picture distorted when converting analog tapes to digital

[johncz]

Hi folks,

I am attempting to convert analog home movies to digital format to preserve before the magnetic tapes fade away.

First I want to say that when I connect my analog camera directly to a TV, the picture is fine, stable - no problems.
I purchased few months ago AverMedia capture card for this conversion process and the captured video looks like it does not have the lines vertically aligned (picture distorted and squigly black space to the left of the edge). This distortion constantly shifting - basically unusable. I am including frame picture. I figured maybe it is because the card was fairly inexpensive.
I heeard a lot of praises about Canopus AV110, so i decided to purchase one. Well the same thing is happening with it.

So here I am. Any ideas?? Is the horizontal sync not working due to .....? Did anybody see this before? Any way to fix it?

Thanks in advance for any input!

[lordsmurf]

Better VCR required, with built-in TBC.

[johncz]

Thanks for the reply but these are 8mm tapes being played from my camera. How would the VCR get into play?

[jagabo]

If those are first generation tapes then a DVD recorder with a line TBC should work.

[lordsmurf]

Panasonic ES10, some other ES series, maybe one of the EZ series.

[Megahurts]

What happens if you input a DVD player composite to the capture card, does it show normal?

If so, then maybe the sync tips are surppressed from the camera and the TV is more forgiving for sync amplitude problems.

[johns0]

Easiest way to fix the problem is to use a dvd recorder,i was getting the bends on certain 8mm tapes to capture but none with a recorder.

[johncz]

Thanks everybody for your replies.

i guess I will have to do some more testing. I don't have a stand-alone DVD recorder, I was going to use computer for the conversion process.
I wonder if something like this connected after the camera would fix it.
http://www.ambery.com/unvisyco.html
or this
http://www.usedvideogear.com/catalog/tvone-avt8710-multistandard-time-base-corrector-p-1970.html
Since only the video goes in, I wonder also if the sound bypasing this would cause it to get out of sync noticeably.

Hate to pour too much money into this..... I will have to check how many tapes I have to convert and re-evaluate which route to take.

Thanks again