Problem capturing old video

[tatty]

Thought things were going too well. Successfully DVD'd about half of my collection of ancient aircraft VHS tapes. No-name Conexant capture card with latest BTWIN drivers - VirtualDub & TMPGEnc on a 2400 AMD. Good so far. Now I have a problem. The current tape just will not capture. The frames seem to jump, as though the current frame is overlain with a previous image and flickers back and forth. Play it back through the VCR/TV normally and it's fine.

Tried different capture settings and different application - no change. I'd try a different VCR if I had one.

Back in the bad old days of audio tape we used to run into the problem of old tapes 'bleeding through' signals between adjacent layers - does that happen with video? It feels as though something like that may be happening - not enough to show up on a VCR but enough to throw the capture mechanics, maybe ?

It seems to be 100% consistent. Consecutive captures of the same bit of tape show the same problem frame for frame as far as I can tell. Other tapes from the same series show no problem at all, although having more carefully reviewed some of the disks burned so far I have found the occasional glitch. Looks as though most may have the problem to varying degrees. The VCR is 6 months old - no visible defects - apparently plays fine. I have rewound the tapes a few times to make sure everything is tight but no change so far.

Any ideas would be much appreciated.

[tweedledee]

Do you have a dv camcorder you can do a pass through? via a firewire card. If not........sorry I can't help.

[disturbed1]

Video can bleed through if the tape was used a few times.

You may want to hook another VCR up and dub to a different, new high quality, blank tape, then play back that dub. The use of a "copy master", "copy gaurd" device inbetween the two VCRs will help.

If that doesn't work-

Try to capture something else, TV etc.. To make sure your capture settings/PC are working correct.

If that works, try a different tape, perhaps your VCR has a problem, try cleaning it.

If all is good, except that tape, try a TBC as a last resort.