As I go deeper into my rabbit hole of hardware that I'm willing to part with, I'm discovering some neat items that I'd forgotten about...
The Kramer TBCs have been mentioned a few times at digitalFAQ.com in past years, always with high praise. Like DataVideo, Kramer is a high-end video hardware company known for quality products. Even better than Cypress hardware! Their TBCs pass very clean signals, at least as good as the DataVideos.
It's essentially operates like a DataVideo TBC-1000 or the AVT-8710 / Cypress CTB-100: it's plug-and-play.
But it does some really nifty things beyond that:
- PAL > NTSC conversion
- NTSC > PAL conversion
- IRE 7.5 / IRE 0 adjustments
- optional RS-232/computer control
- fine tweaking of TBC values/phase
- true genlock
The genlock and RS232 controls never interested me much, not needed. And I never really had any luck fiddling with the fine tuning, as it seemed to have no effect. But the standards conversion was interesting, and the IRE adjustment was sometimes useful.
Size-wise, it's somewhere between the TBC-1000 and the AVT-8710. In other words, very compact.
I bought it mostly for testing, to see what other DataVideo and Cypress alternatives exist. And this passes my tests. I took some photos, some test captures, and I no longer needed it.
Who wants it next?
This thing is in perfect cosmetic condition, and appears to be new. I bought it used from a studio, but I think it was an extra that had never been used.
It comes with the original AC adapter (12V 500mA).
Includes the printed manual, which is also attached to this post.
Price is $415 shipped.
- Shipping included for USA addresses, and is tracked and insured via USPS, with signature required.
- Outside USA is extra. To most Europe location, or Australia, it'll probably be another $45 for Priority tracked.
When new, this unit had an MSRP of $900. In fact, you can still find some new ones for sale at broadcaster stores (
like this one) for about $700 plus shipping. So $400 is a steal for a like-new unit! Like the green 8710s, you rarely see this on the second-hand market (eBay, etc).