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  #1  
02-09-2018, 05:24 PM
JosephM1998 JosephM1998 is offline
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Hi all,

I'm currently undertaking the 'preservation' of several tapes. My setup is detailed below:

  • JVC HR-S9500 VCR (NTSC American unit - plugged into voltage converter, as I am based in Australia) - also using the built-in TBC.
  • External Time Base Corrector (AV Toolbox AVT-8710).
  • Capture Card (Dazzle DVC100).
  • VirtualDub - capturing to Lagarith lossless AVI - I process the captured files in Vegas 14 and Tmpgenc.

This may not be the ideal setup, but transfers look fantastic to me and it works.

A friend of mine, a television producer in the US, sent me 25 episodes of a series he did, dubbed to individual VHS cassettes, with the intention of having me transfer these. These were not plain generic blank tapes, but e30 tapes processed and dubbed from the original masters (complete with countdown clocks and sometimes colour bars at the beginning) by post-production companies in Toronto and New York. I can date these tapes to 1999.

I was quite eager to go ahead, as I wanted to see these episodes very much- and (unprofessionally) digitised 16 of the 30 minute episodes in one day.

The following day, I transferred the episodes from 17-24 with little to no issues. They came out clean and didn't appear dirty or tainted.

However, when I got to 25, the last one. I had multiple issues. The tape would appear fine, then attempt to play in HIFI and the image would fuzz up and instantly revert back to mono sound. This process repeats itself and renders the tape unwatchable in that system. Curious, I tested the tape in a standard LG DVD/VCR combo and it played, in HIFI, with no issue. I don't understand what's going on here.

I attempted to clean the VCR heads manually. I tested a few tapes - they looked great (didn't really notice a difference, maybe something here or there) but I tested the odd tape again and it really didn't make a difference. It's still doing the same thing, although the picture doesn't cut out entirely (and show the colour bars of the TBC as it was doing earlier) when it fuzzes up. A SLIGHT improvement?

I don't want to test out the tape too much, in fear that something may happen to it. For now, It's okay.

I'm sure someone here will understand what's going on. It's driving me absolutely crazy.

Regards, Joseph.
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  #2  
02-09-2018, 11:44 PM
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lordsmurf lordsmurf is online now
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Which AVT-8710 is that? A green unit, or the black unit? If black, you probably have errors you not yet noticed.

The JVC doesn't want to track that episode. It's not the VCR, but the signal quality.

At best, any given VCR can play maybe 90-95% of VHS tapes. You need two decks of completely different makes to get that up to 99%+.

It's probably not the heads. And hopefully you didn't damage them by incorrectly cleaning (no Q-tips!!!)

Look at the physical tape. Do you see any defects?

I recently discovered one of my homemade tapes from 1988 was getting sticking oxide.

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  #3  
02-10-2018, 12:55 AM
JosephM1998 JosephM1998 is offline
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It's the black model - I had no idea there was a green one! What are the issues with the black one?

Thankfully, I haven't damaged the VCR as I cleaned it properly!

The tape looks okay to me, so what I'll do is send this particular tape to a friend of mine with identical equipment (he also has different makes and models of similar VCRs) and have him transfer it. Convenient as he has also helped my TV producer friend with the first season of this show (40 eps and a Christmas special)

I'm curious to know what known issues the black TBC has- My friend ran into a problem with it when we were doing the first season of the show. One of the episodes could not be read with the TBC attached after about 40 seconds of the tape. Thankfully, we also had this episode on another tape and simply used that one. Unfortunately, we aren't as lucky with this one. So, hopefully my friend's machine can handle it. I'm sure you're right and it all varies between VCRs, as my standard machine can handle it (while converting to PAL60 of course - multiformat PAL deck)

Anyway, thank you so much, this has genuinely set me at ease. Knowing I've done all I can do and that it's not my fault makes me feel a lot better. I just hope we can get a good digital transfer of the tape!

JM
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02-10-2018, 01:06 AM
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Read about it here: http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vcr-...-8710-doa.html

Do the JVC test. Go to JVC menus, and move screen to screen real quick. It will likely stick, ghost, reverse fields, or do something else really odd. It has flawed chipsets. Cypress/AVT is now discontinuing their TBCs, due to chips no longer being available.

In PAL lands, about 15 years ago, you also had smurfy-blue on silver plastic CTB-100 units. The modern version (same as black AVT) is a muted/silvery blue on silver, nowhere near as bright as a Smurf.

AVToolbox rebrands Cypress Technologies TBCs.

The CTB were always more rare, nowhere near as many made as AVT units.

BTW: What show?

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02-10-2018, 01:24 AM
JosephM1998 JosephM1998 is offline
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Wow... so THAT'S why the menu does that.... thought it may have something to do with the TBC.

Very interesting. Thanks for letting me know! I haven't had any other issues with the TBC so I'm still happy with what I have, but I may keep an eye out for better models, the green one for example.

The show is "Noddy" or "The Noddy Shop" seen on TVO/CBC in Canada and PBS in the US from 98-2000 I believe. We also got it in Australia and I've been a fan for a long time. The producer also did "Ace Lightning" and "Shining Time Station" (which introduced Thomas the Tank Engine to the United States) - I'll also be doing these series in future - a bit worried about Shining Time as the first series came out in 1989. Hoping my friend's dubs are a little more recent!
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02-10-2018, 01:39 AM
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That same issue will happen all over you captured videos, it's not just in the menus. The menu is just an easy test. Watch some, and odds are you'll see it happen in the capture.

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  #7  
02-10-2018, 01:42 AM
JosephM1998 JosephM1998 is offline
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Damn. I'll keep an eye out. Will post back if I come across anything!
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