VCR has various picture quality and doesn't rewind, but only when stopped

[Jacob Macheca]

So some of my VHS play perfectly fine on my VCR, but others have picture that repeatedly goes to static and cuts out, then comes back and does it all over again. And, it only rewinds when the tape is playing, not when it stopped. All the other functions work fine, I can't seem to figure out what the issue is

[ohg...@gmail.com]

On Sunday, February 18, 2024 at 9:40:01 PM UTC-5, Jacob Macheca wrote:
> So some of my VHS play perfectly fine on my VCR, but others have picture that repeatedly goes to static and cuts out, then comes back and does it all over again. And, it only rewinds when the tape is playing, not when it stopped. All the other functions work fine, I can't seem to figure out what the issue is

Most of those types of complaints were from playing back tapes that were recorded at different speeds and played back on a multi head VCR - 4 head VCRs would often use one pair of heads for two speeds and the other head for one speed - so a single weak or dirty head would affect playback on some tapes but not all. You can try cleaning the heads (look up how to do it - the head drum is machined chrome but the heads are tiny fragile things that spin in the track between the upper and lower head drum).

A dirty upper or lower drum can also cause some stiction on some formulations of tape and not others or tapes with varying level of wear. Cleaning the sticky crud along the whole tape path including head drum, audio/control head, guides, brake follower, etc. will relieve stiction.

Other issues that can cause glitchy playback include misalignment of the fixed control head, dirty control head, worn control head, or failing electrical components in the control circuitry or capstan drive circuitry.

The rewind problem is mechanical. Depending on the exact transport you have, it probably uses a different drive for slack takeup during play and full rewind mode. Most likely the swing idler will need to be replaced/renewed at least.