Telstar TR-9 video noise sweeper?

[spinsky]

Does anyone know what this Telstar TR-9 Video Noise Sweeper is?

I came across a couple at my local Goodwill, for $5 I figured it would be a fun gamble. It's very simple inside, much more so than a TBC (see picture of guts). However, can't find much info online other than some listings in Japanese that aren't helpful.

The thing is, I did a test, 2hr SP Video8 tape, went from about a 3 second audio delay to about 3 frames. (Sony EV-S3000 -- BMD Analog to SDI -- BMD SDI to Thunderbolt capture) compared with the same setup, just threw the TR-9 inline. Haven't bothered with looking in depth at video comparisons yet, but super curious what this thing is, or really, what it's doing.

Thanks

[latreche34]

Probably some form of Macrovision remover device judging by the ICs inside, This is pure analog device, no digital processing since there are no chips inside.

[spinsky]

Makes sense, I guess they just market it as a noise thing but it really is meant to wipe out the Macrovision scan lines. I assume it would have to regenerate a new blanking interval / sync pulse and this is maybe why it helped out with dropped frames? Still interesting that it helped my case.

[lordsmurf]

Quote:

Originally Posted by spinsky

Makes sense, I guess they just market it as a noise thing but it really is meant to wipe out the Macrovision scan lines. I assume it would have to regenerate a new blanking interval / sync pulse and this is maybe why it helped out with dropped frames? Still interesting that it helped my case.

No, those ancient "Macrovision remover" devices do zilch for signal timing (neither line, nor frame). It will have zero effect to address dropped frames.

You may falsely believe it has helped, however it has not. You've simply missed something (the actual cause of the fix to your dropped frames issue). Don't feel bad, we all miss things (both video and non-video). It happens. But false conclusions are how myths start.

This assume it's actually a Macrovision remover at all. There were various consumer-level marketed to "clean" signals, but it was all nonsense. Sima (Cypress consumer) made most of it. I've said many times that some things are only sold because people are gullible/stupid enough to buy them. That was these devices in the 80s-90s. An analog DVD rewinder.

[spinsky]

I agree, don't think it's retiming anything. My guess is it's only regenerating part of the vertical blanking / sync pulse and that's it. Assuming that's how you would mask over Macrovision?

Not sure how I've missed anything though, all I did was put this thing in line and it improved the audio sync some how. Maybe my capture setup did better with this box artificially creating blanking intervals and so it affected the outcome ultimately?

It's definitely doing something, I can see at the top of the screen a bar extending a little past the first visible active video scan line. When I mess around with the two potentiometers inside I can adjust the width/alignment of the line and the level of the signal meaning it goes between black and white/grey.

Ill keep an eye out for one of those DVD rewinders

[lordsmurf]

It may be a "series of fortunate events", wherein your capture card is more tolerant, the tape is excellent sans-Macrovision, and strip/replace was enough to allow the capture. Not something that can easily be repeated. Stranger stuff happens.

There are ways to test, see exactly what happened, but it involved testing each piece with specific tests. So lots of time, probably not worth spending.

I really wish I'd have bought some of those DVD rewinders, about 20 years ago.
Here's an image and discussion:
https://www.reddit.com/r/nostalgia/c...ctually_exist/
or https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comme..._dvd_rewinder/

[spinsky]

That's great, I kind of want one now!

Definitely a series of fortunate events, and definitely not worth wasting more time on it, but fun none the less. Now to buy a real frame TBC to complete the setup

Thanks for the insight!

[vwestlife]

It's a classic "video stabilizer", advertised as allegedly improving the quality of homemade recordings, but mostly used to strip off MacroVision encoding to allow pirated copies of movies to be made.

Here's a demonstration of another one that uses a very similar circuit design:

Mystery video stabilizer teardown & test

[spinsky]

Great video, thanks for sharing. Definitely seems like they are nearly the same circuits, certainly the same function.

[lordsmurf]

Quote:

Originally Posted by spinsky

Great video, thanks for sharing. Definitely seems like they are nearly the same circuits, certainly the same function.

What always gets me is how so many comments there made excuses for the item, or were entirely oblivious to the problems that were shown.

Those items always claimed to "remove" or "clarify" or whatever, and yet the flaws still remain. As vwestlife showed, and stated, removal was not complete, and still have exposure artifacts. Not "as bad", but still very obviously present.

It gets even worse when people state how they like the flaws.

This situation always reminds me of food places. If the person is unclean (picks nose, scratches ass, whatever), would that also be endearing to people? I can see the Youtube comments now: "I like the taste of somebody else's boogers, it gives off a unique flavor." That's assuming they even taste the extra "hawk tuah" in their burger.

[spinsky]

These things seem more like a scam with careful marketing to skirt around legal blowback. Certainly not worth throwing in line for any reason.

Quote:

It gets even worse when people state how they like the flaws.

no thanks