Can someone help me save this bad tape?

ehbowen · #1 12-26-2018, 11:09 AM

I'm working on a project for another friend of my mother's. One of the tapes she wants me to capture is of her son's baptism. It was apparently recorded by the church videographer. I don't know what equipment he used, but the tape is horrible. It's recorded in SLP but my JVCs don't even recognize it as EP, they try to play it in SP with predictable results. My Mitsubishis, which are normally great with EP tapes, also have fits with it. This clip was recorded on a Panasonic AG-1980P>>S-Video>>TBC-4000>>S-Video>>ATI AIW 8500DV. My straight composite preview monitor also shows the same result, so it's not a capture card issue.

One time (out of seven) I got a stable image through these opening credits. Unfortunately, I wasn't capturing at the time. After the credits the image is just as bad; the bottom half is more or less stable but the top has severe tearing and distortion. I've tried playing with the tracking control on the Panasonic but haven't had any luck.

This is one of those irreplaceable family tapes and I'd really like to be able to do a good job on it. Any suggestions? Please?

ehbowen · #2 12-27-2018, 12:39 PM

Just in case it isn't clear, I'm not trying to save or restore the defective capture. I'm asking to see if anyone has any tips or tricks for adjusting one of my VCRs (Panasonic, JVC, or Mitsubishi) so that I get a stable image for a decent capture from this very bad tape.

Bogilein · #3 12-27-2018, 01:10 PM

I would try an Panasonic vcr and the Panasonic DMR-ES10 as TBC. If tracking can't help I think you have to watch for another recorder for this tape.

hodgey · #4 12-27-2018, 03:07 PM

In some cases adjusting the alignment of the tape guides can help (there's a guide on the forums here somewhere) can be helpful if tracking is way off, though then you often get noise in the top or bottom portion rather than just warping, so I don't know if that's the issue here.

Really warped tapes like this is one of the reasons I'm interested in software decoding, like the Domesday86 people are doing with laserdiscs, but I haven't gotten very far with that project yet.

ehbowen · #5 12-27-2018, 04:18 PM

Well, I kept playing around with that tape in the Panasonic. I noted that it would run between 30 seconds to a minute or so before the signal "fell apart" with tearing...but that if I paused it, it would regroup and have a stable picture again for another minute or so. Also, the S-Video was terrible, mostly black & white...but the straight composite signal I have going to my preview monitor was more or less OK.

So, I fed the composite signal to the AIW 8500DV and kept one finger on the Panasonic's Jog/Shuttle button. When the image fell apart I would pause the tape, back it up a few seconds, and resume capturing...with the thought of editing out the backs and fills afterwards (by hand).

By doing that I got enough of the tape captured to be able to describe what was on it to my mother's friend. It turns out that it is an important family memory...of the christening of her sister-in-law's baby boy and girl (twins)...in Greece!

Apparently she got the tape from her sister-in-law. She was front and center in all of the family shots; fooled me! Anyhow, it's her in-laws' problem, not mine any more; they probably have the original tape.

Which makes me wonder...this was recorded in Greece. Was I trying to capture a PAL tape on NTSC equipment? Whoever copied it should have used a multi-format converting VCR...but did they? How would I know, seeing as I have no PAL VHS equipment?

hodgey · #6 12-27-2018, 04:49 PM

I don't think NTSC VCRs will normally play PAL tapes properly unlike what many PAL VCRs can do with NTSC tapes. Or, if it did, I don't think you would get colour atleast. PAL doesn't have SLP either, and PAL and NTSC tapes play at different speeds. Granted I've found that my TBC-3000 manages to squeeze a PAL-60 signal into a normal PAL signals (which looks awful but still) so I don't know, maybe it does something.

ehbowen · #7 12-27-2018, 06:03 PM

Well, 4 out of 5 top-end VCRs choked on this tape and the remaining one could only play a few seconds at a time. I might be able to settle the issue, though...eBay had a listing for a PAL SVHS Sony SVO-965P. I'm crossing my fingers and rolling the dice again. Also plan to bid on a Song of the South PAL VHS tape to give it a proper tryout...never released on home video in the U.S.

hodgey · #8 12-27-2018, 07:10 PM

Sony SVO-965P looks like a duplicator? Can you even play back tapes on that thing?

Rather skeptical that it would be a PAL tape, especially since you get color, but I could be wrong I guess.

ehbowen · #9 12-27-2018, 07:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hodgey

Sony SVO-965P looks like a duplicator? Can you even play back tapes on that thing?

I really don't know. Tried to find a manual on line, but didn't feel like paying the vultures 8 bucks. Decided to wing it. The seller sold it as a "PLAYER / DUPLICATOR / RECORDER" and accepts 30 day returns, so I may have some recourse. But I took the gamble knowing that it was a gamble.