Can Sony Digital8 camcorder really TBC a pass-thru video?
 

The manual for my Sony DCR-TRV240 indicates it has a "signal convert" function that allows you to input an analog video signal and it will convert/send it to its iDV (FireWire) output. The DCR-TRV240 also includes a time base corrector (TBC) option that you can use "when playing back a tape recorded in the Hi8/Standard 8 system only." That being said, I have seen other threads that imply that the Sony pass-thru/signal convert function will line TBC (and maybe even frame TBC) an analog (VHS) video as it passes thru. Can anyone verify this works on the DCR-TRV240, or is there a simple way to test it other than trying to visually evaluate it? The owners manual is silent on this. Thank you in advance!

My understanding is that most DV conversion hardware chips had line-TBC like effects whether advertized or not. It was well known that they'd be used for analog video transfers as that was an advertised feature back in the day. They'd have a lot of upset customers if extreme flagging and video glitches were found by most of the population using them.

It's technically not passthrough, basically it is DV hardware conversion. Passthrough would be going from analog-in to analog-out. Being DV, it has all of the limitations that DV itself has such as possibly color accuracy issues, lower bitrate than say lossless, less detailed color, macroblocking if the scene is mostly one color or poorly lit etc. Most of those limitations aren't going to be super noticeable to the average person though, especially if viewing on small screens such as cell phones etc.

So I'd say if you're wondering if yours does, see if you see any visible defects, glitching, flagging, have audio sync issues, or get dropped frames when using it. Dropped frames are kind of hard to identify after the fact with DV since the camera won't tell you when it dropped or duplicated a frame. Others may have better ways to suggest evaluating a DV file to identify duplicate/dropped frames after the fact from the output DV file.

All the video digitization I've ever done using Sony DV or MPEG equipment has been rock-solid. If the signal gets bad enough that the TBC can't stabilize it, it won't roll or tear, it'll just blank out completely.

Here again just like the VHS tape playback on a VHS vs SVHS player issue, it would be great if people could see these DV defects demonstrated visually so they could judge for themselves whether the DV losses are serious enough to avoid DV altogether.

I've read that especially NTSC DV had poor color rendition but again people need visual comparisons. Strangely it's been hard to find basic visual comparisons.

Thank you all for your feedback; I was considering buying a Panasonic DMR-ES15 DVD Recorder, as it supposedly does TBC on a pass through signal, but I realized, after reading @aramkolt 's comment, all I really want to do is a conversion with some TBC. Adding the DMR-ES15 would serve no purpose, and perhaps would make things worse!