Hotronic AP41 good as a TBC before capturing VHS/Beta recordings to a PC

[jpdesroc]

Newbee question..
I need a time base corrector to clean up the video output of my VHS
while recording to my Canopus ADVC-100 capture device.
The Hotronic AP41 TBC seems to be a good candidate to do the job.
But this device has Gen Lock connectors at the back...
Can I use this device only using the Video input and output (No Gen lock connected) ?
Will the Time Base Corrector do it's job anyway ?
Thanks.

[lingyi]

There were some recent posts by lordsmurf (a highly respected member here and a part of digitalfaq.com) either here or digitalfaq.com in which he explains that professional TBCs do a poor job on consumer VHS tapes because they're meant to stabilize the output of the much higher quality output of professional equipment. In addition, by the time professional equipment is put on open market, it's very near end of life.

Search for Hotronic AP41 on this forum and digitalfaq.com and there's some threads about connections and quality.

I don't know if he still has any TBCs available, but ask him on digitalfaq.com about it (he's always there and comes here on and off). If you have a lot of tapes to do and don't have a known good VCR, I think he still has some VCR/TBC/capture card combos available.

[JVRaines]

Can I use this device only using the Video input and output (No Gen lock connected) ?
Yes. Gen lock is only required if you needed to synchronize the TBC with other analog devices such as a switcher.
Will the Time Base Corrector do it's job anyway ?

Yes. Genlock is only required to sync the TBC with other analog production devices such as a switcher.