signal problem mystery

[Coluph]

This may be a wierd one...I sure hope someone knows what this is...

Using a Pyro AV Link, Rev C, ADS is going to RMA it but I'm not so sure the unit is the problem....

Capture from VHS tape, of any kind, new store bought, or recorded from TV, results in a burst of droped frames every so often...

What I have done to test some things:

Tried the following VCR's:

Mitsubishi (Electrohome) H03 - (heads just cleaned...oldie but goodie)
Goldstar (Hitachi) R-C90M
JVC HR-VP628U
Sony TRV65 Camcorder (Hi8XR) (tape duplicated to Hi8 tape...this model has a TBC in it)

Now the wierd part...the frames drop at the same place of the show on all of the equipment tested, there is no apparent problem with the tape...brand new, plays perfectly on TV.

I have also tried a hi8 tape recorded with my sony camcorder (home movies) Also does it all though not as much. I only have one camcorder so I can't test this tape with any other equipment.

What does work:

Sources from
DVD - Malata DVD player (the little silver cheap one) (Sonic the Hedgehog DVD)

Laserdisc - Pioneer DVL700 (LD/DVD combo player) (TMNT Cartoon)

No dropped frames here.

Would anyone know why this is happening? What causes it? What I can do to fix it? Is my unit truly defective?

I don't want to spend any more money on equipment until I know for sure what is going to fix it, nor do I want to return the Pyro to ADS unless I know for sure it is faulty, as this will waste both my time and theirs.

The dropped frames occur even in preview without capturing anything, so this rules out the computer. The VHS source seems to be the problem.

[Forum Troll]

VHS can be very tricky to capture from. I've never really gotten good results from any tape I try.

[Coluph]

after doing a few more tests I noticed that it tends to have problems whenever you get a scene that has a bright flash or rapid scene change...since this happens quite a bit in cartoons, this is likely why I was seeing it so much...

Trying a capture from the camcorder, a scene that had a camera flashing also made it go off, so I'm assuming this is a fault in my capture devices buffer not being able to handle the increased bitrate when it needs to work a little harder.

Would this appear to be a good assumption?

On a side note, those of you with a Pyro A/V link...how bright is the blue LED on your unit? Is it as bright as the red and green LED? Does the blue LED go on when you are capturing from a VCR or does it stay out.

My unit the red light goes on, the blue light goes out. if you use the mode select switch, the blue light comes on very dim, but you unable to do a capture.