What if a tracking adjustment doesn help?
The next most likely problem is a dirty head (not yours, the VCR’s). The video heads, which record and play back video information, are wafer-thin slivers of metal attached to a metal drum which spins thousands of time a second against the moving videotape. Although new machine technologies and tape formulations have made this less of a problem than it used to be, the heads can become dirty or clogged with bits of flaking tape oxide, room dust, cigarette smoke, or any of a myriad of contaminants. (Particularly dangerous and avoidable are the fibers which leak from the fiber-filled “jiffy bags” sometimes used to ship tapes.) Dirty heads may show up as tape dropouts, picture distortion or even total loss of the picture, loss of sound quality, etc. The best solution for head-clog problems is a professional cleaning by a trained technician, though this may be expensive. Head-cleaning tapes are also widely available; these are easy to use, and are reasonably effective, though they carry a s
