Is my VCR magnatised?

[jtm1090]

VCR always worked fine until I tried to play my fear & loathing in Vegas tape and then it went to snow, every other tape I play now is just snow... Got a new (used) VCR and it worked fine until I foolishly put the same fear and loathing tape in it and now...snow. Threw the tape out, but now are my VCR's magnetized, fixable, or done for?

[TBoneit]

That tape was very dirty and the heads are now dirty and need to be cleaned. You need to find a head cleaning kit.

[lordsmurf]

Magnetized? No.

[mazinz]

as one poster mentioned the tape itself has dirt on it and playing/fast forwarding/rewinding deposits the dirt from the tape onto your vcr's head and in addition may still be on the tape itself.

I encountered two recent problems of this from tapes people gave me to convert.

If you need to copy the tape, though probably not the best method but it does work:

take the lid off your vcr and put in the tape. Make sure it is rewound to the beginning. We are going to just fast forward the tape. The key is that you need one of those soft sponge (like the foam material you would use with an air condtioner to block out any space between the ac and window) paint brush. I am not sure of their proper name, but they are delicate and usually wedge shaped. Again not a brush, but like a foam sponge at the end

Here is what I did: Fast foward the tape in machine. While doing this have the brush so the tape hits up against it (just hold the brush) before the tape passes the video head. Doing this it essentially "cleans the tape of any deposits. Once done you can so the same process but with rewinding. THEN clean the vcr heads themselves. Now your tape should play fine and will not deposit any more dirt onto your machine

[lordsmurf]

Wouldn't a chamois tipped swab work safer than foam?

[redwudz]

Either would probably be better than a cotton Q tip where the fibers can get caught in the heads and transport mechanism. And never clean up and down on the heads, they are easily broken. I use denatured alcohol for a solvent on the head drum. Or use a head cleaning solution. Also clean the rubber rollers and the transport guides. Just my thoughts.

One guide that may be helpful: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/165

And this thread would probably be better in our Capturing Forum. Moving.

[mazinz]

Wouldn't a chamois tipped swab work safer than foam?

LS,
If i had any idea what that was I might agree with you, but I used what I had on hand and went with what I thought would be the "softest" route. It did work and did not scratch the tape. Will look into what you had suggested