Quote:
Originally Posted by Captainclock
if the tape heads were bad, how hard would it be to get a replacement head for it?
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Before worrying about replacement heads, you should do tests to see if any are even needed. Put an oscilloscope on the output of the control head to see if it is making a signal when a tape is playing. (If you do not have a scope yet, you should get one; many used ones are cheap and not too hard to learn to use.)
Regarding the speed and test-tape issues, the key is to compare using a known-good VCR. For example, if you play a tape recorded on the Hitachi on another machine, does it play properly? (And, switching the speed while a VCR is recording may not even work; you might have to hit Stop first. But, trying each speed available is a good plan.) Make sure your test VCR can play all the speeds of the Hitachi (so, don't use a VBT-200 or VCT-series machine to try to play an "SLP" or "EP" recording).