VHS Capture - reduce tape jitter?

[Piper]

I have an old VHS tape which my VCR is having a hard time auto tracking - unfortunately no manual tracking available. As a result, when I capture or play back the tape, there's an annoying up/down jitter which are especially bad at certain parts of the tape.

Are there any methods available which would help reduce this effect? I've tried the flaXen VHS filter, but haven't had much luck with it.

Thanks in advance.

[^^-+I4004+-^^]

for jitter you'll need TBC.....
for bad tracking (noise lines) another VCR?
(although jitter too is connected to bad tracking...)
btw.you MUST be sure (if buying TBC ) that it will correct
vertical sync portion of the signal...ie. it's best to try it
BEFORE buying it....
(although i think all tbc's have this(?))

see this link:

http://www.datavideo-tek.com/datavideo2/datavideov56knav&bkg_elements/nav&bkg_elements/productpage/timebasecorrectors/timebasecorrectors.htm

anyhow:first try playback on few other VHS machines
sometimes it helped me to just switch to another VCR..
(ie. jitter dissapeared....)

[Piper]

Thanks for the tip, I hadn't heard of devices like this before now. I was hoping there was a software solution, but I realize that it may be somewhat unlikely.

I've tried several VCR's with the same results. The common element between all of them is the automatic tracking - my theory is if I can find a good VCR with manual tracking, perhaps I could improve on it slightly, doubtful but it may satisfy my curiosity. :-)

[^^-+I4004+-^^]

Originally posted by Piper
my theory is if I can find a good VCR with manual tracking, perhaps I could improve on it slightly, doubtful but it may satisfy my curiosity. :-)

yes you need to do that first!
i have panasonic vcr with auto-tracking,BUT it also has a manual mode:
ie. on the remote there are keys:"-" & "+" for "tracking/v-lock"
("tracking" when tape moves,"v-lock" when in freeze frame mode)

many times this manual tracking helped me remove jitter you talk about....

Ivo

[\AX]

It's actually much simpler than that.

I had the same problem capturing with a 1987 vcr..but it was load with options and top of the line...then.


Anyhow your jitter is come from the machine shaking. So, and i know for a fact this works...and im 99% positive it will work for you, pull the nintendo bootleg trick.

That is to find the point where it jitter's, alot or little. (If it's random jittering then im 99.9% sure this will work). Push down on the tape in the vcr...or pull up just alittle. Now doing this too much will cause alot of jitter...so find the right area that the tape should be load and rig something up to hold it in position. My experience was i had to push down alittle. So i went to good will and bought some old hardy boy novels, tore some page's out of one, and put them in the vcr to hold it.

The problem is that the deck is not tight no more. It's so old it doesnt line up to the heads correctly anymore. Ive been told for the dude's at the repair shop you can open the vcr and tighten/loosen stuff to make it work again...but that was too much work.

Im 99% sure this will work for you and most people.

EDIT: Oh and you could use manual tracking...but all manually tracking does is pretty much what i explained...but not as efficent. to find the correct physical spot is what you should do...or have it repaired. Remember...when it comes to vcr it's physical so if the player work's and there is picture problems...it 99% of the time physical. Like the heads are dirty, the heads are loose, the deck is crooked, the deck is loose...so on and so on.

[^^-+I4004+-^^]

if it's good (new?) vhs machine it holds cassette so stiff
that it's problem to move it anyhow....

i think that's not issue cause the man already tried several
machines!
(i guess that at least on one of them cassette was properly layed down
to proper position...)

however he can also try that but i doubt it'll help....


Ivo

(tracking itself doesnt include moving mechanical parts of video:
just correcting phase (ie. time) relationship between head drum and capstan motor...it's purely electronical regulation concerning phase of one oscillator.....)

[\AX]

yeh i have ponder over your reply long enough I4004. I think your correct.

here's some alt advice. with some tape's (mainly porn) i have taken them appart and readjusted the tape. Im taking it's the film's positioning...the actualy film inside the cassette, or the quality of the film it's on. If it's the quality of the film then your pretty much done, with or without TBC or any other thing known to man your 99% face down.

Back to my suggestion. Take the tape apart, pull out the spindle the film is on, wind all the tape to one spindle. After you have done that take some electrical tape and cut it so it's thin, now take that and wrap it around the spindle that has only the end of the film connected to it. Put it on there so it force's the tape to be wound in only one possible position instead of going up and down.

This has worked on some of my tape's (porn) like ive said...but not all of them. The one's it worked on where clearly older, or atleast poorly constructed and the spindles where loose to begin with. Also the electrical tape suggestion is only if you have patienence. I however do not so i left the top off a vcr to make thing's more versatile. I suggest you do the same...leave the top off the vcr. In the end you could put it back (i never did). Atleast when the top is off you can physically see at what part of the tape is having problem's. The electrical tape bootrig work's but not all the time does the film want to stay in one spot. Also who is to say that yoru problem will always be in the spot where you have guided the film. Again if it's random i would go with the nintendo trick.

NOTE: i only have a few vcr's. One of them is a new one that has TBC (Sony)...but several tape's have still had problems. On those several tapes, probably 10 total, i then proceeded to the nintendo trick...and it worked. On the older tape's i have (porn)...the nintendo tricked worked on some of those aswell. The one's that i used electrical taped on it worked for the main part. The electrical tape did touch the heads so watch out.

ANOTHER NOTE: I am NOT a expert in this field. IT's obvious that I4004 and other's know more than me. I can only list the experience's i have had and the solution's that have worked for me. I am only 25 so they are probably more limited than people older or more fluent in this field. I should also add though...me and my friend's grew up on the begginer's side of electrical appliance's. We took apart a vcr a million times and never once asked anybody what was what. We found out what was what from the library and there never ending schematic's on vcr's for all part's of the world. To this day i still cannot put a head back on a vcr properly. I can replace them but it take's atleast twice for me to get it right...a good friend of mine once said "It's your left is right and your right is left problem" :-)..this is probably true. Everything i seemed to see it in reverse. tape heads it does not matter but remmber, if you see things backwards and trying to put a head on...it's like your taking it off instead of on. I can due more than most with old vcr's i feel. The biggest yet easiest thing i can do is just pull off the rca jack's, tv tuner, and lcd and still use them for whatever i want. While im on it, for the RCA jack's you can just use low temp solder (or high suprisingly), the tv tuner is just the same, but you must not forget to trace the control mechanism for that (usually on the board...whatever the remote goes to in other word's), and the lcd i recently learned about 2 years ago in attempt to make a car mp3 player with dos. Pretty simple???? damn straight that is why i can due it :-) (side note: what is really usefull out of them is the easiest one...the rca jack's...and also once youve done it you can construct a multi switch box in second's, if you need more vcr's call your vcr repair shop, pawn shop, electrical repair shop, etc...and ask them what they due with the hopeless one's they throw away and intercept them. I have, but do not use, a switch box that can have up to 40 rca in/out, and it can feed all 20/40 of them if wished simutaneously with different signals or 39 of them to split one signal,...and it does not require power at all, try to find one of those ANYWHERE). That switch box was constructed from 24 vcr's)

The library holds more than enough information on to fix your problem. That is where the electrical tape suggestion came from...and aswell did the nintendo trick(for vcr's). Also the book i got to start on my switch box was there...i followed it t by t, besides the part that envolved adding the power adapter. My library, has a service, and your's does to probably, where you can logon to it with telnet, reserver, check out,extend a book, and even have the option to send it to your house. So you should check your library for more info on fixing that...or repair shop's, but unless you know somebody that work's in one there less than friendly and don't want to answer your ?'s in hope you will bring it in to them.

Has anybody noticed that the Nintendo trick work's in like 50 million different area's of life...not just nintendo's or vcr's. It should be one of the tool's of man...then again the wedge i think is.