[Jethro777]

I have a Sony Betamax C7 that has been fired up after a few decades in storage - still works, but the LCD screen at the front faded and died when I started it (it was very dim to start with).
Each time I have started it since, it is a little more faded, now mostly gone. It was working fine when it went into storage - any ideas on what it might be?

 

[Jethro777]

See this picture, it clarifies things a little..

 

[holl_ands]

Timer or Channel Display????
Could be Voltage (or IC) Driving the Display....or the Display itself.
Free Service Manual Download:
https://elektrotanya.com/sony_sl-c7e_sl-c7ub.pdf/download.html

Once you have some part numbers for piece part(s) or affected Circuit Board(s), you can search to see if any are available....or buy another Betamax (perhaps a cheap one that doesn't work completely) and swap parts out of it.....

BTW: Front Panel Display(s) are NOT among the many known problems in C7:
https://www.palsite.com/slc7tech.html

And perhaps you would be better off not worrying about the fading display and spin off some DVD or BD Recordings so you can junk the problematic Betamax entirely....