Panasonic VCR has snow in "play", picture OK in FF/ REW?

[Guest]

Hopefully someone can help me troubleshoot this problem.

I have a Panasonic PV-V4522 "omnivision" VCR, and a few days ago, I put an
old rental tape in it. It played for just a second, then the picture got
garbled and snowy. I figured it may be a bad spot on the tape, so I rewound
it. It rewound at a curiously slow speed, and still had massive snow on
playback. This tape also kept trying to eject from the standalone tape
rewinder, so I don't know if it was sticking or what.

Anyway, I tried a different tape, and it also showed snow. Tried yet
another, and more snow. If I manually adjust the tracking enough, you can
get a glimpse of a picture hidden in the snow.

So I tried a head cleaning cassette. The VCR didn't seem to like that.
Groaning and so forth. Problem remained. Got a newer "brush" style cleaner
tape, and it didn't help either.


So here are the symptoms: The sound is fine, but the picture is nothing but
white "static". However, if you fast forward or rewind while the tape is
playing, the image returns, color and all. If you pause the tape, the
picture returns (although in a garbled "pause" state). Here's the
interesting part: If you take the tape off "pause" (resume playing), it
plays just fine for about a second, then the picture goes back to being
white static.


Do you have any idea what might cause this sort of behavior?

Thanks!

 

[Sam Goldwasser]

Hopefully someone can help me troubleshoot this problem.

I have a Panasonic PV-V4522 "omnivision" VCR, and a few days ago, I put an
old rental tape in it. It played for just a second, then the picture got
garbled and snowy. I figured it may be a bad spot on the tape, so I rewound
it. It rewound at a curiously slow speed, and still had massive snow on
playback. This tape also kept trying to eject from the standalone tape
rewinder, so I don't know if it was sticking or what.

Anyway, I tried a different tape, and it also showed snow. Tried yet
another, and more snow. If I manually adjust the tracking enough, you can
get a glimpse of a picture hidden in the snow.

So I tried a head cleaning cassette. The VCR didn't seem to like that.
Groaning and so forth. Problem remained. Got a newer "brush" style cleaner
tape, and it didn't help either.


So here are the symptoms: The sound is fine, but the picture is nothing but
white "static". However, if you fast forward or rewind while the tape is
playing, the image returns, color and all. If you pause the tape, the
picture returns (although in a garbled "pause" state). Here's the
interesting part: If you take the tape off "pause" (resume playing), it
plays just fine for about a second, then the picture goes back to being
white static.

The heads are probably still dirty. Hopefully they were not damaged by
the bad tape. The reason that it works in FF/REW is that a different set
of heads are likely used for those modes.

You can try "playing" a brand new tape for awhlie. That may clean up
the heads.

Or, clean it manually using the proper technique, or have it cleaned
professionally.

--- sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/
Repair | Main Table of Contents: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/
+Lasers | Sam's Laser FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/lasersam.htm
| Mirror Sites: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/F_mirror.html

Important: Anything sent to the email address in the message header above is
ignored unless my full name AND either lasers or electronics is included in the
subject line. Or, you can contact me via the Feedback Form in the FAQs.

 

[lsmartino]

Jamie ha escrito:

[email protected] wrote:

take the cover off the top, and clean off the tracking wheels.

What ???

 

[Jamie]

Hopefully someone can help me troubleshoot this problem.

I have a Panasonic PV-V4522 "omnivision" VCR, and a few days ago, I put an
old rental tape in it. It played for just a second, then the picture got
garbled and snowy. I figured it may be a bad spot on the tape, so I rewound
it. It rewound at a curiously slow speed, and still had massive snow on
playback. This tape also kept trying to eject from the standalone tape
rewinder, so I don't know if it was sticking or what.

Anyway, I tried a different tape, and it also showed snow. Tried yet
another, and more snow. If I manually adjust the tracking enough, you can
get a glimpse of a picture hidden in the snow.

So I tried a head cleaning cassette. The VCR didn't seem to like that.
Groaning and so forth. Problem remained. Got a newer "brush" style cleaner
tape, and it didn't help either.


So here are the symptoms: The sound is fine, but the picture is nothing but
white "static". However, if you fast forward or rewind while the tape is
playing, the image returns, color and all. If you pause the tape, the
picture returns (although in a garbled "pause" state). Here's the
interesting part: If you take the tape off "pause" (resume playing), it
plays just fine for about a second, then the picture goes back to being
white static.


Do you have any idea what might cause this sort of behavior?

Thanks!

take the cover off the top, and clean off the tracking wheels.