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  1. Member
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    Hello! I have registered today to see if someone may have any idea on how to fix this issue, as I have seen that this topic has been talked before.

    I was capturing a ton of old VHS with recordings from TV and original ones. All of them contain a HiFi and a linear audio track, the original from the stores have Stereo Audio and the recordings Nicam (sometimes catalan stereo audio, sometimes catalan dub on left channel, original dub on right).

    For a reason I can't understand, my VCR started adding cracking noise to the HiFi track (but not to the linear one), so I tried cleaning the video head, the tracking (mostly what I got with that is getting only the linear sound to play). At the end, I haven't managed to get the HiFi track sound clean, so I bought another second hand VCR.

    This one is a SV-DVD440 Samsung DVD-VCR combo which cleary says "6 Head Hi-Fi Stereo". It was cheap because the DVD part is not working, which I don't care. The VHS part seems to work perfectly fine... except it NEVER reads the HiFi track at all.

    According to the instruction manual, there is a button to change between L, R, L+R or norm. When you press it, those indicators should appear on the digital screen... but anything happens when I press the button and no indicator appears on the screen. I suspect that for a reason I don't know, the HiFi track is NEVER detected.

    I first tried playing with the tracking with the buttons of the front... no results.
    Then I tried to clean the headers (following the right instructions). No results.
    Finally I tried moving the tracking with the two knobs at the left and right sides of the video header... I managed to change a lot the tracking according to the picture, but never ever got the HiFi track to sound at all. So I left them at the same position they were in the beginning.

    So, at this point, I don't know how to proceed. May this VCR have lost the hability to read that track? What could have caused this issue? Could it be false advertisement (which I suppose is not) and it never been able to do it?

    I have to specify that the tapes I am using to test have HiFi tracks (some Stereo, some dual audio) because I got that on the old VCR, and that the Nicam option on the options menu on the new VCR is activated ON.

    Thanks in advance!
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  2. Member
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    Originally Posted by Cesc View Post
    Hello! I have registered today to see if someone may have any idea on how to fix this issue, as I have seen that this topic has been talked before.

    I was capturing a ton of old VHS with recordings from TV and original ones. All of them contain a HiFi and a linear audio track, the original from the stores have Stereo Audio and the recordings Nicam (sometimes catalan stereo audio, sometimes catalan dub on left channel, original dub on right).

    For a reason I can't understand, my VCR started adding cracking noise to the HiFi track (but not to the linear one), so I tried cleaning the video head, the tracking (mostly what I got with that is getting only the linear sound to play). At the end, I haven't managed to get the HiFi track sound clean, so I bought another second hand VCR.

    This one is a SV-DVD440 Samsung DVD-VCR combo which cleary says "6 Head Hi-Fi Stereo". It was cheap because the DVD part is not working, which I don't care. The VHS part seems to work perfectly fine... except it NEVER reads the HiFi track at all.

    According to the instruction manual, there is a button to change between L, R, L+R or norm. When you press it, those indicators should appear on the digital screen... but anything happens when I press the button and no indicator appears on the screen. I suspect that for a reason I don't know, the HiFi track is NEVER detected.

    I first tried playing with the tracking with the buttons of the front... no results.
    Then I tried to clean the headers (following the right instructions). No results.
    Finally I tried moving the tracking with the two knobs at the left and right sides of the video header... I managed to change a lot the tracking according to the picture, but never ever got the HiFi track to sound at all. So I left them at the same position they were in the beginning.

    So, at this point, I don't know how to proceed. May this VCR have lost the hability to read that track? What could have caused this issue? Could it be false advertisement (which I suppose is not) and it never been able to do it?

    I have to specify that the tapes I am using to test have HiFi tracks (some Stereo, some dual audio) because I got that on the old VCR, and that the Nicam option on the options menu on the new VCR is activated ON.

    Thanks in advance!
    for the SV-DVD440 Samsung DVD-VCR combo
    see under selecting the audio output mode - https://www.manualslib.com/manual/146097/Samsung-Sv-Dvd440.html?page=13#manual
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  3. Member
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    Thanks for your answer, but as I said:

    According to the instruction manual, there is a button to change between L, R, L+R or norm. When you press it, those indicators should appear on the digital screen... but anything happens when I press the button and no indicator appears on the screen. I suspect that for a reason I don't know, the HiFi track is NEVER detected.
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  4. Member
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    Originally Posted by Cesc View Post
    Thanks for your answer, but as I said:

    According to the instruction manual, there is a button to change between L, R, L+R or norm. When you press it, those indicators should appear on the digital screen... but anything happens when I press the button and no indicator appears on the screen. I suspect that for a reason I don't know, the HiFi track is NEVER detected.
    do you have screen messages turned on ?? - https://www.manualslib.com/manual/146097/Samsung-Sv-Dvd440.html?page=10#manual
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    This settings if for information on the TV screen, not on the Display screen. But yes, I also tried to have that info on before and I only get the playing time and tv channel number, nothing more.
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  6. Capturing Memories dellsam34's Avatar
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    If you are getting crackling it's possible that one of the HiFi heads or both is chipped. But why two VCR's exhibited the same problem? That part I couldn't tell you.
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    No, both VCR don't have the same problem: the first VCR exhibited cracking sound when playing the HiFi track. The other directly doesn't play HiFi tracks at all from any cassette :/
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  8. Two different VCRs bought at different times = two separate issues.

    The most likely issue with your original "crackling" VCR is one of the store-bought commercial movie tapes you played is decayed or damaged enough that it very badly clogged the audio HiFi heads. A very deep sticky clog will prevent the HiFi sound from being played , forcing the VCR to linear-only mode and disabling the ability to choose different sound tracks with the VCR controls (as you're experiencing).

    Such severe clogs can be very difficult to clean completely, so it is strange to me that you are able to see a good picture but not play the HiFi. A bad tape would clog the video heads as much as the HiFi heads, leaving you with no picture or HiFi. While I suspect a bad clog, since you are seeing video the problem might be something else. If you've owned this VCR a long time, and esp if you haven't used it for a long time and just now began playing tapes in it again, it is possible either the HiFi audio circuit or part of the tracking circuit is failing. This cannot be economically repaired: if cleaning the video/HiFi heads doesn't restore the HiFi, you might need to replace this VCR.

    Some amount of occasional crackling noise is normal with almost all HiFi tapes played on most HiFi VCRs: the crackling is an unfortunate side effect of how the HiFi system actually works. You can minimize the crackling by carefully adjusting tracking for the best balance between good video picture and best HiFi sound, but with some tapes (esp store-bought movie tapes) the crackling is so severe that HiFi is unpleasant and you must switch to the linear sound track instead.

    ***********

    The most likely problem with your newly-bought Samsung is the entire unit is defective and broken. Samsung sold poor-quality combo decks in EU, they are notorious for defects and breakdowns. Since the DVD section is dead, I am not surprised the VCR section is also unstable. Since the Samsung came to you with the HiFi already dead, and you could not restore HiFi by cleaning the spinning heads, I think it more likely to be a failed circuit. If you can return the Samsung to the store or seller, try replacing it with another VCR.

    ***********

    If you encounter exactly the same problem a third time with another VCR, I would strongly suspect some of your tapes might be in very bad condition (esp any store-bought movie tapes). They may be too sticky to ever play properly, and will clog every VCR you load them in. Before playing any of your own tapes in a new VCR, be sure the one you choose has worked perfectly for you in the past (don't load an old tape you recently bought or found into a new VCR until you've checked the VCR functions well with a tape you know is perfect).
    Last edited by orsetto; 21st Jun 2021 at 12:12.
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  9. Member
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    Thanks for your complete answer. Even it obviously doesn't solve my problem with that no-more-HiFi player (which mostly seems to have no solution), at least it gives me a lot of useful information!

    So the story point by point is this:

    I owned for 20 years a NV-FJ623 Panasonic VCR with GREAT quality overall. It worked flawlessly for 20 years until it started not working that good. I used it to capture a lot of VHS. And I mean A LOT. I have captured like 300 hours of teletext information too. At the end, it started not working that well, and I received a batch of tapes which some of them have the cracking issues on HiFi track that you mentioned it could be a problem of the tapes themselves.

    So after that, I tried buying the Samsung HiFi DVD-VHS combo (on a second hand app). They already told me the DVD part was defective, which I didn't care, and it was not a bad deal, 18€, so I bought it but what I found is that although mostly everything is playing well on the VHS part, the HiFi tracks are not at all. This probably is because, as you said, Samsung sold not very good players and maybe some circuits are broken or whatever (because the video part is excellent). Anyway, I already discarded that player because no matter how much I clean it or try moving the tracking knobs, it never plays the HiFi Tracks.

    Yesterday I bought a NV-FJ613 Panasonic (second hand app too, 22€) which is almost identical in features and specifications to the one I had, it only misses the "inteligent timer" option which I couldn't care less. It was advertised as "only used a couple of times", so I was hoping "a couple" didn't mean more than one hundred. The HiFi tracks are playing again and the HiFi tracks which have cracking sounds still have them, so I can mostly see there that those tapes with cracking sounds (most of them recorded from TV) were probably recorded with a very old VCR which aligned those tracks a slight different than what my VCR or newer ones are expecting (those recordings are from 1985 to 1998).

    So, at the end, I finally managed to get the HiFi sound from a VCR. Too bad the Samsung VCR have lost this hability, but at least I can still use it to capture mono tapes or teletext signal.
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  10. Originally Posted by Cesc View Post
    So, at the end, I finally managed to get the HiFi sound from a VCR. Too bad the Samsung VCR have lost this hability, but at least I can still use it to capture mono tapes or teletext signal.
    Glad to hear you were able to find a good replacement VCR so quickly! You are very lucky to have second-hand shops in your town that carry such items. I'm especially happy to hear you were able to find another Panasonic VCR that has performance similar to your own older VCR that has worked well for you in the past.

    With the extra background info you just provided, I think now your original Panasonic may simply be wearing out after 20 years and 300 or so captures. Most Panasonic VCRs have much better than average ruggedness and durability, but eventually they do start to break down. Capturing multiple store-bought movies can sometimes push them over the edge into symptoms like unstable HiFi playback, etc.
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  11. Member
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    Yes, it is not second-hand shops but person-to-person second hand apps where you can but used stuff from other people. You can fine some VCR players there, and yes, I was very lucky to find a Panasonic VCR so similar to mine. In fact, they sold it to me cheaper because they were unable to find the remote, which is the same as the one I had, so I was lucky even with that!

    After all, I finally figured out that if a tape is not playing the HiFi track correctly even trying with the tracking, mostly it is because of the tape itself, because other tapes play almost perfectly.
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