#21  
02-11-2020, 09:20 PM
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I know the pair of units I currently have (and will be returning for refund shortly) are worse than whatever I tested 10 years ago. I'm betting it had production changes, especially evident with the frame ghosting/sticking that matches black AVT-8710 units (but far worse).

I have no idea who the target audience for this device was. It's really not suited for pro/broadcast facilities, nor home users.

These came from Amazon, but essentially the usual "tested" and "working" eBay nonsense.

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  #22  
02-12-2020, 06:09 AM
dpalomaki dpalomaki is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lordsmurf View Post
...
I have no idea who the target audience for this device was. It's really not suited for pro/broadcast facilities, nor home users....
Maybe something in between, such as a small market CATV facility, or perhaps a shopping mall "rent facility time" video editing hobby shop facility such as were somewhat common ~20 years ago.
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  #23  
03-21-2020, 08:41 AM
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Update!

In the past month, between tasks, and especially with being a prisoner in my home (now in week 3 of self-quarantine to avoid the coronavirus pandemic, and many days of heavy rain), I've performed lots of TBC research. I took lots of notes, lots of sample images and clips, and will someday hopefully have time to share all of those in longer writings. But for now, here's the details.

I was able to acquire another set of PixieFS units. Unlike last time, these work.

latreche34 saw weird image issues: http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vide...html#post66589
So did I.
After experimentation, this appears to be directly related to the T-OUT-CVS jumper. And BTW, I have no idea what that jumper is supposed to do. It's undocumented. You can see that jumper in latreche34's image here (middle and right), and it needs to be flipped (middle and left). dpalomaki stated that the internal jumper selected s-video/composite output, but this jumper did not have that behavior on these units. (BTW, that likely means there are multiple revisions on the unit, though I had already surmised that from other tell-tales.) Once that is switched, the image can be quite clean and nice.

Can be.

This unit hates JVC menu, which are well known to not be 100% perfect NTSC signals. This is why the "JVC menu test" is good at finding flawed Cypress TBCs (the latter era black AVT-8710 and comparable). To the untrained eye, the Pixie appears to be a flawed Cypress as well. But it's not. Yes, it has issues with signal imperfection, and even apparent frame sticking under certain condition.

I've not detected any missing, stuck, or repeated frames as you'll see with the bad Cypress, on the actual converted footage. Only on the JVC menus, and FF/REW-while-playing operations. And that would make some sense, because it uses "green" era Cypress chips. My hypothesis is that the PixieFS is badly reverse-engineered Cypress TBC, at least at the core.

At the same time, it's not a weaker TBC like the TBC-5000, which is seemingly for the same audience (non-VHS conversion). It can be, but it's really more about the source quality and the VCR/camera model in the workflow. With some hardware, it's terrible. With others, it's quite adequate, and quite strong.

Strong, you ask? This TBC tries to do too much. It's obviously meant for non-consumer sources, not VHS or Video8/Hi8. And given the price and marketing, this makes sense. In addition to doing frame level timebase correction, it seems to attempt some sort of line correction. And it does so quite badly. So bad, in fact, that under certain conditions, it conflicts with the line TBC in the VCR, and that's what results in the frame sticking. In my ugliest line TBC tests, the Pixie actually scored well for the attempt, but the actual converted footage was still unwatchable. That same test scores AND views well ONLY with the ES10/15. The Pixie attempt scored better than the AG-1980P by itself.

With my full-tape test, I even saw small signs of temporal NR, using a Panasonic with the TBC off. Interesting.

If you
- can find a bargain on this unit ($X00s max, understanding that recommended TBCs are all now 2x+ that cost)
- have non-JVC gear like the Panasonic AG-1980P or a Hi8/D8 camera
- have retail or master (not copies) source tapes
- and only have a small collection of tapes
then this can work for you. It can be a bargain that suffices for your small project.

I still don't recommend it as a general good-for-everybody TBC. But I'd nod my head in understanding if it was used in the above scenario, similar to how I nod in understand for NTSC Mac users that use Canopus DV boxes. It's not best, but it can function in some narrow situations.

Right now, in the marketplace subforum, I'm selling both of my units.

Since there are multiple revisions of this unit, with most of them being highly suspected to use the flawed "black" Cypress chipsets, I would urge you to avoid randomly buying this from eBay or wherever. Odds are you'll get screwed with a lemon. Definitely lose time, lots of headaches/grief. Maybe lose money.

Again, not recommended. On the digitalFAQ.com class scoring, 1st/2nd/3rd/4th, this unit gets a 3rd at best (my in-hand units), and 4th at worst (the "black" chipped units).

The saddest part is that the unit is clean, the transparency is essentially perfect. The passed signal from my Panasonic AG-1980P is immaculate, and puts almost all other TBCs to shame, including the "green" Cypress and most DataVideos. And that's a real shame. Yet another analog video device that failed to live up to promises or expectations, but got so close.

The contrast/color/brightness is also nice on this pair, on par with other good Cypress.

So, there you go, a thorough review of units.

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  #24  
03-21-2020, 03:56 PM
dpalomaki dpalomaki is offline
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Thanks for the more detailed review.
The Genlock feature perhaps a bit unusual compared to others units.

FWIW: The attached graphic covering the jumper is from the Burst Pixie-FS manual, V1.02.
This implies there is at least a V1.00 and V1.01 manual as well, so that could be interpreted as indicating there are at least 2 or 3 versions of the device.

Also, I compared the board in the unit in my hands to the photos posted above. There are a number of differences including (but not limited to):
- no green jumper wire
- a 6-pin chip of some sort soldered on the center underside (perhaps a 27 mHz oscillator)
- no red 'paint' along the edge.
- the 4 pins by the top-right jumper block are not present
- an R212 "Stand-Alone Freq Adj" pot on the underside
- a surface mounted "D3" on the underside
- L5 and C58 not on underside
- Board labeled TBC8 REV E

Clearly there were significant production changes/revisions over time. Comparison of serial numbers might be interesting.


Attached Images
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File Type: jpg 20200321_164724[1].jpg (89.9 KB, 5 downloads)
File Type: jpg 20200321_164738[1].jpg (72.3 KB, 3 downloads)
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  #25  
03-22-2020, 02:22 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dpalomaki View Post
FWIW: The attached graphic covering the jumper is from the Burst Pixie-FS manual, V1.02.
This implies there is at least a V1.00 and V1.01 manual as well, so that could be interpreted as indicating there are at least 2 or 3 versions of the device.
Cypress also has 0.x versions. But I don't recall ever having seen anything below a 0.9x (with x being a few as well). I remember V0.92 on a unit in years past. It was a really old model from pre-2005.

Not sure what PixieFS did. Again, to me, it appears to be reverse engineered Cypress.

I'm wondering if this exact PixieFS in my possession is using both pre-2010 and post-2010 chipsets. So it has some oddities of the "black" Cypress (AVT-8710, etc), but not the catastrophic ones that make it an unusable POS with random frame sticking and glitching mid-capture.

I had a choice to return these units, or keep them for others. I chose the latter, since TBCs are so hard to come by now. I just hope I don't regret it, want to recoup my funds. I'm not buying any PixieFS in the future. And suggest others don't gamble on it either -- outside of the pair I have available now in the marketplace, as these are thoroughly tested to actually work decently, unlike other PixieFS we've seen.

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  #26  
03-22-2020, 09:44 AM
hodgey hodgey is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lordsmurf View Post
Not sure what PixieFS did. Again, to me, it appears to be reverse engineered Cypress.
I don't know who came up with the design first, it's a pretty basic design the Datavideo TBCs are set up the same way, all of these TBCs are based around off-the-shelf video decoder/encoder chips and FPGAs (+ a ROM chip). All of them use Philips/Trident/NXP video decoder chips that are also found in a ton of other devices. The digital video conversion section of the Samsung SV-5000/7000W VCRs are actually also quite similar, using the same SAA7113 chip, but some special video conversion chip instead of a run-off-the-mill FPGA chip.
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  #27  
08-31-2020, 06:54 PM
BringOutYrDead BringOutYrDead is offline
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LordSmurf sold me one of his aforementioned PixieFS TBC's... and as a complete novice I'm feeling a bit lost here. This TBC appears to have a lot of functionality I will not use, without any sort of display to let you know the current settings, and I'm getting a little confused. Looking for a little help. The documentation online for the Pixie-FS equipment is... well, crap.

Looks like this TBC uses BNC ports instead of composite... despite ports that say "composite in/out". Is this correct? It would explain why I am getting no video signal when I plug female composite cables into this TBC. If this is the case... I'd imagine I need a composite or s-video converter to BNC, yes? Using composite cables, I have tried toggling between composite/s-video (mode 9) on the TBC but end up with no video regardless. I'm using the composite in/out ports of the TBC. I was under the impression that BNC ports and composite cables were the same, but I guess I am incorrect.

My VCR has S-video out... if I need to use a BNC converter, will this result in a loss of video quality? S-video to BNC converters seems to split into Chroma and Luma ports. Which ports would these go into for the inputs/outputs on this TBC? As a reminder, the unit has Composite Y, C, and Genlock input ports, and Composite Y, and Chroma outlet ports.

One more thing that's a bit more general - I have a Panasonic VCR with an internal TBC that I can toggle on/off. Once I get the PixieFS working, should I be turning off the internal TBC on the VCR? I figure running both could lead to some interference / overcorrecting.
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  #28  
08-31-2020, 07:42 PM
dpalomaki dpalomaki is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BringOutYrDead View Post
.... The documentation online for the Pixie-FS equipment is... well, crap.
Amen! It is meager at best.

Quote:
Looks like this TBC uses BNC ports instead of composite... despite ports that say "composite in/out". Is this correct?
BNC and RCA are connector types. They can be used on audio, video, RF, etc. ports. Composite is a type of signal. It typically uses RCA connectors on consumer gear, and BNC connectors on industrial/professional gear. S-VIDEO is type of signal that has also lent its name to the 4-pin mini-DIN connector and cable commonly used for it, but S-VIDEO can also use RCA or BNC connectors. (For example the Commodore Amiga monitors used RCA connectors for their S-VIDEO, composite, and audio inputs.)

The PIXIE-FS has BNC connectors instead of RCA or Mini-DIN s-video. You will probably want some BNC-to-RCA adapters, and an s-video-to-RCA wye splitter. The losses will be minimal if you make good, clean connections. Samples below (not an endorsement of these products):

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_...SABEgJCAvD_BwE
https://www.amazon.com/CGTime-S-Vide...s&sr=1-12&th=1

The PIXIE-FS has an internal jumper setting that determines S-VIDEO or composite output. Mode #9 tells it how to interpret the input signal (composite or s-video). It is documented in the manual.

You will not need the genlock port.

In s-video in/out mode the luma signal is at the Y/Composite jack and the chroma is at the C/Chroma jacks.

Quote:
Once I get the PixieFS working, should I be turning off the internal TBC on the VCR? I figure running both could lead to some interference / overcorrecting.
Try each way, use what ever look best. It will depend on the tape you are playing.

Not covered in the manual is factory reset (e.g., to unity gain). I believe you turn the mode dial to "0" and hold both "INC" and "DEC" buttons when you apply power.

In reality you should have a waveform display/vector scope when using the PIXIE-FS so you can see what the adjustments are doing to the signal, otherwise you are kind of running blind and trusting your monitor.
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  #29  
09-02-2020, 12:53 AM
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For this unit, you need the Y-adapter, BNC>s-video.

I completely forgot about that.

I actually do not like the Amazon wires, and prefer shorter cheaper cables from China.
eBay search "s-video BNC Y"
For example: http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53...r/183994100248
BTW, note the delivery date. The location is fake, the seller is Chinese. So much BS on eBay!

The shielding on the Amazon cable is crap, and the longer run makes it more susceptible to RF interference. The head is also flimsy.

If you want to splurge, get Extron brand cables.
http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53...E/333206052494

Not sure what the BNC>composite adapter is for. There are better deals on eBay for BNCs. The gold is just pretty, serves no function.
I like these: http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53...m/200439230317
Out of 20 BNCs, only 1 was bad.

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