Jitter on HR-S9500U but not cheap VCR?
 

Backing up VHS-C Tapes , I have a consistent issue across multiple players/capture set-ups where some tapes will experience extreme vertical roll/jitter. The image will misalign sporadically, and there will be a gap of black between the image top and bottom ~40 pixels in height (relative to a 720x480 capture). The stabilization/TBC/calibration on a JVC HR-S9500U does little to remedy this.

In my search for an answer, I'd read that using a 2-Head VCR as a passthrough could mitigate jitter on tapes. I dug my oldest player out of storage, a Sharp VC-A382U, and although it's a 4-head, I tried it anyway. It didn't work, but out of curiosity I tested how it handles the tape on its own, and to my amazement the jitter is nonexistent. However, as you'd expect, the overall video quality is not as good, and the top of the image is warbly/flagging.

Why would this player handle these tapes better, and what would the overall solution be in my case?

The top lines of the signal are damaged, incomplete.

The JVC attempts to correct, but fails, too much damage exists. On most JVCs, with everything disables -- no TBC, etc -- it should also display with tearing. The 7500/9500 have some "always on" aspects to them, so not sure, I've never tested tearing on my 9500. (Now I will, added to test list!)

The plain VCR will just barf out the signal. It may not jitter, but it'll have all sort of other issues from lack of timing correction, especially the tearing.

There are certain devices known for correcting this, especially the ES10/15 type units. Those add issues, but the net effect is better video, the tradeoff to remove tearing is worth it. This is something I discovered when the unit was days old, and has been known for it ever since.

What is your current exact workflow hardware?

Windows XP Integral Edition -> AmaRec 3.10 -> ATI USB 600 -> HR-9500U

Yes, I know that an external TBC is necessary, but until now I had been getting away with not having one: Stable picture, perfect syncing on the audio and no dropped frames. Most of my tapes are in good enough condition to make that the case, but obviously not these recent ones. I've just purchased an ES15 and I'll let you know what kind of difference it makes.

Ok yeah, adding the ES15 to the chain immediately fixed the issue. I feel silly now.