What are the symptoms of a video head that is on backwards?
Suppose I screwed up and installed a video head 180 degrees rotated from what is correct. What will happen? First confirm that it is even possible to do this – some are keyed in such a way that a hammer would be needed. The effects will depend very strongly on the particular VCR but the following are among the possible symptoms: • Tracking that is way off for tapes recorded on another (properly adjusted) VCR. It may be so bad as to be beyond the correctable range with the user tracking control. The azimuth angles of the head pairs are opposite of what is expected and this directly affects tracking. • Noisy picture or no/erratic color in some or all play and search modes. On 4 or higher head VCRs, even opposing pairs of heads have different characteristics so these will not be matched to the electronics with the head on incorrectly. • Flying erase will not work where only a single flying erase head is used. To test for this (assuming your VCR has a flying erase head), record over an old
