Problem with SECAM VHS playback / tape capture

[monks19]

Hi, I tried a SECAM capture at home not long ago and I met some difficulties:

Image jitters/flickers, darkened image, discolouration of the image tint, etc.

So I made a capture test vs a capture from a semi professional business from a retired guy specialised in vhs converting (SECAM to NTSC, mostly).

Here are the results (Test 1 from him, test 2 from me).

I use for capture setup: Panasonic AG-W3 multisystem vcr - Ati tv wonder 750 capture card - core i7 PC (windows 7 64x). I don't have a proc amp or time base corrector, unfortunately.

What I would like to know is why do I have those problems on my capture test ? Will it be 100% sure that a TBC and Proc amp unit solve those issue ? I just hope that's the case and the problem isn't some issue(s) coming from my Panasonic AG-W3 unit doing a bad conversion job, for instance. By the way, this unit was selled to me by the admin of this very forum, so, maybe he does have the answer.

Thank to let me know your opinion about this please.

[admin]

Test #1 looks to have been played through a TBC. Not a DataVideo TBC-100/TBC-1000 or AVT-8710/CTB-100, however. It's likely a rack mounted TBC that behaves similarly to the S-VHS VCR line TBC from JVC or Panasonic. It also suffers vertical bounce (visual jitter), from a poor SECAM>NTSC conversion. I've seen better conversions. It has some light electrical interference, too, I believe.

Test #2 is without a TBC, hence the color/chroma noise. There also appears to be some sort of electrical interference going on, separate from the VCR and tape. Perhaps the wires are bad, or the electricity coming into the building is noisy. It could even be FM noise. Panasonic VCRs from that era are also aging. You bought that VCR at least a year ago, and even unused, the values of the capacitors can change. Bad caps and non-ideal caps can lead to various image distortions.

There is vertical jitter present here, too, so I almost wonder if the tape is either (A) recorded badly, or (B) recorded in a way that it resists quick hardware-based SECAM>NTSC frame conversions. You can see the lines are off at the top of every frame of both versions. It's less bad in the professional conversion, but still present.

[monks19]

Ok, what do you suggest to do to test further and see what solution (TBC proc amp aside) can be good to improve this ?

Thanks to answer

[admin]

There's really nothing else to test, as far as I can think of. A rack TBC or passthrough TBC is required.

[monks19]

ok, and what about that purple line (vertical right corner) ? What's causing this exactly ? because it's not the first secam I test on this vcr and every time it appears too.

Thanks to answer