Hitachi FX665 video issues
 

I've never seen a vcr so inconsistent. One time, it'll play in black and white, next time with a bar at top or bottom, then with static or distortion. Now if I eject the tape and retry about 4 or 5 times, it'll play clear and normal. I thought head cleaners made some difference on each retry but now it just seems to be as simple as just removing the tape and trying until it's right. What would cause this?

Hmm. Nobody? It seems to have worked itself out. I'm thinking it needed to be used. This thing is brand new and probably sat for many years.

Looks like the same symptom some older JVC VCRs would get when a small electrolytic capacitor on the head cylinder stator board would fail. It passed the pulse generated every rev of the head cylinder for the head switching circuit. Without that proper pulse the head switching point would come up in random positions in the picture instead. (normally visible about 6 horiz lines up from the bottom of the picture if you underscan your TV to see it).

Ah yeah. So far so good. Watched several movies and no issues