Distorted playback from an S-VHS camcorder.

[mikrokev]

Hi all, hope somebody can solve an issue for me. I've picked up a mint Ferguson FC16 S-VHS camcorder, that seems perfect except for one issue.

When playing back footage, the standard VHS output is distorted and fuzzy. I've outputted via AV-out (Scart composite) and RF, same results. Weirdly, when I switch to S-VHS playback, the picture stabilises and is perfect but in black and white. As soon as I switch back to VHS playback, colour returns but the picture distorts. I've tried a new VHS tape, old movie releases, same results. Also I've plugged into a modern Sony TV (Scart composite) and old Casio portable (RF in). I'm not recording in S-VHS or attempting to play S-VHS tapes at all yet. Any thoughts or advice would be much appreciated.

[Brad]

Can you view the playback on the viewfinder?

Perhaps you can post a smartphone video to make it more clear to us exactly what you're seeing.

[mikrokev]

I can view the playback on the viewfinder yes, in black and white. I can also see the live feed in both S-VHS and VHS mode on my TV. It's when engaging the playback of a tape in VHS mode the problems occur. I will try to sort a video to demonstrate, but it looks like an out of tune tv station, with a distorted fuzzy image. Sometimes with lots of horizontal or diagonal banding across the screen. As soon as S-VHS playback is engaged, it goes black and white and a stable image. Almost as if the playback heads can't handle a colour image. fyi- all the settings on the camera are set correct.