Thanks nvic/asmiov; I tried a careful head clean with a small amount
of meths, can u adv where the faq is for doing cleaning heads
properly etc, the one on the bottom is mainly for forum admin etc.

wouldn't be surprised if there's an olympic event of VCR shot put
soon!

are the chipped/misaligned symptoms visible btw?

just tested playback and it looks so close to being fine, grey then
good picture, then it fights but then goes grey again (or gray as you
guys may like instead!).... grrrr. 300 joules, stand clear.