You are welcome. I’m sorry for your loss

Digitize the footage and upload on KZfaq as private video so it is backupd

Glad it helped

Glad to help, Please don't forget to subscribe for more helpfull videos

Thank you Tom for the kind words. I’m glad to help

Glad it helped

I’m glad it worked, thank you for watching and subscribing

I’m glad it worked

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Make sure you’re on the VCR mode

You are so welcome!

Glad it helped

You're welcome

Apparently every vcr should be on the same level of output performance

No deff not. You can even use rubbing alcohol but definitely not screen cleaner. Also please don’t forget to subscribe

You are welcome

@@YourReviewChannel Is it safe to use the VCR after cleaning it with this method? I heard that mold can spread throughout the VCR because the tape heads spin and spread mold?

@@michaelarojas No that not true.

@@YourReviewChannel Would a tape head cleaner be enough to get rid of mold or do the heads need to be wiped down? Thanks for the help this is my first time cleaning my VCR and it looks dirty!

If you’ve placed a moldy VCR tape into a VHS player, I would dispose of the entire unit. You risk exposing other tapes to mold and even your own room. I run a analog to digital business and saw many moldy tapes that I turned down immediately. Not worth ruining my equipment and my studio.

No worries!

I don’t have one currently, but when I do have one, I will make a video. Thank you for your question. They also make an 8 mm wet head cleaner, possibly available

It’s probably the pinching wheel needs to be freed up

Thanks for the sub!

If you want to, you can sometimes they could be fragile just go easy on them

Thank you for watching my video, you can use the compressed air to clean out any dust before start cleaning the heads. On the DVD side, there’s not much you can do just use the compressed air to blow out under the laser area of the DVD player also before you start cleaning the VCR heads. On the tapes them self there is no way to clean them. the tape will deteriorate over time so my suggestion is to have them transferred to DVD. Hope this helps.

@@YourReviewChannel Majorly! Super appreciate you!!!!

Yes great question, when the pitcher looks snowy it time to clean the heads. If it looks good leave it alone

@@YourReviewChannel Thanks for your fast response! Will leave the VCR heads alone for now.

@@pslijkoord Yes any other help you need please let me know. Please don't forget to subscribe

Sometimes the gears get gummed up with old grease it needs a good cleaning inside this machine, also don't use a lint-free cloth it could damage the video heads you need proper head cleaning pads. Hope this helps

@@YourReviewChannel It’s working... thx for the help!

You have been so helpful & I seem to find every possible ERROR so... it was working so I finally put in one of my precious 30 yr old VHS-C tapes. I saw our kids, and our grandson. When I put in the next tape, the sound worked but the screen displayed gray fuzz, then a graphic image of a rainbow and the word ‘image’. I tried different tapes and all the same. So it’s a hardware issue, I don’t know how to correct this. Uhhhhhh....?

you should also change the belt, they only last for 10 years or less and then to lose their form

I am not aware of any way to clean mold off video tapes.

Thank you for the information,

Is the video head spinning?

I’ll be very careful with the two Q-tip Make sure it’s not a fabric Q-tip

@@YourReviewChannel I partially wrapped the prep pad around the q-tip not touching the prep pad except for a little on each end. Worked perfectly. Just have to be careful doing it.

Unfortunately videotapes do disintegrate overtime this is why you’re noticing some work while and some do not. You can try cleaning the heads that might help but my suggestion is to have them transferred to DVD as soon as possible if you can if you want to save them

@@YourReviewChannel Yeah that’s what I was afraid of that it was the tapes and not the VCR. We will still try cleaning the head and hopefully it helps. Yes I agree, we are in the process of converting them to digital right now and unfortunately it is the only VCR we have. Anyway thank you so much for your advice and your video! ☺️

@Grace wow I'm happy you kept films of your childhood moments. Camcorders were so expensive depending on the model and format/media film used. Around 97 98 my brother was lucky to have owned a bulky handheld Camcorder. It had very atrocious battery life especially if you are required to use the light to record video at night LOL. Not to mention the price of the individual tapes were expensive as well. You had to take the smaller tape. And inserted into a VHS type adapter casing specifically used for those smaller tapes. Despite the two to three hour longevity on the camera battery. My younger brother loved filming random things on those tapes. I only wish that he had filmed my father rather than to just film anything. We had it for a very long time before eventually it started to malfunction. So there was plenty of time to capture all of my father's mannerisms on tape even conversations with my dad would have been wonderful to still have the privilege of viewing. Had I been more creative rather than to rely on my younger sibling. I would have taken my father to the ball games and recorded as much as I possibly could with that camcorder. Any possible commentary my father could have made regarding his experiences at the ball games. Sadly I didn't get to spend as much time as I should have. Nowadays it's so much easier getting videos on several types of digital media, not to mention less expensive. I mean there were a few expensive digital format camcorders in early 2000s. Including those that you could use compact digital DVDs to record on. But I never stretched my budget too actually decide on getting one. I just wasn't passionate about recording memories live.

It possibly could be the tapes if they are very old the technology uses magnetic transfer, and as they age they can degrade over time. I think the cosmetic wedge is OK to clean the heads that’s about the best you can do. Also, you should try to get those tapes digitally transferred if you want to preserve them. Thank you for watching my videos. I hope I helped you a little bit.

I’m not too sure if it is the tapes or the vcr head itself but I will try your method and give it a good cleaning! I was playing an austin powers movie and it worked just fine, no blacking out or anything and then I played a pretty woman film (i have two and both did the blacking out) that looked fairly newer than the austin powers one and it did it a lot too so maybe it is the films ? not too sure but i’m going to clean them and see if that helps

What model number is it

Thank you, Please don’t forget to subscribe

Tape’s resolution is much better now, so why not? 😁

@@philixer6769 VHS Resolution 240. S-VHS 400. Today we're at 4k-8k. So *NO.* It would not be cool LOL They take up so much space too. I'm actually currently in the process of copying my VHS tapes to my PC as it just can't look at them anymore.

@@janX9 But why VHS? Nowadays tapes are main backup device in Japan. Archival time and resolution is very good today. It's sad that Polaroid (or instax with cheaper film), film photography, audio cassettes came back, but video tapes doesn't. I understand why. VOD killed all physical movies carriers. Even the Hollywood still uses film to record movies cuz it's looking beatiful (I'm not talking about Super 8, Hollywood and Bollywood uses 35mm and 70mm (which has around 12K resolution!)).

@@philixer6769 "audio cassettes came" when, where and for how long?" I never heard about that. I'm currently converting all my Cassettes to FLAC, among many other mediums for convenience. Digital is just easier, faster, smaller and more convenient. I tried going back to cassette for fun, but I carried my walkman for a day or two and that was enough LOL

@@janX9 I live in Poland and I have seen many people with Walkmans. U can buy brand new cassettes in empik store, I bought 2 and they were recorded in very good quality. My grandma has a lot of them. I'm not happy with 4K with HDR on 40" curved TV, I like watching 240p, snowy, noisy VHS tapes on small CRT. Especially horror movies :)

I’m not sure what you did

I inserted a blank tape and it came back black and white when my screen was in color

Could Need a good cleaning@@TheDarkMastermlnd

No way please don’t use that.

@@YourReviewChannel Okay, does it have to do with the ammonia and other chemicals not found in rubbing alcohol?

@@TheFallenColumn No Rubbing Alcohol is the best it evaporates fast and drys quick

Yes it sounds like it

@@YourReviewChannel I gave it a try, but the problem remains. Ah well. Time to buy a new one :(

Try it one more time

Did it work?

Items you may need amzn.to/349RKo7 amzn.to/2S8BmP5

Sounds like a tracking problem. Did you clean the heads?

I would just buy some rubbing alcohol at your local store and use that instead

That is possible. Also it could be the rollers need to be cleaned as well

I would not use vinegar, even rubbing alcohol would be fine

It's Possible it could kill the video head. Try cleaning The Heads after a couple of tapes to keep it under control.

I haven't actually tried it yet, just weighing option before jumping in. I have two VCR's and recently picked up some tapes, about 10 have visible mold spots. So I wasn't sure if I wanna designate one just to try and salvage those. I still have one of those head cleaner cassettes but I'm sure the solution that came with it evaporated by now, the thing is about 30 years old :)

They no longer available for sale. There is a link in the description for a replacement item.

And I don't know why,but when I insert the tape in,I can hear the motor working for 5 seconds but the tape reels dosen't spin,he stops and ejects the tape.

Sometimes happens that

Do not use a micro fiber cloth. that cloth is not designed to clean video heads.

The link is in the description in the drop down

Do not use a Q-tip. Using rubbing alcohol is OK but definitely not a Q-tip. A Q-tip or clog the head with fibers

@@YourReviewChannel What should I use instead of a Q-tip

@@shannonshirey Use These amzn.to/3pyx4zu

@@YourReviewChannel In another video the guy used a strip of paper (like letter paper) soaked in alchol. In your opinion, is that ok?

I'll take that over the lower resolution, Big size and the fact that they look like crap after a few years or if you get them close to a magnet. I could go on. I won't LOL

Sounds like a tracking issue. Make sure you clean the tracking and audio

@@YourReviewChannel cleaned the audio head... Where's the tracking unit?

On the opposite side

@@YourReviewChannel cleaned that... Still have a static line...

Could be a bad video head

Rubbing alcohol

Yes, there are VCR head cleaners but this method is much more thorough

It’s an old-school bottle. I’ve had it for many years they don’t make it anymore.

@@YourReviewChannel bummer I even tried looking at second hand shops. It looks killer dont let anyone recycle that guy lmao.

Unfortunately I don’t think you’ll be able to find one maybe on Amazon

If you have a piece of chamois you can use that with some alcohol rubbing alcohol

@@YourReviewChannel I can order on ebay and wait a month or more but it's not so important to me. I converted my old family tapes and now just have a bunch of old movies. Most people got rid of their VHS tapes including precious ones a long time ago and buying online is just a waste of money for disintegrated moldy tapes. If I was in US or near bigger city the VCR would be much more precious to me.

I wouldn’t could cause damage to the heads

@@YourReviewChannel how so ?? How is my method any different from your method with the stick ?? Both are doing the same job

That should be fine

@@YourReviewChannel Thank you. I noticed on one of mine the audio was kind of splotchy but when I put the tape back in it sounded fine. I use it quite a bit and had to also adjust the tracking on another tape, so I’ll give this method a try. I think it just needs a little cleaning and this looks like the easiest tutorial I’ve watched.

Absolutely not a good idea, We will clog the heads do not use

@@YourReviewChannel what should I actually use

@@ShadowLuna101 Check out the link in the description.

Do not use a Q-tip the fibers will get caught inside the head

@@YourReviewChannel I found some lint free foam swabs. Do you think those would be fine to use?

Clean the heads. And check and clean the pinch rollers

@@YourReviewChannel Thanks. I’ll give it a try.

@@sofakingtim hey, I have the exact same problem, any luck?

That can happen

No just clean the heads and make sure the tapes are not deteriorating, Sometimes you have to clean the heads multiple times to get them clean

Isopropyl alcohol

@YourReviewChannel no I know the liquid but on the actual swab stick. Sorry if I was unclear

@@tomsargeant341 shammy cloth

@@YourReviewChannel OK thanks!

Check the link in my description you’ll see where you can purchase this item

Sound like a tape problem not a VCR issue

@@YourReviewChannel I just solved the problem! But you won't like it....I used paper :D But I'll buy the cleaning pads you use on your video, great vid by the way, thx for that !

Thank for your comment. And for watching

They don’t make them any more. I have a link to a newer item that works just as well in the discretion box.

@@YourReviewChannel ty

Yea

@@YourReviewChannel Thank you

Is the head spinning when you press play

@@YourReviewChannel yes the picture is gone after few seconds but audio working perfect,I clean the head and drum and its working again few seconds and then no picture

@@joszub3765 Humm sounds like a bad roller or pinch rod

@@YourReviewChannelI think thats it,well the parts here are to expensive will leave this vcr for moldy tapes and try to find another one,thank you anyway

Not sure, could be a dirty video heat

@@YourReviewChannel ok I'll try to clean it. Where can I use compressed air on a vcr? Thanks for your response.

True

No do not do that.

@@YourReviewChannel I have a vcr built in tv so I really don’t know how to clean it

@@Hammie666 Here is a link to a VHS tape cleaner for that. amzn.to/36LxGNS

It may be problem with auto tracking, my VCR also was having this problem and I cleaned all heads and rolls and it works like a brand new now.

Rubber belts gone bad maybe?

4 Head are better than two for better playback. The main benefit is when you do a pause the image is stable and clear.

@@YourReviewChannel That's all? It doesn't have anything to do with picture quality?

Boston

@@YourReviewChannel awesome accent and great video! I'll definitely use your tips when I'll clean my VCR. Best regards from Slovenia, Europe

Good idea. But don’t be nervous. If you follow my steps, There won’t be any issues.

Or learn the way to do it

Yes, the cleaning would help. Also, check the tracking

@@YourReviewChannel where would I find the tracker It's not on the outside is that inside the vcr? where can I find the tracker its not outside my vcr. I've never done it before

@@shannonshirey Tracking adjustments could be in the remote control. every model is diffrent

You mean the CH/TRK is that the tracker?its on my remote@@YourReviewChannel

@@shannonshirey Could be try it. But you should still clean the heads.

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No, you really have to pull off the cover to do it right. It’s not that complicated. It’s pretty easy.

No definitely do not use a Q-tip. The fibers will get stuck in the head.

Actual cleaning procedure starts at 5:12 According to the videographer, do not touch the face of the drum which contains the heads with your fingers as doing so may damage the heads (for an illustration of exactly where the actual heads are see: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/orh-qZemspzFpX0.html and go to time stamp 9:20). Instead touch the edge of the drum to spin the heads as shown in the video at 4:24 and at 4:35.