AVT-8710 and vertical hold correction

[jlaymon]

Forgive me, I'm not an expert on these things, and I've been reading lots of posts but I'm not sure if I am finding the right answer...

I'm trying to digitize several old camcorder VHS tapes. They were recorded in 1994 on a 1987 Magnavox S-VHS Camcorder (but these are standard VHS recordings). The problem tapes have video images that flip or roll vertically. You can see it on an analog playback and on the transferred digital image. I think the camera was out of alignment when they were recorded because I remember sending the camera away for repair.

I've tried using different VCR's, including the original camcorder to no avail. I tried adjusting the tracking while playing, too.

I purchased an AVT-8710 thinking that it would re-time the signal and maybe correct the problem. I think it may be improving things a little, but the image still jumps and rolls way too much.

Should the AVT-8710 fix this, or is there a better device? (Is the TBC-1000 better?) Should I try to manually adjust the VCR guides for better alignment?

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks

[edDV]

You should try one sample tape with a video duplication service and see what they can do. At the least they will explain what is wrong with the tape.

The expert approach is to mis-align a playback VCR to the state of the record machine. Google Books (or your local library) has several books on VCR repair but there are minimim tools needed to adjust guides and tension and an oscilloscope to observe the RF waveform while making adjustments. The books will explain how to adjust a VCR to a known good standard tape. In your case you would adjust to the tape from the camcorder, make your dubs, then set the VCR back to correct specs to play other tapes. Alternately, a good VCR repair tech will know how to do this and have all the necessary equipment.

Google books
http://www.google.com/search?q=VCR+repair&btnG=Search+Books&tbm=bks&tbo=1