Software vs. Hardware TBC
 

You misunderstand me. I'm not saying you need to capture twice in all cases. It's just that this 'relative TBC' is useful in conjunction with certain techniques to eliminate noise. If I were to use the multicap technique with a hardware TBC, there would be no difference - I would still need multiple passes. I would only save a slight amount of CPU time. Even so, I would rather register images in software because I'm registering the image itself, not a timing indicator of it.

I certainly agree that doing corrections realtime saves, well, time. In fact, did you know that Avisynth scripts *can* be run in realtime? Even while capturing and saving to a file? Having said that, Avisynth does have limitations, for example it's not easy to adjust settings in realtime.

So yes, there is an advantage to doing things in realtime - hardware is one way to achieve this - and TBC is for now, practically best done in hardware. However, though you haven't seen software which does software TBC effectively, the technique does exist. I'll dig up the paper for it. From what you're saying, anyone who could write that software could find some commercial use for it. It's something I could certainly look into. In fact you're giving me a good idea of the requirements for a capturing program in this area.

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I know an engineer in Finland who captures raw data from Panasonic FS-200(IIRC) drum and converts it to digital using very expensive DSP and his custom software, including software TBC(again IIRC). I don't remember/know all the details but the demo videos using this tech look pretty good.

Here are some samples http://www.eselec.fi/digitointi/samplevideo

edit: And to make it clear, I operate in this business in Finland too. This is not an add, he's competitor. But we offer different kind of services and I have no problem promoting his.

Very interesting! This has been done elsewhere however.
http://www.techmind.org/vd/paldec.html
Contains a free windows program to decode raw video. It is designed only for software decoding of PAL video signals. There is also a sample on that page.

As for capturing raw video, a few years ago there was a very popular cheap capture device which used this technique, and decoded in software. This allowed a breakthrough in pricing. I think it was called Dazzle. There's also various development boards that will work off the shelf; these are usually sold to help electronics designers work with DSP.

The type of software TBC we're talking about now is different; it's trivial really, since we're talking about a hardware device which gives the sync signal to software. Previously I was talking about software TBC where the sync signal is not available; only the standard video has been saved. That is a more difficult problem.

ps I have a technique for improving colors as he does also. I will try it on his video and compare them. Very nice demo though, I will have to make a demo of my own, maybe after the current project.

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