VHS Problem

[Anonymous4453]

VHS / DVD: LG rct689h

This has irritated me for a long time. When I play a VHS the picture is as it should be in about an hour. then it begins every 2-3 sec. getting noise in the image, and a hiss. The last I got sorted by removing hifi option but the gray noise is still there.

any help would be appreciated
thanks

[mazinz]

sounds like the tape itself might have actual dirt on it which would cause an issue like you described. Does it do this for every tape you play or just certain ones?

[Anonymous4453]

No just certain tapes. It's usually commercial tapes. Sometimes it occurs at the start and sometimes it's halfway through.

[mazinz]

Right now I am thinking of a few things. I suppose you do not have another vcr to try these out in and see if the said issues still occur? Trying to keep it simple and eliminate as many suspects as possible

For arguments sake do you have a vcr head cleaner tape you could use (or the more preferred method would be removing the vcr case and cleaning the vcr drum "head" yourself) and then see if the problem still occurs

Does it always happen in the same spots for the same tapes or would lets say one day "tape A" has this issue at the beginning and another time playing the beginning is fine but it then happens in the middle?

[Anonymous4453]

I have another vcr and here the problem doesn't occur. But unfortunately the picture quality is not as good and the Sound is in horrible mono.

The lg vcr is only about half A year old and this problem only happens when playing certain vhs tapes. Its not always at the same spot it occurs.

[Johnbhideo]

Sounds like the classic dirty heads problem, where the picture degrades in short bursts but seems fine most of the time, until one day the screen turns to 'snow'. It's best to clean the heads before you get to that stage, using a cleaning tape where you apply a small amount of liquid cleaning fluid directly onto the tape then play it for about 30 seconds. It worked well for me in the days of VHS. If that doesn't do the trick, you may have to open up the machine (after unplugging it from the mains) and clean the heads manually.

[Anonymous4453]

I've already cleaned the vcr. The grainy picture appears aften some time which eliminates the possibility of dirty vcr heads. Again the problem only occurs with some vhs tapes.

[hech54]

I have some VHS that hover near 3 hours in length where the Hi-Fi audio cuts in and out on two VCRs....still haven't figured out a remedy.

[Anonymous4453]

I did remove the horrible sound fuzz by turning off the HIFI-option on the vcr. If your vcr has that option try turning hifi off.

[mazinz]

Hey Kazoo3

Like some have suggested, still sounds like dirt getting onto the heads of your vcr. It is very possible the dirt is on your actual tapes. When this happens it then "deposits" the dirt back onto the head of your vcr.

I n my case I would then take out the tape and kind of blow on the tape to clean the troublesome spot. If this is what your issue is, rewinding or fast forwarding the tape in the machine does not get rid of the dirt, it only re-attaches it back to the tape in another spot (since most vcrs when you rewind or fast forward still have the tape going against the vcr head)

Although NEVER recommended I had one "dirty tape" and it kept doing the same issue you had. In the end I had to take the cover off my vcr and fast forward (though rewinding works too) the tape, while it was doing this I had a soft (clean- as in never used) paint brush (which I held in my hand) going in the same direction of the tape to "catch" as much dirt as possible. Once it was said and done, the tape was (luckily) ok and I no longer had the dirt appearing (meaning it played fine)

It could also be that this LG vcr is not the best and not that unforgiving. Perhaps your other vcr where it does not do this is more tolerant of tape condition and issues like this. If anything I would even say to get a better vcr off ebay

[hech54]

I did remove the horrible sound fuzz by turning off the HIFI-option on the vcr. If your vcr has that option try turning hifi off.

My Philips/JVC Clone VCR has 5 audio options. Besides Mono Left and Mono Right.....it has Hi-Fi, Normal (two channel mono) and Mix(a mix of Hi-Fi and Mono that adds this odd echo/reverb type of thing).
If the Hi-Fi tapes start to act up (by act up I mean constantly and annoyingly switch between Hi-Fi and Normal)....the only way to stop it is to capture in Normal.
My Panasonic VHS only plays/sees these tapes as "normal".
I've captured them as "Normal".....better than nothing until something better comes along.

[johns0]

I did remove the horrible sound fuzz by turning off the HIFI-option on the vcr. If your vcr has that option try turning hifi off.

My Philips/JVC Clone VCR has 5 audio options. Besides Mono Left and Mono Right.....it has Hi-Fi, Normal (two channel mono) and Mix(a mix of Hi-Fi and Mono that adds this odd echo/reverb type of thing).
If the Hi-Fi tapes start to act up (by act up I mean constantly and annoyingly switch between Hi-Fi and Normal)....the only way to stop it is to capture in Normal.
My Panasonic VHS only plays/sees these tapes as "normal".
I've captured them as "Normal".....better than nothing until something better comes along.

Hi-fi sound can be fixed if your vcr has a manual tracking mode and you adjust the tracking,sometimes if the tracking is off it causes hi-fi glitches.

[hech54]

I did remove the horrible sound fuzz by turning off the HIFI-option on the vcr. If your vcr has that option try turning hifi off.

My Philips/JVC Clone VCR has 5 audio options. Besides Mono Left and Mono Right.....it has Hi-Fi, Normal (two channel mono) and Mix(a mix of Hi-Fi and Mono that adds this odd echo/reverb type of thing).
If the Hi-Fi tapes start to act up (by act up I mean constantly and annoyingly switch between Hi-Fi and Normal)....the only way to stop it is to capture in Normal.
My Panasonic VHS only plays/sees these tapes as "normal".
I've captured them as "Normal".....better than nothing until something better comes along.

Hi-fi sound can be fixed if your vcr has a manual tracking mode and you adjust the tracking,sometimes if the tracking is off it causes hi-fi glitches.

I played with the tracking once to see if it did effect the audio. I had pretty good results with the audio but a crappy picture. I even thought of doing a separate audio capture. I've done that before for concert VHS tapes....but these tapes I'm having problems with are music video collection tapes. I don't actually need ALL of the videos and the ones I need (the rare ones) I just replace the audio with CD audio.....or even an MP3 source. Good info for the OP though.

[Anonymous4453]

Hey Kazoo3

Like some have suggested, still sounds like dirt getting onto the heads of your vcr. It is very possible the dirt is on your actual tapes. When this happens it then "deposits" the dirt back onto the head of your vcr.

I n my case I would then take out the tape and kind of blow on the tape to clean the troublesome spot. If this is what your issue is, rewinding or fast forwarding the tape in the machine does not get rid of the dirt, it only re-attaches it back to the tape in another spot (since most vcrs when you rewind or fast forward still have the tape going against the vcr head)

Although NEVER recommended I had one "dirty tape" and it kept doing the same issue you had. In the end I had to take the cover off my vcr and fast forward (though rewinding works too) the tape, while it was doing this I had a soft (clean- as in never used) paint brush (which I held in my hand) going in the same direction of the tape to "catch" as much dirt as possible. Once it was said and done, the tape was (luckily) ok and I no longer had the dirt appearing (meaning it played fine)

It could also be that this LG vcr is not the best and not that unforgiving. Perhaps your other vcr where it does not do this is more tolerant of tape condition and issues like this. If anything I would even say to get a better vcr off ebay

Actually the LG vcr is A vhs/dvd combo and is A pretty solid machine. The other vcr is A real crappy one but still doesn't has any troubles playing these "dirty" tapes. I dont understand how the crappy vcr Can bypass the dirt if it's on the actual tape.

[johns0]

It sounds more like a tracking issue with the other vcrs and the crappy vcr is within the range of the tapes tracking by luck.