Vcr issue

Captain Jack

Captain Jack

Retired human
My Satellite Setup
See signature
My Location
North Somerset
After two years, my fancy Panny VCR seems to have given up the ghost. I haven't used it for about 6 months - being in the loft, but I am now getting very poor image and out of phase colours.

It seems to have been doing this intermittently in the past but a power cycle usually resolved. Now, nothing helps. I am assuming it's the knackered head but that's based on no knowledge at all. I tried cleaning this as per YouBoobs but no difference.


Screenshot 2019-02-09 11.44.24.webp

Any ideas?
 
I've had problems in the past with VCRs that weren't regularly used and the cause turned out to be tiny amounts of condensation on the head ..... try passing some warm air through it with a hairdryer.
 
If it has been in the loft you might find the warm/cold, dry/moist cycle has meant corrosion on the heads.
A fast cue/review (of an old tape) for five minutes can shift stubborn deposits (along with some of the natural oxides from the tape) - usually to a less important place but in reality a stripdown of the drum is often the only permanent fix.

Have you checked the drum close up with a magnifying glass ?
 
OK, no real idea what I did other than power cycle it a few times and gently clean the head again. Something obviously shifted as the picture is back to normal.

Screenshot 2019-02-09 13.40.44.webp
 
...... or it's simply dried out ....... doesn't take much moisture at all to affect the head.
 
Lazarus said:
I've had problems in the past with VCRs that weren't regularly used and the cause turned out to be tiny amounts of condensation on the head ..... try passing some warm air through it with a hairdryer.
Click to expand...
Different circumstances but effectively the same thing!

1984 and my first attempts at environmental temperature testing on one of the old HP data cartridge mechanisms (can't remember the exact type) - took it down to -40C and at the end of the low temp dwell, brought it back to around room temperature rather too quickly. Nett result was that the tape stuck to the rotating head due to condensation on the latter as that heated up. Didn't do that again!
 
Lazarus said:
...... or it's simply dried out ....... doesn't take much moisture at all to affect the head.
Click to expand...
It has been out of the loft for about a week before I turned it on so I would have thought it would all dry out in that time. Maybe opening the case somehow sped it up?

Also, I just realised that a speaker was on top of it - could magnetism interference cause this and it was somehow demagnetised?
 
The VCR drum is made of non ferrous material so I doubt it.

The energising of the heads (both power cycling and rotation) however might have cleared down any local hysteresis associated with storage.
 
Back
Top