Family video workflow VCR and TBC selection?

[eissug]

Here is a sample of a Sony SLV-N750 VCR -> GV-D1000 -> Firewire DV capture

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ys03CFApvao
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOcmTObDDhE

Ignore the sound. I ran it through a gain filter twice and then noise removal. What kinds of things in these movies would be helped by a better workflow? I'm just curious to know if all my effort will be noticeable. The first one is probably worse than the second. I thought that the GV-D1000 was performing some kind of TBC. For the age of the videos I thought it did a good job? I was also recording onto DV tape at the same time, just-in-case.

These are the type of videos I care about recording at the moment.

Based on what I've read here, the AG-1980P should be the best VCR. (home videos, a mixture of SLP, EP, SP) If that is the case, which additional TBC would be recommended considering the VCR already has a TBC inside? I understand that many of these devices are good at doing different things, and that some are better than others for specific applications. I've read quite a bit that the ES10 is good for cleaning up home videos, but why get an AG-1980 just to buy more external parts? Is my very low hour (less than ~30) SLV-N750 good enough to be used with some external TBC units? ES10 + TBC-1000, ES10 + DVK-100? I want the best results possible and don't want to try to save money (within reason).

BTW, today I watched a TBC-1000 get listed on ebay for $80. By the time by brain had registered what it was looking at, it was sold. Less than a few minutes after going up!

[latreche34]

A better work flow is to get rid of DV all together.

[eissug]

I forgot to mention that I will be using an ATI AIW card, probably an AGP 7200/7500 model.

I am nearly convinced that there is some kind of TBC function in the GV-D1000. So is this guy:

http://bigheadamusements.com/wordpress/?p=1705

Can anyone guess what "kind" of TBC it is doing? ES-10? TBC-1000? In manuals of similar older devices all it says is "to correct jitter".

What would the ideal workflow look like between an AG-1980 and the AIW 7200 for home videos like the ones I linked to in the first post? If the 1980 already does a line TBC, do I only need a TBC-1000 type device? Should it be clean enough to use a DVK-100? Or do I still want a ES10/15 in there? Is there any place in there I would want to use my GV-D1000?

[ehbowen]

Wait. The GV-D1000 is a MiniDV recorder (I have one). It's source material is already digital and any loss of color information happened while the tapes were being recorded; you're not going to be able to get it back now. There's no point in doing analog captures from a MiniDV tape; might as well just use FireWire and transfer an exact copy of the tape to your editing computer.

On the other hand, if you're using a GV-D800 8mm/Hi8 recorder (which also has FireWire plus analog) for 8mm/Hi8 tapes, then analog is to be preferred if you have a full-frame external TBC like the TBC-1000. The workflow would be essentially the same as for the AG-1980; connect your TBC to the video source (VCR) with S-Video cable and then run S-Video out of the TBC to your capture card/device. The line TBC in the AG-1980 or GV-D800 will ensure that the full-frame TBC receives a signal free of jitter, and the full-frame TBC in turn will ensure that your capture device receives a rock-solid, pure signal.

Source material analog: Capture analog (with time base correction). Source material digital: Make an exact copy of the source using FireWire. Edit with the program of your choice and render your output to the format you prefer. Just keep everything lossless or original DV file from capture/transfer in to the point of final rendering, as much as possible.

[eissug]

I was using the MiniDV VCR as a passthru only. Mostly because I didn't trust that the computer wouldn't crash and/or the tape get eaten...so I recorded to DV while capturing with FireWire. I don't remember at the time if I knew about or valued the possible TBC that the unit would provide.

Does the AG-1980 do line based TBC? If so, do I still need the ES-10? Do you think the line TBC is good enough to feed directly to a DVK-100 or FA-300? Those would both be a full frame TBC, right?