VCR hiss (haven't it used much in yrs)

[Eeyore]

i have hardly used the VCR at all in the past few years and recently tried watching a few old tapes. it's a relatively recent model hi-fi VCR (panasonic PV-9541), but whenever i play tapes in hi-fi mode i get an annoying hiss. interestingly, this was not noticable on the first tape of The Godfather, but excruciatingly annoying on the second tape. These tapes are THX certified and claim to be dolby surround... so i would think it would work just fine.

the vcr is connected to a pioneer VSX-D509s through pretty decent RCA cables. the hiss only occurs when the VCR is set to hi-fi... when it's set to mono, the hiss goes away, but there's no stereo sound then. VHS doesn't compare to DVD, but at least it could sound better than mono.

any ideas why this would happen? hopefully i'm missing something obvious here :> did a search and didn't find anything so i'm assuming this isn't something that always happens.

[DigIt]

Probably a problem with the tape and not the VCR. That linear mono track is probably separate from the hi-fi track, so that's why one is hissy and one isn't. My suggestion would be to rent a copy and see if it's an inherent problem with the mastering or if you've just got a bad tape (unlikely). Or just spend $10 and buy a new tape.

Also, you're not really clear in your post: you get hiss whenever you play tapes in hi-fi, but not on Godfather 1. Was Godfather 1 not hi-fi, or was it hi-fi but not hissy? That should tell you if it's the VCR or the tape.

Maybe it's time to dust off that parametric equalizer... ;)

[MichaelBlanton]

The hifi tracks and mono tracks are read by two different head assemblies. The hifi heads are actually part of the rotating drum. Not sure what would introduce the 'hiss', though. My first action would be to clean the heads really good.

[Eeyore]

the hiss is on several tapes that i put in there: godfather and also SOME of the muppet movies (muppets take manhattan and the muppet movie are hissy, great muppet caper is ok) and trois coleurs red. the hiss isn't there if you set the VCR to mono. as near as i could tell the godfather is in dolby surround, obviously not as good as DD but it seemed to be coming from different channels. it could be that something is wrong with the VCR or that the VCR thinks some of these tapes are hi-fi but they aren't. it's really pretty weird that the first tape of godfather is fine, but the second hisses terribly.

i'll either look into cleaning the heads or just ignoring it and resign myself to using the VCR in mono for those very few movies i actually watch on VHS. :> thanks for the input and help!