Microtime T-120 TBC

[tdan]

I see lot's of these for sale on ebay for around $100-$150. The best that I have been able to to figure out is that they are older broadcast units. How old? Would one be worth picking up as an economical alternative to, say, a TBC-1000?

[Wile_E]

Does it have a full TBC or just a line-based TBC?

[tdan]

That is a good question. I can't seem to find out. I have Googled this unit to death, and based on the relative lack of information, I'm thinking that it might not be worth the hassle.

Maybe I will post a question to a seller to see if I can find out. In the meantime, just going to keep reading everything in these forums

[Capmaster]

Just beware that there's a lot of junk out there being sold as "clarifiers" and "stabilizers". They remove macrovision by filtering the MV pulse. That's completely different than how a TBC works.

This unit might be a line TBC, which won't help with macrovision removal or more gross tape flaws when capturing. It'll be line the ones built into standalone recorders and camcorders. It's hard to imagine that it's a full-frame TBC when it's selling for that price.

But sometimes if you find a good deal on video equipment rental unit sales, you can get an older full TBC for a song. But if it's a broadcast or professional-grade unit, beware because it probably needs an external sync. All studio equipment is designed to use a master sync which is plumbed throughout the studio and used in all the equipment. It allows them to do flawless fades, wipes and overlays. The equipment won't work right without that signal

[tdan]

Thanks, Capmaster.

That's exactly the kind of info I was looking for.