Off topic - Video head cleaning

[Rainman Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Rainman]

I'm in the process of converting old VHSC tapes to DVD and have a problem with either the tapes themselves or the video player.

All had been going smoothly until last night when I put one of the tapes in and the image started to jump around and then deteriorated so badly that it ended up a mass of grey, black and white horizontal lines (noise?).

Anyway I fast forwarded the tape and rewound it and went back to the same spot and the vision was perfect, but then it started to deteriorate again, this time further on in the tape. I went through the same process a few times and got the same result in different parts of the tape so I started to wonder if the video heads were dirty and may need a clean. I put another tape in and the same thing started to happen so called it quits for the night.

Sorry for my lack of technical description of the image, but can someone advise if this sounds like dirty heads in the video player? The fact that I was able to get clear vision were previoiusly there was none sounds like a problem with the video player, not the tapes.

What is the best way of cleaning old video player heads, I seem to remember hearing that the cleaning tapes you could buy werent all that flash?

[humphrey Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close humphrey]

What the hell's a "video player"?

[letsgoplaces Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close letsgoplaces]

Maybe the first thing to try would be to buy a head cleaning tape and put it through your machine. Then put in a tape (that doesn't matter if it gets damaged) to see if the problem still occurs. If there is any possibility that your vcr will chew up a tape and you risk losing the footage, maybe you could take the tapes to a place that does video tape to dvd conversions
A quick search and here is one place in Perth: http://www.waduplication.com.au/vide...FQrgbgoddTa1-A
At $45 a tape i have no idea if that is reasonable or not, but i'm sure with a bit of looking around....

[Bazza Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Bazza]

G'day Rainman,
I went down this track a few years ago. I converted many old VHS tapes to DVD and AVI files. A few of things I leaned ...
1. VHS tapes dont survive long, and humidity & dust is their greatest threats.
2. Before playing them, run them fast forward & rewind. Many times it's dirty-sticky tapes that cause problems.
3. Find youself a liquid head cleaner ( in a bottle ). The bottle cleaner works much better than the old tape head cleaner. Apply the cleaning liquid directly to the head/s with a cotton bud and wait until compleatly dry. The liquid cleaner is still available in better music and HI-FI shops.

If the VCR is working OK, the heads are clean, and your VHS tapes are in reasonable condition, your copies should come out OK. Remember, you are copying the current quality of the VHS tape, dont expect digital quality.
Hope this helps.
Bazza

[LeighW Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close LeighW]

Hi Rainman,

As written above, tapes don't last long, the lub dries out and the adhesive used to join the tape to the leader
can spread and contaminate the tape. If this then gets on the drum the picture will tear as you have described.

The safest method for you to clean the video heads is to buy a "wet" tape cleaner. Run this through the machine
and couple of times and see if this helps.

If not then the only option is to clean the heads and drum properly but I don't recommend you do this yourself
but if you wish to try then buy yourself a bottle of pure isopropyl from a chemist or TV replacement parts supplier.
You will also need to buy some chamois video head cleaning spatules again from a TV replacement parts supplier.

Under no circumstance use a cotton bud as the fibres from the cotton bud can get caught in the heads and break
them or contaminate them.

The procedure to clean the heads is to remove the cover, wet the chamois cleaner and carefully clean the drum
and heads by rubbing the cleaner gently parallel to the drum, don't rub up and down as you can break the heads.

You can stop the drum spinning by placing a finger carefully on top of the drum but don't contaminate
the drum face by touching it.

The video heads are the small squares you will see in the gap between the upper and lower drum sections.

To do the job properly you should also clean all the tape guides, and also the erase, audio & control heads which are located to the to the sides of the drum, the metalic square units.

Do not play a tape until all cleaned components a fully dry else the drum will grab the tape and wind it round the drum,
not nice!

Above all be gentle as it is easy to damage the heads and or upset the guide adjustments. Under no circumstance
turn any screw adjustment else you will be visitng a TV repairman!

Cheers
LeighW

[Rainman Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Rainman]

What the hell's a "video player"?

Yeah know what you mean, I had to dig our video player out from the back of the TV cabinet - perhaps thats the problem.

I think they should be renamed "time machines" now - some of the stuff I've seen on old tapes I've converted! Watched my brother in law walking around with a brick on his hip until I realised it was his mobile phone.