Is gray and black image head damage?
 

Hi,

one of my VCRs has this issue (see attachments).
I never saw this before in my (short analog) life.

It is obviously a hardware issue, but any idea if the head needs replacement? or could it be something else?

Thanks

Is this issue really unknown to other users around here ? :eek:

I need to know more details.
Start here: What tapes are being put in? Those work fine in other decks?

I have ruled out the possibility of a tape issue.

Tried several tapes. All these tapes work fine in other VCRs...

Then caps, heads.
This assume no transport issues. Did you open it, watch the tape ingest, wrap around, play?

>This assume no transport issues. Did you open it, watch the tape ingest, wrap around, play?
Yes, I opened and checked, I will give it another try and look closer, but I remember it even rewinded fine, which is why I ruled out transport and thought of head. I did not realize bad caps might give this, I expected bad caps to give some effect on color or at worst something glitchy, but not necessarily watchable like this (see attached)

On a side note, if this is French (PAL + SECAM compatible) model, and needs head replacement, can the head of a PAL only model be used? or does it have to be from another French device?

Have you tried connecting the VCR directly to a TV, Capture cards are not the right tool to troublshoot VCR problems.

That is actually a good point, I haven't thought about it... the only problem is I do not have a TV... so gotta have to rely on capture cards...

I will open it up later tomorrow and update the thread.

I opened it up, and the tape does really go in, wraps around, and the head spins.

I just noticed one interesting problem. the counter does not move when I click play. Even when I do FF, or FW, counter always on 00:00. I don't know if it is related to the problem or just a faulty counter unrelated to the issue.

The counter does not move unless the tape has recorded contents on it.

But the tape had content...

I have 2x the same VCR.

I inserted the tape in the first, press play, counter starts and video plays fine. Eject, insert in the 2nd, press play, counter does not move,but tape still wraps around and moves

weird...

Does it still play in the 1st?

What mode VCR is it?

Is there linear (normal) track audio (not HiFi) output? Is so does it sound off speed?

Any chance the VCR is not reading the control track?

> Does it still play in the 1st?
Yes, I did both tests yesterday back to back. So I am sure the tapes I try are fine, and play in the other one.

it is not the control track.

The audio works for few seconds when I insert a tape, then it stops. Eject, insert the same tape again, audio will play for a couple of seconds then it will stop.

In case you did not know, VCR can act as passthrough for Standard conversion (PAL-MESECAM-SECAM).

Example:

VCR 1 (out SECAM)---> vcr 2 (Pick SECAM OR PAL,etc) ---> capture card.

This works fine with my other device that works, the non-functional one, does not work in passthrough modes neither. I tried both Svideo and SCART output.

Since the video in this case does not come from a tape, so the head is not involved. VCR Head is okay.

Also recording from an external source (DVD player or another VCR on the faulty vcr works fine, the incoming signal will be recorded on the tape, but the counter still won't move (it is supposed to move while recording on this model, I am sure of this)

This means that it is an electronic issue (I guess?) with whatever board that has to treat the signal and relay it to the external world via svideo/scart, it is faulty and unable to output the signal properly. Either that, or some component before it in the chain, which may be affecting the counter too.

I am not sure if the counter not moving in recording nor in play is relevant to the fact any output coming from the VCR is messed up and gives gray/black image.