Is this VHS tape degrading?
 

The tape I've been using for testing is now having lines and tearing at the top for the first 30 seconds or so. I want to say I've only done about 10 captures of the first couple of minutes after doing the entire tape and then realizing I had no sound. I've got a previous capture of the first few minutes that's clean so I guess I can trim and merge them together.

I'm waiting on chamois tip swabs to come so I can do some cleaning, but what does the FAQ think is the issue? I don't want to start causing damage to the tapes I actually care about.

VCR is HR-7800U

Thanks,

Looks like the kind of tearing that line TBCs won't fix (also includes tapes in which having the line TBC enabled makes the footage worse, I've only seen this happen for videotapes that were clearly edited, like wedding highlights and the like, or also tapes that were clearly a second gen copy). Tried two JVC VCRs with tapes like these and the results were the same.

You need to use a Panasonic ES10 or ES15 DVD recorder as a passthrough device, and disable the line TBC built into the VCR.

It just showed up today though. I've got a couple of samples in the encoding help thread from a couple days ago when I did the first 5 minutes and that capture seemed fine. Luckily I still have that capture.

I'm borrowing this VCR from a friend an he also had a DVD recorder I'm borrowing as well. It's not an ES15 but still a Panasonic. I had to order a couple more S-Video cables so I'm going to have to wait until those come to see if it works like the ES10/15s or I'll be picking one of those up next. I'm just concerned that it may be an issue with the age of the VCR. He said it's been in storage and I know internals can breakdown over time. But then again it's only in the first 30 seconds and that's within the area I've been playing and rewinding the most.

7x00 series generally seems more prone to that, but I've also seen it on 9x00 series as well occasionally. Does the test tape happen to have macrovision on it - in other words, is it a commercially produced movie? I've only ever seen that effect where turning off the line TBC helps on certain tapes with macrovision personally. Could also be your specific capture card doesn't play well with the combo, not that it has likely changed. The other thing that I've seen cause upper screen distortions was just generally hot luma levels (which is kind of macrovision's thing), but can happen without macrovision if the on screen levels are high enough.

It could be some tape damage on the top edge. The very start and end of a tape is vulnerable to damage from dirt, stretching, cinching (scratches in the oxide layer). The old advice was to never record anything important at the very beginning of tapes.

No macrovision I don't think. It's an instructional video that came with a knitting gadget. And it just appeared, definitely wasn't there the first few tests.

If it's damage would it be visible enough to verify by eye? I'll have to dig up another tester tape to play with and see if it pops up again. That would give an indication of an issue with the VCR I think.

ignore, I see what I was going to suggest was already mentioned in the first message.

Any editor works, even VirtualDub. The easiest editor will be an actual NLE like Premiere, where you have separate audio and video timelines.

This is why I shouldn't post messages while working ;-)

More or less. I still had about a 5 minute capture from testing brightness/contrast settings with the histogram . There's a nice fade to black pretty shortly after that clip I uploaded so it may not be a perfect match but that's fine.

As a side note to that, is there a trouble shooting method to get the histogram to work while the video is playing in VirtualDub? Not necessarily while capturing but while it's previewing. I don't remember which it is, Overlay or Preview, but one shows the histogram updating and no video and the other is opposite. When I had first started messing with the brightness/contrast settings it worked before one capture and then I can't get it to work again.

I'm still wondering if it's something I did or the VCR or the tape. I need a bigger sample size so more testing is in order. And I know it's not like it's priceless material, but I feel like it's better to take it seriously while getting the process worked out.

It seems that every computer and capture card combination works different for seeing your video while watching the histogram. On my Lenovo T500 laptop (XP) with the ATI 600 USB the only way I can get video and histogram to set levels before recording is Preview / Preview Acceleration - Interlaced - frames. I've seen others says Overlay works best for them. YMMV. I also find that I can watch the video during capture BUT fps will be way off from 29.97 and frames inserted will go up quickly. Essentially it's not usable. IIRC with Win10 and a Hauppauge card I was able to watch video but there were other weird things so I stick with my XP setup. I also use the composite out to an analog TV for watching while capturing. Others have said this weakens the S-video signal but I don't see it and honestly, I need to monitor somehow so that's what I do.