Intermittant video distortion Sony EV-S1?
 

I've been trying to convert tapes to my computer and noticed I get part way through a tape the video starts getting distorted. Then I rewind start over and that section's fine. Then it'll start up again. So it's not the tape but player. Any ideas whats wrong with this VCR? Power supply, internal heat, transport?

No TBC?
What capture card?

I don’t know what TBC is but I’m using Roxio VHS to DVD Plus but the irregularity is before I even attach the capture device.

it's a Sony EV-S1

You need a TBC, you have none
https://www.digitalFAQ.com/forum/vid...time-base.html

Roxio uses rebadged Easycaps (aka Easycrap, an earned nicknamed).

That's the problem
- low end player
- no TBCs
- literally one of the worst capture cards ever made, infamous cheap Chines USB junk

The problem you're having is what is expected with such an incomplete low-end setup.

Better =
- Hi8 camera with line TBC -- and those are cheap, under $200 on eBay, from certain reputable sellers
- the 8mm tapes are drop-happy, so modded/preset DVK suggested here
- a better capture card -- no Easycaps, no ClearClick, no HDMI anything, no "grabbers", no Dazzle

All of this has been discussed on the forum to date, search for those discussions here. :)

Thanks for the education. I had no idea. Now I do but the problem is with my player. Just connected to the tv as I mentioned. Plays great one minute, starts to fuzz, rewind, plays good. Does it on every tape. Not sure if it’s the transport or electronics.

So it's messed up when you watch the playback directly to a TV as well? If it's not messed up straight to the TV, it probably isn't the player. You might try fast-forwarding the entire tape then rewinding the whole thing and that could also help if the tape is sticking to some degree.

I’ll give it a go. It’s really irregular. It’ll start fuzzing so I’ll stick another tape in. Then it’s good. Then I’ll go back to the first tape’s fuzzy part and it’ll be good. Then on down the line 10-15 minutes it’s starts doing it again. I was able to convert about 7 tapes to mp4 with no problem until this picture-fuzz thing started. I have a feeling it’s either a dirty transport, dry plastic gears. I guess it could be these next tapes in line to convert. Thanks for all your help

That's terrible advice due to "one and done" tapes. Tapes can have 1 final play left in them, before they literally start to disintegrate (oxide shed). If you FF/REW, then you wasted your chance. The tape is now gone, it cannot be captured without massive problems, assuming any capture at all.

This REW/FF "trick" is mostly a BS myth parroted online for too many years. It's as ridiculous as "clean the heads" for whatever ails the deck. Troubleshoot the problem, don't just random try stuff, hoping it gets fixed divinely.

What you describe here is a damage head.

There are also electromagnetic issues within the deck,similar to the fake "dropouts" you can get on Samsung SV-W units. Given how this is a low-end player, that's possible. These things were built like crap decades ago.

My Sony evs1 seems to be working great now since this 40 year old player’s gears needed to be greased. Now onto the analog>digital transfer using your suggestions above. The TBCs are fairly pricey to use to transfer a handful of Video8 tapes. Too bad there’s not a rental service that would suffice. Thanks for all your help.

Something else is afoot. Greasing gears alone would not resolve this issue.