Horizontal Line/Tear In Picture On VHS Playback

[BruceSD]

I have a few videos when played back on my S-VHS JVC 9911U have a black line across the screen, about 1/8th the way up the picture. it is a black line and "tear" in the video (the picture above and below the line/tear is ok). Played on other VCRs (Philips and Panasonic Omnivision VHS decks), the picture has the line and the picture is jittery and bounces. Using my TBC-1000 doesn't do anything (except darken the picture noticeably.) Anyone know what causes this? I vaguely remember using an old cheap mono VCR which had some sort of mechanical issues to record these years ago. The deck I recorded these on is long gone of course. Any way to overcome it, or am I stuck with the line?

As an aside, I noticed my JVC 9911U can now play back tapes which were damaged (edge of the tape chewed) without the need of my TBC-1000. When I first got the 9911U I had to use the TBC to play the tapes without constant rolling, but for some reason now it can (which is good, they are late night TV shows and are dark to begin with and the TBC makes it worse.) Tapes also go in and out of the deck with ease, whereas I had to wiggle the tapes in and push (abnormally) hard and sort of had to convince the machine to take the tape. Anyone have the happen?

[redwudz]

That sounds like a problem that is recorded on the tape, so I doubt there is anything you can do to 'cure' it. A TBC is more for timing/sync issues and is unlikely to do much with a badly recorded video. Some players do a better job of playing a problematic tape. That's a good thing.