Does days of high humidity and hot weather make for problems playing video? I've tried three tapes and the picture rolls and the sound is cracking up. I cleaned the tape path but it wasn't really dirty nor did that solve the problem.

The machine is in good condition but just these last few days and especially today I'm not able to watch anything.

Does it work okay when cooler or is it just that the start of the problem coincided with the hot humid spell? If the latter then it probably is just that - coincidence.

Try moving the VCR so it's getting plenty of ventilation, it is probably overheating, I had the same problem years ago, and moving it solved the problem.

Thanks for the input. Overheating sounds probable so I'll get some better ventilation sorted. I'll let you know how that goes. I feel that the tape is dragging the head drive so that the sync is lost momentarily.

FIXED!

I tried aiming a fan to cool it - no joy. I tried another head clean - no joy. I watched the tape passing the transport and when the picture rolled I saw that the tape was moving over the top of the lip on the entrance side of the head. A tiniest turn of the guide post saw normal picture maintained and the tape sitting correctly.