Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!ucsd!brian
From: brian@ucsd.EDU (Brian Kantor)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: Video tape destroys VHS VCR
Keywords: VCR
Message-ID: <1423@ucsd.EDU>
Date: 28 Jan 89 17:45:25 GMT
References: <3654@tekig4.TEK.COM>
Reply-To: brian@ucsd.edu (Brian Kantor)
Distribution: usa
Organization: The Avant-Garde of the Now, Ltd.
Lines: 18

It isn't uncommon for worn tapes to shed enough oxide to clog the video
heads on a machine, although it happens much less frequently than it
used to as tape manufacturers come up with better glues ("binders") to
stick the magnetic material to the tape backing.

Often all it takes is cleaning the heads on your machine to cure
this.  I don't recommend that you try the technician's method,
which is a bit of Freon-TF and an applicator, as the heads are easy
to break if you push on them wrong.  One of the "cleaning cassettes"
might well do the job.  I have a preference for the wet kind (you
drip some cleaning solution on the cleaning band before running
the cassette in your machine), but the dry kind works well too.

A truely-reluctant clog will have to be cleaned by a technician.

	Brian Kantor	UCSD Computer Graphics Lab
			c/o B-028, La Jolla, CA 92093
			brian@ucsd.edu