Samsung SV-5000W Worldwide VHS Format VCR
The Good, Bad, Ugly and the secret solution.
Bear with me I have the snow solution (AND 2 UPDATES) at the end but, I need to vent my frustration. Ok, I read some glowing reviews about this VCR and really had little choice as most multisystems are PAL based to play NTSC, not the other way around, and need an outside converter or multisytem TV that converts to work. Samsung's site praises the video heads as life long and needing no cleaning. I don't live in a region that would have any of these for sale so it was online for me. Wow, this thing was expensive! However, I found a demonstrator model on ebay for half retail and grabbed it. The first few months were fine, although the PAL conversion to NTSC was understandably sub-quality (NTSC uses more scans per inch than PAL), but softening the picture helped. Then the snow began to fall. ALL of you have heard of this and believe me I was floored when it happened. It looked like a tracking problem so I manually adjusted, no luck. Maybe the heads so I cleaned them, ditto. Then I went to Samsung's site and quess what I found? That's right, this problem in their FAQ section! Lo and behold the answer. Play a pristine blank tape for an hour to clean the heads (?!). If that didn't work, get a commerical \\"WET\\" head cleaner and wait about ten minutes after cleaning to play another tape. Well, I went to the store and picked up both. Played the tape, aargh! Used the head, Yaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Samsung just made me spend $15 bucks for nothing. Their no-need-to-clean-heads VCR had dirty heads. I have a twenty year old RCA that played better and I never clean the heads on it.<br /><br />Then I read the second page of reviews here on Amazon. Oh brother, were there a ton of complaints about this problem. I did notice that when I rewound a tape and played it the snow cleared up. But after a while it returned and I fast forwarded numerous tapes just to play them. I had hoped to retire my RCA, but there seemed little hope. Out of options I decided to call Samsung's support. Mind you, I read horror stories about getting complacent CSR's and getting the runaround so I prepared myself. I got the friendlist woman who really listened to my problem gave me the advise that the site already did and when informed those methods didn't work, gave me a case # and transfered me to the tech division. After 10 minutes of music I was cut off. Huh! Called back to second helpfull CSR, transfered and hung up on again. RRRRR! Called back third time and asked not to be transfered. Well this guy somehow accessed a tech page and told me to eject the tape, hold down the \\"Play\\" and \\"Stop\\" button at the same time for 10 seconds and turn the VCR off for 10 seconds. Turn back on and play tape. What does that do? It is a reset to factory standards that doesn't make you have to go through the user set-up again (you know that little reset button under the \\"record\\" button you should NEVER push). Nope! Well call back tomorrow and give case # to be transfered to tech help again. Right!<br /><br />Pushed the play button for the heck of it and zoinks, a perfect picture. I really worked! Put in another tape. Yeah! Put in third, Uh Oh. Tried reset again and found I had to do it a few times but it does work. I won't be using this as my main player, just for imports and a few tapes that have surround (the RCA is mono).<br /><br />I know this isn't the greatest climax to the story, but give it a try. It may take a few times but it will happen. One thing I did notice is that this thing gets as hot as the sun and takes a couple of hours to cool down. This may be a big part of the problem and though I've not tried it a fan blowing in the vent couldn't hurt. I really hope this helps everyone with this problem because this machine can play like a champ when coaxed.<br /><br />UPDATE 1:<br />I recently moved and left this player unplugged for a couple of days. When I put together my system, Voila! No problems. Since then I've had absolutely no snow whatsoever. Hmmm? Could it be this unit needs abreak every once and a while? My new place is a lot cooler too so I still believe that has something to do with the problem and not the heads because it only appears during playback and not recording. Yes I have actually recorded with it. Although I bought it as a player, it does a damn fine job recording.<br /><br />UPDATE 2: I recently had the snow problem come back and unplugged the player, as before, for a week. This time, however, the snow persisted when I played an NTSC tape. I tried several movies and also the reset to no avail. Hmmmm? I noticed the \\"though\\" button was lit (this means that what you play is not converted) so I switched to NTSC and put in a PAL tape. Still the snow. Frustrated I put in an NTSC and it played perfectly. This sucker is touchy and you have to work with it. Kind of a shame because this player has some great features that I've only seen on high-end players.<br /><br />One other thing, I highly recommend getting a video enhancer, such as Sima. This player does not like the older Macrovision tapes and the picture fuctuates between over and undersaturation. Not great for viewing older rentals.new place is a lot cooler too so I still believe that has something to do with the problem and not the heads because it only appears during playback and not recording. Yes I have actually recorded with it. Although I bought it as a player, it does a damn fine job recording.    UPDATE 2: I recently had the snow problem come back and unplugged the player, as before, for a week. This time, however, the snow persisted when I played an NTSC tape. I tried several movies and also the reset to no avail. Hmmmm? I noticed the \\"though\\" button was lit (this means that what you play is not converted) so I switched to NTSC and put in a PAL tape. Still the snow. Frustrated I put in an NTSC and it played perfectly. This sucker is touchy and you have to work with it. Kind of a shame because this player has some great features that I've only seen on high-end players.    One other thing, I highly recommend getting a video enhancer, such as Sima. This player does not like the older Macrovision tapes and the picture fuctuates between over and undersaturation. Not great for viewing older rentals.