PURPOSE: To discriminate accurately the presence or absence of the sound signal recorded by sampling the signal component covering from the high band part of a carrier chrominance signal which underwent a low band conversion through the low band part of a luminance signal which underwent the modulation of frequency in a vertical flyback time and detecting the signal level.

CONSTITUTION: The output signal of a BPF14 is applied to a switch 61, and the signal component is sampled in a vertical flyback time. This signal component is applied to a voltage comparator 65 via a wave detecting circuit 63 and an LPF64 and compared with the reference voltage VR. Thus a discriminating signal SD is delivered. The signal SD is set at a high level when the sound signal is recorded in the direction slant to the tape traveling direction. Otherwise the signal SD is set at a low level. When the signal SD is set at a high level, switches 51L and 51R are switched toward F. The reproduced sound signal L and R are obtained at output terminals 52L and 52R via amplifiers 35L and 35R. When the signal SD is set at a low level, the sound signals sent from fixed heads 71L and 71R are obtained at output terminals 52L and 52R respectively.