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I've been capturing a pile of VHS-C tapes that were recorded on my old VHS-C camcorder from 1988 to 1999 (at which time it quit working and I eventually threw it away). My capture setup consists of a dedicated Win XP PC with an AIW 9600 AGP, JVC HR-S7800, Panasonic AG-7650, JVC HR-S3600 and another regular JVC VHS deck.
I started with the oldest tape first and about half way through the pile I started getting top flagging/tearing on sections of some tapes so I used a Panasonic DMR-ES25 as a passthrough which stabilized it (I'm assuming that's when my camcorder was starting to have issues). My problem is with my last two tapes from 1999. Both tapes have a bad tracking, head switching type of noise that can't be fixed using the tracking controls or other VCR playback controls (video calibration/stabilizer/TBC etc). Same result on all VCRs
The first of the two tapes had the noise at the bottom third of the picture so assuming it was a tape alignment issue with my old camcorder, I decided to "sacrifice" my lower end JVC VHS deck and manually adjust the tape guides until I got a good picture. That worked.
The final tape (which was recorded the day after the previous one) has an issue where the noise is mostly within two large bands across the picture, one just below the middle and the other in-between that and the bottom, along with some random noise and flickering throughout the whole image. I've adjusted the tape guides in the playback VCR to the point where the top of the picture is good and stable however I can't get rid of the noise on the lower half. At this setting the audio losses some of it's treble. By adjusting the tape guides I can move the noise patterns up and down and see the part of the image that was covered so I know it's not baked into the picture. Using the jog/shuttle dial to FF and Reverse search displays a clearer picture but after a second or two of putting it back in play mode the noise bands come back. The other thing I noticed is the usual overscan head switching noise at the bottom is different in that I can actually see some image detail.
Pictures attached are Noise-JVC_HR-VP618 (this is the one where I adjusted the tape guides) and Noise-JVC_HR-S7800 (the usual deck I use for captures).
I also disassembled the tape cartridge and put a light coating of silicone lubricant on the friction surfaces in case the reels were dragging. The tape is in excellent condition (no shedding or stickiness), and has been FF and RW a couple of times. Although my consumer VCRs would play the tape, my Panasonic AG-7650 threw a fit and wouldn't play it, the "Servo" indicator on the display lit up (I have no idea what that means) and another time it displayed an E-5 error. Another thing I noticed was on one VCR it would rewind at full speed right to the end of the tape, on another VCR the rewind speed was really slow.
Apart from adjusting the P2/P3 tape guides as I have done, I'm wondering if anybody has any thoughts on this issue or suggestions on any other adjustments I can do inside of the VCR to get a better result from this tape?
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