Hope this stimulates a lot of discussion .....

I currently have a Sony Umatic 3/4" player (VO-5600) and am seriously considering buying a good TBC unit to use when capturing to my computer. I've read some previous topics regarding this, and would welcome anyone's opinion on the best ones (TBCs) out there. I just want to get the best quality image results without having to go over $250 or so.

However, I also have the chance of purchasing a Sony BVU-900 which has a TBC already built into the unit.

As an aside, I currently use my JVC HR-S9900U (with TBC and DNR, etc...) to dump my old video tapes to hard drive and love the results, and am looking to get similar results in contructing a Umatic set up through TBC and possibly Digital NR unit (??). Though I don't use it in conjunction with my Umatic 3/4" player, I merely state this as reference to the great job it does cleaning up the video's signal.


First question is: is there a difference/advantages/disadvantages of getting a TBC unit to run the Umatic's signal through versus the quality one would get from the BVU-900's and TBC?

Second question is: is there any Digital NR unit anyone is familiar with (that is compatible with the work my JVC HR-S9900U does) to clean up the TBC signal?

I know this is a bit of a detailed question with a lot of hypotheticals, but if anyone who has more knowlege of this could share their thoughts I'd greatly appreciate it.

Please freely offer up your advice and thoughts,
Darren