VCR's keep going on fritz (1 Viewer)

[bruce townley]

I seem to replace my VCR's about once every 6 months. they all do the same thing--play fine until one day they will play NOTHING. I get a great deal of snow/static across the picture, and can barely make out the video. I have regular sound. It is as if the tracking is way out of wack. I have lost count on the number of VCR's I am replacing. Primarily the VCR is playing kid's tapes and rentals. Any suggestions?

 

[Alf S]

Bruce...we need more info.

What brand VCR's are we talking about? The dirt cheap "throw away" kind, or some upper end kind?

Also a lot of those cheap kids show tapes and overused rentals may be gumming up the machine from being used a lot, so you may to find a good liquid tape cleaner and run it through on a regular basis to keeps tapes running smoothly.

Just my .02 cents.

Alfer

 

[bruce townley]

I have tried pany, toshiba, sanyo, and now my sony is gone. Most have been the cheaper (69$) version, but last night I lost my sony ($250) which concerns me.

 

[Scott Kimball]

Renting, and renting kids tapes is fairly high risk...

I agree with Alf, I think your heads are probably getting clogged from playing dirty tapes. Have you tried cleaning the heads before replacing the VCRs?

I do very little renting and have had the same two vcrs for 5 and 8 years. Other than replacing belts on the older one, I've never had a problem.

I have to ask... with kids in the house... are you sure that fingers / foreign objects aren't being inserted into the VCR. One swipe of the head with a finger or other object can damage it. Keeping the VCR out of reach of the little ones may solve your problem...

-Scott