You learn something new, I never knew you could adjust those guides in a VCR, I'm pretty sure we threw out one machine with similar picture problems. It makes me wonder how many VCRs where thrown out when they only needed this simple adjustment.
Guides can be adjusted - but preferably by a qualified service technician with years of experience. They are not meant to be user-serviceable and should only need a tweak ONCE during the life of the VCR.
@@RoughJustice2k18 I have a Panasonic NV-SD400 VCR and every time I use it I have to take the screwdriver in case the signal gets bad because the signal does actually get bad very often. Finding a technician for VCRs in Peru is extremely rare, so what I do is follow this guy's videos instead :P
Saved my life! Lost hours last night on a NV-FJ615 trying to adjust after a "head and guide rollers' arms transplant" and mode switch cleaning, which, by the way, I was able to do only because of your videos. I have looked into the internet for a video guide on how to do these procedures on this model and, after following your videos, I have discovered a tear down you've done on a PV-9450 that furtunately has the same mechanical schematics. Thank you sooo much, and congratulations on this beautiful and uncomparable help you give to us lovers of the VCRs! Best wishes all the way from Brazil!
I've been doing VHS transfer services as a side business, and recently we just got a tape that was bouncing all around. You can tell because the on-screen graphics like the TV logo kept jumping and the picture was generally unstable, I did this adjustment. This easy fix did the trick! Thank you so much.
Sounds like the VCR that recorded it was out of alignment; it can happen over time as the parts begin to wear out. Thing is, often the misaligned VCR will play back its own recordings perfectly, so whoever recorded it would have been none the wiser!
Thanks, this helped me get a VCR working again. I hooked it up to an old (analog) Commodore 1702 monitor and you're right, it was much easier. The one tricky thing was that I had to use a lot of pressure to turn the guide, and I didn't realize at first that pressure was also affecting the guide. So I found I needed to do e.g. a 1/4 turn, take the screwdriver off the guide and observe, then turn again, etc.
Thanks so much! This really helped me out! I'm a younger guy in my 20s, played many a tape before but never had the privilege of repairing one until now! I'm assuming thats who this vid is for and it made it easy for me without making me feel stupid. Thanks again, man!
These are the things now that I know of that you have to do to maintain a VCR. If there are more, please tell. 1. Clean video heads 2. Clean audio heads 3. Clean rollers 4. Clean the state switch contacts 5. Turn the tracking guides
Back in the day Video recorders were definitely one of the most complex consumer products ever made, both mechanically & electronically. That was definitely alot easier to align on the CRT set. I've recently heard that the old CRT TVs are becoming increasingly popular with gamers, as they display some games (particularly retro & vintage ones) alot better than LED monitors.
@@12voltvids Did they use the same dot pitch on the smaller sets? I think the larger ones were what 0.31? The trinitron was 0.25 but the phosphors are all in line. I still have a working NEC EGA monitor which has strong color and good color balance.
Ha! I've never had a scope, but that was how I touched up alignment on my own VCRs. Use a good pre-recorded tape, left guide cleans up the top of the picture, right guide cleans up the bottom. It just made sense, looking at the direction the drum rotates and how the signal is recorded on the tape.
After the course adjustment as it was done here by 12voltvids, you can also some further fine adjustment with a TV if your VCR has a manual tracking control: You turn the tracking in one direction until a stripe comes into the picture, and then adjust the guides for it to disappear. The you can turn the tracking some more in that direction and repeat. The optimum fine adjustment is reached when the noise comes in on the whole picture at once when you turning the tracking left or right.
I know this is an older video, but I just used this video to do the alignment on a Panasonic HiFi VCR I found at the thrift store. Its really simple to do, and its amazing how little you actually have to adjust.
Your thoughts on my method dave For a rough setup i would adjust the left adjustment while watching the bottom edge of the tape on the reference shelf with a dim torch, adjust untill the reflection on the bottom of the tape just distorts, then adust up untill it looks perfect. The do the right adjustment the same way. Repeat again and it will be close. Using a tv with the height down showed the head switching at the bottom of the screen, that could be optimised with slight adjustments.
FindLiberty, oow picky picky :-D if the path was dirty then i would, the reference shelf can get really nasty if it's not been cleaned in a long time. People expect machines to work without maintenance.
@@FindLiberty This wasn't a how to clean your VCR video. This was an alignment video. The machine was clean as I cleaned it when I fixed it a few weeks ago. This was a staged repair. I messed up the alignment for the video.
Exactly what I did, align the path by literally having a look around the head drum. If the tape runs in alignment to the drum ridge, it's pretty close to the optimum setting.
Thank You Dave🙏for showing how to get tape trackinh on vcr checked to correct tape skipping, rolling etc by adjusting P2 & P3 Guides. Please advise whst is the special tool you use to ajdust the P2 & P3... also show the critical part of this tool. I am David from Singapore.... 👍
Thank you so much! I just got a VCR and the image was awful! I just did the alignment and it works great! Mine is a little selective, only the clean cassettes are working fine! The dirty ones (I mean dust) are bad :/ need the head cleaner tape
Can you show us how you do this on a Betamax? Many of my Japanese sourced tapes will not track. I get scratchy sound from the HiFi as the tracking adjustment is ineffective. On a side note, since my AG-1980 Panasonic is a dud, what do you recommend as excellent SVHS/DVHS decks to acquire? Just got 600 VHS tapes in c. 1994 - 2005 and I want to transfer many of them with the best decks available. Ditto with Betas. What is your recommend for the best Beta players ever made? Many people seem to be buying restored SL-HF2100 units which were the last ones made. But there must be others...
I just did this on a Betamax machine without a scope. It was a pain in the butt to get it perfect but I did it, after spending hours trying tapes recorded on many different machines. If you have a scope, it's better to look at the hi-fi audio waveform as the hi-fi audio tracks are much narrower than the video tracks. I think he demonstrated Betamax tape path alignment in his SL-5200 repair video. As for the best Betamax machines, the SL-HF1000 is the best for NTSC and the SL-HF950 is the best for PAL/SECAM.
What type of screwdriver? I have a CRT and it looks like this VCR's heads are out of alignment, I keep turning the things with a flat-tip screwdriver but it doesn't do anything. What way should I turn
Thank Dave for such good tutorial on videos. Please advise what is the tool you use to adjust the P2 & P3 Guide, because a normal screw-driver Cannot sit across the slot which has a center post. Thanks.11/1/21
They make it so you have to use a special "tape guide adjust tool" so that peasants like us can't fix things. I use a pair of (cough, cough) TOENAIL SCISSORS that has pointy tips that 'grab' two of the slots on either end of the center post. Then I put it all back together, watch Apollo 13, and cut my toenails.
Thanks. I got my Sony 757 back running after watching some of your videos. Question for you: I have a rolling disturbance going over the image about every 10 sec. Going from bottom to top, before it starts at bottom again. Any suggestions what could cause this?
This video is just what I needed after taking apart and cleaning a Sony side-by-side DVD/VCR combo unit! I thought it was possibly a bad head, but after remembering taking off these guides to lubricate the rollers, this has got to be the issue! Thanks! Also, do you have another video explaining the scope method in-depth? Would be interested to know more about that one!
Nice... but this adjustment vid made me curious about two additional things. What does a mis-aligned head do to the Hifi audio signal? I also wonder if a non-scope adjustment could be more accurate using a CRT monitor with underscan and H/V delay...
Underscan will certainly let you see the entire video signal, and pulse cross will let you see the sync area. Vertical delay is really you are interested in, so you can see the edge of the envelope.. As to hifi, it is recorded by a separate set of heads, which record at a different azimuth, and because they are narrow heads they will be more sensitive to misalignment. A slight misalignment and the sound will crackle. A little more and the sound will mute and switch to linear sound, so yes you can fine tune to get good audio. The preferred test point for scope is the audio FM heads.
@@12voltvids On my Sony monitor, I cannot do just vertical delay. It has an H/V delay button that does the same thing as Pulse Cross on a JVC monitor. Good to know the best test point for an oscilloscope probe when adjusting heads. I have several thrift store VCRs, and at least one needs adjustment. Thanks for the vid.
Dirty heads is what you are talking about, this is a more advanced issue where the tape path has gone out of whack. VCR's that have been dropped, banged around, or heavily used might have this more commonly than your average VCR.
That's how I aligned a Betamax that used to show two noise lines in playback at the bottom of the screen. I then made a test recording using the aligned machine to be sure it played fine on all of the rest of my Beta VCRs.
Excellent video. This may help fix my video issue. I thought my vcr was just dirty but every tape I play has flickering on the lower half of the screen. I will check this and see what i can do.
Great hands on video. Thanks for posting. Would you know how to adjust the drum centre screw. I moved it but can't get it back to where it should be. Any help would be great.
Hello, very interesting video. If I have a tape that has snow on it where I can't see the video but then the other tapes have a clear screen. Is that a problem with the tape or a problem with the VCR??
Another problem with digital monitors (and even some of the later CRT TVs) is that they can mute the picture if the sync signal is bad. The screen might go blue, or black out with a 'no signal' message and that's exactly what you don't want when trying to find the sweet spot adjusting the VCR!
This is because HDTV's are not designed or capable of accepting an analog RF signal that low. They will wait for the signal to improve to re-sync, which can cause delays of 10-30 seconds.
I'm trying to do this on my Sony VCR but the stupid thing keeps blanking the picture for no reason. I guess it's so wack it decides to blank the screen. Plays for two seconds with OK audio but then blanks. 'm wondering if there is a some kind of switch in the service manual that disables the blanking, so you adjust the picture for servicing.
silly question does multi head drum have only one correct path for the tape , or is that you just need to hit any video stripe on the whole length and that could shift depenting on which one you hit, and there would be like 3-6 video stripes you could align to depending on how much the mechanism alows and how many heads the drum has? i am thinking of restoring two very strange very unique video recorders from the 70's and i kind of wondered about how much can the tape path be degraded on almost 50 years old equipment that never was really in use (but is quirky as heck and all transistorised no ic's)
I have this very machine and I'm hoping to fix its video issues by this video since I am having similar issues with mine. I got it by finding it left on counter in the mail room of my building..At first it played beautifully for a long while then I used it again and started having picture troubles. If only I could find the remote that went with it.. Can you tell me the type of screwdriver you are using? These machines are so over priced when you look for one. I just love the look of it and even after all these years it still looks so modern!!
Do you need a VCR alignment tape to do this? I have a Panasonic DMR-EZ48V that I am trying to realign after one tape messed everything up. Also, do you have a replacement head cleaning liquid you recommend since freon isn't widely available anymore?
Wow! Learned a lot. I have an old Sony CRT and family have a couple of VCRs either tracking issues. An aunt was sadden yesterday, she has a dual deck VCR, one of deck no longer plays a video picture. Will try out the tuning on the CRT. Thank you for sharing your knowledge!
This is very interesting. Thank you. I recently borrowed my sister's old VHS player she had stashed in a cupboard and the picture was great for a couple of tapes being played, but suddenly the picture was awful. I tried to adjust the tracking and that improved the picture slightly, but now watching this I see that for some reason the alignment had changed. I wonder why it suddenly went wrong like that?
Thanks, is there a way to remove the head and still be able to play the tape without image. I'm working on a project and need to put a similar tape (not video/audio tape) in VHS spools and just play, FF, RR.
I sometimes have to de-align one of my vcr to properly read a tape that was home recorded on a deck that had bad azimuth around the video drum. The only thing i haven't made myself is a proper screwdriver to turn those post without falling aside. when i calibrate a deck for perfect alignment, i use a mix combination of a few factory recorded SP tapes and i have a few original LP movies as well,, i try to find the perfect middle position of the screw for that scope of tapes so i know it will be fairly okay on most tapes and will record about right in the middle of all those factory calibration.
I have several LG VCRs of the same model, that play some tapes very well as is, but other tapes have a consistent similar problem. That is to say, if the tape works, it works on any of the LG VCRs. Problem tapes are a problem on all of them. But they will play without issue in an RCA VCR: if I set the tracking so that there is no static, the picture jumps up and down. If I set the tracking so that the movement is stable, there is noticeable static in the bottom half of the picture. Any suggestions for what I can do? Is this something adjusting the guides would likely fix? Thank you for any advice you can offer.
Wow he's tha man with tha tools 😁👏👏👏👏👍🤘 clearly he has a lot of experience i will love to have his knowledge i will take anything from the streets(if they are worth to be fixed)amd give them a new life but anyway hat down 👍👏👏👏
Great video, thanks. 2 questions; I have distortion/lines/black screen appearing on a tape but only once every 3 seconds or so. The Image & sound between those moments is perfect. I've tweaked the guide heads, but it doesn't make any difference to the 'every 3 seconds' issue (it just makes the good bits worse!). Would you suggest this is corrupted tape, that cannot be fixed? Also, when I remove my cover to the VCR player (Goodmans VP2500), there must be some optical sensor, as the tape just ejects as soon as inserted. I have to half open the cover manually to keep the area quite dark so I can adjust while playing. Ay idea what that sensor might look like?
Could be a dirty control track head. Of a bad capstan motor if it unlocks every 3 seconds. Is the tape recorded in ep? Could also be the supply reel sticking once every rotation or the tape has a damaged control track if its just one tape. The tape end sensors are used on some machines to start the loading cycle and some machines they don't shield them so light shining in the top can trigger them. They are located on either side of the cassette basket right at the front if the tape.
@@12voltvids The tape is recorded in SP. Additionally (and this is an important factor, I should have mentioned in the first place) As soon as the next piece of footage on this tape begins (about 15 mins from the start of the tape) everything is fine, and there are no issues. This leads me to think it more related to the tape, than the mechanism running it.
You answered your own question. Has the tape been stored say on top of s speaker or another magnetic source such as the top or next to a crt TV over the years? If so the magnetic field from the degause coil, or magnetic field from speakers may have damaged the control track on a portion of the tape. Open the unit and watch the reels turn. If the distortion happens at exactly the same place as the reel is rotating then you have solved your mystery. I wrecked one of my beta test tapes because it was set on that blue service mat that had magnets in it. I say had because I ripped them out.
Nice tutorial. I have a strange problem that may be related to tracking. My VCR plays back pre-recorded tapes fine but I have to use the manual tracking feature when I play back recordings made on this machine. After watching your video I opened it up and spent hours on adjusting the tape guides up and down with no luck. Every time I got a good picture of the latest recording the tracking would be off on the next. I reached the limits in both the upper position and the lowest so I couldn't get a stable picture at all. I gave up and adjusted the tape guides back to the original positions. Do playback and recording use different heads? And if yes, could it be that the playback and recording heads are not aligned making it impossible to get a good tracking?
Yes a good video, but I wonder if you should finish the final tweaks with a digital TV when lacking a scope. Seems to me that the digital TV being less tolerant could be used for those final tweaks after getting close with the analog TV. Just wondering ... thanks again.
Great video, I have a Samsung VHS player and Im trying to archive my parents old camcorder tapes, which are on VHS; but the player it has recently developed an issue. The audio is perfect but the picture flickers and produces a horizonal lines across screen, and sometimes I can see 'film frames' (not sure the technical word). I have tried to clean the tape path (the head spool (all 6 heads seem to be clean), the erase head, capstan, pinch roller , I have also removed the tape cleaner, but the flicker persists), and ideas? DO you think I should try and adjust the P2 and P3 guides as you have suggested here? And if so is there a risk of unscrewing the guides completely?Many thanks.
I’m restoring my VHS tapes and some of the older ones have this issue where the horizontal lines are all over the video. Newer VHS look and play fine without any issues. Does this mean the problem is with the VHS tapes rather than the player?
Hi Dace, quick question. I recently acquired an old 1980s Samsung VCR, bought purely because it was the model I first bought with my own money. Predictably, no bueno, and I initially looked back at your videos such as this one. However I've discovered that in my case the machine is spinning the head far too fast - when I force it to slow down a good picture resolves. I think this would be down to the control signal not getting to the logic that controls the head motor (I think the head speed goes out of control on some machines when there's no recording on the tape?), or a failure of the speed controller itself - are you aware of any common causes of this issue? The audio head seems to be reasonably well aligned, and sadly there doesn't appear to be a service manual for this one. Thanks for any advice.
Thanks for the tutorial, worked great on my CRT television but when I hook it up to my Samsung Plasma TV I still have lines on the screen. Any ideas? T. I. A.
hey, i have this borrowed vhs tape from a cousin, and the tape reels look weird, the tape isnt aligned with the reel, lets put like this, it looks like a vinyl, would that cause a bad picture? if so would just playing the tape fix it?
i've got a precious tape that seems to have been dubbed with a VCR with it's own unique alignment. It plays poorly on the handful of VCR's I have and they don't seem to have a tracking adjustment. I need to digitize this tape but don't know of a service that can handle manual tracking and timing.
I've been trying to digitize some old VHS tapes and this was helpful in aligning my old VCR. With known good tapes i've got the picture perfect. What i can't seem to pin down is why with some tapes (all of them recorded family tapes) they're jumpy, fuzzy, and in black and white. None of them were recorded with this VCR, not even the ones i know are good tapes. Tested the picture with a home video that comes in clean and with a good Disney VHS. Perfect. Others? Not so much. Is this purely tape degradation? Some of them are copies made from camcorder tapes as well. I'm trying to figure out if it's the VCR or the tapes.
Tapes definitely do deteriorate especially if they are second or third generation which really affects the color quality. I'm just right now digitizing a bunch of tapes for a client and some of them are second or third generation but were recorded with home video cameras from the early 80s and the color off some of these cameras was well let's put it this way they're closer to black and white then color the camera is himself for just horrendous back then. But yes tapes do deteriorate it's usually the color that starts to go first because the luminance are black and white information is recorded as an FM signal where they frequency is modulated to represent the brightness the chroma which is the color signal is amplitude modulated as the tape deteriorates the signal level reduces and just like with AM radio a station that's distant will fade out and be weak or as an FM signal from an FM station remains loud and clear until it gets to the point where you can't detect it at all and then it just goes right away the noise
I've turned mine so many times I don't know where the original start point is. Is it like a screw that can only go so many turns one way or another? Or is it just fine adjustment? At the start I was close to a perfect picture but too many turns later I have no idea what I've done
I watch your videos regularly and I have learned a lot of things. What characteristics should an oscilloscope have in order to be able to successfully perform a tape path alignment? Lots of greetings from Serbia
Right. If the lock screws come loose the guides can and do shift. Then playback has lines in pix and tracking control won't fix it. So then you need to do an alignment.
@@12voltvids I see in your most videos you use old analog scope to adjust the tape pass guides , I don't see like these scopes around anymore, can use digital scope for this?
@@dmitripetrov5536 Not on the POS digital scope I have. They are junk unless you pay huge dollars for them. Find a used analog scope. The one I have I got for a song.
Hi, old post i know. But i have 2 JVC HR-D910EH and i can adjust these screws all i like, but they don't update live while i turn P1 and P3, i turn some, eject the tape and put it back in and hopefully it's better. Whats up with that? 🤔
I need help! I'm trying to follow along but I don't have a clue how to even disassemble the TV I have to do this. The picture is full of static and flickers
Hi ! is there any way to create the distortion effect at 03:37 without opening the cover of the vhs player and without damaging the device? I love that distortion effect, I would appreciate your answer 🙂
Hey 12voltsvids My VCR picture is flickering going in and out on my Tapes during playback lose picture every 5 seconds. I know I want to put new Drive Belts on the VCR and Grease and Lube the Mechanism can't do it by myself but how do I stop this? It was fine last night. The picture is Sharp so No Worn Heads?
Excellent! I have two VCR's that play some videoes perfectly, and some of them they are stuck in the same pattern like you had here. I think it's weird that some does work and some doesn't, but I really hope this will solve the problem for the tapes that don't work now :)
@@12voltvids Aha. Some of them are VHS-C tapes, put into an adapter. Got 10 tapes from a customer, and half of them played fine, while half of them were jumping/rolling like in your video :)
@@OuglandMedia cameras were especially bad at going out of alignment because people dropped cameras and knocked something out of alignment or broke something internal. Some can be recovered others not.
@@12voltvids That sounds right. Some of the tapes works fine in the original camera they were filmed in, while playing them in a standalone players can cause problems. I have so much to learn, so I'm happy I found you channel :)
I flipped the head drum connections and now it’s giving me colors now and some better picture but lots of tracking all over the screen and picture is rolling can I send it to you for repair?
Question! I have a VCR that works fine but when I fast forward the picture goes black. Any idea what that could be? other than that vcr works fine! thanks love your channel.
In this video, you have mentioned P2 guide pin and P3 guide pin. Where are P1 guide pin and P4 guide pin. What are the uses of these guide pins. Kindly explain with diagram, if possible.
I wish I had known about this easy way to align a vcr using an old crt tv. I had to align one that the P2 and P3 guides were taken off for whatever reason on a modern tv. I spent about 2 hours on that and it still wasn't perfect. I might have to dig out my old crt tv and give it a go again to see if i can improve the picture more. Also what is the test point called that you connected your oscilloscope to in general? I didn't quite catch it but ive seen in other vcrs that there are test points for v. lock, h. lock, hifi audio and others. I've never used an oscilloscope to align them because I never knew what test point to use.
The 2 test points, RF and Switch point. Trigger from switch point and read level from preamp RF test point. The RF of course stands for radio frequency, because that is exactly what it it. an FM modulated carrier down around 1Mhz for lower sideband on VHS. Bandwidth on VHS 1MHz Beta was 1.2, super beta 1.4. SVHS 1.8 Hi 8 2.0. Color is converted down and recorded at 629KHz on VHS, 688 on Beta and 723 on 8mm.
Question not specific to this unit, what things in a VHS vcr can cause black streaks/demodulation noise on sharp black/white transitions on playback? One of my Philips SVHS decks is noticeably affected by it, especially on SVHS tapes, other JVC SVHS one much less so but still happens on some tapes. On an older deck it would have been a bit easier to debug, but these newer JVC/Philips decks have almost no adjustments, and the most of the few they have are set in the EEPROM only accessible with a service remote which is pretty hard to get a hold of.
Dave, I have to confess..., I'm addicted to your video and audio repair movies. And I don't want to go into rehab. Thank you for teaching repairs.
You learn something new, I never knew you could adjust those guides in a VCR, I'm pretty sure we threw out one machine with similar picture problems. It makes me wonder how many VCRs where thrown out when they only needed this simple adjustment.
Guides can be adjusted - but preferably by a qualified service technician with years of experience. They are not meant to be user-serviceable and should only need a tweak ONCE during the life of the VCR.
@@RoughJustice2k18 I have a Panasonic NV-SD400 VCR and every time I use it I have to take the screwdriver in case the signal gets bad because the signal does actually get bad very often. Finding a technician for VCRs in Peru is extremely rare, so what I do is follow this guy's videos instead :P
Saved my life! Lost hours last night on a NV-FJ615 trying to adjust after a "head and guide rollers' arms transplant" and mode switch cleaning, which, by the way, I was able to do only because of your videos. I have looked into the internet for a video guide on how to do these procedures on this model and, after following your videos, I have discovered a tear down you've done on a PV-9450 that furtunately has the same mechanical schematics. Thank you sooo much, and congratulations on this beautiful and uncomparable help you give to us lovers of the VCRs!
Best wishes all the way from Brazil!
after like 6 years of trying to look for someone to fix my vcr, i ended doing it myself!!!, thanks a bunch!!!
I've been doing VHS transfer services as a side business, and recently we just got a tape that was bouncing all around. You can tell because the on-screen graphics like the TV logo kept jumping and the picture was generally unstable, I did this adjustment. This easy fix did the trick! Thank you so much.
Sounds like the VCR that recorded it was out of alignment; it can happen over time as the parts begin to wear out. Thing is, often the misaligned VCR will play back its own recordings perfectly, so whoever recorded it would have been none the wiser!
At the start I thought the VCR is in search mode. :D Awesome video! VCR tech really intrigued me in the 90s.
Thanks, this helped me get a VCR working again. I hooked it up to an old (analog) Commodore 1702 monitor and you're right, it was much easier. The one tricky thing was that I had to use a lot of pressure to turn the guide, and I didn't realize at first that pressure was also affecting the guide. So I found I needed to do e.g. a 1/4 turn, take the screwdriver off the guide and observe, then turn again, etc.
Thanks so much! This really helped me out! I'm a younger guy in my 20s, played many a tape before but never had the privilege of repairing one until now! I'm assuming thats who this vid is for and it made it easy for me without making me feel stupid. Thanks again, man!
This video is amazing! I was about to buy a new VCR until I saw this video. I was able to fix it in under a minute. Much appreciated!
These are the things now that I know of that you have to do to maintain a VCR. If there are more, please tell.
1. Clean video heads
2. Clean audio heads
3. Clean rollers
4. Clean the state switch contacts
5. Turn the tracking guides
Great video.your videos help me with my electronic online business
I came across your video after getting a VHS/DVD combo that has the same issue. Such an easy fix. Thank you for your video!
Back in the day Video recorders were definitely one of the most complex consumer products ever made, both mechanically & electronically.
That was definitely alot easier to align on the CRT set.
I've recently heard that the old CRT TVs are becoming increasingly popular with gamers, as they display some games (particularly retro & vintage ones) alot better than LED monitors.
Yes crt displays work better for retro games. I have a nice collection of crt. Color sets 1.4" 5" 8" 10" 13" 19" 21" and 28". All work.
The fact that they actually worked as well as they did was a miracle.
@@12voltvids Did they use the same dot pitch on the smaller sets? I think the larger ones were what 0.31? The trinitron was 0.25 but the phosphors are all in line. I still have a working NEC EGA monitor which has strong color and good color balance.
Ha! I've never had a scope, but that was how I touched up alignment on my own VCRs. Use a good pre-recorded tape, left guide cleans up the top of the picture, right guide cleans up the bottom. It just made sense, looking at the direction the drum rotates and how the signal is recorded on the tape.
After the course adjustment as it was done here by 12voltvids, you can also some further fine adjustment with a TV if your VCR has a manual tracking control: You turn the tracking in one direction until a stripe comes into the picture, and then adjust the guides for it to disappear. The you can turn the tracking some more in that direction and repeat. The optimum fine adjustment is reached when the noise comes in on the whole picture at once when you turning the tracking left or right.
You're the best! in 2024 i needed so bad this info. Thank s to you helped me to align my VCR.
Today i repair my VCR with this tutorial.. Its work .. Thanks a lot
Great tech tip.Thanks for all your hard work,and info.!!👍📻📺
Thanks, I have solved a big problem, but I ask you, I see that the image is in slow motion briefly.
I know this is an older video, but I just used this video to do the alignment on a Panasonic HiFi VCR I found at the thrift store. Its really simple to do, and its amazing how little you actually have to adjust.
Your thoughts on my method dave
For a rough setup i would adjust the left adjustment while watching the bottom edge of the tape on the reference shelf with a dim torch, adjust untill the reflection on the bottom of the tape just distorts, then adust up untill it looks perfect.
The do the right adjustment the same way.
Repeat again and it will be close.
Using a tv with the height down showed the head switching at the bottom of the screen, that could be optimised with slight adjustments.
Step one, clean tape path.
FindLiberty, oow picky picky :-D
if the path was dirty then i would, the reference shelf can get really nasty if it's not been cleaned in a long time.
People expect machines to work without maintenance.
@@FindLiberty
This wasn't a how to clean your VCR video. This was an alignment video. The machine was clean as I cleaned it when I fixed it a few weeks ago. This was a staged repair. I messed up the alignment for the video.
Exactly what I did, align the path by literally having a look around the head drum. If the tape runs in alignment to the drum ridge, it's pretty close to the optimum setting.
SAVAGE - you are going to void the VHS warranty!
I laughed so hard.
@Gamer121 it was a joke..
I had no idea those were even adjustable. What could cause them to go out in the first place?
They work their way loose
Thank You Dave🙏for showing how to get tape trackinh on vcr checked to correct tape skipping, rolling etc by adjusting P2 & P3 Guides. Please advise whst is the special tool you use to ajdust the P2 & P3... also show the critical part of this tool. I am David from Singapore.... 👍
Thank you so much for your work from Albania
Thank you so much! I just got a VCR and the image was awful! I just did the alignment and it works great! Mine is a little selective, only the clean cassettes are working fine! The dirty ones (I mean dust) are bad :/ need the head cleaner tape
Can you show us how you do this on a Betamax? Many of my Japanese sourced tapes will not track. I get scratchy sound from the HiFi as the tracking adjustment is ineffective.
On a side note, since my AG-1980 Panasonic is a dud, what do you recommend as excellent SVHS/DVHS decks to acquire? Just got 600 VHS tapes in c. 1994 - 2005 and I want to transfer many of them with the best decks available. Ditto with Betas. What is your recommend for the best Beta players ever made? Many people seem to be buying restored SL-HF2100 units which were the last ones made. But there must be others...
I just did this on a Betamax machine without a scope. It was a pain in the butt to get it perfect but I did it, after spending hours trying tapes recorded on many different machines. If you have a scope, it's better to look at the hi-fi audio waveform as the hi-fi audio tracks are much narrower than the video tracks. I think he demonstrated Betamax tape path alignment in his SL-5200 repair video. As for the best Betamax machines, the SL-HF1000 is the best for NTSC and the SL-HF950 is the best for PAL/SECAM.
Thank you for your work. You are the best.
What type of screwdriver? I have a CRT and it looks like this VCR's heads are out of alignment, I keep turning the things with a flat-tip screwdriver but it doesn't do anything. What way should I turn
I just use a flat head driver. As to which way you turn that depends of what way it shifted.
Awesome video. Been using the same method since the early 90s. 👍
Thank Dave for such good tutorial on videos. Please advise what is the tool you use to adjust the P2 & P3 Guide, because a normal screw-driver Cannot sit across the slot which has a center post. Thanks.11/1/21
They make it so you have to use a special "tape guide adjust tool" so that peasants like us can't fix things. I use a pair of (cough, cough) TOENAIL SCISSORS that has pointy tips that 'grab' two of the slots on either end of the center post. Then I put it all back together, watch Apollo 13, and cut my toenails.
Thank you, you are amaizing! I was really shocked, how easy it was on analog monitor
Yeah analog monitors make things real easy digital monitors not so much.
Thanks. I got my Sony 757 back running after watching some of your videos. Question for you: I have a rolling disturbance going over the image about every 10 sec. Going from bottom to top, before it starts at bottom again. Any suggestions what could cause this?
This video is just what I needed after taking apart and cleaning a Sony side-by-side DVD/VCR combo unit! I thought it was possibly a bad head, but after remembering taking off these guides to lubricate the rollers, this has got to be the issue! Thanks! Also, do you have another video explaining the scope method in-depth? Would be interested to know more about that one!
just repared my vcr combo-tv :-) thanks a lot! greetings from germany
Now this is worth a like. YT buries genuinely useful content like this to oblivion.
Nice... but this adjustment vid made me curious about two additional things. What does a mis-aligned head do to the Hifi audio signal? I also wonder if a non-scope adjustment could be more accurate using a CRT monitor with underscan and H/V delay...
Underscan will certainly let you see the entire video signal, and pulse cross will let you see the sync area. Vertical delay is really you are interested in, so you can see the edge of the envelope.. As to hifi, it is recorded by a separate set of heads, which record at a different azimuth, and because they are narrow heads they will be more sensitive to misalignment. A slight misalignment and the sound will crackle. A little more and the sound will mute and switch to linear sound, so yes you can fine tune to get good audio. The preferred test point for scope is the audio FM heads.
@@12voltvids On my Sony monitor, I cannot do just vertical delay. It has an H/V delay button that does the same thing as Pulse Cross on a JVC monitor. Good to know the best test point for an oscilloscope probe when adjusting heads. I have several thrift store VCRs, and at least one needs adjustment. Thanks for the vid.
Thanks for the information, I don't have an oscilloscope, and I've already encountered this problem and thought it was the bad heads.
Dirty heads is what you are talking about, this is a more advanced issue where the tape path has gone out of whack. VCR's that have been dropped, banged around, or heavily used might have this more commonly than your average VCR.
That's how I aligned a Betamax that used to show two noise lines in playback at the bottom of the screen. I then made a test recording using the aligned machine to be sure it played fine on all of the rest of my Beta VCRs.
Excellent video. This may help fix my video issue. I thought my vcr was just dirty but every tape I play has flickering on the lower half of the screen. I will check this and see what i can do.
THANK YOU just repaired my VCR
Great hands on video. Thanks for posting. Would you know how to adjust the drum centre screw. I moved it but can't get it back to where it should be. Any help would be great.
Hello, very interesting video. If I have a tape that has snow on it where I can't see the video but then the other tapes have a clear screen. Is that a problem with the tape or a problem with the VCR??
Another problem with digital monitors (and even some of the later CRT TVs) is that they can mute the picture if the sync signal is bad. The screen might go blue, or black out with a 'no signal' message and that's exactly what you don't want when trying to find the sweet spot adjusting the VCR!
This is because HDTV's are not designed or capable of accepting an analog RF signal that low. They will wait for the signal to improve to re-sync, which can cause delays of 10-30 seconds.
I'm trying to do this on my Sony VCR but the stupid thing keeps blanking the picture for no reason. I guess it's so wack it decides to blank the screen. Plays for two seconds with OK audio but then blanks. 'm wondering if there is a some kind of switch in the service manual that disables the blanking, so you adjust the picture for servicing.
silly question
does multi head drum have only one correct path for the tape , or is that you just need to hit any video stripe on the whole length and that could shift depenting on which one you hit, and there would be like 3-6 video stripes you could align to depending on how much the mechanism alows and how many heads the drum has?
i am thinking of restoring two very strange very unique video recorders from the 70's and i kind of wondered about how much can the tape path be degraded on almost 50 years old equipment that never was really in use (but is quirky as heck and all transistorised no ic's)
I have this very machine and I'm hoping to fix its video issues by this video since I am having similar issues with mine. I got it by finding it left on counter in the mail room of my building..At first it played beautifully for a long while then I used it again and started having picture troubles. If only I could find the remote that went with it.. Can you tell me the type of screwdriver you are using? These machines are so over priced when you look for one. I just love the look of it and even after all these years it still looks so modern!!
Do you need a VCR alignment tape to do this? I have a Panasonic DMR-EZ48V that I am trying to realign after one tape messed everything up.
Also, do you have a replacement head cleaning liquid you recommend since freon isn't widely available anymore?
Isopropanol alcohol 99% works fine. All you really need to do alignment is a known good tape. Most prerecorded are very good.
This helped us fix our vhs system. Thanks!
Wow! Learned a lot. I have an old Sony CRT and family have a couple of VCRs either tracking issues. An aunt was sadden yesterday, she has a dual deck VCR, one of deck no longer plays a video picture. Will try out the tuning on the CRT. Thank you for sharing your knowledge!
This is very interesting. Thank you. I recently borrowed my sister's old VHS player she had stashed in a cupboard and the picture was great for a couple of tapes being played, but suddenly the picture was awful. I tried to adjust the tracking and that improved the picture slightly, but now watching this I see that for some reason the alignment had changed. I wonder why it suddenly went wrong like that?
Have you tried cleaning the heads.
If the lock screw comes loose the guide posts can shift.
12voltvids Thank you for getting back. No I haven't tried yet. So far I have only played it.
Dave, if picture still flickering or jumping, is video head or electronic?
Could be either
@@12voltvids ok thanks Dave
Thanks, is there a way to remove the head and still be able to play the tape without image. I'm working on a project and need to put a similar tape (not video/audio tape) in VHS spools and just play, FF, RR.
I sometimes have to de-align one of my vcr to properly read a tape that was home recorded on a deck that had bad azimuth around the video drum. The only thing i haven't made myself is a proper screwdriver to turn those post without falling aside. when i calibrate a deck for perfect alignment, i use a mix combination of a few factory recorded SP tapes and i have a few original LP movies as well,, i try to find the perfect middle position of the screw for that scope of tapes so i know it will be fairly okay on most tapes and will record about right in the middle of all those factory calibration.
Great... Same Always....Just one word: GREAT
Just Perfect. Deeply Thank you Sir.
I have several LG VCRs of the same model, that play some tapes very well as is, but other tapes have a consistent similar problem. That is to say, if the tape works, it works on any of the LG VCRs. Problem tapes are a problem on all of them. But they will play without issue in an RCA VCR: if I set the tracking so that there is no static, the picture jumps up and down. If I set the tracking so that the movement is stable, there is noticeable static in the bottom half of the picture. Any suggestions for what I can do? Is this something adjusting the guides would likely fix? Thank you for any advice you can offer.
Wow he's tha man with tha tools 😁👏👏👏👏👍🤘 clearly he has a lot of experience i will love to have his knowledge i will take anything from the streets(if they are worth to be fixed)amd give them a new life but anyway hat down 👍👏👏👏
Thanks for the help, both my vcrs are having trouble with the picture.
Great video, thanks. 2 questions; I have distortion/lines/black screen appearing on a tape but only once every 3 seconds or so. The Image & sound between those moments is perfect. I've tweaked the guide heads, but it doesn't make any difference to the 'every 3 seconds' issue (it just makes the good bits worse!). Would you suggest this is corrupted tape, that cannot be fixed? Also, when I remove my cover to the VCR player (Goodmans VP2500), there must be some optical sensor, as the tape just ejects as soon as inserted. I have to half open the cover manually to keep the area quite dark so I can adjust while playing. Ay idea what that sensor might look like?
Could be a dirty control track head. Of a bad capstan motor if it unlocks every 3 seconds. Is the tape recorded in ep?
Could also be the supply reel sticking once every rotation or the tape has a damaged control track if its just one tape. The tape end sensors are used on some machines to start the loading cycle and some machines they don't shield them so light shining in the top can trigger them. They are located on either side of the cassette basket right at the front if the tape.
@@12voltvids The tape is recorded in SP. Additionally (and this is an important factor, I should have mentioned in the first place) As soon as the next piece of footage on this tape begins (about 15 mins from the start of the tape) everything is fine, and there are no issues. This leads me to think it more related to the tape, than the mechanism running it.
You answered your own question. Has the tape been stored say on top of s speaker or another magnetic source such as the top or next to a crt TV over the years? If so the magnetic field from the degause coil, or magnetic field from speakers may have damaged the control track on a portion of the tape. Open the unit and watch the reels turn. If the distortion happens at exactly the same place as the reel is rotating then you have solved your mystery. I wrecked one of my beta test tapes because it was set on that blue service mat that had magnets in it. I say had because I ripped them out.
Nice tutorial. I have a strange problem that may be related to tracking. My VCR plays back pre-recorded tapes fine but I have to use the manual tracking feature when I play back recordings made on this machine. After watching your video I opened it up and spent hours on adjusting the tape guides up and down with no luck. Every time I got a good picture of the latest recording the tracking would be off on the next. I reached the limits in both the upper position and the lowest so I couldn't get a stable picture at all. I gave up and adjusted the tape guides back to the original positions. Do playback and recording use different heads? And if yes, could it be that the playback and recording heads are not aligned making it impossible to get a good tracking?
When heads are worn they will generally play tapes made on other machines fine but will not play recent recordings made on the same machine.
@@12voltvids Thank you for the reply. However, the VCR is brand new and unused.
Thank You for making this video friend it was a life saver :)
Yes a good video, but I wonder if you should finish the final tweaks with a digital TV when lacking a scope. Seems to me that the digital TV being less tolerant could be used for those final tweaks after getting close with the analog TV. Just wondering ... thanks again.
Great video, I have a Samsung VHS player and Im trying to archive my parents old camcorder tapes, which are on VHS; but the player it has recently developed an issue. The audio is perfect but the picture flickers and produces a horizonal lines across screen, and sometimes I can see 'film frames' (not sure the technical word). I have tried to clean the tape path (the head spool (all 6 heads seem to be clean), the erase head, capstan, pinch roller , I have also removed the tape cleaner, but the flicker persists), and ideas? DO you think I should try and adjust the P2 and P3 guides as you have suggested here? And if so is there a risk of unscrewing the guides completely?Many thanks.
I’m restoring my VHS tapes and some of the older ones have this issue where the horizontal lines are all over the video. Newer VHS look and play fine without any issues. Does this mean the problem is with the VHS tapes rather than the player?
Gonna try this on my Sony at the weekend. Another great video 👍
Hi Dace, quick question. I recently acquired an old 1980s Samsung VCR, bought purely because it was the model I first bought with my own money. Predictably, no bueno, and I initially looked back at your videos such as this one.
However I've discovered that in my case the machine is spinning the head far too fast - when I force it to slow down a good picture resolves. I think this would be down to the control signal not getting to the logic that controls the head motor (I think the head speed goes out of control on some machines when there's no recording on the tape?), or a failure of the speed controller itself - are you aware of any common causes of this issue? The audio head seems to be reasonably well aligned, and sadly there doesn't appear to be a service manual for this one. Thanks for any advice.
Likely the sample hold cap in the drum servo circuit is leaky.
@@12voltvids Thank you, that is very helpful!
Great video, thanks a lot for your teaching repairs
Thanks for the tutorial, worked great on my CRT television but when I hook it up to my Samsung Plasma TV I still have lines on the screen. Any ideas? T. I. A.
"you'll never come across one as bad as this." You've obviously never bought a VCR on eBay...😂
Yup, I just bought one as "used" and it does not work
hey, i have this borrowed vhs tape from a cousin, and the tape reels look weird, the tape isnt aligned with the reel, lets put like this, it looks like a vinyl, would that cause a bad picture?
if so would just playing the tape fix it?
i've got a precious tape that seems to have been dubbed with a VCR with it's own unique alignment. It plays poorly on the handful of VCR's I have and they don't seem to have a tracking adjustment. I need to digitize this tape but don't know of a service that can handle manual tracking and timing.
Are you doing this with special tool or just a screwdriver?
Screwdriver
I've been trying to digitize some old VHS tapes and this was helpful in aligning my old VCR. With known good tapes i've got the picture perfect. What i can't seem to pin down is why with some tapes (all of them recorded family tapes) they're jumpy, fuzzy, and in black and white. None of them were recorded with this VCR, not even the ones i know are good tapes. Tested the picture with a home video that comes in clean and with a good Disney VHS. Perfect. Others? Not so much. Is this purely tape degradation? Some of them are copies made from camcorder tapes as well. I'm trying to figure out if it's the VCR or the tapes.
Tapes definitely do deteriorate especially if they are second or third generation which really affects the color quality. I'm just right now digitizing a bunch of tapes for a client and some of them are second or third generation but were recorded with home video cameras from the early 80s and the color off some of these cameras was well let's put it this way they're closer to black and white then color the camera is himself for just horrendous back then. But yes tapes do deteriorate it's usually the color that starts to go first because the luminance are black and white information is recorded as an FM signal where they frequency is modulated to represent the brightness the chroma which is the color signal is amplitude modulated as the tape deteriorates the signal level reduces and just like with AM radio a station that's distant will fade out and be weak or as an FM signal from an FM station remains loud and clear until it gets to the point where you can't detect it at all and then it just goes right away the noise
I've turned mine so many times I don't know where the original start point is. Is it like a screw that can only go so many turns one way or another? Or is it just fine adjustment? At the start I was close to a perfect picture but too many turns later I have no idea what I've done
I watch your videos regularly and I have learned a lot of things. What characteristics should an oscilloscope have in order to be able to successfully perform a tape path alignment? Lots of greetings from Serbia
A basic analog CRT scope. 10 meg is fine.
Thank you from germany. All the best to you.
My screws are a bit loose. I strugling doing the Fine adjust because the screw sometimes go down without steps. Tinking how to do...
I never tried it. I just use the tracking control. This is for if the tracking control doesn't solve the problem?
Right. If the lock screws come loose the guides can and do shift. Then playback has lines in pix and tracking control won't fix it. So then you need to do an alignment.
@@12voltvids I see in your most videos you use old analog scope to adjust the tape pass guides , I don't see like these scopes around anymore, can use digital scope for this?
@@dmitripetrov5536 Not on the POS digital scope I have. They are junk unless you pay huge dollars for them. Find a used analog scope. The one I have I got for a song.
I ask you at an old video about the Sony SLV R1000 blue gear, do you still have then available near to you?
thanks so much, I was able to fix a borrowed vcr I somehow broke! We won't tell the guy I borrowed it from ;)
That was a excellent video. Good repair guide.
Hi, old post i know. But i have 2 JVC HR-D910EH and i can adjust these screws all i like, but they don't update live while i turn P1 and P3, i turn some, eject the tape and put it back in and hopefully it's better. Whats up with that? 🤔
Good video , we need an old tv tondo that or can work with newest since 2010 tvs? Thanks
That's how I was taught to do it and have always done it, most places I've had to do this kind of stuff were too cheap to buy test equipment.
Are P2 and P3 clearly marked? I'm a total novice at VCR adjustment and don't want to do irreparable damage to an elderly machine.
P2 is the one on the left side of the head drum and p3 on the right side looking from the front. No they are not marked.
I need help! I'm trying to follow along but I don't have a clue how to even disassemble the TV I have to do this. The picture is full of static and flickers
Hi ! is there any way to create the distortion effect at 03:37 without opening the cover of the vhs player and without damaging the device? I love that distortion effect, I would appreciate your answer 🙂
Hey 12voltsvids My VCR picture is flickering going in and out on my Tapes during playback lose picture every 5 seconds. I know I want to put new Drive Belts on the VCR and Grease and Lube the Mechanism can't do it by myself but how do I stop this? It was fine last night. The picture is Sharp so No Worn Heads?
I’m having similar issues with my Sylvannia Tv VCR combo. Any tips?
Amazing man !! Always amazing !!
Would this work for a vcr that plays fine for a few seconds, then it loses tracking and audio goes away, then it comes back?
That sounds more like a control track issue. Clean the control track head.
Excellent! I have two VCR's that play some videoes perfectly, and some of them they are stuck in the same pattern like you had here. I think it's weird that some does work and some doesn't, but I really hope this will solve the problem for the tapes that don't work now :)
The tapes that do not play right were recorded out of alignment on the recorder.
@@12voltvids Aha. Some of them are VHS-C tapes, put into an adapter. Got 10 tapes from a customer, and half of them played fine, while half of them were jumping/rolling like in your video :)
@@OuglandMedia cameras were especially bad at going out of alignment because people dropped cameras and knocked something out of alignment or broke something internal. Some can be recovered others not.
@@12voltvids That sounds right. Some of the tapes works fine in the original camera they were filmed in, while playing them in a standalone players can cause problems. I have so much to learn, so I'm happy I found you channel :)
I flipped the head drum connections and now it’s giving me colors now and some better picture but lots of tracking all over the screen and picture is rolling can I send it to you for repair?
Question! I have a VCR that works fine but when I fast forward the picture goes black. Any idea what that could be? other than that vcr works fine! thanks love your channel.
Could be the tv blacking out when sync is incorrect.
In this video, you have mentioned P2 guide pin and P3 guide pin. Where are P1 guide pin and P4 guide pin. What are the uses of these guide pins. Kindly explain with diagram, if possible.
I wish you would give a close up of exactly what you are adjusting.
So, it could happen than most of my tapes works good but i bougth a brand new movie and seems jumpu, this could help?
I wish I had known about this easy way to align a vcr using an old crt tv. I had to align one that the P2 and P3 guides were taken off for whatever reason on a modern tv. I spent about 2 hours on that and it still wasn't perfect. I might have to dig out my old crt tv and give it a go again to see if i can improve the picture more. Also what is the test point called that you connected your oscilloscope to in general? I didn't quite catch it but ive seen in other vcrs that there are test points for v. lock, h. lock, hifi audio and others. I've never used an oscilloscope to align them because I never knew what test point to use.
The 2 test points, RF and Switch point. Trigger from switch point and read level from preamp RF test point. The RF of course stands for radio frequency, because that is exactly what it it. an FM modulated carrier down around 1Mhz for lower sideband on VHS. Bandwidth on VHS 1MHz Beta was 1.2, super beta 1.4. SVHS 1.8 Hi 8 2.0. Color is converted down and recorded at 629KHz on VHS, 688 on Beta and 723 on 8mm.
Question not specific to this unit, what things in a VHS vcr can cause black streaks/demodulation noise on sharp black/white transitions on playback? One of my Philips SVHS decks is noticeably affected by it, especially on SVHS tapes, other JVC SVHS one much less so but still happens on some tapes. On an older deck it would have been a bit easier to debug, but these newer JVC/Philips decks have almost no adjustments, and the most of the few they have are set in the EEPROM only accessible with a service remote which is pretty hard to get a hold of.
Worn heads.