Chosen Solution
I’ve got a rather unique D-VHS player (JVC HM-DH30000U) that has VERY unique style of artifacting (https://vimeo.com/523482515). You can’t describe it with the usual terms like “banding” or “blocky”. So the video above should show what I mean. I’ve switched out the TV, Cable, Tape, and Player. Frankly, it’s easy to see by the fact that a different player works well with the tape I provided (a normal VHS tape) that nothing is wrong with the tv, cable, or tape. The player is having some issue. What is it and how do I fix it? I’ll be more then happy to provide any additional info to anyone generous enough to help me.
Hi @sirgeorge , Have you tried cleaning the tape heads (aka drum), pinch roller and capstan in the player, you didn’t say? If they’re dirty they can affect how the tape is being read or the speed at which it travels though the mechanism, Here’s a link that shows how to manually clean it. Here’s the service manual that will help you to do this as it shows how to dis-assemble the player. Not that you have to dis-assemble it too much to get to the tape heads and the rollers etc You can also purchase tape head cleaners that look like a VHS tape but clean the heads etc instead. Just search for vcr head cleaner to get results Update (03/15/2021) Hi @sirgeorge , D-VHS is a recording format, there aren’t major differences in the mechanism from a standard VHS player. There shouldn’t be a problem using the normal tape. Just don’t run it for longer than 10 seconds or whatever it says on the product label. According to the user manual it says to turn off Navigation before cleaning the heads with a tape head cleaner, to prevent mis-operation of the player. Also have you tried manually adjusting the “tracking” during playback to see if this helps? Here are some images taken from the manual showing how to disable/enable navigation and how to manually adjust the tracking.
(click on image to enlarge for better viewing) Do you have the same problem with other tapes as well?
