Is this problem salvageable by some kind of TBC?

[Marshalleq]

Hi, so I've got this one tape that I'm pretty confident is an NTSC tape - it was a trip to America back in the 90's. I have two NTSC players - one is definitely NTSC output on PAL - the JVC I'm not so sure - it's a bit more advanced - so it might do NTSC output - all my other gear does - so it's something I'll test further.

Anyway, this one tape has horrible lines at the bottom - like what I believe is meant to be in the overscan region - except way too big.

[Attachment 74100 - Click to enlarge]

When we captured it originally with the Elgato, it came out black and white and fuzzy as per below - but interestingly besides the quality challenges does not actually exhibit the problem, it was a different player without TBC.

[Attachment 74101 - Click to enlarge]

After putting it into the JVC S-VHS player with only it's internal TBC it was unwatchable. The image below doesn't really do it justice to how bad it was as it's captured in a split second - but basically it bounces the image all over the place in a vertical manner - possibly this is what is called vertical jitter - though I would say an extreme amount of it.

[Attachment 74102 - Click to enlarge]

When I then plug in either (or both in a daisy chain) the ES-15 and DVK-100 I get the stable image you see in the first example above, with all the overscan looking stuff at the bottom.

Is this obvious to anyone what it is? I've got the remote today so it's possible I could try some tracking adjustment - JVC just defaults to Auto which is quite a lot better than the normal auto tracking I've seen before - but it feels more like a signal thing - or possibly an NTSC compatibility thing. Thoughts?

Thanks.

[dellsam34]

Without a TV test you're wasting your time, adding devices in the chain is just compounding the error, Use the process of elimination to troubleshoot this problem.

[Alwyn]

A nice answer for someone trying to work it out! Not.

In addition to the suggestion to play it on the TV to see how it comes out there, try turning off the VCR's TBC when you're using the ES-15. Also, the DVK should go after the ES-15 fi you're using them both. So LS says!

[Marshalleq]

Thanks Alwyn yes I have the deck in the right order - I was surprised to read that this was possible to put them both together the other day so I tried it. Interestingly I read last night someone else that had issues with the TBC getting confused and producing a similar sounding result. So I will definitely give that a go. Thanks!

I’ve got no idea what is meant by a tv test though. Is this to sort of prove that it would work on the type of system it was intended for? Ie I would need a crt tv?

Thanks.

[Alwyn]

I’ve got no idea what is meant by a tv test though. Is this to sort of prove that it would work on the type of system it was intended for? Ie I would need a crt tv?

No, simply test VCR direct to TV. That will discount (or not) the tape as the problem. If it plays well (try VCR TBC On/Off, of course), the problem would appear lie with your digitiser. If it plays badly, it's either the tape or the VCR; try another VCR direct to the TV. That will definitely (?) isolate the issue.

No need for a CRT; you're just checking the VCR/tape pairing in the most basic form: no gadgets in between to mess things up.

[jagabo]

It looks to me like you're capturing an NTSC signal with PAL settings.

[dellsam34]

Yes, the very first screen shot suggests that the capture card or DVD recorder is capturing NTSC, but since it's setup to output PAL, it's adding 96 garbled scan lines to 480 to get 576, That's why I suggested the TV test.