datavideo TBC-100 versus TBC-1000

[dzachau]

In my attempts to purchace a product to "clean up" old family vhs tapes for video capture I am debating on purchasing the datavideo TBC-1000 versus the less expensive PCI card based TBC-100. Anyone out there familiar with these two TBC's made by Datavideo?? Would the TBC-100 be sufficient for the purpose of improving image quality for video capture of old home-made VHS tapes onto the computer??

Thanks!

[Capmaster]

I've got the TBC-1000 and love it. I can't say how well the TBC-100 works, but if it's a true TBC, then it ought to work just fine. Datavideo makes a nice product.

[DaveS]

dzachau - what do they look like when you play them on a VCR to a TV? There are many different things that could be 'cleaned up', not all of which would be addressed by a TBC, which will address sync. errors that cause your picture to go wavy, but will not address other issues. For example, w/ some units such as a sima color corrector, you can adjust the colors, the sharpness, etc. Also, how are you going to convert these form analog to digital ... there are a couple of ways you could go. One product, although it is not cheap, that caught my eye was the canopus advc-300, which combines the a/d conversion with some features to clean and fine-tune the video pic, similar to what a sima unit would offer. And, there are many ATI board supporters out there and the color corrector units should work great w/ those as well. Anway, the only point really was that before spending the $ on the TBC, just make sure you would be getting the most improvement in your transfer as possible.

[edit: that being said, I do use a TBC-1000, which has helped me in certain cases, and done a great job, but it isn't the only useful tool ]

[Anonymous65]

The TBC-100 is the same card as is found in the TBC-1000. The TBC-100 is a PCI card, and the TBC-1000 has the card enclosed in a box with a power supply to use it outside the PC.

[dzachau]

My interest in a TBC goes back to an earlier post I put up. I have VHS home-made tapes that playback fine on a TV, but when played back via computer (VCR to ATI AIW 9600XT) there is periodic "tearing" at the top of the picture. "Tearing" is hard to describe, but about 10-15% of the top portion of the viewable picture ends up with a white band, resembling a tracking problem. The "white band" will come as the tape is viewed, and periodically the image takes on a green tint. Again, these artifacts cannot be seen when viewing the tape on a TV. A TBC was suggested as a possible solution to "clean up" the signal. The problem was suspected to be errors on the old VHS tape that must be corrected before the signal reaches the capture card. Does this strike you as a problem a TBC like the Datavideo 1000 or 100 would fix??

[Capmaster]

My interest in a TBC goes back to an earlier post I put up. I have VHS home-made tapes that playback fine on a TV, but when played back via computer (VCR to ATI AIW 9600XT) there is periodic "tearing" at the top of the picture. "Tearing" is hard to describe, but about 10-15% of the top portion of the viewable picture ends up with a white band, resembling a tracking problem. The "white band" will come as the tape is viewed, and periodically the image takes on a green tint. Again, these artifacts cannot be seen when viewing the tape on a TV. A TBC was suggested as a possible solution to "clean up" the signal. The problem was suspected to be errors on the old VHS tape that must be corrected before the signal reaches the capture card. Does this strike you as a problem a TBC like the Datavideo 1000 or 100 would fix??

Yes. The TBC-1000 removes all the timing for an entire frame at a time, storing the video in a buffer. It then replaces the timing with precise, clean timing ...removing artifacts from mechanical tape slop, tape stretch, wow, flutter, tape edge curling, etc. It also removes macrovision completely.

I consider a TBC a necessity for anyone capurting from tape or another non-ideal source on a regular basis. It's money well spent

[dzachau]

Thanks! I think I will give the TBC-100 a try being that I have a free PCI slot and it is about $90.00 cheaper. I had tried, and returned, a product that I thought was a cheaper version of a TBC made by Sima, "Go-DVD" is the name I think. It did not help. However, I will try a real TBC and see what happens. Thanks again for your time!

[DaveS]

fwiw, I had a mechanical problem w/ one tape that was maybe stretching or something similar that the tbc couldn't really deal with, but for many other things it has worked really well...

dzachau - out of curiosity, let us know what happens w/ the tbc..did it fix the problem?

[dzachau]

Will do! Thanks for all the helpful feedback!! I will post the results of the TBC as soon as I try it out.

[dzachau]

Many thanks to all that pointed me to the Time Base Corrector hardware!! The Datavideo TBC-1000 has totally corrected my problem! My home videos come out perfect after being filtered through the TBC! All "tearing" at the top of the picture is corrected. The final image looks great!! Thanks again!! I can now transfer home videos onto DVD to avoid losing these memories to degrading VHS tapes.

Dave Zachau

[Capmaster]

Many thanks to all that pointed me to the Time Base Corrector hardware!! The Datavideo TBC-1000 has totally corrected my problem! My home videos come out perfect after being filtered through the TBC! All "tearing" at the top of the picture is corrected. The final image looks great!! Thanks again!! I can now transfer home videos onto DVD to avoid losing these memories to degrading VHS tapes.

Dave Zachau

Glad to hear it Dave

Another happy customer 8)

[SLICK RICK]

Many thanks to all that pointed me to the Time Base Corrector hardware!! The Datavideo TBC-1000 has totally corrected my problem! My home videos come out perfect after being filtered through the TBC! All "tearing" at the top of the picture is corrected. The final image looks great!! Thanks again!! I can now transfer home videos onto DVD to avoid losing these memories to degrading VHS tapes.

Dave Zachau

Ahh.... The joys of purchasing something that actually works the way you hoped it would.

Glad to hear that it help out your transfers Dave.

SLICK RICK....