I wanted to transfer some old VHS tapes to my PC for DVD burning. I tried capturing them from a cheap 4 head VCR deck I own, but the tapes are old and the results were poor. The video transfers were very "shaky" vertically and there were problems with severe color bleeding. So I bought a used higher end JVC S-VHS deck, especially since it came with TBC (time-base correction) and the JVC DigiPure image enhancement technology. The deck I got was the S-VHS capable JVC HR-S9911U. Here's a link to the user manual in PDF format:
http://resources.jvc.com/Resources/00/00/97/82931ien.pdf
The capture card is an older Hauppauge model that has worked fine for years with my cheap 4-head VCR player and still does.
Unfortunately, no matter what settings configuration I try on my WinTV capture card for input channel configuration (NTSC, PAL, SECAM, every variation of configuration parameters with each of those major format, etc.), I can't get a valid picture or audio signal from the JVC deck. Instead what I see in those configurations that do show at least something on the WinTV recorder software monitor window (instead of just black), is a repeating pattern of orderly shapes that if I was forced to describe, look like "morse code". Note, I also did try every different reasonable setting on the JVC deck, and all the RCA jack compatible outputs on the back of it. No luck.
I am trying to figure out how to solve this and I'm wondering:
- Does the JVC put out a digital signal instead of an analog one, perhaps one my WinTV capture card can't cope with and that's the real problem?
- Or is the deck just broken?
I bought it used from a third party and they said they plugged it into their TV and saw a healthy picture.
