TVone 1T-TBC-GL TBC horrible with mostly white scenes.

[lordsmurf]

Don't bet on it.
Like many an overhyped, discontinued product priced like gold on eBay, the DataVideo TBC-1000 ain't nearly as good as it was cracked up to be.

No.
Wrong.
I've extensively tested most TBCs that exist. The DataVideo units are one of the best.

The typical DataVideo signature is added noise overlaid

That's outright BS. I've only seen this once, because the unit was defective.

by mushy softening: that is, if the garbage distribution amp

The VP-299 distro amp was not cheap. A side effect can be softening, but more often is not the case. I've almost never seen it, and I've used DataVideo units since the before I was a member on VH.

doesn't cut out the signal altogether at random.

More BS. That's not at all true. I've never heard that, ever.

the Cypress junk: the catch is finding one that works reliably.

No. The pre-2010 green units are very nice. But also very hard to find, as owners don't want to give them up very often (if ever). I sold a bunch of extras last year, and I've held on to a few.

$400?? You'd likely have better luck passing your video signal thru your credit card.

That's current fair-market value. New units were $500 at EOL.

[orsetto]

LS, I've answered your similar criticism of me in a similar thread, but here in this thread my reply is somewhat different.

Here, I'd suggest you perhaps look more carefully at the posting history of OP (who falls into our distinct class of Sisyphus members, rolling that boulder uphill with no end in sight). DigiCube is carving his own path: the hardware you would normally recommend has not impressed him at all. He probably wouldn't even like a transfer personally supervised by you in your lab. Whatever he's looking for, he'll know when he finds it: but it won't be in a DataVideo chassis.

[digicube]

My personal opinion is rackmount TBCs are the best because they are both a line TBC and a full frame TBC; they cleanup the image and prevent dropouts during capture. However acquiring the knowledge on how to use these machines is hard; you are lucky if you can get a hold of the manual and a 100% working machine. This shouldn't be a surprise because they originally retailed for $2K and up.

[lordsmurf]

My personal opinion is rackmount TBCs are the best because they are both a line TBC and a full frame TBC; they cleanup the image and prevent dropouts during capture. However acquiring the knowledge on how to use these machines is hard; you are lucky if you can get a hold of the manual and a 100% working machine. This shouldn't be a surprise because they originally retailed for $2K and up.

The biggest issue is that many of these were not created for VHS workflow. Those units expect a different source. As such, the TBCs fail to do timebase correction well or at all.

You need a special TBC, made for the intricacies of VHS, S-VHS, Video8, Hi8, etc (ie, consumer analog formats).

[digicube]

I assume these rackmount TBC are made for U-matic and Betacam workflows and they are very different from consumer analog formats?

[Brad]

Yes. My DPS-470AV has an Extreme Head Switch mode for consumer tapes, but it's still not anywhere near as good as the DVD recorders or Digital8/MiniDV cams that were designed specifically to support people's horrible tape collections.

TBC Mode

Enables adjustment to the VCR circuit time constant.

• Normal (Default): used for high-end broadcast VCRs.
• Head Switch used for home type or extreme head switch VCRs.