Hi Rod



 RG> Video heads are pretty much 'self cleaning' anyway -  the same

 RG> abrasive action that wears heads out will tend to keep them clean.



 RG> If you have a clear/watchable picture your heads aren't dirty.

 RG> If you do ever get dirty heads (snowy playback picture), they will

 RG> often clear themselves simply by leaving a tape playing in the

 RG> machine.



When that happens, I worry that the grot on the heads is damaging

the tape that is playing. We have suspicions about a couple of

damaged tapes, but it's impossible to prove whether the tape

stuffed the heads or the heads stuffed the tape.



Would a head cleaning tape do a quicker job than just playing a

(sacrificial?) normal tape?





Btw, did I mention that I've finally retired the NV777? I think

it's probably a just a power supply problem, but without a diagram

I'm not touching it. Symptom 1: we often have to hold the Play

button in for a long time to start a tape - it will load, then

immediately unload. After a few cycles of this (with the button

held in) it sometimes relents and starts playing, sometimes it

refuses. Sometimes it works on first press. Symptom 2: the lcd tape

counter locks up, no count, no response to reset button, sometimes

fixes itself if mains is cycled, sometimes not. This misbehaviour

often (not always) happens at the same time as the play problem.



The replacement is a Panasonic NV-SD250. I know, I know, it's made

in Malaysia, but all of the similar units on display were too.

Interestingly, it plays one of our old ratty tapes much better than

the NV777 did - a noise bar near the top of the screen has

disappeared.



Cheers



--- PPoint 1.88