Panasonic NV-HS 800 with 'comet tails' (see video)
 

Hi

I'm a new member here but I have been reading various threads here over the last couple of weeks. I'm in Europe, I have a four-digit VHS collection I'm hoping to digitise over the next couple of years, and I have around ten VHS machines to play around with.

The problem I'd like to present here is displayed by a Panasonic NV-HS 800 (very much like the better known NV-HS 1000, which I also have, but with less editing features). I bought one a couple of weeks ago. At first it seemed fine but when a tape didn't track properly I decided to give the machine a clean. I used cotton swabs for the pinch roller etc. and a piece of paper soaked in alcohol for the head drum. (As advised, I didn't move the paper up and down and only applied gentle pressure.)

Tracking seems to be fine now, but an intermittent problem has arisen - small white dots that 'fly' over the image. They can be absent for as much as an hour or so, then come back for a few minutes etc. Not something you want when copying tapes.

I have uploaded a short video. A few comet tails can be seen from around 27 seconds onwards.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSiD...ature=youtu.be (I tried embedding but can't manage to do it properly, I'm sorry...)

Of course, I fear I somehow managed to damage the heads, it's the obvious conclusion.

Before anyone asks, I've cross-tested this by using different tapes, playback machines, connections,... it's definitely the VCR that causes the problem. I only paid €5 (around $6) for it, so if it's broken there's no great loss...

I'd be most grateful if someone with more technical knowledge than myself could suggest/confirm the cause of this problem.

This sounds like magnetic dropouts, or "comets", on the image. This is usually a tape issue, even it it appears only on certain VCRs. Or a combination of the tape and the VCR causing it -- how they interact. It's rarely the VCR by itself, though not impossible. Such an issue is probably not head damage, though magnetization of the heads has been hypothesized in the past.

That was an amazing deal for the VCR itself. :eek:

This was an unanswered question or unresolved issue found during a site audit. It's hard to have an FAQ when the answers are missing, or final outcomes are unknown. At The Digital FAQ support forum, questions are never intentionally ignored, and may have been missed due to a forum glitch or human error. More details on the audit. (In some cases, threads have been edited/updated with newer information.)

Thanks for that. :-) The magnetised head hypothesis was also suggested some time ago in reaction to the Youtube video I linked to. Out of the two possibilities you suggest I think that may be the most likely one, as I have about a dozen different recorders and some cross-testing definitely shows the issue is with the recorder rather than the tapes.

I'm hoping to get a bit more room soon, which would give me the necessary space to take a closer look at the recorders themselves. A carbon contact on top of the head drum has been suggested as the place most likely for static to build up...

That was me that commented on your YT clip:wink2:

But these VCR's are very reliable except for the issue with the carbon brush and also head wear. I have seen them with heads worn almost to the point of failure and this can cause picture problems but usually the HiFi audio goes first as those heads are softer material. How is the HiFi - stable?