Zenith Model VR 3220 4-Head Hi-Fi VCR having Video Issues
Hello everyone this past Sunday a friend of mine from church brought me a 1985 vintage Zenith 4-Head Hi-Fi VCR that he had bought brand new back in 1985 and he asked me if I could work on it for him and I said sure I'll take a look at it. Anyways it seems to have a bit of a video issue that looks similar to a tracking issue but its not and when you play a tape in it the video has a lot of lines and interference of some sort going across the screen when the movie is playing. The issue makes a professionally recorded commercial tape (like a Disney movie for instance) look as if it was recorded off of the TV using a really bad video feed or something.
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Did you clean the heads? Are you using a newer Tape to play back? Some mid eighties tapes are really worn. Post a few pictures. Make sure vcr to Tv cables are good.
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Yep sounds like dirty clogged heads, or worn out heads.
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I was going to say dirty heads as well. Just get some small pieces of copy paper and wet them with alcohol. Use one hand to lightly hold the paper to the drum, right on the heads, and then spin the drum. Watch the sludge come out. You may have to do it several times.
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I was thinking dirty heads as well but I wasn't sure because if it was that easy of a fix I could of just given the VCR back to my friend and told him he just needed to clean the heads on the VCR, but that's why I wanted a second opinion first.
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Whatever you do, ABSOLUTELY DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES USE A HEAD CLEANING TAPE.
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I cleaned the heads and they were actually spotless not a bit of tape crud to be found in the heads, and its still doing the same thing. I have some pictures posted below of what the VCR is doing (still shots as I am not sure how to post video in the replies like I saw in the thread concerning the one guy who was working on the Mitsubishi HS-U51 VCR.)
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Interesting. I've seen many a Panasonic made machine have a similar problem that was due to bad electrolytic caps in the power supply. But I've never seen a problem like this on a JVC. JVC machines of this era are usually tough as nails.
I used a head cleaning tape once back when I was just starting out in VCR's. The picture looked twice as bad as before. I've also heard many horror stories of heads being ruined by them. And I hope you didn't use Q-tips on the video heads, that will destroy them if they catch a strand of cotton. Q-tips are fine for the audio and erase heads. I only use copy paper on the video heads. It's the safest. |
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I've never worked on a JVC machine, so that's all the information I'm going to have. I've only worked on Panasonic's, Sharp's, Hitachi's, and NEC's.
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I too have a lot of experience working on Panasonics, Quasars, and some of the other brands you've mentioned. I actually had a deal going on for a while where the AV Department at the High School I went to would give me some of their old broken down VCRs and TVs that they were replacing with new equipment and I would fix them up and give them away or sell them, I've even gotten some nice LCD Projectors that way as well. In fact my Current LCD Projector I got that I use to watch movies on in my basement which is an old Hitachi unit from 1997 with its original remote and everything was obtained that way and it works like a charm I was able to get it a spare bulb when I got my disability payout several years ago. |
Ed in TX, Care to chime in now that I have a picture posted of what the VCR is doing?
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