JVC DR-M10 image shifted to left?
 

So I've been doing some VHS capturing and have been using a JVC DR-M10 for much of my recording but recently noticed something odd. It seems it is now shifting the playback image a bit to the left. Before I had it here...

Attachment 16941

Now its here.

Attachment 16942

And yes both images of are the same tape on the same machine. I've tried this with two VCR's but both cases they looked like image two. Tried one of my VCR's on my portable SONY DVD Recorder and that had less shift.

Attachment 16943

I know I mentioned having image issues when using a SIMA CopyMaster in another thread but thats not being involved in this case. Something going on with the JVC DVD recorder here??????

Analog data is read, demodulated/etc, played back. It doesn't match each time.

Capture cards often don't ingest the same either.

If you want to get even more anal, notice how the IRE on both recorders sucks. The only DVD recorder that is accurate is a certain RCA, but it has other limitations preventing it from being "the best" recorder (namely no cNR, making it awful for VHS).

You're about where I was back in 2002-2004, when these devices were all new. I quickly saw that quality and accuracy was all over the place. That's because no accuracy exists. It's analog. Analog isn't accurate, especially when mixed with digital tech. You do the best possible, but also understanding where the brick walls are.

Even digital isn't accurate, but merely far more accurate.

I won't go into details but I actually think I found what part of the problem was.

Oh how cruel, leaving us in suspense! :D

Well in short terms it was a digital stabilizer I had in the chain. Did a test without it and the image shifted back to the right.

I don't think you're loosing any actual video data regardless of how the image is shifted. If capturing 720x480, each horizontal line only has 704 pixels out of the 720 captured pixels with the other 16 pixels being black on either side. It is possible in post production to remove the 16 pixels or some capture cards can capture 704x480 instead - though I'm not sure if they know to go for the 704 pixels of non-black, or if they just grab the "center" 704 pixels. Lots of users will cut the black bars out in post capture and mask the upper and lower borders of the image as 704x480 plays well with everything including DVD players from some of the posts I've read.

So I guess the question is whether you think the video is any better quality in the chain that shifts the video a bit. If it is, you can probably fix the shift during your compression step with something like hybrid.