lumagen -> Video Projector).

With the Pioneer HM-D101 (it was blurry at first but improved when the decoder warmed up!):


With the Mitsubishi MD-CZ11 (Victor clone):


So it's definitely the MSC-4000 (remember that picture paused on the MSC-4000 are noticeably sharper than the other 2, see this thread for details).

Feels like caps are getting bad but.. which one is the tricky question!

Julien

Hello Julien,

seeing the picture of the MSC-4000, I wonder what triggers the horizontal sync, as normally the white bar should trigger the horizonal sync for analogue TV.
It would be interesting to see on a scope the Y signal compared to the other decoders.
Or try to connect the RGB output from MSC-4000 directly to TV.

Br, Edwin

I was curious to see if the OSD (Monitoring) RGB inputs would be shifted as well.

But they are not => output is aligned.
It's the input that gets out of sync.



Tried various MUSE outputs on the player and all MUSE inputs on the MSC-4000.
"BS" was by far the worst offender (it holds its name well!).



When no MUSE signal is detected, it's the normal black/empty screen.
Any time a MUSE signal is detected from the X0 or the X9, it goes white+shift.

Julien

Does it eventually align itself after 30 or so minutes of being powered on? This is strange, but interesting.
There was a terminal I worked on years ago that had a capacitor issue. At first, the image looked similar to what these pictures depict.
After a while (20-30 minutes) of being powered on the image would eventually re-align back to what is expected.
If this were my device I would go nuclear and recap every board. Mostly out of fear, but also as a preventative meausre.
It would be tedious, but not so difficult. I'm hoping this isn't an IC fault.

No difference after several hours.

Julien

Unfortunate. If it is a capacitor issue it's unlikely to be a minor fault. It's unwise to make assumptions when it comes to board-level repairs.
I just wanted to chime in and see if I could help out in any way. This will probably necessitate tracing out each of the boards. I hope you can get this historic technological marvel running smooth again.

I would examine the PCBs very closely but not replace any caps casually. If they are super bad you can tell with a meter or even just by looking. It you go nuts and replace half the semiconductors on the board for no specific reason you erase a lot of diagnostic evidence that you may want later and also run the risk of introducing new problems.

That being said, it likely is a capacitor issue.