TBC-HQ opinions?
 

Hi.

Does anyone have any opinions on this TBC?

https://www.vtx.uk/product.aspx?id=39

That pages has too few details.
From what is seen, what is hinted at, essentially black AVT-8710. Flawed. Not wanted.

Do you have one or found one to buy?

Well based on the specs only, The pros are: it does NTSC 4.43 (PAL60), and two additional variations of PAL which most TBC's don't, It says it has a fixed AGC voltage output which means Macrovision removal, It has BNC's for Y/C besides S-Video sockets which is a better way of connecting cables. The cons, it is only 8bit (and probably 4:1:1/4:2:0), Most TBC's are 10bit, this is not a big deal if capturing home video and/or your capture card is 8bit, But if the capture card is 10bit or 12bit (processing) you don't want a bottle neck in your workflow.

How it performs? no one knows for sure, If you do have one please post some samples.

If the TBCs shown are actually the TBCs available, then I have very detailed knowledge of those exact units, both "green" and "black".

Given the information, these exact units appear to be Cypress from the "black" era, and have fatal flaws. These TBCs actually cause the very issues you're trying to correct! Frame sticking, ghosting, other instabilities. The chipsets are flawed, the end. The chips are bitlocked, we're screwed. Simply a dud device.

I actually have one of the "green" versions right here, about to send to somebody.

Specs lie.

Many of these have nasty quality issues on NTSC (internal noise is generated), which is why I sell these as PAL only. The PAL can be gorgeous (the "green" versions only), most other outputs are crap. Numerous TBCs are actually PAL models that "also" do __ (and badly). You just have to pretend it's not there, as it's not usable.

The "green" era units had far less distribution, so I see maybe 1 of these per year, if that. And very often, those need repairs, as there are certain issues that this model suffers from (engineering flaws). What I do see, however, is too many "black" units. Been there, tried that, wasted time. (Not really a waste, as science, it was simply experiments with negative outcomes. That happens with R&D.)

No.

I know. This "TBC alternative" (in this case, alternative TBC to common TBCs) was a low-hanging fruit several years ago. I have detailed images, samples, etc. (Busy now, no time to share, will eventually.)

I still have a black unit in my attic "video gear graveyard". It actually "works fine", in terms of functioning as when new. But it's a POS. I used the non-board parts a few times, to repair other units. The front and back panels, the lid, some of the wires. But I think enough of it still functions to take even more samples sometime. That large box has all kinds of TBC crap in it, from Tenlab junk, to Cypress, to DataVideo, to other brands and models most folks here have never even heard of.

I'm not joking/BSing when I say that I've done TBC research for many years now. :wink2:

There's still some units that elude me, some things I don't know. But this isn't one of them. If this was a "green" units, I'd be highly surprised. 99% odd it's "black" in the 2020s. Nothing suggests otherwise.

I wouldn't at all be surprised if this was simply a ghost listing, as even the "black" models have been gone for 5-6 years now. Production ceased long ago on those, and the NOS dried up. I know, because I was in contact with many vendors for several years. To my understanding, a great many of those flawed Cypress were returned, RMA'd, which is why used ones were (at one point) more rare than the NOS.

http://web.archive.org/web/200906150.../video/tbc.htm

Looks like at one time they sold both a "TBC" (the silver-case Cypress CTB-100) as well as the TBC-HQ, which is probably based on the Cypress but adds another input, component output, BNC connectors, genlock and a rack mount option.

But I suspect they're largely the same thing underneath. FWIW, the HQ model states "Innovative image processing circuitry for Colour, Motion and Picture Detail" as a bullet point, but that sounds like BS marketing speak to help justify what was probably a much higher price tag.

Can't find a reference to them on any other web site, so I suspect not too many were sold. Would be interesting though to see if there are any visual differences between the TBC-HQ and any other Cypress CTB-1000/AVT-8710.