My friend told me to Clean the VCR Heads, but we...

okay here it is. it shouldnt be hard to mess up. just take the top of the vcr off and get a rag, put alcohol on it then spin the head with the rag lightly on the head. this is the fastest easiest way to fix

Isopropyl alcohol is better cleaner than meths. There is also contact cleaner which is very good.

no no no...never use cleaning tapes..they do more harm than good in the long term. They are abrasive and wear the heads down with repeated use. Even wet syatem cleaning tapes can get caught on your head tips on the drum and ruin them. A new head drum for the nvhs1000 costs £85 and that does not include any fitting!
Instead, get some meths and cotton wool buds and some good quality plain paper, take the cover off the vcr and unplug it. With meths soaked cotton buds, clean the pinch roller and capstan shaft, and also the stationary erase head and mono sound head till no more black is seen on the used buds.
For the video heads on the cylinder, cut strips of the paper about 3 inches by 3cm and soak one end in the meths. Hold this with your thumb gently against the gap between the upper and lower drums and slowly rotate the drum anticlockwise with your right finger (try not to touch any solder points on the upper cylinder while doing this. You should feel the head tips passing under the meths paper as you rotate the drum. After 4 or 5 turns, look at the paper. You should see some black lines. This is tape oxide from off the head tips. Repeat until no more black is seen coming off.
Finally, replace the cover and leave a few minutes plugged in and powered on to let any remaining meths dry out before loading any tape.
If you load a tape while the drum is still wet, you will have a big mess inside the vcr as the tape will stick to and wrap itself round your precious head drum!

1. Play a new blank tape in your VCR. Most of the time this works to clean the heads and keep them from flaking additional oxide.
2. After an hour, remove the clean tape and try the VCR.
3. If the heads still aren't clean, try using a special head-cleaning tape (available at electronics stores). Buy one that uses a cleaning fluid; dry cleansers are more likely to damage the VCR heads.
4. To keep your heads clean longer, check rental tapes for obvious signs of damage before putting them in your VCR, and fast-forward past the first few minutes of any rental tape, which is where damage is most likely to occur.