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.

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.

Yep sounds like dirty clogged heads, or worn out heads.

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.

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.

I was using a tape from the late 1990s in fact it was the second Homeward Bound movie which is definitely late 1990s and I was also using the movie Rat Race which is from 2000 so its definitely not the tapes. And the video cables are fine.

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.

Whatever you do, ABSOLUTELY DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES USE A HEAD CLEANING TAPE.

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.)

Whatever you do, ABSOLUTELY DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES USE A HEAD CLEANING TAPE.

Why not? Isn't that what they're designed for? Either way I already attempted a head clean using q-tips and rubbing alcohol and then printer paper and rubbing alcohol (as to your suggestion) but no go, its still acting up and like I said in my previous post below post I'm replying to right now, I posted pictures of what its doing.

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.

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.

Interesting indeed, and speaking of power supplies, this VCR has a Linear Power Supply with a really large Power Transformer and 3 fuses or so backing it up, so I don't know if that makes any difference in determining what's going on with this machine or not, because when you mentioned Panasonics having this issue due to bad caps in the power supply it made me think back to the fact that most Panasonic/Quasar VCRs from this time period had switching power supplies which were usually transformerless which would be quite understandable why a switching power supply would have so many issues but a Linear Power supply with a 10# power transformer?

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.

Yes I did use the q-tips on the video head drum, my bad, but I made sure there wasn't any cotton strands caught on the heads, but I did go back over the video drum with the printer paper and alcohol treatment if that's any consolation, Although when I did that I got rubbing alcohol all over the place because my bottle was almost empty and I was basically tipping the bottle on its head to get the alcohol out and it spilled all over the floor.

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.

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.

OK, well at least we tried, maybe some of the other guys can chime in at some point. :scratch2:

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?

Looks like 2 things going on. I see the wavy color bands which indicate a bad open elecrolytic maybe in a B+ line feeding the head amp or other video circuits or on a motor power line, something like that. Also a horiz noise band across the middle of the pic looking like worn heads or tape back tension problems or both.

Looks like 2 things going on. I see the wavy color bands which indicate a bad open elecrolytic maybe in a B+ line feeding the head amp or other video circuits or on a motor power line, something like that. Also a horiz noise band across the middle of the pic looking like worn heads or tape back tension problems or both.

I take it that the problems aren't going to be easy to fix? If so should I just tell my friend at church that the VCR is just about had it and that he just needs to break down and buy another VCR?
Obviously he's gonna have to buy another older VCR (seeing as VCRs are no longer made and the VCRs made over the past 10 years aren't worth plunking money down on).

Cover the end sensor holes in the cassette basket with black tape and remove the room lights so you can put it in play with no tape. You might have to spin the supply reel (on left) by hand to keep it going. Do you see snow on the screen or just that color banded jibberish? If you see snow then your heads are probably bad. If you see the same color squiggles, are there grounding screws on the head amp board? You could try tightening them. I don't know if that model has a head relay but you could try tapping on it. Looks like a bad ground or open circuit in the head signal path.

Cover the end sensor holes in the cassette basket with black tape and remove the room lights so you can put it in play with no tape. You might have to spin the supply reel (on left) by hand to keep it going. Do you see snow on the screen or just that color banded jibberish? If you see snow then your heads are probably bad. If you see the same color squiggles, are there grounding screws on the head amp board? You could try tightening them. I don't know if that model has a head relay but you could try tapping on it. Looks like a bad ground or open circuit in the head signal path.

OK, I'll give that a shot. There's nothing to lose.