Severe drag on captured video VHS to PC.

[Sparrowhawk]

I have a lot of VHS tapes I have been converting to digital off and on for several years. I capture them to my PC then convert/burn to DVD using ConvertXtoDVD4. Have had mostly good results, not expecting miracles of quality but still good viewing on DVD. Recently the display began showing an increasingly severe leftward drag across the top portion of the display during capture, that remains on the captured digital file.

I have tried 3 different VHS players, 3 different capture devices, capturing using a power USB hub, capturing directly to my PC, and directly to my laptop. But nothing has worked. Would appreciate any suggestions/help anyone can give. Thanks.

[yoda313]

Either the tape is severely damaged or perhaps your cables are frayed? Is this happening on all tapes or just one in particular?

[Sparrowhawk]

Thanks for replying. The tapes and the cables are all in fine condition. It's happening on all tapes and when using 3 different VHS players, 3 different capture devices, using a power USB hub and also direct USB plug into both my PC and my laptop.

[Sparrowhawk]

Would a time base corrector perhaps solve this problem? It started while I was using a StarTech capture device that had been working fine. Was small at first and I used the masking lines function of my software to mask it out. But over time it became more severe. I thought it must be the capture device failing so bought a different brand. Unfoturnately that didn't solve the problem--distortion is just as severe with the new device as with the old one. So the problem must be somewhere else.