Help me decide which JVC VCR & TBC combo to use

[LouGee]

I'm looking to Capture a bunch of 90's era camcorder VHS tapes into Adobe Premiere via a Canopus advc110. The tapes are generally in good condition, and mostly they were only recorded onto just once. Some are VHS-C with the adapter thingy.

I have two choices regarding the VCR and TBC for playback into the Canopus...

1. I already have a JVC HR-A51U (in very good condition, on loan from a friend) which is a decent VCR which I could combine with an external TBC unit like a DataVision TBC-1000

2. Get a top-end JVC unit on Ebay like the HR-7600/9500/9600 with the built-in TBC and stuff like the Dynamic Drum, noise reduction, and whatever.


What say you guys?

[JVRaines]

The TBC built into the top-end JVCs mainly straightens out wiggly lines. A few tapes will look better with it off, depending on the precise nature of the timebase instability. An external TBC is really a frame synchronizer, which mainly keeps the picture from jumping around and ensures consistent sync going into the A/D converter. I use a JVC HR-S9911U plus frame sync to address both kinds of problems. The noise reduction circuitry of the better JVCs provides a quick fix to the (usually) crummy VHS picture; some folks prefer to leave it off (EDIT mode) and dink around with software filters instead.

[LouGee]

Thank you, I did more searching and found a few other posts of guys who also used an external TBC along with a JVC that had it's own internal TBC. Is anyone else here doing that? Are there any potential problems though?


BTW - slightly OT - I noticed you have a 9911. Does the lack of Dynamic Drum make any difference? Was the DD only relevant toward slowMo/FastFwd playback? Or is it relevant to normal playback speeds for tapes that were recorded on other machines? (or anyone else reading this)