re: My old vcr also had a similar problem
I'd pop a video in and press play, usually right at the start of the tape where there's no picture, just static. There would be this faint but very high frequency sound, and then the television would go blank, with just a smudge of phospors in the middle thereabouts. I'd have to turn the tv off for a while, fast-forward the tape past the static, and then it would work.