I am trying to play some videotapes. The player is a Samsung DVD/VCR combo player from many years ago. It works fine, but I am having problems displaying some videotapes. Some work normally, but several Akai brand tapes seem to have some kind of copy protection or simple incompatibility issue that is preventing them from playing. If I start them playing, the TV says no signal and there is no sound. If I quickly press the select button on the player to change to DVD and then press again for VCR, I get audio and picture for about one second and then it cuts out. It acts like it is detecting some kind of signal, or not detecting it, that switches off the playback. If I play non-Akai tapes, it works like it should. 

The Akai tapes seem to be private recordings of assorted classical music performances. They are not commercial pre-recorded tapes. I also have some non-Akai tapes that are pre-recorded commercial ones, and they play fine. I have tried this on two TVs I have available with AV inputs and they both do the same. One TV is a Veon with normal AV input. The other is a Panasonic with shared composite/component in. In the past all tapes, including the Akai ones, played normally on an old analogue TV that no longer works. I am a bit puzzled by this and wonder if anyone knows what might be going on here.