E50 screwing up picture?

[Mechworker]

Hey all!

Here's one for you to puzzle out.

Last night I went to record something from EP VHS to DVD-R on my E50. I've been doing this for a while, and not had any problems. However, I noticed that the picture I was seeing from the VCR through the E50 was a bit jumpy and more 'digital' than I figured it should be. There was also a rainbow-ish band at the top of the screen. I switched the TV inputs to see just the VCR, and while the tape wasn't great, it didn't have the band or the 'digital-ness' of what the E50 was seeing.

This pixellation continued to get worse, and eventually there were parts where the DVD was seeing double. One guy had 2 mouths!

What makes it weird is that when played directly to the TV, the picture from the VCR is okay. I've already done 60 disks (240 hours) of EP VHS to LP DVD-R, and never seen this before. It isn't the media, since it is Maxell from Japan and the problem is visible DURING recording.

I tried a new tape this morning, and all was fine, but the other tape is still messing up.

Any ideas as to what this is?

[handyguy]

Maybe it was the cassette?

[Mechworker]

It was, and it wasn't.

The cassette's picture was worse than most, granted. However, the picture became even worse when piped through the E50. Just through the TV it was okay.

Other cassettes haven't exhibited this behaviour, and I'm at a lost to determine what would be causing this to happen.

[Capmaster]

Occasionally ....rarely....you will have a situation where a TBC makes it worse. Since the E50 has one built in I think this might be what's happening. Don't ask me how or why, but it does. It sounds like you have tape damage and your TV is more forgiving in playing it than the E50 is when you watch it during recording.

I have occasionally encountered tapes that are so damaged that when I run it through a TBC the top of the picture tears. My theory is that the tape is so bad the damage extends past the timing track and into the video area. Maybe I'm talking out of my ass, but I can't think of any other reason. Removing the TBC does the trick for that tape at least. Again, why ...I haven't a clue.

The problem is, I don't think you can defeat the TBC function on the E50. Panasonic doesn't mention it much in the manual.

[handyguy]

e50s detect macrovision & that could do it, only needs a few seconds of it to detect.