Dazzle Dw100 Copying Vhs Getting Strange Slow Spots Of Audio

[ChinaBob]

I am using the Dazzle DW100 capture device that came with my EMC10 and copying old slow play VHS tapes.

 

If tape has a slight flaw (tracking I presume) the captured audio at that spot will drop to what sounds like half speed audio for a moment or for several seconds. If it is a portion where I can see lip synch, the lip synch stays in time with the audio. The VHS tape glitch may be a visible blip on the screen, but sometimes not. I have noticed it happen at spots in the VHS playback where the automatic tracking kicks in, but not always.

 

I have used two different VHS machines with the same results. My computer is a Vaio desktop running XP SP2.

 

Recapturing over the same spot sometimes corrects that spot. Other times I just can't beat it.

 

Another thing happens where the audio at some point gets garbled and distorted and will continue until I stop the capture. Recapturing this section will always correct this, but I never know where it may start to do this so I do short captures and review often.

 

Monitoring the tape as I capture, the sound is OK, so I don't discover the flaws unless I preview the complete capture before editing. Some flaws I didn't discover until the finished edit had been transferred to DVD.

 

Now I have given up until I can find a way to solve this problem.

[Guest ml]

It might or might not be a tracking problem.

 

Are these commercially made tapes? If so, you might be running into a copy protection feature.

 

If they're not, you might want to capture in smaller segments of time... 10 to 15 minutes. There might be another program ( like a virus or spam protection program ) which is competing for computer resources. Capturing in smaller segments and assembling them in VideoWave MIGHT solve the problem.

[ggrussell]

I have some 30 year old VHS tapes of when my daughter was a baby and have similar problems. There are several problems with magnetic tape. First, it can gradually loose the magnetism in the very small particles on the tape. This will cause the video signal to be weak and places where there may be drop-outs (video noise or no signal). Second, the magnetic particles can start to flake off the plastic backing. When this happens, the tape is destroyed. Unfortunately, video tape doesn't last forever

[malatekid]

Just curious, does the same problem exist when watching the VHS on TV?

 

 

[ChinaBob]

Re: Slowed sound track -- watching the VHS while capturing, everything appears OK. Sound does not slow. Picture may show a small blip indicating an electronic or physical defect at the place where bad sound starts. Most times when this slowing happens, there is no visible indication on screen. Playing and watching tape on TV there is no noticeable sound defect. I disconnect from the network, turn off all security, turn off screensaver before I do video work. I mentioned that at a few places where I could see that automatic tracking had kicked in (a little HI-FI appears on screen), the slowing in the capture has started at that point. I can see where tracking problems would cause audio problems but why both the sound and video slow at that point, I cannot see. I do not hear any slowing while I watch and capture the video.