Hi, this vcr (charlie deck) gives a rather snowy liney picture on playback, sometimes a small (inch or so) band of clear image at bottom inch of pic is visible. It looks like bad heads. Same symptoms on prerecorded and own recordings. Doesnt seem to change over time with warmup. (E-E pic is OK and yes, I have cleaned heads and entire tape path a few times already with no change!)
Strange thing is, if you record anything on this vcr and then replay it on another machine, you get a good, clear b&w image with flickering weak/unlocked colour. Then if you go to picture search or pause, you get a sped up or still image - with perfect colour!! This seems to me to rule out the video heads on the philips. never seen this before, is this the drum motor at fault or some head switching issue??Unfortunately I don't have a scope, so am at a dead end on this one. Any thoughts appreciated. i'd like to give it a chance of repair before tossing it out. thanks, Ben