At first glance this looks like a
horizontal jitter issue. That's the official technical term for this unevenness in the picture, the wiggly "clear water" type error. I've long described it as trying to watch a video through a clear puddle that has ripples, thereby distorting the image in uneven and semi-random ways.
But therein lies another issue: semi-random. What I see here looks very uniform. The last time I saw something like this, it was on display, where a tradition TV set's electron gun was misfiring. That can't be the case here, but it looks similar.
The electron gun was misfiring due to a power-related issue (a mini-surge). I almost wonder if there was some sort of electrical error present either when this tape was recorded, or inside the VCR that played it back.
There's no way for this to be fixed in software.
There is a very experimental filter in
VirtualDub that doesn't really work well, but it might be able to offer some improvements here. It's called "VHS Sync Restore V2.0" and it's available both at
the Deemon archive as well as in our
VirtualDub download for restorers. You might as well play with it, see what it does.
This kind of problem needs an internal VCR timebase corrector (TBC), or an external frame synchronizer (or similar filter).
Re-capturing the video is almost required.
For a project like this, I would hunt down either a JVC S-VHS VCR (with DNR+TBC), or a Panasonic AG-1980 -- see the full list of
suggested VCRs for transferring VHS to DVD.
Of for the external frame sync, look at a
Panasonic DMR-ES10 DVD recorder,
DMR-ES15 or
DMR-ES20. You don't use these for recording the DVD, just merely pass the single in the unit, and back out -- it's used in "
pass-through mode". ----
(NOTE: It's not an official "mode" or anything like that -- nothing of this nature is found on the product, in the menus, or in the manual, so don't go looking for it.) ---- Those links are for NTSC models (North America) at
Amazon, but you can find PAL versions of these models, too -- although I do not readily see any -- you'll have to hunt around.
Another possible issue is the capture card -- I don't think that's the case, but I would not rule it out without first testing another device.
Forum member
juhok tested and used the 1T-TBC earlier this year and last year, and was not satisfied (that I recall). His examples, explanations, review and other writings can be found in this forum. Search for his past posts, or browse the forum:
http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/foru...mprove-17.html
Another option is to outsource this one problem tape to a service that specializes in video restoration or forensic media recovery.
Hope that helps.
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Thanks.
