I have recently purchased a 720p HDTV which has very good picture quality when viewing through any of the HDMI, Scart or normal TV channels. When I Fast Forward my video tapes on SP, everything is fine, but when my tape has been recorded in LP mode and I Fast Forward, I lose the images completely, ending up with a blue screen, as though the HDTV is unable to display the fast moving tape. As I regularly tape in LP mode so I can watch at my convenience, can I do anything to stop this happening please, as it is difficult to skip adverts with no visible picture.

wzartv

VHS tapes recorded in LP are less stable (quality-wise) than SP tapes. It's just because of the differences in how they are recorded. Your TV automatically goes into a "blue screen" when the picture is unstable or static. When fast forwarding or rewinding an LP tape, your VCR produces a very unstable, bouncy, static-filled signal, because of the LP format. Therefore your TV is "reading" it as "static" and therefore giving you the blue screen.

You should lose the blue screen once you hit play, right? If not, either avoid viewing the tape while fast-forwarding (you can do this by hitting "STOP" then "FF") or otherwise stopping the tape before playing it. This kind of "resets" the unstable image going to your television set.

Although you can't avoid this with LP tapes, you MAY be able to go into your HDTV's menus and turn of "Blue Screen" or whatever your TV manufacturer calls it.

All of these silly features new TVs come with are made to help, but often times lead to further confusion.

If I can help any further or expand further, let me know.