VHS to Digital MP4

sausage_time

Could be dirt on the video heads too? Or worse the old tape shedding oxide onto them.

You could try cleaning carefully with cotton buds and alcohol (search). Or the likes of Amazon sell head cleaner tapes (which may help the tracking too if that's the issue).

sausage_time

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81973779#Comment_81973779

This device looks to have manual tracking.

https://www.instructionsmanuals.com/sites/default/files/2019-07/Philips-14PV200-en.pdf

See page 13 - try adjusting during playback.

oldernonethewiser

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81973579#Comment_81973579

I digitised quite a lot of old tapes, some were home movies originally shot on 8mm then transferred to tape many years previously. I then uploaded them to a file sharing service and sent various family members a link so that they can access them as and when they want.

None of them come close to high quality, but watchable memories.

atlantis187

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81973877#Comment_81973877

I cant do tracking as I dont have the remote no more and there is no buttons on the TV to do this.

atlantis187

If i can sort the tracking thing out can the I still transfer from this VCR to my laptop even though it only has a scart connection and not the coloured connections?

atlantis187

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81973877#Comment_81973877

I managed to find the remote and the the tracking and cleaning but didnt make any difference still doesnt show video only sound.

JSmithy45AD

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81973987#Comment_81973987

Just look for scart to rca or scart to hdmi convertors on Amazon.

sausage_time

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81974041#Comment_81974041

Do you have another (known good) tape you can try? Or try that tape in another machine?

MyRealNameToo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81973987#Comment_81973987

Scart was a pain because unlike almost all other connections it was able to carry a range of different signals like Composite (the coloured connections red, white, yellow), S.Video, RGB and Component. As a consequence just having two devices with scart didnt necessarily mean you were getting the best picture because there is a massive difference in quality between them.

If you want to use composite, which is the worst one, then you just need a cable not a convertor, same as any of the above. You would need to check what capabilities the VCR has as no point trying to go down the S.Video option if your VCR can't output that format.

Presumably the laptop doesnt have any analogue inputs so you would need a convertor… ignore anything that doesnt need power, there are a lot of fake/impossible cables out there that will never work. Note that if you buy a cheap scart to HDMI one it will be using composite and so the lowest quality but if thats all your VCR can do no point spending on something higher. If your VCR can do more then also make sure you buy a full SCART cable, again some cheap ones used to not wire up every pin and things like S.Video uses pins that the Composite connection ignored.

oldernonethewiser

The company that made the convertor I used years ago no longer seem to do them but I had a Scart to RCA to USB. Worked well enough although took an age as everything is converted in real time.

In reference to tracking this is done on the VCR, not the TV.