VCR playback distorted at base

[Kalash109]

I've got a videotape that plays fine except at the bottom of the screen there is a band of distorted image. This band is probably only 10 lines thick. Other tapes play fine except this one. I've tried it on a few different VCRs and they all play it the same way. I've tried adjusting the tracking to no avail. Is there any other adjustments I can make or is the video cassette damaged/faulty. The picture quality is fine so I know its not dirty heads.
Any help appreciated

K109

[dadrab]

Disregard my previous post. I didn't read the question well enough, it would seem.

[MysticE]

is the video cassette damaged/faulty.

Yup. The very nature of VHS's (I assume that's what you got) tape transport system unevenly puts pressure on the tape when it's pushed against the head, eventually stretching the tape unevenly (top to bottom).

This band is probably only 10 lines thick.

If you were to transfer this tape to DVD you'd find that this '10 lines thick' band is actually considerably more than that.

[Number Six]

Open the door of the cassette and look at the bottom edge of the tape - if it is rippled, then the tape is damaged beyond repair. This is a common failure caused by a faulty transport system in a machine that the tape was once played in - not necessarily the machine that you are using now.

[RowMan]

Is the tape with the distortion a copy of another tape? If so, there is a slight distortion added to the bottom of the picture for every generation a VHS tape is copied. A Time Base Corrector may clear it up, but I'm not sure.

[Vidd]

This can be a common problem especially if you play an older tape on a deck that was not the original recording deck. Most of the time this area is not large enough to be visible on a TV screen due to the overscan, but will be visible on a computer screen. If you are capturung the tape, you could post process and crop/mask the area using AviSynth.

I get this distortion on my tapes all the time. I found turning on the video stablizer option in my JVC menu solves the problem. But I prefer to use crop with AviSynth as the video stablizer can cause additional problems.

[Kalash109]

Thanks for all the help. The tape looks OK (its not rippled). The tape is not recorded from another tape. I have looked into a time base corrector but in the UK they are astronomically expensive (£180-500+). So thats not an option. It looks like its some defect in the tape so I'll just crop the distorted lines. Thanks again.

K109