I put a tape in my VCR this afternoon to record some stuff from it to DVD and i had a small issue with the tape.

After a couple of plays, a particular part of the tape wouldn't work. The picture would go all fuzzy like there was something wrong with the tracking and the entire picture would disappear then the tape would stop playing and start to re-wind it's self automatically.

It's only on a certain part of that tape. I cleaned the tape heads in the machine a few times and it still wouldn't play that particular part of the tape but it would play everything else on the tape with no problem except for the part i wanted to transfer to DVD.

I pulled the head back on the VCR i was trying to play and there was no sign of damaged or tangled up tape on the part i wanted to copy to DVD. So why was the VCR refusing to play a certain part of the tape?

EDIT: Mods please move to right forum please!

Its probably anti piracy software. I think you get the same if you try to record from Sky tv onto a VCR

Why would that prevent me from watching a programme I recorded on a blank VCR on a programme recorded from channel 4 back in 2001?!

The content is probably macrovision protected. I take it you can watch the recording on your TV ?

http://www.mediacollege.com/video/editing/macrovision/

I can watch the recording on my tv but there's a certain part of the tape that wont play on the tv at all. The frame freezes, then stops and then tape begins rewind. If you fast forward while on that particular 'frozen' frame it won't move at first but it does eventually become 'unstuck' and the picture will fast forward as normal.

It's strange because everything else that's recorded on the tape plays normally.

Have you possibly ejected the tape at that point in the recording in the past, or alternatively, have you, in the past, left the deck in pause at that point in the recording? It's perfectly possible that either of these things may cause damage to the tape. Have you visually inspected the tape at the exact point where you get the problem?

Is the tape damaged at the point in question? Have you tried to fast forward past that point and continue the recording? Have you tried fast forwarding to the end and rewinding?

Nothing to do with macrovision or anti piracy, that would not make the machine stop and rewind.

Its the mechanics of the tape or machine. Maybe take up spool stops and triggers a rewind, maybe tape jams and triggers a rewind, could be a hole in the tape oxide tripping the end sensor and triggering a rewind.

I had similar issues the other year when I was trying to watch back some old VHS tapes. Players I had in the wardrobe just refused to read anything properly and never settle on the tracking.

Think the players had just had enough as the tapes all appeared fine and played perfectly first time.

Can you try playing tape on a friends VCR. Symptoms do sound like tape has had it. Some VCRs will not let you fast forward beyond the detected end of a tape to protect the mechanisms. You can manually wind tape forward?

It may be a damaged tape, other tapes play fine in it.

But i now have another issue with a fuzzy picture.

It's the same VCR and we have recently connected it to a new 40" HD LED TV.

It's a combi VCR with a DVD built in and the picture on playback on both the DVD and VCR is fuzzy. Where it says 'No signal' on the screen it shows it again like there is a shadow behind it.

I have just recorded from the fuzzy VCR on to DVD and played it in another DVD player and the picture on DVD player number two is how it should be.

Could it be a fault between the scart and it's connecters on the 'fuzzy' VCR?

Could be a cheap unscreened scart cable (cross talk between the video in and out connections). Either replace the cable or remove pin 19 from the TV end scart plug.

http://www.leadsdirect.co.uk/technic.../scart-wiring/