JVC HR-S9600U image tearing from bottom?

[dock]

Good afternoon, all! Long time reader, first time writer.

I have made this post somewhere else (different site) but for background: A good while back, during the throes of the pandemic, I set out to digitize all my VHS tapes that I have inherited through my family. I wanted to do it right, so 200+ tabs of reading later, I found a JVC HR-S9600U on ebay and made the purchase. This model was indicated to me to be highly preferable for the task, given it's many modern (for the time) advancements in the technology, albeit ones that probably escape my total understanding (specifically TBC).

I am roughly 100 tapes in to my 200-ish tapes for this project, and I noticed that in the last few conversions, it will play as expected for 3-5 seconds, and then begin video tearing from the bottom, which completes to full screen tearing/static looking at the top, before it immediately resets and begins showing regular video again. This process repeats ad infinitum and doesn't change behavior, aka, is very regular. Not sure when this began happening, but I'm going back through my conversions to see how much I must re-do.

I've learned basically everything I know about this topic from this forum, especially lordsmurf, so it's time for me to get out of the audience and into the play, so to speak. I'm interested in diagnosing and hopefully fixing this issue, but I'm open to any analyses or suggestions about how best to continue converting all my tapes should this excellent player be kaput.

Thank you in advance for the time. Really hoping for the best

- Dock

[dock]

I submitted my poste before my upload had completed, but I have attached a quick video of the problem occurring a few times, to show what it's doing and how frequently.

[themaster1]

I'm thinking of an issue with the audio / control track head, in other words synchronisation errors due to either a dirty head or failing head. But first things first try to clean it good with IPA alcohol. Check the cable that goes to it while you're at it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control_track

Similar issue (plus blue screen of death)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuP4...VhZF9jb250cm9s

[timtape]

I believe your 9600 also has the Dynamic Drum feature. Others will know better but I believe it is prone to mechanical failure which can lead to unreliable tracking in usual playback. One member here has recommended having the feature disabled to enable normal tape digitisation.

[dock]

Thank you both for the advice, I will try to find the time tomorrow midday/afternoon to take a looksee at it and report back.

[aramkolt]

Hmm. Fantasia should have macrovision. I'm not sure how the Elgato tends to handle macrovision - unlikely that's the case here, but you should probably check if it displays as normal on a CRT TV.