Hi,
this vcr (charlie deck) gives a rather snowy liney picture on playback,
sometimes a small (inch or so) band of clear image at bottom inch of
pic is visible. It looks like bad heads. Same symptoms on prerecorded
and own recordings. Doesnt seem to change over time with warmup. (E-E
pic is OK and yes, I have cleaned heads and entire tape path a few
times already with no change!)

Strange thing is, if you record anything on this vcr and then replay it
on another machine, you get a good, clear b&w image with flickering
weak/unlocked colour. Then if you go to picture search or pause, you
get a sped up or still image - with perfect colour!! This seems to me
to rule out the video heads on the philips.
never seen this before, is this the drum motor at fault or some head
switching issue??Unfortunately I don't have a scope, so am at a dead
end on this one. Any thoughts appreciated. i'd like to give it a chance
of repair before tossing it out.
thanks, Ben