# Cause of VHS Rewind Lines

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cause-of-vhs-rewind-lines/482755>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 24, 2009, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cause-of-vhs-rewind-lines/482755 "2009-01-24T03:29:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cause-of-vhs-rewind-lines/482755/1 "2009-01-24T03:29:19Z")

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Just out of idle curiosity: What actually causes the typical white bands of noise which appear when rewinding a VHS (and which have perhaps become iconic visual shorthand for rewinding in general)?

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**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cause-of-vhs-rewind-lines/482755/2 "2009-01-24T03:59:51Z")

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Basically, without additional circuitry to sync the heads with the tape during cue or review (which existed on some higher-end VCRs), the tape heads in the rotating video head assembly wind up cutting across the diagonally-written tracks on the tape during operations in which the tape is moving at a different speed than for standard playback; parts where a head crosses over a track will have some video information displayed, while parts where the head passes between tracks will have snowy noise.

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**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cause-of-vhs-rewind-lines/482755/3 "2009-01-24T05:18:18Z")

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Here’s a great article that illustrates exactly why this happens:

[An introduction to VCRs](http://gcwebtw.com/Knowhow/VCR/VCR.htm)

Scroll down to section F for a clear description, with tiny pictures, of the phenomenon that causes the lines.

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**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cause-of-vhs-rewind-lines/482755/4 "2009-01-24T05:26:46Z")

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One thing I noticed about the 3/4-inch tape decks I used to work with was that they didn’t have static lines in high-speed or freeze-frame, like the VHS and S-VHS machines did. Was that because they had fancier circuitry, or is it a difference in how video information is recorded on 3/4-inch tape? Or both?