low cost TBC

[johnmm91]

I dub 'old' VHS to DVD thru PC. With a broadcast grade TBC my friend borrowed to me while, amazingly all the "jumping" in the video are gone and noise seems better too! I was wondering is there any low cost TBC available in the market? Could anyone receommend me some ?

[Savant]

The cheapest one I have seen is this one. I haven't used it personally though. Right now I'm working on getting rid of other video problems. I've found that ground loop tends to be more common than I had thought and many of its effects tend to be misdiagnosed. So I'm going to install a video isolator before I spring for a TBC.

Regards,

Savant

[triphop]

Whoa!!!! Before you spend lots of money!

http://www.dplay.com/tutorial/cablehum.html

This will save you cash and you will get a good solution. The only problen is that you will have this dongle hanging back out your VCR.

[Savant]

If that was the problem, all a person would have to do is disconnect their cable from all their devices and see if it made a difference. I tried that and it didn't do bupkiss. While it's ok to go cheap on audio isolators, there is no getting around proper video isolation. (if that's an issue) Ground loop hum is under-diagnosed and often mistaken for other problems. Your solution would work, but only if it was the cable line causing the problem. Like I said, disconnecting all cable lines will quickly tell one if this is the case.

Regards,

Savant

[triphop]

True. In my case it was the cable line had a floating ground (which is understandable - it was routed off a telephone pole - the shield is basically a long capacitor).

Solving ground loop problems is sometimes a nasty job - I was loathe to get my equipment to source/sink excess current through some arbitrarty strap to ground. Good luck with whatever you are doing.

PS. Have you used that TBC you listed?

[Savant]

In regard to the cable ground, what I did was I had the cable guy ground the cable before it entered the house. I have cable via telephone pole as well, and there was an excess current. Since many splitters have ground screws (for a reason ) I had him run a ground to a nearby pipe. Worked like a charm.

I haven't used that TBC, i've ordered the Video Isolator instead. (should arrive any day) While it cost US$100, I believe that it will take care of the problems I am having. As I said, many people seem to think a TBC is a cureall, when it does have limitations. If there is a ground loop between the computer and the external video device, then a TBC alone won't fix that, the loop will still exist. I may get that TBC in future anyway just to add that much more stability to my captures, but for now I'm hoping this isolator will do the job. (based on the problems I feel I am having)

Regards,

Savant