Hi, I'm new here, and I've got a question that is related to splitters, a/v switches and connecting cables.
You see, I've been dubbing VHS tapes for about a year now, and, ever since this past April, I've been having the Devil's own time with it. :-/
I started out with a GO + VIDEO VHS/DVD combo that I got for Christmas last year, and a 2002 or 2003 model Sony VCR. (I was playing the tapes on the Sony and recording them on the combo.)
Everything was fine, until late March, when I accidentally inserted a broken tape into the Sony VCR, and it got stuck and wouldn't come out. I had to replace it with a new Sony combo, and that's when my troubles really began.
The problem is, I'm about as big a technophobe as you can get, so, when I got that GO + VIDEO combo last year, I didn't even attempt to hook it up to my other VCR by myself. I let my Mom and Grandpa do it while I was gone.
They did so, via a splitter, a/v switch, and five cables, not including the cable TV wire, which was already there, and the a/v cable (red/white/yellow), which came with the combo.
Now, like I said, for the first three months, everything was fine. I was so paranoid about somehow messing up the configuration I had that I tried not to even touch any of the cables or the splitter. But, that whole time, the signal came through good and strong, and the picture on the screen was absolutely pristine. No clear lines, fuzzy lines, white gashes or anything.
But, once the new combo had been hooked to the rest of my equipment, things started going downhill, almost immediately.
Lines starting appearing on the screen---fuzzy vertical and horizontal lines at first, about two and a half to three inches wide, which would move up and down or across the screen like a wave. Then there were lines that looked like they could've been made by a cheese-grater---lines made of little pinprick holes in the blue screen or television picture, which criss-crossed each other and moved up and down the screen. :-0 There were about five or six of these lines together, then a clear space of about two inches, and then another, broken line on the bottom. WEIRD. :-/
Well, I valiantly battled these lines for several months, with varying degrees of success. The only thing that seemed to help was when I would unhook every cable, blow in the hole on the splitter, a/v switch, and every port on the back of both units, as well as the tips of every cable, then re-hook everything.
That would seem to solve the problem for maybe a week at a time, in which I would try to squeeze as much tape dubbing as I possibly could, but, every time, after about 3-5 days, the lines would come back. :-/
During one of these dubbing marathons, I taped some stuff for my Mom, and she said that everything turned out fine, except for one movie, which, sure enough, I had taped just hours before the lines had come back.
So, apparently, there is some connection between the lines being on the screen and the quality of a tape I'm dubbing beginning to deteriorate, aside from just the fact that they are aesthetically UGLY and annoying as all hell.
What happened was, there were these nasty white gashes in the picture, as if someone had poked holes in a movie reel with a knife, and was holding the film in front of a fluorescent light bulb.
Then, back in November, after unhooking and re-hooking every cable, in response to the latest return of the abominable lines, everything LOOKED great. Not a line to be seen.
So I tested things out by trying to copy a tape, and the end result was HORRIFYING!!! Not only were there white gashes showing up on the screen every forty seconds or so, but, about every minute and a half, the middle of the screen would fill up with thick, white lines, and the tape would make the kind of sound that they make when they're starting to warp.
A couple of weeks later, the video signal from my Sony combo stopped coming through on my GO + VIDEO combo altogether. I replaced the old splitter and a/v switch with new ones, but to no avail. Then, last night, I bought four new cables, but that didn't help either.
Clearly, something had simply gone wrong with the Sony combo, so my Mom took it in today and had it replaced. The video signal from the new one comes through, but there's still quite a few lines and white gashes on the screen, and I can't figure out for the life of me WHY!!!
Does anyone here know what causes those damn gashes and broken lines on the screen?
I know this sounds retarded, but I wonder whether my blowing in the holes of the splitter, a/v switch, and various units was actually doing some good maybe??? Could dust accumulating in the ports and on the tips of the cable wires cause a problem like that?
Or could it, perhaps, be related to the pull of gravity on the cables? One reason I replaced my two video cables was because they were two damn long. They were about seven feet five inches long, and it's only about two and a half feet from where the a/v switch is mounted to the backs of the units. The rest of the cords just hung down and got in the way.
But I wonder whether that had something to do with the lines on the screen, because, now that I've replaced them with 3 foot cables, the lines aren't nearly as bad. But they're still there, though.
So, I wonder, could the cables being tangled or touching the other cables be causing it?
Obviously, only someone who has had a LOT of experience with this type of a setup (cables, splitters, and a/v switches in particular) would be able to help me with this problem. I'm just hoping and praying there's someone on here who fits that description.
You see, my intention is to dub two full-length VHS tapes each for my Mom and Dad for Christmas, and, as I've only got a couple of days left to do it, time is of the essence.