Hey, been getting a lot of help from the forum so gonna try give some back
Not sure about your first problem, does the harddrive stopping affect your captured video?
When I capture from VHS to PC I also get that line at the bottom, Im not sure what causes it but I dont think it is a problem. When I recorded a video onto a DVD with powerproducer the line was not there on the TV, however with nerovision express it was. You can crop the line off the bottom and then it def wont be there on TV.