TBC _causes_ dropped frames?!

[2Bdecided]

I'm in the UK (PAL-land).

I'm trying to use a Panasonic NV-SV121EB S-VHS deck with TBC and DNR to transfer some 1990s S-VHS camcorder footage. The footage has been copied from S-VHS-C onto S-VHS, and for most of it, it's these copies I have to work with.

I've tried recording to a Sony RDR-GX210 DVD recorder. With the S-VHS machine's TBC off, vertical lines are wobbly and sometimes the whole picture is jittery. With the S-VHS machine's TBC on, this improves dramatically but after a while, it starts dropping frames.

To be accurate: when recording / looping through, the frames are duplicated (i.e. the picture freezes momentarily). When playing this back, the duplicated frames are actually "jumping" frames - the previous or next frame, but shifted vertically by 1/4 - 1/2 a frame.

I'm not having much luck here. Should I try a different (external) TBC, a different VCR, or a different DVD recorder? I'm also looking at using a capture card, if I can find one that works well for a reasonable price.

The footage plays fine straight into a CRT TV via S-video. Apart from occasional drop outs (a line every 5-15 seconds) it looks as good as the day it was copied, ~14 years ago.

Cheers,
David.

[StuR]

That's a different Pan SVHS again, sounds similar to the HS860 I've got though.
I'd say keep the VCR, maybe try an ext. tbc though as although VCR TBC is full frame (if like most pan vcr's of the period) it hasn't a frame syncronizer which an ext. one should.
Also the tapes are svhs-c >svhs, so the error could be from the previous copy, ideally using the svhs-c origonals could rule that out. An ext. tbc should help if the errors are due the coping.
The Sony could have problems too if the signal has errors, ext. tbc should help. The Sony's int. TBC isn't great so it's doing little, also I wasn't happy with the picture on my Sony GX300 and had to change for the a JVC MH300 as the Sony was creating a darker/contrasty picture with a grainyness. That bits up to your opinion but keep the VCR and add an ext. TBC. See what ebay offers 8)

-had a look at the Pan NV-SV121EB VCR manual, its the same as mine other than Pan have not included the [soft/auto/sharp] option in the menu? why. For SVHS it shouldn't matter but for VHS I find the soft option handy as it cuts out the Pan preferance to sharpen picture (I think this has got to be caused by the CVC super filter continually running) TBC and 3DNR very good though.