TBC-3000

[stevedore]

Hello-

I'm new to capturing, burning to DVD, etc., and I'm having mixed results. My primary goal is to transfer 23 VHS tapes of a TV series ("Soap", remember that?) to DVDs in case our tapes deteriorate. (The tapes are from Columbia House, not off-the-air recordings)

I started with a Datavideo DAC-100, and had very little success. It captured some other commercial VHS movies we have without a problem, but results with the Sope tapes, as well as some others, were useless. When the capture hit an apparent weak spot on the tape, the DAC-100 couldn't recover, and the remainder of the capture was worthless.

I traded up to a Canopus ADVC-100, and have had somewhat better results, but still not satisfactory. The Canopus seems to recover quickly from a problem spot on the tape, but the result is a capture with many frames missing, spotty audio, etc., as you would expect.

I should note that these tapes are nicely & completely viewable on a VCR; smooth video, no dropouts, good color, etc. Which makes me wonder why I'm having trouble capturing them.

From some reading on this forum & elsewhere, it seems that a time base corrector may be what I need to improve my results. I just bought a Datavideo TBC-3000 on Ebay, hoping that this is the case, and I'd appreciate any suggestions, comments, confirmation that I'm going in the right direction, etc.

One specific question: The TBC-3000 doesn't appear to have audio inputs & outputs, yet others, such as the TBC-1000 do. Will I be missing something with the TBC-3000 in bypassing it with the audio, i.e., going directly from my VCR into the Canopus ADVC-100? I'd assume that the TBC must insert some amount of time delay in the video; is it just negligible, or what?

Thanks for any comments, suggestions, laughter, or whatever!

Stvee.

[Toogy]

I can't help you much, but all I have to say is DAMN

you are the guy that outbid me by $3

You got a hell of a deal on that unit, that's for sure.

[stevedore]

Are you serious? Man, it really is a small world!

It'll be a good deal if it helps me capture all those VHS tapes. If not, it'll be back on Ebay. One went a couple of weeks ago for about $200, I was hoping this one would also. Oh well.

Steve.

[davideck]

The TBC-1000 has audio connections for distribution convienience only; they are bufferred and distributed out with no delay. The video delay through the TBC-1000 (and TBC-3000) is less than one frame, so it is indeed negligible.

The TBC-3000 is essentially two video only TBC-1000s with synchronized outputs. But it also has video proc controls, which is very nice. It has eliminated the audio/video skew problems that I had been having when capturing SHVS to DVD.

[zanos]

Man, all this trouble just to transfer some commercial videotapes over to vhs? Why not just buy a dvd recorder for like $400 and do it that way?

[lordsmurf]

Man, all this trouble just to transfer some commercial videotapes over to vhs? Why not just buy a dvd recorder for like $400 and do it that way?

Because the TBCs being discussed are way above the level of the ones included in the recorders.

[zanos]

But stevedore simply wants to backup 23 old columbia house tapes to dvd. The TBCs in the recorders are satisfactory for this task and will save him at least a year on his life. As far as I can tell all this is unnecessary.

[lordsmurf]

But stevedore simply wants to backup 23 old columbia house tapes to dvd. The TBCs in the recorders are satisfactory for this task and will save him at least a year on his life. As far as I can tell all this is unnecessary.

I missed that. Yeah. For original videos, if a TBC is even needed, the medium one in a recorder should be more than adequate.

[Rookie64]

[quote="stevedore"]One specific question: The TBC-3000 doesn't appear to have audio inputs & outputs, yet others, such as the TBC-1000 do. Will I be missing something with the TBC-3000 in bypassing it with the audio, i.e., going directly from my VCR into the Canopus ADVC-100? I'd assume that the TBC must insert some amount of time delay in the video; is it just negligible, or what?[quote]

I don't know much about the DV converters, but they seem a bit pricey for the type of captures you're doing.
Aren't those things sort of on the order of Dazzle and Snappy - I'd avoid those, 'cause I hear nothing but bad things about 'em.

I never had any capture prpblems with ATI AIW cards (just driver issues...lol) - even the cheapest ones did great captures of stuff from very old tapes (like from 1979 and 1980) and stuff recorded in EP/SLP mode.

None of my VHS tapes have deteriorated (that is noticable anyway) spanning over two decades.

Why not just use a capture card?

What type of VCR are you using - that could have something to do with it.

[stevedore]

Man, all this trouble just to transfer some commercial videotapes over to vhs? Why not just buy a dvd recorder for like $400 and do it that way?

I thought about that, but then thought that doing captures & using software for menus, chapters, authoring, etc. would give me a better end product. Besides, messing with this stuff is fun, isn't it?

[stevedore]

But stevedore simply wants to backup 23 old columbia house tapes to dvd. The TBCs in the recorders are satisfactory for this task and will save him at least a year on his life. As far as I can tell all this is unnecessary.

If the 23 tapes go OK, I'll have a lot more to do. We have about 50 VHS movies that I wouldn't spend $$ to buy new on DVD, but I'm willing to transfer them to DVD for the cost of a blank DVD-R. And a pile of old 8MM home movies that I'd like to edit & put on DVD. And when I'm done, I can put this TBC back on Ebay & get most of my $$ back.

Besides, I'm an engineer; there are times that I NEED to waste endless amounts of money & time on "hobbies" like this.