AVT-8710 vs. AG 1980 VCR and TBC?
 

Hi,

Totally new here. I'm want to convert my VHS tapes to a digital format. I have about 20 VHS-C tapes that average an hour each. These are home movies I took with a Panasonic video camera in the 1990's. I currently have an Insignia Model IS-DVD100121 VCR/DVD recorder. I'm only using the VCR with a Diamond VC500 Video Capture device. I have a Windows 10 computer. The quality of the output is poor with a lot of intermittent lines in the video. I've been reading these forums for about a week now. I see that I can purchase an AG 1980 VCR for around $600. I've also read about the AVT-8710 TBC which I can purchase for around $270. I'm not looking to convert VHS tapes for a living. I just want to be able to convert these tapes that to a digital format to preserve them for the future. Yes, the quality of the conversion does matter, but I'm not sure if it's worth double the price? Suggestions?

Thanks,

Joe

IF the quality matters, you've quoted approximately the correct price. Quality gear and a good capture are only the first step. The rest is repair, restoration, and encoding, which takes longer and requires more skill and effort than you've mentioned at this point.

You might be able to get away without the AVT-8710 or other external proc amp, or save cash by using a pass-thru DVD machine as a replacement for proper frame timing sync. If any of your prized tapes have copy protection, you can't avoid the requirement of a full-frame tbc, as pass-thru units won't defeat Macrovision. None of this is meant to discourage anyone. However, if you continue browsing this and other video forums you'll find that digitizing VHS at good quality is no milk run and requires a high quality player. If you can accept lower quality, you can use a cheapo VCR or DVD/VCR combo, or you can get somewhat better with a decent VCR and record directly to DVD and forget about post processing and other cleanup. But you'll have to settle for the results.

If you don't have a lot of tapes you can save a lot of money by hiring a pro service such as the one at digitalfaq to capture your tapes to lossless media that you can edit and process iany way you please, and almost all of the software for doing so will be free.

It's not VCR vs. TBC, but VCR (with internal TBC) with external TBC. You need both.
- The AVT-8710 is an external TBC.
- The AG-1980P is a VCR with internal TBC.

The different TBCs do different things.

I know, it's confusing, but the term "TBC" is too loose. So loose, in fact, that some things claiming to be "TBC" are really not (example: Canopus AVVC-300, which has a "TBC" that does nothing at all, so therefore is NOT really a TBC at all).

A quality setup is about $1k. You can always buy it, use it, and resell it. Don't buy on eBay (you'll usually be sorry, ESPECIALLY with Panasonic S-VHS decks!).

Don't forget to look in the marketplace forum: http://www.digitalFAQ.com/forum/marketplace/
I have one AG-1980P for $375, and some DataVideo TBCs for about $400 (not yet listed).
If you want some good gear, then get those.

The AVT-8710 hasn't been good since 2010. Don't buy the black boxes. Only the green ones are any good.

I'm entirely against buying a cheap doodad and using an old VCR. The quality will be utter crap, so why bother transferring it at all if it doesn't matter?

For only 20 tapes, we can probably do it for less than what you'd spend in DIY hardware, and with zero of your time required.

Yes, lordsmurf, thanks for clarifying. To repeat, the AG-1980 is a tape player with a line-level tbc built-in. The AVT-8710 is not a tape player but is an external frame-level tbc. Line and frame tbc's are two different types of time base correction, and both are needed.