VHS via DVCAM capture has black and white image on some tapes.Is fine on TV

[Hajker]

I wanted to save some old recordings, but faced this problem. On some tapes, the image is black and white on the capture, but looks perfectly colored on a TV.

I know, some say that DVCam capture is bad, but the recordings are in PAL so the chroma subsampling isn't an issue. And the 25mbit compression is more than enough.

But sadly some tapes can't be captured because of lack of color. I noticed that even some VHSC to VHS transfers have this problem on certain shots, but very rarely.
I've tried turning the built in TBC on and off (but keeping it off because DVCAM already has a built in TBC, and makes no difference). Also tried PAL/MESECAM button, but it only leads to color confetti (see video attachment).
Is there anything I can do to fix it without spending crazy amounts on new hardware?

Thanks for reading.

[dellsam34]

What color format the VHS tapes are?

[Hajker]

The tapes are PAL.

[dellsam34]

They can't be PAL, Maybe some hybrid format like PAL60, They can play fine on a multi system TV but your camcorder is limited to PAL only.

[Hajker]

I assume they're PAL, because a PAL recorder was used to record PAL television (in the video sample it's a TV recording). But it can't be some format's fault, as I mentioned VHS-C to VHS transfers also had black and white image on a very few scenes, but 99.9% was fine.

I forgot to mention that the same source tapes that look black and white on DVCAM, record with proper color on a VHS-DVD combo in 576i50, but I can't get access to that combo, I just have the DVCAM setup.

[Hajker]

Here's that sample from a VHS-C. This is a 2nd or 3rd generation VHS tape, the 1st gen. was from a VHS-C. The confetti is because the VCR's COLOR/B&W button was set to AUTO. Turning it off made it black and white.

[dellsam34]

I don't know but it seems that your camcorder cannot handle multi gen tapes due to unstable chroma signal, Your best bet is to seek a conventional capture workflow that is known to work.

[Hajker]

Forgot to update but I found a solution. Had to set the VCR to MESECAM and record it via a VCR-DVD combo. Now there's color.
The Dv camcorder just didn't support MESECAM format.

[dellsam34]

This thread is similar to the other one about the SCART cable, I clearly said in post #4 the tapes can't be PAL but you decided to go in circles instead of taking time to digest the answers and look for a proper solution, I'm glad it finally sunk in.

[Hajker]

I thought you were talking about NTSC/PAL - either recorded in 50hz or 60hz, and camcorder wouldn't support NTSC tapes in PAL60. Sorry, I did not know there were multiple kinds of PAL formats, and you did not specify that either.

Your best bet is to seek a conventional capture workflow that is known to work.

Clearly did this, and just wanted to make an update, if someone ever needs this info.