VCR Issue with Toshiba SD-V295KU

This may be a bit late but I just ran across these posts. All these problems can be caused by bad tapes. Commercially-made tapes will usually play properly. But home recorded tapes, or very worn tapes, may not play back properly in every VCR. If the VCR isn't getting the right information off the tape for proper playback, it's muting the sound and the screen so you don't see any snow. It's also possible that the VCR heads already need a cleaning. It takes just one worn-out or defective tape to clog up the heads and cause the "no picture" problem, although in this case sound isn't usually affected.