Sony SVO-5800P -> Blackmagic Intensity Pro

[paulsoulsby]

I'm try to digitize some VHS tapes and have purchased a Sony SVO-5800P broadcast S-VHS recorder. The image quality is superb and it appears to be in fully working condition.

However when I connect it to the Blackmagic Intensity Pro, the image flashes and drops out. I believe this is because it needs to pass through a time base corrector. However... I purchased the SVO-5800P as it is supposed to have a built in time base corrector! (It even states it in the manual).

I've looked at the output on a scope and the signal does seem to be jumping around a fair bit. Am I correct in thinking that a time base corrected signal should be rock solid (apart from the picture part of the signal!)? Ie the voltages shouldn't jump about when you play different tapes from different sources?

Do I need to manually turn the time base corrector on? I couldn't see anything in the manual about this. Or is there another setting I should be tweaking?

thanks, Paul.

[JVRaines]

The manual touts, "The built-in time base corrector allows you to obtain a stable playback picture with no horizontal jitter or color fluctuation." This tells me that the VCR is using a line-oriented buffer, not a full-frame synchronizer. Moreover, these circuits were designed to provide a good picture on an analog display, which is much more forgiving of timing errors than an analog-to-digital converter. You still need frame synchronization.

[paulsoulsby]

Ah thanks for the extra info. That's a shame it can't do it. I'll look into an external time base corrector.

[Jim Norman]

On the right side under TBC control, ensure that the Bypass/Local/Remote switch is in the Local position.