mystery VHS problem...

[johnnyblast]

this is my frist post so if i posted this in wrong thread please go easy on me...

ok so the problem is i have this movie on a VHS (lets call it VHS_1) and towards the end of the movie the video goes bad/fuzzy/shattered but the audio still comes out. i thought it was the VHS so i put in different VHS and its the same problem... so after that i put in 4 or 5 different VHS and its the same... so i tried other VHS not "VHS_1" on a different VCR and it works fine so i put in VHS_1 into the VCR and it goes bad/fuzzy/shattered again. then i put other VHS and its the same problem again... now i have 2 VCR that doesnt work anymore.

i checked the tape and i dont see anything wrong with it. tape is clean
i dont get how VHS can damage the VCR

please help. thanks in advance!!

[samijubal]

All it takes to get video heads on a VCR dirty is a small spot of something on the tape. The drum the heads are mounted on spins at 1,800 RPM and the heads scan the tape from bottom to top. Your VHS 1 tape has something on it or it's just worn out. You can try a head cleaning tape but they don't do much. A chamois made for cleaning heads wet with alcohol is a lot better. Video heads are delicate, don't put any up/down force on them or they will break. Heads should be cleaned side to side the direction of tape travel.

[lgh529]

Unless you know what you are doing, don't try and clean the heads of your VCR with alcohol. It is extremely easy to break them.

Try a dry type head cleaner. Run it through about 5 times or so. If that doesn't fix it, take to a professional to clean. Do not use a wet type head cleaner.

[TBoneit]

Bottom line as others have said that tape is making the video heads dirty. Your audio heads can be a different set of heads depending on if it is HiFi audio or not.

As a generalization a VHS deck can have 2 to 6 video heads, a audio head, a erase head, and a control head. Minimum of 2 + 1 +1 +1 = 5 heads in a cheapo VHS recorder.

BTW don't keep putting tapes into those VHS until they have been cleaned or you can crud up good tapes.