Successful passthrough repair of vcr tearing with a Pioneer DVR

[liddle]

I have been capturing a bunch of old vhs tapes recently. I came across a couple of tapes that I couldn't get a clean signal with from the vcr -- there was pretty horrible tearing (I think that's the correct term) at the top of the screen in one, and at the top and bottom in the other. Just a few lines of resolution affected that I could have masked out later, but I thought it was worth trying the DVR passthrough method first. I didn't have one of the models usually recommended here on hand, but one of the DVRs I have is a Pioneer DVR-330. On the tape with the problem just at the top, it cleared up the images completely. On the other tape it cleared the top and bottom tearing up completely, although when I look very closely I can see some very, very subtle ghosting around moving images in the middle parts of the screen in some scenes. (I don't recall whether they were there without the passthrough -- the top and bottom of the screen looked so bad I wasn't focusing on fine details in the middle.)

Just mentioning this because another contributor had posted in an old thread that older Pioneer DVRs should pretty much be avoided if you are looking for pass thru repair help.
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/343458-DVD-Recorder-to-use-as-a-pass-thru-TBC-Need-...=1#post2168760

Of course, success with just 2 tapes doesn't necessarily mean much -- maybe this DVR would fail with larger numbers of problem tapes that actually could be helped by the other DVRs that are usually recommended. But it does show that if you happen to have access to one of these, at least this particular model, it might be worth a trial.

[Brad]

Thanks for the info. Is this model from a PAL country?

A quick Google search only shows references to a PAL-NTSC model and a Japanese one.

[liddle]

It is PAL & NTSC. The box says something like, 'Notice to foreign tourists: this model is not for use in Japan.' Company info -designed and engineered- is Japan, but manufactured in China.

[orsetto]

Just mentioning this because another contributor had posted in an old thread that older Pioneer DVRs should pretty much be avoided if you are looking for pass thru repair help.

Since I am the person you are quoting from that old thread, let me clarify that I did not recommend avoiding ALL old Pioneers for VHS passthru function, just the very earliest pre-2005 models. My exact remark was: "The earliest 310, 510, 220, 225, and 520 models did not handle tape signals very well unless they were absolutely pristine: those early units should be avoided for passthru or recording of problematic VHS/Beta tapes." These pre-2005 Pioneers, like many other early models, reacted to poor VHS signals as badly as comparable PC encoding options of the era. They had no ability to stabilize poor VHS.

The somewhat rare Pioneer DVR-330 you've found useful for passthru is from the 2005 model series. These were the first Pioneers with a really solid lock on VHS input. The DVR-330 was a budget non-HDD version of the premium DVR-530/DVR-630 DVD/HDD units. The more common DVR-230 "economy" model was completely different internally, being an offshoot of the peculiar DVD/VHS combo models Pioneer outsourced to another mfr: passthru abilities of these re-branded models may not be the same as "genuine" 330/530/630 Pioneers. Aside from that caveat, all Pioneers of the x30, x40, x50, x60 and x70 series offer good VHS passthru performance.