I just bought a new Sony VCR. I tried to find one with 4 heads, but I didn't see one. The only Sony Walmart had, had 19 micron heads. I'm a Sony loyalist so I bought it. Anyway my question is, what is a micron head? Are 19 micron heads better than 4 regular heads?

I ask cause I'm having some problems with the new Sony VCR. When I record in SLP sometimes on playback the tape will flicker every 10 seconds or so like there is a problem with the tracking (its not the tracking). I tried quite a few tapes and the problem is happening alot. I tried those tapes on my Moms 4Head Panasonic and they record/play fine on hers. So I'm wondering if 19 Micron heads isn't the best way to go for recording, or if I just got a bad VCR. Either way I'm taking it back, I'm just not sure if I should replace it for the same model or go to a different brand or find a Sony elsewhere w/4 heads.


Thanks to anyone who helps.

In computer terms, microns refer to the size of the dies for a chip. They were .25 microns, then .19, etc. I am not sure if that is what you have there (i.e., the heads have more info/tape readers packed into the same space,) or if it means you have 19 separate 'micro-sized' heads.

The 19 micron refers to the gap distance in the magnetic head.

It's been a while since I paid attention to the gap size, but generally more heads allows optimization for different speeds in that you can have different gap sizes or some other magnetic specifications for each speed.

Looking over some current VCR specs I see that 19 appears to be pretty much a standard.

I have a 6 head Toshiba with the micron heads

The 19 micron head is suppose to give you better playback in EP mode and it does work a bit.

Your player still has the regular 4 or 6 heads, but uses these smaller heads also when you play back EP tapes.

yup as others have mentioned, 2 different things
19 is something with the size
4 is the number of heads
don't know all the technical stuff beyond that