VCR damaged heads?
 

hello, i cleaned my vcr two days ago with soft brush and think i damaged the heads, when I play any cassette there is a big line across the screen, you can see the film through it but in black and white and sparkling, I did almost everything, I cleaned the heads with alcohol and print paper, adjusted the guides, I did manual tracking, the line is still on the screen, even if I turn the guides or do manual tracking with remote it is like permanently there, do you think the head is damaged, or worn out? I will also put a video here, thanks for the advice

https://files.fm/u/sx9kbch6u4

From the playback the heads look fine, When a head is broken the entire frame will have noise because each head reads an entire field and a field fills the entire frame albeit every other scan line. It looks like you have a transport alignment problem or the tape is damaged close to the edge.

I tried other VHS cassettes and it's still the same, how do I solve the alignment?

Here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyUY...bGlnbm1lbnQ%3D

That is such a horrible guide... :mad4:

... if you watch him. :unsure:

Listening to him is fine, but he keeps proving himself to a be a hamfisted brute. If you jam a screwdriver into the guide, and twist them around and around, you are 100% screwed. An analog scope will be required.

The proper method is tiny turns, mere mm at a time. Not that insane BS that he does.

Before assuming it's an alignment problem, make sure to clean the entire tape path, inspect for any broken gears, loose belts, unseated parts during playback, use a cassette that played fine before, listen for any unusual noises, re-aligning a faulty mechanism will make things worse, If you are not confident doing this, don't do it, this is a task that only qualified technicians with years of experience did it, don't assume it is paper clip hack that anyone can do.

now I try it and the line doesn't want to disappear, it doesn't even move, it's just still there in the same position

here is video

Which guide have you tweaked right or left ? (careful with the answer)

Just do 1/4 turns and use a good tape preferably retail movie or better an alignment tape (SP)($$$$)

alignment tapes:
https://www.oddbits.co.uk/product-pa...s-stereo-sound

https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/10050...yAdapt=glo2fra

That's a bit odd, I would have expected the area of noise to move with the adjustment more Is the tape itself creased or does it do that for all tapes?

Those are 100% worthless in the 2020s. Only when the tapes were new, in the 80s-00s, were those any good. Everything now will be used, or degraded in some way. It's like using a broken clock to set the time on your watch.

Waste of good money.

My guess is the first linked alignment tapes are just newly made recordings from a pattern generator or DVD that is just dubbed to a new VHS tape which isn't particularly useful since levels and special features probably aren't paid too much attention to.

Some of those aliexpress ones I could see being new old stock potentially, but I'd have to guess that the brands there just wanted to set chroma and luma on their branded VCRs and they probably didn't have features like manufactured dropouts where there's no information recorded at all on certain lines of video (not even a sync pulse) for purposes of testing dropout compensators or head switching points like some of the Sony ones that would have cost a few hundred dollars back in the 1990s.

For playback, as long as you aren't seeing any static and hifi audio isn't going in and out, most people will never need to change their actual tracking aside from the odd tape that may have been recorded on a misaligned machine, but even then, I wouldn't suggest messing with the tracking guides on a machine you care about since the guides can loosen from over-adjustment - or unless you're seeing a defect like the original poster has where that's happening with all tapes.

Anyhow, the fact that the band of noise doesn't really move with tracking adjustment suggests that it could be on the tape that way physically, like that section got partially erased by a small magnet nearby just in that band, or due to a physical crease in the tape in that area. That all becomes less likely though if all tapes have the issue in that area of the screen.

I only have two cassettes but they were both OK before I cleaned the player, so is it possible that there is some dirt that ruined them? the tapes look normal even when they are playing and I look inside

it makes some noises but i think that's normal right? I am attaching a video of what it looks like when the tape is playing

https://files.fm/u/jaate47bb2

Take out that auto cleaning sponge and do a thorough cleaning again, Every time you eject and insert a tape the head gets a dose of dirt from that sponge. You may have messed up the VCR alignment for no reason, This why I emphasized on making sure there is nothing wrong with the tape path first before messing up the factory alignment.

I know, but this already happened after I cleaned the player with that brush, I didn't touch the alignment at all. but today I remembered that when I brought the player, some chips were stuck in it (probably from some children) so I took it and shook it to get it out, maybe that's why it's not aligned, that it came loose ?...

Cleaning the video heads you must be absolutely careful! Things like a Q Tip can snap off the delicate heads. My preferred method when transferring questionable tapes that often made a mess and required multiple cleanings during the transfer was to soak A4 paper in isopropyl alcohol, gently press it against the head drum and rotate it slowly making sure the heads did not catch in the edges of the paper. GENTLE pressure is essential and do not do any up or down force over the head chips on the drum, let the drums rotation do that for you. A Q tip can be used for the erase, audio and control heads and also clean the other parts of the tape path.

exactly as you say, I did it too with a4 paper