VHS 'thump' in audio

[Tom41]

I've been transferring a lot of my old VHS recordings to DVD. Thing is, I'm getting the occasional 'thump' noise on the soundtrack, particularly when the original tape was only recorded in linear mono (not hi-fi)

It sounds a bit like the noise you get when you first turn an amplifier on and the speakers energise. I'm using an LG LV880 VCR to play back the tapes and record them onto DVD. I never noticed any noises like this with any of my previous VCRs, which makes me think that the VCR is at fault rather than the tapes being defective.

I just tried rewinding the bit of the tape and playing it again and again when I heard the 'thump', and it occurs in the same place each time. Perhaps the VCR is more sensitive to damage on the audio track than my previous ones?

[b700029]

Re: VHS 'thump' in audio

Look carefully at the tape movement past the audio head, unsteady movement can cause it to slap the head and cause the thumping. Maybe there is a small friction somewhere. If the spindles are at the same place every time you hear the thump it would be a good guess.

[Tom41]

Re: VHS 'thump' in audio

The 'thump' noise isn't coming from the tape mechanism itself; it's coming from the TV speaker. Incidentally I tried the same tapes on other VCRs and there is a noise in the same place when played on the other VCRs too.

This sounds quite odd to me... an extra noise on the soundtrack would seem to suggest something was ADDED to the recording, not just regular wear and tear. Since I never noticed it before; maybe the LG VCR has been putting these noises on all my tapes!

Perhaps it could have something to do with the points at which I stop and rewind or fast forward the tape, if it makes contact with something in the VCR?

[Tom41]

Re: VHS 'thump' in audio

Sorry for bumping this old topic but I did some more research and experimentation. The noise is definitely being CAUSED by the VCR itself. It seems to happen whenever the tape is stopped, such as when a rewind ends. Even stop-starting the tape is enough to cause a thump on the soundtrack.

This seems to suggest something is happening to the tape whenever it stops, perhaps some sort of static discharge/spot erase? I actually marked a tape with a Sharpie to see where it occurred; the noise occurs on the part of the tape that was around the right guide roller (near the head drum) when the tape was stopped.

I've attached a ZIP containing a sample of the beginning of one of my VHS tapes. You'll hear a whole barrage of pops at the start (obviously where it stopped after rewinding), and two softer ones as the TV show soundtrack starts.

[Scenic]

Re: VHS 'thump' in audio

One of my VCRs (LG LV2785) did the same thing, which is really annoying as it ruined quite a few tapes..
Overall quality of these late plastic junk VCRs just sucks..

The LED display on my LV2785 died after about a year (only shows random lines ; bad controller IC), the audio head records pops and clicks onto the tape when playing/stopping, it sometimes gets stuck in an auto-tracking loop (randomly starts auto-tracking in the middle of a video and instead of finishing, repeats doing that till you stop the tape and unintentionally record yet another pop/click onto the tape) and sometimes the mechanics just lock up, causing the VCR to go into standby (probably displaying an error or something on the LED display, but I can't see that). Turning it back on again makes it work as if nothing happened.

I haven't found a way to fix the popping sounds other than using a different VCR, which is what I ended up doing..
I still have the LG, but it's probably gonna end up in the e-waste soon. Don't want any more ruined tapes