🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Sep5.182620.20646@rsg1.er.usgs.gov>, ssnyder@sunai.er.usgs.gov
(Steve Snyder) says:
>
>In article <2AA6BA13.14151@news.service.uci.edu> gkwan@balboa.eng.uci.edu
>(Greg
>Kwan) writes:
>>The real question to me, however, is why are your video heads getting
>>so dirty (twice in 2 years)? Are you using cheap tapes? Don't do this.
>>Do you re-record on the same tapes over and over? You should change
>>tapes every so often (they do wear out). Finally, do you have a sep-
>>arate rewinder? Rewinding/fast-forwarding takes a lot out of the VCR
>>and should be minimized.

Rented video tapes are a big source of dirt.   They're usually heavily played,
often with sections that have been sucked into someone else's VCR.  The video
head is more likely to scrape the particles off the tape when it's "crinkled"
from being caught.

Rewinding and Fast-Forwarding shouldn't wear out your heads.  Any VCR I've seen
unwinds the tape from the head before doing this (of course, after hitting STOP
first).  This _does_ wear out the idler wheel, so a rewinder is still a good
idea.

-Frank