Robinhood, how's it look? If it's pretty close to what you'd see on the TV from the VCR, that'll do! :D

I'll get my hat, coat and leave now.... :smack:

Only if you are a "geeky enthusiast." :yahoo1:

If you are meeting the expectations of your "clients," having fun, and satisfied with what you are accomplishing you certainly don't need one. IMO it is more important to have a good basic workflow including a decent capture card and VCRs. A TBC is important as well for dealing with the widest range of tapes. Beyond that you can get into refinements such as proc amps, audio mixers and graphic equalizers, and maybe even vector scopes.

The recommendations elsewhere in these forums provide advice on how to obtain the best practicable results with transfer and restoration of consumer analog format video. You need to decide for your self how far down that path you want to go. (I know it sounds heretical but there may be more to life than home and time shifted video capture.)

Your comment just proves what I was saying to a friend recently "Nice forum with a lot of info but full of self righteous know all's who think they know best"
lol
Where I come from we don't wear coats.

Thank you for making an attempt to satisfy my curiosity.... You never know maybe I'll be able to pass that info on someday.

On the subject of component capture with the BMD Intensity Pro vs Pro 4K, attached are two vector diagrams I retained from my tests in 2015 showing 1080i captures from the same analog HD bars source. As one can see the IP4K is dog meat while the older IP is ok.

How does one learn how to read this?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vectorscope provides a start for a quick overview.

Wow, so intensity Pro 4K is also less recommended than the non 4K version? wow.
Could you upload a visual comparison between them? thanks in advice.

For component video sources - correct. The 4K version does not do component well. Levels are way off.

However, for (NTSC SD) composite and s-video the IP and IP4K levels were essentially the same.

Note that the original IP was discontinued, replaced by the IP4K. The IP4K was said to be more forgiving of sync errors in the input signals than the IP.

Not sure what you mean by visual comparison beyond the vector diagrams already uploaded. They tell the story. I didn't retain any other images from my tests.

Oh, good to know it.

What about noise level from fan?

AJA is REALLY noisy. Im trying to replace the stock fan. Does BM have a bad fan quality also?

https://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vcr...-kona-lhi.html

Regards.

When the Intensity Pro 4K was released ~7 years ago there were a lot of complaints about a noisy fan. I believe this was addressed as as part of a firmware/driver/software update with driver release 10.4.1. They cut the fan speed. They may have changed the fan used in later production as well but I cannot confirm that. There is also some indication that the early high speed fan was prone to wearing out early.

In any case this is something to consider if shopping for a use IP4K.

I do not find my my IP4K fan objectionably noisy, but it is in a full tower under my editing table. Case, processor, and video card fans make more noise in my PC. But the IP4K card fan may make more noise if under heavier loads than I impose on it if its speed is thermostatically controlled by the card. If you join the BMD forums and search on "Intensity Pro 4K fan noise" you can find the morel discussion on the subject.

Note that BMD may issue firmware updates to their devices as a part of the driver/software update. I've received separate prompts to confirm firmware updates as part of a driver update.

Quick note that this is referring to audible noise of a fan in need of replacement, not signal noise caused by bad circuitry.

The earlier serial numbered LHe Plus and LHi cards have the crappy Sunon fan shown in your picture. They seem to be almost guaranteed to be going bad by now. The later cards got an upgraded fan that is better quality and seems to be lasting just fine in comparison. You can call AJA directly and they'll give you all the info about fan replacement. Very simple to DIY.

One should be careful with updating drivers/software, it can destroy any working setup, due to (any) hardware, Operating System(s) (also 32bit/64bit) differences.
With Mac pc's you need to check if the/a card is compatible with M1, M2, or M3
(also, Thunderbold comes in different "grades" you should not mix up, even when the connector "looks" the same, it can be something different.)