A TechLore "Ask the Experts" Question...

Question:

I have a sanyo vcr model vhr-h629

I recently experienced a power outage, and now when I record a show & play it back I see the picture, but just get noise for sound. I can barely hear the voices under the "snow" noise. Is there something I need to reset so that I can hear the sound properly? I can play back earlier recordings and hear them properly. Can I recover the sound on these programs?

-submitted by trying

Answer:

Anytime I hear a question start with, "I recently had a power outage", I've been in the business long enough to know that power outages and electronics go together about as well as Paris Hilton and farming (for all you Simple Life fans).

Noisy stereo tracks can be difficult to deal with. There should be an adjustment in your VCRs menu to output the signal and record the signal as mono. This should get rid of the hiss, but it's only treating the symptom and not the illness. I would connect the VCR to another stereo television, and change that audio output setting back to stereo. If the problem still occurs on newer recordings, something related to audio recording in the VCR got fried during that power outage. It's always tough to tell when in these circumstances, since power outages can cause erratic problems.

If switching to mono solves the issue, you can run it that way for a long time, but you're going to lose out on audio quality. If the quality matters to you, then you'll need to repair or replace the VCR.

If anyone else has any ideas, post them to the discussion page below.

Matt Whitlock - Editor, TechLore.com