Saving old family movies from vhs?

Question

i have tons of old family movies that i want to put to dvd. i have the software and hardware and its capable. the problem is the vhs tapes themselves. im not sure if its tracking problem or just degraded. i rewound and fast forwarded all in hopes the tape was at the right tension..still looks bad. you can see a screen shot of the problem here:

http://www.pbase.com/pandlphotos/image/99486184

see the purple/blue tube line on the left? it comes and goes and the vid is jerky. is this a vhs player problem? or is the tape shot?

Answer 1

Is the problem the same when you connect your VHS player machine directly to a TV Monitor? Try it first, just connect alone directly the video out of VHS player to the video input of a TV Monitor, without any other connections. Is it Ok?

If all your tapes are showing the same picture trouble or problem, most probably there's some problem with your VHS player.

Try using another VHS player machine, just to confirm whether your tapes are hte ones giving problem or the VHS player itself.

Then if it is ok, when you playback your tapes with another VHS player, you can try to clean your VHS heads and tape guides with a trusted good tape cleaner, or better still bring your VHS player machine to the experienced qualified engineer / technician.

I do hope these tips wil help solve your problem.