Problem with JVC SR-V10U VCR

[bigvlad12]

I have a VHS tape I'm trying to play in my JVC SR-V10U and when I press play, the video plays for about one second and then a blue screen pops up. If you fast forward, rewind, or pause, the video shows up. I've tried the tape on a lower quality VCR and it plays fine. If I rewind far enough, the tape seems to play fine on the JVC, although the Video Calibration message will sometimes show up. I've tried turning off the video calibration and other functions, but this doesn't seem to help. I've also cleaned the heads, which did not solve the problem. Does anyone know why this would be happening and how to fix it? Thanks in advance.

[orsetto]

If your SR-V101 has no problem playing other tapes, only this one, and you've cleaned the heads, the most likely cause for the bluescreen is severe tracking incompatibility between your SR-V101 and this particular tape. Have you tried going into the VCR setup menus and turning off the bluescreen feature? Many JVCs have an option buried in their settings to turn off the bluescreen and let you view the poorly-playing tape. If the 101 doesn't allow this, or the tape is unwatchable with bluescreen turned off, you're stuck. You simply will not be able to use your SR-V101, and will need to either accept the "lesser" playback quality from your more basic VCR or try to get a different brand deluxe VCR with TBC/DNR like Mitsubishi HS-HD2000U or Panasonic AG-1980.

Each brand of VCR has a range of tracking errors it can cope with. JVC tends to be a bit more restricted than others, compensated by JVC having the better overall TBC/DNR circuit. This is why many of us with many tapes to convert own at least two distinctly different brands of "deluxe" VCR: when one won't track a particular tape, the other usually will.

These days, finding a VCR with TBC/DNR that isn't worn out is difficult and expensive. Unless this specific tape is inordinately important to your collection, your best solution is probably to compromise and just accept the less-nice output of your second VCR (since at least it will play the tape). You could spend $200-400 buying another TBC/DNR vcr, only to discover it won't track this dodgy tape either. The recording may be so far off-spec, or may be so deteriorated, that only your "cheap" backup VCR can play it. Sometimes, we have to take what we can get and be happy we salvaged anything from some tapes with nasty issues.

[bigvlad12]

Thanks for the reply. I'll have to look around in the settings a little more.