ZENITH (ORION) 13" TV/VCR WONT PLAY HAS SNOWY PICTURE TVBR1320Z - JUST NEEDED A GOOD CLEANING 

THANK YOU SO MUCH! my crt vhs combo JUST started doing this today whilst I was watching a movie. Gonna try this and hopefully it fixes the problem. Great video

Most people back then would have just used a VCR head cleaner cassette to shift surface dirt off the drum - or the machine has a built in head cleaner pad (when I used to look at these years ago, and they needed cleaning, I removed the head cleaner pads (they would go hard, and could rip heads right off the drum). But here I am impressed that you did NOT need any special tools, parts or test equipment for this "quick repair" which was just dirt and no damage.

Can we assume that the cotton swab was dipped in the acetone container that was prominently displayed at the beginning?!? Total cliffhanger! :P

As always interesting and informative. Thank you.

So often dirt is all it is! Thanks.

AWESOME video, tyvm, It's a shame you have to say "let's try to keep these out of a landfill", SMH...It took me awhile to learn the intricacies of the vcr but once I did I was convinced it was FINE and GOOD and didn't want any other way to watch movies on demand...I came home from a trip and all my VCR's had been replaced by Roku and Blu Ray DVD players in my house!!! I literally had a nervous breakdown. The divorce was expensive! I got my VCRs back, though...

We saw a LOT of Orion TVs and VCRs (and CD players and the like) in the UK in the 1990s-mid 2000s. Most of the big electrical retailers used them for house-brand products. They were really very reliable, better than some of the big names, and the VCRs in particular were bulletproof in my experience. The only thing that ever really went wrong with them was dirty mode switches, which wasn't even present on these later ones as you pointed out. The picture tubes were very strong too. Japanese capacitors in a low-end unit, where would you see that now? Tbh I never really had too much argument with Funai reliability in the 90s either. Both were a lot better than some of the Turkish and Chinese companies' stuff now. Both Orion and Funai were Japanese of course. I was disappointed to learn that Orion are now bankrupt. Problem was you could see the writing was on the wall even in the early 90s. These funny little cheap sets started appearing as supermarket specials, with low-resolution picture tubes, dated designs and odd names, all made in Turkey. These were all Beko and Vestel TVs from Turkey, and they would eventually eat the entire low end of the European industry alive a decade later.

You should not use cotton or any fibrous material for cleaning the head. The fibers get stuck in the heads and mess it up over time. Best to use paper soaked in acetone.

I remembered those days

One of my instructors got shocked by 25,000 volts he jumped around a lot but wasn't hurt. Anyway always respect the h.v.

Always hated working on those combo units years ago. Eventually vcrs became so cheaply made that they became throw aways as no parts were even available. I always used leather like shamy head cleaning swabs. Have also used white typing paper in hand, always used pure isopropyl alcohol. Acetone can eat the enamel off of the head windings. Still own my inductance head checker. I would highly recommend buying a Secore vcr analyzer, they can now be had very cheap cause most people don’t use vcrs anymore, or have them fixed.

Combo-head Orion , right down there with early days Lucky Goldstar🤣

That's an oldie by today's standards haha!

The drum looked like it has grooves in it but I think is a reflection of aluminum grain below it.

Hello. I have a lg dvd-vhs combo vcr. The first 10-15 minutes show bad. Then it gets better. I tried many different cassettes same problem. I wonder what the problem might be. Sorry google translation

You didn't clean the dust inside. Job half done. ☹️☹️☹️

No red-yellow sign on the thumbnail! I almost lost your video!

جميل جدا ورائع

You should not use cotton for that

Easy fix 👍...just don't like the sticker on the side of the cabinet...😕

My Panasonic VCR having some power supply problems not turning ON. Is there any chances the capacitor not to blow (Visually) for showing damage.

so how do you go about working on something so potentionally dangerous. How do you make it safe

You didn't have to discharge the tube first?

Emerson was a budget brand I remember. I avoided.

What no ERS meter on this video?

Combo devices are never a good idea , always a bad compromise.

These were horrible tv’s even when new. It’s a shame that the Zenith name was plastered on this.