Black vertical tears lines in VHS?
 

Hi,

With one tape I am trying to restore, I have black vertical lines. I already tried 3 different TBCs (including a Panasonic DVD Recorder) and I cannot get rid of them in hardware. What exactly causes these and is there a way to get rid of them in software?

Thanks!

(Attached is an example image)

TBCs and recorders have nothing to do with that defect. It's either the player or the tape. Because your player isn't overlaying similar lines on other tapes, then suspect the tape. The black streaks were caused during the original recording, or damage was inflicted by playing the tape with dirty or worn video heads at some time. It's also possible that the effect is caused by overmodulation from illegal video levels, which are obvious in your posted image. If you've made multiple capture attempts you'll probably notice that the same streaks show up in the same place on the same frames.

The solution depends on how persistent the streaks are (how many frames any one streak populates) and their frequency. Unfortunately that can't be determined. Working from a still image won't be possible.

This is called bearding, BTW.