Possible uses for a Snell & Willcox CVR600 Kudos TBC?
 

I admit it; I'm a pack rat. Back about a month or so ago I was wondering whether I should try to acquire another TBC (having set stuff up now, I think I'm fine with what I have). Another user on another forum raved about the Snell & Wilcox Kudos series, so I did some searching and found an active eBay auction featuring a Snell & Wilcox CVR600 Kudos Plus standards converter...selling "as-is", which is normally a warning to stay clear. But other similar equipment was running in the several hundreds of dollars and this one had an $85 minimum, so I said, "What the hell."

Shortly thereafter I found another post which said that this item was only good if you were going from PAL to NTSC or vice versa and of no use for everyday capture and video work. After reading that I was hoping someone would outbid me...turns out nobody else wanted it either, so I got it for the $85 minimum.

Now that I have it at the house I see that it powers up, responds properly to the menu and controls, and puts out a nice picture...but only when I go NTSC>>NTSC; I don't have any PAL equipment in the house to check it with. (Although I did get an AIW 8500 up and running yesterday...can that unit accept a PAL input?)

It seems like a nice, well-built piece of gear and, as I said, I'm a pack rat...I'm loath to part with something if I think I can use it in the future. I've downloaded the manual and have started reading through it, but I thought I'd ask for input here...under what circumstances might this unit be an asset?

Past post, same TBC: http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vide...cox-tbs24.html

If you keep buying from eBay, you're going to end up with a lot of useless crap. I do that at times, but with an understanding that it's for testing. Part of the income to this site helps pay for that research. We gamble so you don't have to.

Snell & Willcox has name brand recognition, but it's broadcaster gear. When faced with consumer analog format, it will give you the finger more often than not. It expects cleaner sources.

I complete despise the large sharp-edges rackmount form factor. It can quickly make a hardware stack a miserable experience.

I hear you about eBay. And I've cut way back since finding this site; I'm not one of those people who can put the useless crap in a box and try to pass it along to the next sucker...if I goof, I goof; I eat it. Still, once in a while you can find a gem...like the AIW 8500 card which was complete NOS and is now up and running in my eBay Dell after a little trouble with the BIOS was solved. It's the first AIW card that I've ever had the pleasure of working with...:)

Agree with you about the sharp-edges bit. I'm going to take that into account and steer clear of it in the future.