Philips DVP3345V not playing tape?
 

Hi all! I'm a newbie to repairing VCRs and am taking on my first challenge. I have this Philips combo player that will load a tape, pull the tape, but won't play. The TV screen will show a frozen image of where the tape currently is. The VCR will then return the tape and shut off. I have added a video here. I tried a few things but before I make the problem worse I wanted to check with the experts!

Thank you

It seems the tape isn't being dragged around, looks like it may the capstan is not moving as it should. It could be a bad connection, bad belt, dirty mode switch or something else. The capstan is the roller black rubber thing (pinch roller) is pressed against, which that drags the tape around. It's driven directly by a motor that sits under it, which (on most VCR mechanisms) also drives the tape spools via a belt, so I guess that's where to start looking for issues.

It's a newer Funai mechanism, which were extremely cheaply made, including just soldering the wires going to the drum, AC head etc instead of being plugged into connectors, which make it extra annoying to work on. So, unless you really like tinkering with VCRs it may not be worth bothering with.