Dub TBC

[Eddie Xristodoulos]

I’m thinking to buy another tbc,
do you suggest any with dub input for u-matic?

[Andrew Rendell]

Welcome to the Cow.

It’s been a long time since I used that kind of gear, but I vaguely recall the Sony BVT-810 as being the one to use with U-matic. Possibly the Sony BVT-2000 might work as an alternative. You’d need a proper external ref signal to get them wired up and working properly.

If I remember correctly, we used to call that bending over at the top of the screen “hooking” and it was something that a TBC was expected to fix (along with the horizontal instability that we called “jitter”), so if you’re seeing it post-tbc then either the tbc isn’t wired up properly or it’s not a suitable one for the job.

[Eddie Xristodoulos]

Thanks for reply !

Do you think worth to buy old equipment?
Maybe is better to buy a good video card like canopus advc 700 ??
and filter by software ?

[Eddie Xristodoulos]

Which is the professional way anyway to make the best copy of a u-matic?

[Andrew Rendell]

The dub lead was the best way to make a u-matic copy of another u-matic (as it avoided a coding/decoding stage) and would be a good way of connecting to a tbc if the tbc is designed to take it, but it doesn’t have any other use, so copying to another format has to be via composite video.

By todays standards u-matics are quite unstable so a modern computer input device (such as you mention) which is designed to work with more recent technology may have trouble if you don’t have a tbc or frame synchroniser in the path. I’d be wary of taking it in “bad” and expecting to fix it in the computer, tbcs work by syncing the frame/line pulses and the color burst and it’s much harder for software to do the same job once it’s digitised.

Nothing inherently wrong with buying old equipment, as long as you’re aware that much of it wasn’t entirely reliable at the time and won’t have got better over the years, so pay accordingly and be prepared for the occasional breakdown.

[Eddie Xristodoulos]

So, how studios copying from u-matic to dvd?
With a computer or no ??

Anyway, i must find a good tbc with dub input to get the highest quality
and then get the signal from tbc’s s-video out 😉

So , what do you know about those?
Y/C Plus has the YCP-688 which is a bi-directional transcoder.

Digital Processing Systems (Leitch) has two products that might do what you want as well, the DPS-210 (a transcoder) and the DPS-295 (a TBC and transcoder).

Panasonic has the UTP-2, a re-badged DPS-210 transcoder.

Prime Image has the Excel 6.5, also a TBC/Transcoder combo.

have you ever tried one of those?
Some are only converters but some tbc/transcoders

Thank you very much for your time and help !!!

[Bob Zelin]

you have a very old 3/4″ VTR. You know that 3/4″ has not been made for many many years. The VO9600 was a player, not a professional VTR. To get the “perfect image” you want, you will need a 3/4″ VTR that can work with a Time Base Corrector -not a frame synchronizer. This means that you need to send advanced sync and subcarrier (and the heterodyned video out of the 3/4″ VTR) into a TIME BASE CORRECTOR that can provide ADVANCED SYNC (a 2.5 V Pk-Pk signal, not black) and external subcarrier.

This “package”, which used to cost over $20,000 was the BVU-800 and the BVT-800 from Sony. Over the years, Sony made many models that could do this, like the BVU800, BVU820, BVU850, and TBC’s like the BVT800 and BVT-810. Then, as technology advanced, they came out with all in one models, like the BVU900, BVU920 and BVU950, which had TBC’s built into them. External TBC’s that were true TBC’s and not Frame Syncs were made by Microtime, Fortel, and others, all long out of business.

The VO-9600 is not one of these VTR’s, even if you had the correct old TBC from Sony. You should be happy that you can get any decent image from the VO 9600 and your Snell Wilcox Frame Sync. These are all antiques. It’s a miracle your VTR is still working.

Bob Zelin

[Eddie Xristodoulos]

Well i’m reading on web that a frame sync is good for me that i have also home equip like vhs ,laserdisc… It can combine pro & home equip, right ??
So i would like to keep the snell frame sync.

With more reading on net found that frame syncs like mine needs a proper external ref signal to get them wired up like Andrew Rendell said !!

So, the camera trick for sync i don’t like it..
What is the correct solution? A gen lock ?
Can i found a cheap genlock? Any suggest ?

So i must sync:
Genlock
TBC
U-matic
in this order ?

Thanks again !

[Eddie Xristodoulos]

Is this a good solution to sync my snell frame synchro ?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Leitch-SPG-120N-Professional-Video-Sync-Pulse-Generator-/150657342823?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2313e09d67

[Neil Matthews]

I realize this is a very old thread, but for the sake of people reading this years later, I’d like to offer some, shall we say, “more accurate” information.

The VO-9600, while not your mega-bucks “broadcast spec” rack-mounted BVU VTR, is actually a pretty well-spec’d playback deck, featuring the Umatic-SP enhancements, AND sub carrier IN, sync IN and off-tape RF connections, and is therefore MOST DEFINITELY capable of (and designed for!) interfacing with the BVT-810 TBC.

-Neil