Chroma jitter with my Panasonic HS1000
 

Hello,

I attached a video of the problem.
When I capture old vhs with my "good" Panasonic HS1000+Passthrough ES10, some tapes are capture with a very instable chroma signal. --see the first part of the video--
To see if it's a problem with the tape I tried to capture it also with an ultracheap vcr. Obviously the image is much noiser, but the flickering of the chroma channels is gone.
I've cleaned the heads of both vcr with chamois swabs before the tests.

Test I've done confirm that:
1) It's not the cables.
2) It's not the passthrough.
3) Tested with S-Video and Composite.

Despite of that the overall signal of the Panasonic is better, so I capture with that, but I'm afraid that there is a big problem here with the vcr. Maybe a head is faulty?
Thanks for any advice.


--For the moment I "solve" the problem by capturing multiple times and combine the captures in this way:

RESULTING LUMA CHANNEL = MEDIAN of 3 captures
RESULTING U CHANNEL = DARKEN blend mode of the 3 captures
RESULTING V CHANNEL = LIGHTEN blend mode of the 3 captures

This is because I figured out that the problem is due the fact the vcr "amplifies" randomly the chroma signal lightening the U channel and darkening the V channel. But I don't figure out why.

In this site there is a suggestion that the issue could be caused by defective capacitors.
http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/thread...please.287300/

What should I do in this case?

Caps on the colo0r board and s-video likely need replacement.

I see two kinds of noise in both examples. Severe horizontal dropouts and what appear to be scratches from either playback on a vcr with bad heads, or rewinding with a cheap winder. Then there are cyclical diagonal hum bars indicating that the magnetic layer has been altered by improper storage and exposure to a strong external magnetic field such as a loudspeaker magnet or a CRT TV. I'd say the tape is pretty well ruined. I've encountered similar cases in the past. If not magnetic field exposure, then both test vcr's are powered by a circuit with poor grounding. But it looks like magnetic field exposure to me.

Yes, the tape is ruined and it was bad storaged. I have a lot of tapes in this condition with valuable content.
I don't think the s-video connector needs replacement because the signal is quite similar with the composite cable. Why do you think it needs replacement?
I propend for the capacitors... But I have no idea on how to replace them and where to find the replacements.
Is there some material/tutorial you can link to me where I can study about this topic?

I don't refer to the s-video connection. I refer to the s-video circuit board and its components.

You are wasting a good player using composite cable. S-video is far superior.

Unless you know exactly what you are doing and have thousands of dollars worth of shop equipment, I advise that these Panasonic machines require highly specifics types, values, and construction of capacitors and other components.

I have no idea where you could obtain service in your area. Perhaps some of our other members can help.

I'm aware that s-video is superior, I used the composite just to verify that the problem was not the s-video cable or the connector.