Can i capture from a VCR combi tv?

[Master Tape]

Back in the early 2000s i recorded all of my videos on my small portable 14 inch Bush VCR combo tv, but gave it away when i got another tv. Problem since, any other VCR i play those recorded tapes in sounds muffled and not clear like it did in the original. By chance i found an identical model never been used in 2020 still in box. So with any luck the sound should play clear again on an identical machine surely?

I haven't used it yet, but i notice the tv only has a AV1 scart port at the back and that's it. Is this only an input, and wont output any sound or picture to my capture card? I can capture the picture fine in another machine, it's the sound that's my main concern. The only way i can think of is through the headphone port on the front, maybe using a stereo splitter?

[dellsam34]

It is probably the fault is baked in tapes, Having the same exact VCR will not solve your problem, Alignment is related to the VHS standard not a to the brand.

[davexnet]

Well if the original recording device layed down a hi-fi track, then misalignment with another hi-fi machine would probably produce
the cutting in/out sound as it switches from hifi to linear and back.

But if the recording device was linear audio only that's a different matter.

None of these facts are apparent, they should have been mentioned by the OP

[Master Tape]

It is probably the fault is baked in tapes, Having the same exact VCR will not solve your problem, Alignment is related to the VHS standard not a to the brand.

If it was a fault, then how come it played with clear sound on the original VCR? Tapes recorded a couple years prior would still play clear before i gave it away.

Could the alignment be adjusted in another machine to try and match the position it was originally recorded, thus correcting the sound?

Well if the original recording device layed down a hi-fi track, then misalignment with another hi-fi machine would probably produce
the cutting in/out sound as it switches from hifi to linear and back.

But if the recording device was linear audio only that's a different matter.

None of these facts are apparent, they should have been mentioned by the OP

Yes the VCR was linear only, no hi-fi.

[davexnet]

You might get the best result from a linear audio only VCR; more likely that the sound was optimized better
than the equivalent circuitry on a hifi machine

[dellsam34]

If it was a fault, then how come it played with clear sound on the original VCR? Tapes recorded a couple years prior would still play clear before i gave it away.

That was the point, Your given away VCR audio head was obviously miss aligned, therefore it plays its own tapes and other tape with HiFi audio fine but those tapes will not play on any other machine, Having another VCR with same model # will not fix the tapes. The only way to do this is by miss aligning another VCR audio head the same way to hopefully be able to recover them. We are talking about linear mono audio, HiFi stereo cannot be muffled, it either comes out clear or cuts out with buzzing noise.
The worst that can comes out of this is if the original VCR audio head was dirty, in this case the recordings are ruined forever. But since you stated it plays it's own recordings fine I would rule this possibility out.

[dellsam34]

You might get the best result from a linear audio only VCR; more likely that the sound was optimized better
than the equivalent circuitry on a hifi machine

This is BS, Linear audio head and HiFi audio heads are two independant parts and none of them has to do with the other, There is nothing you can do to optimize one and diminishes the other, High end VCR's usually are equiped with Dolby noise reduction for linear audio to improve sound quality but that doesn't take away anything from the HiFi audio.

[davexnet]

I don't think it's bs. I have compared recordings made in linear audio on straight linear
machines against recordings made in hifi vcrs playing back on their linear head.
The linear vcr always sounded better.

Also it's "misalign"

[Bwaak]

I don't think it's bs. I have compared recordings made in linear audio on straight linear
machines against recordings made in hifi vcrs playing back on their linear head.
The linear vcr always sounded better.

This may be because on a tape with both linear and Hi-Fi tracks the VCR must decide which one to use, and normally it should be Hi-Fi. If it comes and goes, then it would switch from Hi-Fi to linear and back, and most consumer-grade VCRs do not have manual setting to choose one or another. So I can see how a non-Hi-Fi VCR may perform better with a tape that has unstable Hi-Fi audio.

[davexnet]

I don't think it's bs. I have compared recordings made in linear audio on straight linear
machines against recordings made in hifi vcrs playing back on their linear head.
The linear vcr always sounded better.

This may be because on a tape with both linear and Hi-Fi tracks the VCR must decide which one to use, and normally it should be Hi-Fi. If it comes and goes, then it would switch from Hi-Fi to linear and back, and most consumer-grade VCRs do not have manual setting to choose one or another. So I can see how a non-Hi-Fi VCR may perform better with a tape that has unstable Hi-Fi audio.

You're point is reasonable, but it doesn't apply. The hifi VCR's I had did have a manual setting to choose the linear head.
I did this once many years ago, and of course, it's too small a sampling rate to assume any hard and fast rules.

I only mentioned it in the chance it would help the OP - could probably pickup one for next to nothing to try it.

I think it's plausible that the early linear-only machines did everything they could to optimize their sound, especially when the super
long play speed kicked in - while the Hifi vcr's paid less importance to linear since most likely it would be rarely needed.

[Master Tape]

You might get the best result from a linear audio only VCR; more likely that the sound was optimized better
than the equivalent circuitry on a hifi machine

I think i have a cheapo machine that is linear only though doesn't play LP tapes. But i'll run some tests on SP tapes recorded on my combi, and see if it sounds any better.

If it was a fault, then how come it played with clear sound on the original VCR? Tapes recorded a couple years prior would still play clear before i gave it away.

That was the point, Your given away VCR audio head was obviously miss aligned, therefore it plays its own tapes and other tape with HiFi audio fine but those tapes will not play on any other machine, Having another VCR with same model # will not fix the tapes. The only way to do this is by miss aligning another VCR audio head the same way to hopefully be able to recover them. We are talking about linear mono audio, HiFi stereo cannot be muffled, it either comes out clear or cuts out with buzzing noise.
The worst that can comes out of this is if the original VCR audio head was dirty, in this case the recordings are ruined forever. But since you stated it plays it's own recordings fine I would rule this possibility out.

Oh i see. Well hopefully i can get another one of my VCR's working to mess around with the audio head, i think the capstan motor has snapped so just trying to figure out how to get to it underneath everything, but that's another thread.

Another thing i forget to mention, maybe a few years into having the machine, when playing tapes, all this white tape static would often appear, to get rid of it i'd have to bang both sides of the tv with my hands. So could shed some light on why the audio isn't playing ball in other machines.

[Eric-jan]

I hope there are some thriftstores in your neighbourhood, pick up a cheap (VCR) one and try some things with it, it won't cost you the bank.
good luck !