A video cassette has just stuck inside my beloved Mitsubishi HS-M68! :-(
I can't eject the cassette or perform any other functions with the machine - when I turn it on the mechanism simply jerks a little and then the machine shuts off again.
I've tried taking the case off the machine to have a look inside but I don't really have any knowledge of VCR maintenance and found that it's beyond me to figure out what to do to release the cassette or whether anything fatal has occurred. In its current state the loose tape was still clinging to the heads although the mechanism to hold it there is no longer positioned to do so and appears to have returned to its resting place under the flap at the front of the cassette.
The machine had been working fine until a minute before the problem; I had FF a tape which mysteriously stopped before reaching its end. I ejected the tape to check if it was okay, it looked fine, so I inserted it again. I pressed play to see if it would play. The picture was unstable. I hit eject again, but this time it wouldn't.
Any clues what to do please? I'll be devastated if the machine is dead as no other VCRs seem to playback my hundreds of LP tapes nearly so well as this machine.
Use a long toothpick or long skinny piece of plastic to lift the tape upwards off the heads and tracks. Use a flashlight. Once the tape is off the heads and tracks the tape will eject. This is easier than taking the top off the vcr. I've done it dozens of times and it worked every time.