Vertical streaks in Canon ES400V S-video output?

[Dawgsfan]

Hi all,

I’ve been transferring Hi8 tapes to DVD. I’m using a Canon ES400V camera and a Panasonic DMR-EZ28K DVD recorder.

I bought a cheap S-video cable to connect my camera to my DVD recorder. I ended up with vertical streaks in my DVD recordings. The streaks are most prominent in red areas of the video. I played back the discs in my computer and several DVD players to make sure the issue was not limited to playback on the DVD recorder. The streaks were present no matter where I played the video.

Suspecting the cheap S-video cable to be the culprit, I bought a new Monster S-video cable and tried again. Same streaks.

As for the DVD recorder, I turned the line-in NR on and off and toggled the black control on the input from lighter to darker. These didn’t eliminate the problem.

I also connected the camera to the DVD recorder via the composite yellow plug. The streaks were not present, but the picture quality was otherwise degraded, as I would expect when going from S-video to composite. The picture was less sharp and lines had the jagged “stair-step” effect.

Any ideas on how I can eliminate the streaks in the S-video signal?

Thanks.

[aramkolt]

A video sample would be nice to see what the streaks look like.

In my experience, something like 80% of the SMT caps on the encoder boards tend to be bad on the DMRs. Not sure if that would affect picture quality as I usually just replace mine prophylactically if I ever get another recorder.

I know those caps being bad doesn't prevent the machine from actually displaying a picture, but imagine they have some effect somewhere in terms of picture quality or stability, otherwise the engineers wouldn't have put them on the boards to begin with.

Sounds like you've tried everything else in terms of settings, so may be worth a go if you are comfortable changing them, or at least testing in-circuit (with machine powered off) with an ESR meter.

[Dawgsfan]

Thanks. I forgot that my Magnavox ZV457MG9 DVD recorder also has an S-video input. I plugged the camera into it, and the vertical streaks are gone, so the issue must be with the Panasonic, as you suggested. I’m relieved since I’d have no idea how to change the SMT caps. Thanks again.