In article , "dave" dave@
127.0.0.1 says...
I have a Toshiba vcr/dvd combo just out of warrantee (of course) and the video
part is playing up. It's a strange fault: the machine will sometimes play tapes
ok but mostly the picture fades into noise (over about 10 seconds). Sometimes it
fades back in again and the picture is just fine. The manual does say to try a
video head cleaner tape (I know, I know) but that does seem to help for while in
that it takes longer before the fade-out occurs. I don't think the video heads
are duff as the picture can be clean for several minutes at a time. It sort of
looks like the signal is being slowly tuned out! I tried manual tracking and
that will bring the picture back - but then, out it goes again. This is with
tapes that the machine itself records - and I've tried a couple oif different
brands.

I wonder if a belt is slipping somewhere.