Firstly, welcome!
But secondly, wait, no, error, clarification needed ...
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Originally Posted by stxnpx
was told that my TBC-1000 configuration might not work with a Mac.
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For starters, whoever said this to you is an idiot, and should not be listened to again. TBCs have zero to do with any OS. That's nonsensical advice. That's comparable to
"Your car isn't working because you ate bran flakes this morning." The only "benefit of the doubt" (regarding that person) would be if you read their advice wrong, misread it, misinterpreted it.
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It’s also possible that the TBC is broken
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Being a DataVideo TBC, this very likely...
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but I wouldn’t know how to determine that.
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... and that is very common.
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It’s external condition is very good and it doesn’t appear to have been opened.
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That means literally nothing. The device internals are what matters. All of these devices are now 15-25 years old, and age used or not. Physical external conditions matter for vintage Star Wars action figures, not functional items like TBCs (VCRs, cars, refrigerators, etc).
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I’m ready to try again and can buy a PC if that’s necessary.
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Mac was never the system for video capture. It had very few choices, most of them lackluster to awful. It was very OS dependent, pretty much anything quality stopped working during the latter Intel OS. The new M chips are for new tasks, and care about SD analog videotape capture ever less than before.
So if you consider "necessary" to mean ease of capture, not having excessive issues or roadblocks, then yes, Windows ("PC") non-Mac/non-Linux is necessary. For your own sanity, Windows capture is ideal. Only a few exceptions exist, such as Tevion ATI 600 USB clones, using Videoglide, on pre-10.14 OS X. Basically the old Mac hardware that almost nobody uses now. Even legacy Windows XP/7 has far wider use still, compared to old Macs.
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What specs do I need to look for (a specific amount of working memory, inputs/outputs, etc.)? Before I buy a PC, is there any way to confirm that the TBC works? I’m in Maryland if anyone localish is able to test it with their workflow. Thanks for any insights!
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For a good Windows capture system, what matters most is the OS, with WinXP and Win7 being best, being the OS of the capturing era. Almost any hardware from the 2010s is fine, though certain systems will make your capturing life easier. It somewhat depends on budget, space, etc. (For example, I've built desktops, laptops, and even mini PCs, into capturing systems.)
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Originally Posted by aramkolt
If you want to test your actual capture card, try the composite output from a DVD player (playing a DVD) as that shouldn't really have any timebase errors in it.
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Actually, no, it can. Not as many, not as common, but most definitely can.
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If you put the TBC1000 in between them and all the sudden you aren't able to capture from the DVD player, your TBC1000 is definitely bad.
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Well, no, not exactly. There are lots of DataVideo TBC-1000 problems these days, which result in mangled or distorted output, sometimes just excessive noise. Most are cap[s erlated, but not all.
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Originally Posted by stxnpx
This is a great forum; I’m planning to join as a paying member tomorrow, too. Thanks again
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Thanks.