I Need Imput...From Those In The Know.

[Herbie Husker]

I have a VHS tape that I was going to transfer to DVD. The tape in question is some 12 years old that I recorded from a NBA finals game, of Michal Jordan. When I first recorded the tape it was in great condition. And I still have and use the same VHS recorder to play and record my tapes.
This recorder plays all commercial tapes just fine, but my 12 year old tape of Jordan has white horizontal lines that run threw the picture with blur and lost of color.
The tape was new and unrecorded....Maxell HGX-Gold.
All of my personal recorded tapes do the same thing. Soooo...what happened and can this problem be cured?

[steve2713]

Have you tried the tapes on other VCRs yet? And do they look the same on other VCRs?

(Lil' Red says Hi)

[Herbie Husker]

Yes..and they play on a friends VCR very well.

[Capmaster]

Did you clean the heads including the helical video head?

[thecoalman]

Personally, I'd just get a new VCR unless the one you have is a high end model. There dirt cheap even for a decent one..... what's the model?

[Herbie Husker]

Yes I cleaned the head and No I will not buy a new one. This VHS plays the commercial tapes just fine.
Also I'm phasing out of VHS into DVD only.

[lgh529]

It sounds to me, if the heads are clean, that there may be an alignment problem between your heads and the tape. You could take it to a service guy to have it worked on, but you could buy a new one with what it would cost you.

If youj are phasing out of VHS, and it will play fine on your friends VCR, then use that to do the transfer.

This isn't rocket science.

[SatStorm]

Alignment problem of your VCR.
Or you get a new VCR, or you rent / borrow another VCR from a shop / friend Or you find a way to re-align your VCR. But if you do this, it might not work with your commercial tapes any more...
Tuff call if you don't care to do something drastic! (lie a new VCR)

[steve2713]

I agree with the suggestions given, your VCR simply has issues, just be happy it is the VCR and not the tape(s). It's your call where you go from here, but either way the VCR is obviously the issue you need to deal with here.

[the wordsmith]

Couldn't be anything as simple as a tracking error could it?

I'm sure you already tried that - so follow the advice of others and borrow you friend's VCR, and off to the races.