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VHS tape "going crazy" on the video input of the es15

905 Views 12 Replies 7 Participants Last post by  beekeeper, 
S
I have been recording some past VHS copies without a problem on the es15, but tonight I encountered something I've never seen before with any Panasonic DVD Recorder. It's my very old Wedding Tape. It's not very professional and I had enough sense to atleast know that it needed to be in SP when I was just a kid. It seems ok when you play the tape on the vcr when going into the tv. When you have it going through the es15, the picture shakes, eventhough it does when going through the tv. I hooked it up through the input 2 since the tbc is not used here (I'm guessing), and the picture is like when feeding it through the tv. What kind of adjustments should I make? Should I set the NR off or will that make a difference? I did copy this as a test using a DVD-RAM disc, and I noticed XP helped much more than SP in this situation. XP finally served it's purpose. Despite the picture shaking from time to time, the input 1 copy still looked better than using input 2. When pause was pressed, there was tons of artifacts in the input 2 copy while it looked like a DVD using input 1.
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Not sure if it's an "input" problem, but it "could" be a moisture or tape-alignment problem?


On "very old tapes," it's always a good idea to first FF and REW, maybe several times, before dubbing to make sure the tape resets on the reels and loses as much moisture as possible.
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K
Are you saying that the picture looks stable coming in through In1 and unstable from the same source using In2?
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I recently observed a similar and occasional thing with the ES20. Usually if I turn the ES20 off and then back on the problem goes away. When this happens only the VHS picture is "going crazy". The VCR tuner shows properly. At the same time if I watch the VHS picture thru the TV it plays fine. I have the VCR connected on IN2 (front). Some more details are in the last page of the "ES20 first impressions" thread.
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Quote:
I have the VCR connected on IN2 (front).
Yeah, this is the only way I could stop the "jitters" was by having it go through the input 2, unfortunately, the picture won't look as good when recorded because all those filters are not being used. Maybe if I turn off the NR it will stop. I'll work with it some more when I get home.

Quote:
Not sure if it's an "input" problem, but it "could" be a moisture or tape-alignment problem?
I did this a couple of times. I prefer using my older vcr for this because it rewinds at one speed instead of taking off like an F-15.

Quote:
Are you saying that the picture looks stable coming in through In1 and unstable from the same source using In2?
It's unstable through input1, but input2 pretty much will show what my tv sees, but it the end result will not be as clean looking when recorded.
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Z
According to the ES15 manual :"Line -In NR (Only when IN1, IN2, or DV is selected)" so it should be working on both in1 and in2. It also says "Reduces video tape noise while copying. Depending on video signal jittering may occur."

It then explains the different options:

"Automatic: NR only works on picture input from a video tape.

ON: NR works for any video input.

OFF: NR is turned off. Select when you want to record input as it is."


So it is not making sense that IN1 is behaving different that IN2. From what you are saying it seems that the NR on IN is making your video "jitter" but than NR is not on IN2 therefore your video doesn't jitter. Weird.
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K
If you're using 2 different sets of cables - there's something to look at.
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If you're using 2 different sets of cables - there's something to look at.
That's possible, unfortunately, I used one set and tried some others as well. I tried hooking this source up through s-video, rca, and even through the tuner input. Nothing worked which makes me think this is a "special case". I have another video that was filmed even before this and no problem (probably because it was done with a better camcorder at the time).
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SimonBelmont
That's possible, unfortunately, I used one set and tried some others as well. I tried hooking this source up through s-video, rca, and even through the tuner input. Nothing worked which makes me think this is a "special case". I have another video that was filmed even before this and no problem (probably because it was done with a better camcorder at the time).
Try using the "speed changer" if you have that feature on your VCR. Often tapes recorded in some older video cameras will not be at the correct speed, so will get banding and other artifacts until you change the speed to get rid of them. If the speed is slightly off, you will still get a good picture on the TV, but the recorder may be trying to sync up the picture, hence the jitter.


It is obvious that the problem is distinct and associated with the tape and that the recorder is trying to correct the problem, just like my Sima tries with the commercial tape I had problems with.


If changing the speed does not work, then I would record the tape without correction, then, if you have another dvd player, play the disk from it to the recorder and record again but with the filters turned on.
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beekeeper,


Are you talking about the tracking control?


I have had some older tapes that seemed to be outside of the working range of the automatic tracking on my VCR, but I was still able to override that and get them to work with a manual tracking setting.
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I just wished there was a way for it to simply be recorded "raw" without the tbc. I have captured it onto a PC through a ATI AllinWonder and it turned out ok although it looked worse than the source. However, it did not jitter. I guess I could try to record it onto DVD-RAM, then try to copy it again to see if that worked. I even played it in a 2 head VHS Recorder and this did not solve the problem when being used as a source.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Budget_HT
beekeeper,


Are you talking about the tracking control?


I have had some older tapes that seemed to be outside of the working range of the automatic tracking on my VCR, but I was still able to override that and get them to work with a manual tracking setting.
Yes.
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Interesting on the new Toshiba thread they talk about a feature in prior models to correct tracking errors in vhs tapes when you are recording them. So Toshiba saw a problem that needed correction. But this may not be the problem here.
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