What causes Time Base Errors ?
Industrial vintage video equipment such as EIAJ formats often did not meet broadcast specs concerning the synchronizing signals even the day the program was originally recorded. The errors may also have been induced as the program was being recorded, due perhaps to a not uncommon dragging supply reel. The errors may also be caused by stretching of the tape somewhere in it’s past history. More than likely, it’s due to the natural degradation of the tape whereby control track signals have been degraded to the point that the capstan servo system cannot consistently lock on and track the video information. Even a brief loss or degradation of control track signal forces the capstan servo to “hunt” for the video track, resulting in a severe time base error. Other causes are sometimes related to faulty or poorly designed vintage recording equipment or cameras, and resulted in bad video or noise getting in the sync part of the signal and throwing the servos for a loop. Today’s cameras employ c
