How to Clean VHS VCR Video & Audio Heads & Tape Path Alignment + Tips for choosing a VT Company

[@jrm523]

Love it. Thanks for showing the "real" life and not some super edited video that cuts out the everyday issues you may face.

[@gotmemories]

lol! HONESTLY! I don’t edit my videos because A. I don’t have time to & B. You see the actual real life, REAL TIME work that goes in, people can fast forward if they get bored, but noting some of my videos are 40 mins long, that’s how much time it took me to F around with said video tape / problem! Plus unedited, raw, it’s real, authentic and I prefer that myself when I’m searching for how to content. Appreciate the comment and thanks for watching mate!

[@ScottLeifson]

Hi Phil, thanks for the videos (especially the "that's what she said" quote 🙂). Quick question, the video from my VCR is fine, but there's a scratchy noise from the audio that is annoying. Will cleaning the audio head help with that? Also, do the head cleaner cassettes that you've shown in a few of your other videos do the same thing? Is this (above) a more thorough cleaning where the cassette is more of a "dusting off"?

[@gotmemories]

Give it a clean and find out. As I say to anyone diy’ing it, you need ideally 5 VCR’s. You’ll put your tape in all five and all five will have differing visual and audible differences.

[@ScottLeifson]

So are the cleaner cassettes OK, or should I go through the trouble of taking the lid off and cleaning it by hand?

[@gotmemories]

Tape cleaners are a band aid, getting a good solid ‘scrub’ on the heads is best.

[@GeekLevelAsian]

I have this same exact machine and as of yesterday it worked fine. I'm running into a similar issue...I get audio, but no video. But I can see the video when I fast forward and rewind. Any idea? What's even weirder, is that old home recorded off the televesion tapes, work. But any purchased movie, is just snowy video. I figure if the play head was dirty, it wouldn't play the home recorded tapes. So it's more likely alignment...but I figured I'd ask a professional.

[@gotmemories]

Alignment, buy a few VCR’s, I always say you need 3 of every format.

[@GeekLevelAsian]

@@gotmemories it was alignment, got it fixed! But yeah definitely a good idea. Any other models other than the Panasonic DMR's you recomend that are VHS DVD?

[@janemcdermott7099]

anytime i clean a vcr head with rubbing alcohol it always eats the tape or something goes wrong and then it works normally afterwoods, am i doing something wrong? too much alcohol? one vcr i cleaned the heads on i left it to dry for over an hour and it still messed up a bit.

[@gotmemories]

Hmmm! Usually if it’s wet still it will do that.

[@donmuraoka]

Is there something other than shammy cloth that you can use? Like micro fiber? or do they scratch the heads?

[@gotmemories]

I only use chamois tips

[@burnjack291]

@@gotmemoriesHow about cleaning swabs?

[@comprehab]

Hi Phil. another great video. You have many makes and models of player. Do you have a preffered player ? Most seem to have auto head alignment do you find manual is better. Cheers, Ken

[@gotmemories]

Auto is better. Rarely have a problem with alignment on V8&Hi8, D8 always issues.

[@wassimnouwar]

Hey Phil, your channel helped me recover and clean 30 years old moldy tapes (VHS, Video8, Hi8 ...) that I needed for a documentary project I'm working on. I'm in Lebanon and there's no one around here that does the kind of job you do, so I had to learn to do it all by myself. It's costly, time consuming and as you always say "fiddly fiddly stuff!" Just 2 questions: 1-Some mini dv tapes are glitching while others are playing smoothly, could it be that the tape is defected due to its age? I ran a head cleaner tape several times in the camcorder and still same results for the same tapes. 2-Do you digitize U-matic tapes? I have one in the collection that I'm working on, if yes, I might consider to ship it all the way to you. Thanks again for all the info and videos! Cheers!

[@gotmemories]

Glad to hear you’ve found the videos helpful mate! The mini dv could be an issue with the tape back in the day, moisture on the camera head, esp in the heat and humidity of Lebanon. I do Umatic. I do have min charges though and I believe Lebanon is secam. I don’t have a deck for that. I would try video 99 in England, he has a channel on KZbin

[@wassimnouwar]

@gotmemories Thanks man, much appreciated!✌🏻

[@wyattalton]

Good afternoon. I've been recently enjoying your videos and I got my own Sony handycam CCD-TRV67. Do you know if my camcorder is capable of digitizing the hi8 footage with a capture card to my PC?

[@gotmemories]

Glad you’re enjoying the videos, any camcorder will work with video rca out.

[@wyattalton]

@@gotmemories Thank you for responding!

[@vhs2dvd537]

Same here, I go through about 3-4 packs of chamois swabs every month. Wish they were cheaper than $0.75 per swab, but….. Love your videos!

[@gotmemories]

Hi! Yes, things are pricey!! Glad to hear you’re taking care of your customers in keeping your decks clean and maintained! Not many of us out there, keep up the good work and feel free to shout out your biz name and city in the comment, I support all transfer businesses doing the right thing and refer people over as well if they’re local to you!

[@HIP_Treasures]

What brand of swabs do you recommend?

[@debranchelowtone]

The audio head here is for the linear track that is on the edge of the tape. Can be stereo but often mono and low quality. This head also is the control track head. For the hi-fi stereo audio it's on the drum with the video heads. IMO it's worth to transfert both linear and hi-fi audio because on amateur videos it sometimes can be different, some used the dub option of VCR, replacing the linear audio signal with another one, different from the hi-fi audio.

[@gotmemories]

Thanks for the comment!

[@debranchelowtone]

@@gotmemories You're welcome. I like how passionate you are about video and audio quality.

[@HisNameIsRobertPaulson01]

A non-TikTok workplace is a productive workplace.

[@gotmemories]

Amen to that!

[@emerickscott]

is it me or is this entire video blurry?

[@gotmemories]

It’s not you, it is out of focus towards the end.