Protected VHS not playing correctly on a standalone VCR and a CRT TV

[Cesc]

I got an old VHS from a friend of mine who asked me to capture it for him.
He tried it with a VCR-DVD but he got a message "protection detected" and refused to capture, so he gave it to me to give it a try.

I have captured some Macrovision protected tapes before without any problem, so I wasn't expecting problems here either.

My first try was with a 4 head Hifi-Stereo SP-LP-EP playback VCR, the one I usually use for my captures. The tape started to play kinda weird, doing some jumps and never being able to crearly play the HiFi track, changing between it and the mono all the time (even trying to adjust the tracking). Also, the further the tape advances the playback starts to get worse, starting to confuse my VCR so it thoughts the tape is LP, then SP, then LP again in a loop, making it go faster, slower, faster, slower...

Then I tried it with a 2 head stardard VCR and even it seems to play better (but with very bad quality sound like it's having speed problems), it also starts messing with the speed as the tape advances. Not as bad as with the other VCR (it is not a LP capable VCR, in fact), but also not good enough to even try to capture the tape.

I did upload a video that shows the behaviour of the tape on those two VCR. Firts it shows the 2 head standard VCR and then the 4 head hifi one. I just included some seconds of different parts of the tape, being the later the worse ones.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQV9ofUE_v0

I want to note that it does not seem to be a capture card problem, as the results just playing it on my CRT television are the same.

I am not sure if the problem is that the tape is damaged or there is a protection confusing my VCR's. If it is the second case, could be an option to get a really old VCR that ignores any macrovision data which seems to be confusing newer VCR's?

[davexnet]

Fast forward the tape to the end and back to the beginning two or three times.
Open the tape flap at a bad spot and look for obvious tape damage - creases, uneven edges, etc.etc.

The tape speed and proper tracking depend on a pulse track on the bottom edge of the tape.

Any damage to that part of the tape and/or a dirt/oxide on the stationary control head will cause problems
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/384144-Mitsubishi-VCR-Can-Only-See-Picture-in-Fast...se#post2490040

[dellsam34]

Missing or corrupted control track pulses have different effect than the one shown in the OP's video, Either the tape has mechanical problems or the VCR recorded it has mechanical problems, But since there is an inconsistancy between the playback of those two VCR's I'm gonna go with the tape has mechanical problems making the capstan motor going off limit of its speed control window causing severe wow and flutter in the mono audio track, Video and HiFi audio are forgiving, the video drum motor which has its own control circuit can compensate for speed irregularities as well to a certain limit before you start to see noise stripes in the frame and HiFi audio cutting off, Your 2 head VCR seem to have better motor torque and control.

The first thing you do at this point is to transfer the tape reels to a well known working cassette shell to remove the restriction, inspect the tape for foreign objects, sticky or staggered tape layers, damaged reels ...etc. Once transfered to the new shell rewind it and let the VCR play it back all the way to the end and rewind it.

[Cesc]

I first changed the white reels to another cassete cartridge, getting the same results. Then I changed the whole tape to the reels of a working tape, and I still get the same results. When the tape is having more problems on the last part of the video, if I stop and extract the tape, I can't see any physical signs of damage. At least to my naked eye.

One thing I am thinking about (but I don't know how stupid it might be) is that as the later we are on the tape the worse it works, maybe if I add tape at the end (this is a 30 minute tape), like, for example, I add a 120 minutes tape after it, maybe the speed gets to be constant again, at least for the first 30 minutes. It is totally crazy to think that it may have something to do with the problem?

[themaster1]

you'd be surpirse what a shell transfer can do sometimes. In other words try with a quality tape shell (from s-vhs if you can).

[dellsam34]

I would like to think your VCR's are ok since both exhibit the same behaviour towards the tape, but you never say never, you could have bad pinch roller for both VCR's, Are you familliar with cleaning tape path, checking belts and the pinch roller? Otherwise have someone service the VCR's for you.

[Cesc]

I tried it with another VCR and more or less same happens, so I will try to change the tape again to better reels to see if that improves something!

Thanks for all the answers!