Black lines suddenly when playing back on Blaupunkt RTV-950

[jouse.]

Hey guys,

I was just in my finishing stadium with restoring some old VHS Tapes and I used my "favourite" of my Recorders, the Blaupunkt RTV-950 (Panasonic NV-FS200). It always worked well for years now, when suddenly I discovered some dynamic, black lines when playing back some tapes.

I have to admit, that I often opened the recorder and adjust the signal with a screwdriver, especially the screw for the "grain" when playing back VHS SP, if you know what I mean by that. I wanted to adjust and get the best signal possible for every single VHS Tape.

Could it be, that the head is damaged somehow, when producing lines like this? Or is the defect somewhere else?

I Uploaded a sample to demonstrate.

[jouse.]

No one? o.O

[jouse.]

still no one? guys? :/

[jman98]

Sorry, but I'm not a restoration expert. Apparently the people who are only help those who are idiots or jerks. Some guy the other day wanted some fairly simple help and I had to insult two members by name in the thread before one of them finally got interested and helped the guy. We've got people who can help you. Maybe they'll get interested.

By the way, why is your file in AVI format? If you had to convert the original that's a bad idea. People who can help will want to see the original. I am assuming that your Blaupunkt is a DVD recorder and if so, please post a small clip from the DVD it made, not an AVI conversion.

[jouse.]

Thanks for your reply, but I did not use a DVD Recorder. Blaupunkt is the S-VHS Recorder I used to capture the video material on to the PC.

[sanlyn]

The Blaupunkt RTV-950 is a PAL VCR.

The AVI sample is not the original capture. It has been encoded to MJPG and saved in an AVI container.

Does this tape play with the same problems on your TV? The noise doesn't look like video head damage. Likely, its cause is electronic.

[jouse.]

@sanlyn:

I just comprimised the original file to upload a demo, so it's not that big, but no big quality loss, though.

Yes, I can see those problems also on the TV, it has nothing to do with the digital part on the PC.

What i realised: When i pause the tape and continue frame by frame, nearly every second frame is clear and evey other second frame has this distortions...Maybe parts of the head are damaged? Or do you think it has nothing to do with the head?

[jagabo]

I didn't see your post until today. You have many problems. First you should adjust the levels in your capture device's proc amp to get blacks and brights where they should be. I don't know what causes the black "comets". A head cleaning might be in order. If you can't get rid of them you should try making three caps and use a median of 3 filter to eliminate them. That's assuming they appear in different places each time (which I suspect is the case). Or try a different VCR.

[davexnet]

Tapes recorded in SVHS-ET mode?

[jouse.]

@jagabo:

Thanks for your advice, but the adjustment levels on the capture device are in normal position it was recorded like that on VHS back then...

I already cleanded the head quite often and carefuly and the problems occure as I said on real-time playback also on the TV, so it's something that's inside the VHS Recorder.

@davexnet:

No, it's ordinary SP and it does not depent on the tape, it's the same problem with every tape i put in for months now...

I thought of changing the head, have some others of the same Recorder... but don't know hot this is done :/

[jagabo]

the adjustment levels on the capture device are in normal position

That doesn't mean anything. You still might be able to improve the caps by changing them.

As far as the black comets are concerned, compare two caps of the same material. Are the comets in the exact same position on the same frames? If not, and you can't get the deck fixed, you can remove them with the aforementioned median of 3 filter.

[jouse.]

I know that i can improve the picture quality by adjusting the options, but i want the original vhs video signal just as it is, no improvement at all on the software site.

Thanks really for your advice, but a digital filter is not what i'm looking for. My goal is to get my Recorder fixed so I can continue use it. I have the chance to use other ones, but I want to know if i can fix this easily or if i can throw it away

[jagabo]

I know that i can improve the picture quality by adjusting the options, but i want the original vhs video signal just as it is, no improvement at all on the software site.

There's no such thing as "original VHS signal just as it is" when it comes to capturing VHS. Different decks will output the same tape differently.

[OllieTSB]

I wonder what a new tape - recorded on that unit - would show? Of course, this wouldn't necessarily indicate PlayBack Head Damage...

[jmac698]

Hi,
I don't know how to repair the VCR, but there is a script available to reduce the appearance of black lines. If you try another VCR, you'll be able to verify that yours is damaged and it's not the tape. Sometimes problems in old equipment can occur because of drying out of capacitors which affects the operation.
I haven't looked at the video, but there is a black line problem I'm familiar with which occurs on light to dark horizontal transitions, and they are always in the same place, which makes them minimally improved by the median technique. There is a script by yup to address this, however (on doom9).

[mammo1789]

I had that kind of (hardware) problem with my hi8 camera Samsung. I think that i rubbed it too much when cleaning with alcohol so it then started to show symptoms almost exactly like yours. Median 3/5 will have to get rid off the most of the "black lines" because if the head is "broken" then every cap will have different anomalies i tried it with great success of my caps.

First try on small portion of the tape (like 3-4 minutes) so you don't loose time and see if it works, also it will be much easier and faster for shorter clips to be aligned.https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/343296-Transfer-of-real-bad-tape-to-pc-and-restore

But if it is like combination of big and small black(which usually happens when you try to play svhs tape in vhs machine or hi8 tape in 8mm camera machine) lines that stay with every capture then it will be extremely difficult to remove them without blurring too much.


I tried yup script on doom9 http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=121197&highlight=black+lines but it didn't do much without blurring too much.