Problem with flickering image when capturing 8mm

[jonpurkis]

I have a few 8mm tapes I'd like to capture from a Canon UC9500 8mm PAL camcorder. I have connected them to my Windows 10 PC (AMD Ryzen 7, 32 GB RAM) using a August VGB100 USB capture device. I have been able to watch them and capture them through VLC Player (I can't get Virtual Dub to work, not sure why), but I have a problem with the video:

The footage has a frequent flicker or wobble, where black lines invade the screen. They aren't visible when watching through the viewfinder or when connecting to my TV. You can see what I'm talking about in this video I captured: https://youtu.be/BlKM5c9n4K4. It seems to happen when the camera is moved.

Can anyone tell me what is the cause of this problem? And how I can fix it? I'm not looking for a perfect lossless capture, but this persistent flickering makes the footage unwatchable. I don't have enough valuable video to spend lots in buying equipment to solve this, but I would like to archive them and I'm open to affordable options.

Follow up question: I have an Elgato 4K capture device with an HDMI input which is presumably a lot more reliable than my cheap August VGB100. Is there a way to successfully convert from composite AV to HDMI so I could use that instead?

Thanks for your help,

Jon

[jagabo]

Consumer video has poor time base (ie, the tape heads speed up and slows down all the time rather than spinning at a perfectly constant speed). TVs can adapt to this but most capture devices cannot, especially cheap ones. You need a line time base corrector. An old Panasonic ES10 or ES15 with passthrough (analog in to analog out, don't record onto DVD) will probably fix it. A camcorder in better condition might help. Sometimes fast forwarding the tape all the way to the end, then back to the beginning will loosen up the reels will reduce the problem.