This seems to be my best go-to place for advice, so I wonder if this has ever happened for anyone else. Background: My VCR is a 3- or 4-year-old Toshiba, which I bought because I’d liked the former Toshiba I had for about ten years. TV is a tried-and-true Mitsubitsi, if that matters, and it has been checked out by a good repair shop recently.
A couple years ago, when I tried to play back some shows I’d recorded on a new house-brand blank video, the picture jumped and vibrated big-time, and the sound was unintelligible for the first 1 & ½ hours or so on the tape; also, the displayed VCR numbers on the screen ‘stuck’ and would not move. When I’d stop the VCR and fast forward the tape, I could hear it moving, but the numbers wouldn’t change for some time, and things didn’t ‘get right’ until an hour or more into the tape.
I took the first batch of six tapes back to the store and they let me replace them with Polaroid blank tapes, which the same thing happened with. The next time I bought new tapes, I got Sony ones, and they’re doing it too. I bought a head-cleaning tape, even though it’s a self-cleaning VCR, and have used it quite a few times, in an effort to eliminate possible causes.
Anyway, once the tape gets about an hour and a half in, everything is fine, so I just set the counter at zero there, and consider the tapes 4-1/2-hour ones, instead of six. This is working okay, but I’m still curious, and a bit frustrated.
Anyone?
And thanks for considering, if you’ve read this far.
It sounds like the belts/pulleys/gears/etc. that drive the takeup reel are slipping or getting weak. This would match the symptom of being slow/sluggish when the takeup reel is empty and the supply reel is full, and acheiving a semblance of normal speed when the takeup reel gets enough mass to act as a flywheel and keep itself going, combined with less weight on the other side to make the pulling easier.
Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your perspective), with VCR prices the way they are today, you will probably not be able to find a repair shop willing to take it apart and fix it for anywhere close to the cost of buying a new VCR.
Complete WAG here:
It would seem to me that if the “take up” side wasn’t rotating fast enough, it might manifest itself in this problem. After an hour or hour and a half of tape has been deposited on the take up side, the diameter has changed enough so that the effective speed of the tape is fast enough for your VCR to deal with it. It might be rotating just out of spec, so the VCR can’t function until it is speeded up enough.
Offhand I’d say it was time to get a new VCR (they’re pretty cheap down at CostCo these days).
Also, I just notice while re-reading your OP that you are using your 2 hour tapes in 6 hour mode, which runs really s-l-o-w while recording and playing back. I don’t know if your tape transport would work any better in SP mode, but it might be worth a try. Running at normal speed instead of 1/3 speed might give the system enough oomph to run properly.
I know you won’t be able to record as much on a tape, but what you do record will be so much more watchable, quality-wise.
Hmmm. Not sure what I said to make you think I’m using two-hour tapes. They’re six-hour, and the mode when I program it to record says it’s SPD, whatever that means. Should it say something else? I didn’t know there even *were * 2-hour tapes, though it figures there would be, for professionals.
I forgot to say that nothing like this ever happens with rental movies, or even older tapes I recorded myself earlier. But your thoughts still could apply, I think.
Just for fun you might try recording at a different speed, it does have three speeds (SP, LP, SLP) doesn’t it? I’m curious if it does it on all the settings. If it’s still working for you the way you’re using it just keep doing what you’re doing till it breaks completely. Then again you could buy a tuner card for your computer and record them on your hard drive.
Upon Preview: What FBG said is pretty much what I’m trying to say.
Blank VHS tapes are usually marked T-120, meaning that in Standard Play (SP) mode they will record for 120 minutes (2 hours). Most VCR’s have three recording speeds (some only have 2) meaning that you can take a 2 hour tape and record 4 or 6 hours of content on it by running the tape through the machine at a slower speed.
The tradeoff is that the slower speed cannot reproduce pictures and sound with as much fidelity as the normal speed. All rental movies are recorded in SP mode, which is probably why they appear OK on your VCR.
From your symptoms, it sounds like the tape transport is having trouble getting started in the slow mode, but works OK at normal speed.
One flaw to the analyses presented thusfar- the picture quality in record and playback is a function of the main capstan and pressure roller. If the takeup roller fails to turn fast enough, you end up with a tape spill inside the machine, but the takeup roller only offers a tiny amount of positive tension to the tape after it leaves the capstan.
I have better than a hundred T120 tapes with 6 hours of movies on them, and high end tapes do make a big difference. Maxell, TDK, and Sony are my faves.
If it’s a two head machine-toss it. If it’s a four head stereo machine, a good professional cleaning and replacement of a few belts should run about $50.
Head cleaner tapes are kinda iffy-I’ve never found one that was really effective. I pop the hood and clean with Chemtronics video cleaner and foam swabs, but that’s not a project for those unfamiliar with VCR innards.
Okay, I knew I’d come to the right place–good suggestions all! My VCR, which by the way is in the other end of my house from the computer, has three speeds: SP, SPD, and AUTO. The manual, I noticed today, says SP is the normal speed, but I believe it set itself automatically at SPD when I first hooked it up, so I just left it that way and always got six hours on each tape until this problem started. I recorded a couple things on SP this evening, and it quit at two hours (and was full), and shut off the TV at the circuit breaker(!), I think when it stopped. (There was no discernible difference to me in picture quality.)
I do get the tapes that say T120 (6 hrs) on the box. I’ll try the AUTO speed next and see what happens. Then will probably keep on keeping on with the 4-1/2 hour bit until it breaks, as someone suggested, and buy another VCR.
Many thanks to all of you for your help. I’ll check back here the next few days, in case anyone wants to add anything.
Something else that may or may not be an issue. If your machine is “wearing out” and not running at the correct speed, the tapes you are recording now in “4 1/2 hour mode” will play OK on your machine, but if you buy a new VCR they may or may not play properly if the speed does not match the “standard” SPD speed.
Whatever you decide, I hope it works out OK for you.
