I'm using Vegas 5.0 to capture a poor quality VHS tape with tracking problems. I'm capturing with a Canopus ADVC 1394 card and have tried three good quality VCRs. The newer Auto Track VCRs go crazy. So, I resorted to a JVC VCR with manual tracking and a Sima CT-2 as a pseudo time base corrector. I capture in 3 minute clips. This works fairly well. However, the tracking shifts often and I still get some video tearing. So, I captured each clip three times with slightly different track settings. I use Vegas to locate the best portions of each capture and then cut and paste to create one best quality clip.

Unfortunately, when I import each capture into a seperate video event line and align the first video frames, the last frames of the captures do not align. They are off by up to 30 frames in a 3 minute clip. Vegas has never indicated a dropped frame during capture and the avi file properties also shows no dropped frames. Yet one clip is 1 second longer. My best guess is that there is a variation in the playback speed of the VCR. Does VCR speed normally vary this much from playback to playback?

Is there a way to use the first and last frames as a reference to time "stretch" or "shrink" the different clips, so the intermediate frames are synchronized? That doesn't seem likely unless every frame could be resampled and interpolated or blended. Even if possible, I can't imagine the effects would be good, but I had to ask.

Also, Vegas did something odd which I do not understand. A few of the frame images on the video event lines are displayed smaller (about 1/4 size) than the rest. This is on the video event lines, not in the preview window. I could locate a few small images on each event line. They occurred randomly and can be moved with the event. I cannot see any difference in the image itself for those frames. I cannot find any reference or web discussion on what this means. Is this how Vegas indicates a dropped frame? What does random small images on the video event line signify in Vegas 5.0?

Thanks

Barry