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From: stern@tilt.FUN
Newsgroups: net.video
Subject: VCR Interference Question
Message-ID: <51100001@tilt.FUN>
Date: Mon, 20-Jan-86 11:06:00 EST
Article-I.D.: tilt.51100001
Posted: Mon Jan 20 11:06:00 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 21-Jan-86 07:27:43 EST
Organization: The Official Fun Machine of Princeton University EECS
Lines: 48
Nf-ID: #N:tilt:51100001:000:2160
Nf-From: tilt!stern    Jan 20 11:06:00 1986

[]

I have been experiencing a bizarre problem with my vcr and I
thought I'd ask the net viddies for their help:

I have a 4-month old RCA Selectavision VCR, and a 19" Panasonic
Color TV.  For a while, I had the VCR sitting next to the TV 
and I got beautiful recordings and playbacks.  Then I got 
yuppie and bought some new furniture, and moved the VCR *under*
the TV set, reconnected it, and I noticed that I was getting all
kinds of interference-type patterns during playback. 

Specifically:  when playing back 2-hour tapes, I get a vertical streak 
along the left side of the picture, a few inches from the edge of the
picture.  The streak looks like a whole bunch of broken lines stacked
up, as if the sync information went nutso at this point in the trace
and made the picture jump.  When playing back 4-hour tapes, they play
back in black and white only.

I did a little experimenting -- I found that tapes I *recorded* play
back fine on other people's VCRs, so it must be a playback problem.
I thought it might be a problem with the el-cheapo cables the cable
company supplied, so I bought some high-grade cables and still had
problems.  I didn't think to try moving the VCR and then playing
back a tape, so I took it in for service.  Nothing wrong, said the
RCA Service Center, but they cleaned it and tuned it anyway since
they got me for $65.

When I got home, I put the VCR on a table, connected it, and had no
streaks.  I put the VCR under the TV again, and the streaks reappeared.
I noticed that as I moved the VCR from one side of my TV stand to
the other, the streaks got worse and worse, going from non-existent
to unbearable.  

I just did a little shuffle and found another place for the VCR, but
I'm wondering what could cause something like this -- it's almost
certainly caused by sitting under the TV set.  Could poor shielding
of the magnetic elements of the set cause the interference patterns?

I don't normally read Netnews, so any responses should be mailed
to me electronically.  If I get a great repsonse, I'll post a summary.

Thanks, gang.

--hal stern
  princeton university

  {ihnp4, allegra, seismo}!princeton!flakey!stern