Datavideo TBC units from USA in Europe?

[hanibal506]

Hi everyone,

I’m curious about Datavideo TBC units from the USA (TBC-1000, TBC-3000, and TBC-5000) and how they perform here in Europe. I understand that using them may require a transformer due to the different voltage, but I’d love to hear your experiences:

How do you like these TBC units in practice?

Do they work well with both PAL and NTSC signals?

Any tips for using a US unit in Europe?

Also, I’m looking to buy one of these models at a reasonable price. If anyone has one for sale or knows someone who does, please let me know — I’m happy to pay a fair price for a good unit.

Thanks in advance for your advice and help!

Best regards,
Mariusz

[hanibal506]

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for a few pieces of video equipment and thought this would be the perfect place to ask:

Edius Pro 3 license key – if anyone has a working key or knows where to get one, I’d be happy to pay a fair price.

Canopus video equipment, especially the Canopus DVReX RT Professional card. If anyone has one for sale (or knows someone who does), please let me know.

Time Base Corrector (TBC) – ideally one of these models:

Datavideo TBC-1000

Datavideo TBC-3000

Datavideo TBC-5000

I’m happy to pay if the equipment is in good condition and the price is reasonable.

Thanks in advance for any tips or offers!

Best regards,
Mariusz

[Gary34]

I have a TBC 3000 that I got from the original owner. I drove to his house to pick it up. it's a late gen. He barely used it and kept it in his office. I like it but it's more than I need. The proc amp is strong. I really only need the brightness and contrast buttons. If you look at a side by side of two videos you can see you are adding errors when you turn up or turn down your color. I didn't need to, but some may need to mess with tint in some cases like a workflow conflict. If you get a full workflow from the marketplace on this site, you won't have workflow conflicts because the whole workflow is tested together. It's not random pieces thrown together.

With all of the Datavideo TBCs there are multiple generations.

Some of the TBC 3000s do PAL or NTSC and didn't have a jumper or dip switches.

Some have jumpers for PAL or NTSC.

Some have dip switches for PAL and NTSC, and those ones have a slave dip also because the board is shared with the TBC 5000 and the 5000 is two TBC 3000 boards stacked on top of each other. Don't mess with the slave dip on a TBC 3000 because it's not for that TBC.

Some of the TBC 3000s do PAL better and some do NTSC better. The 4th generation TBC 3000 is transparent with both PAL and NTSC.

With the TBC 3000s the proc amp matured into the later generations. The 4th generation is the unicorn one that everyone wants. I have a 5th generation. Mine is one that no one else has. There is no information on it. Datavideo purged their files of all of that information. Even LS hasn't tested it that he remembers. I really don't care about that now. I just want to finish my project.

You can't tell which generation is which. Even if you could it won't affect resale. There's just a price you pay when you buy from a trusted name and a price you pay when you buy from a regular person because the regular person is a gamble. Just like anything else. You'll buy for less if you buy from eBay or somewhere else but there are a bunch of unknowns, and you'll sell for less to.

I've done the high-risk high reward buy but it is not a good idea at all. It's a huge needle in a haystack. Just not a smart buy but someone wins the lottery on that stuff sometimes. You don't hear much from the people it doesn't work out for. With the TBC 3000s though they are in really bad shape generally. Datavideo in general is being avoided. The 4th and 3rd gen TBC 3000s Lordsmurf had have failed. I like my TBC 3000 and it looks completely transparent to me, but I've only seen that one TBC which is true of most people that talk on TBCs or they never owned a recommended one at all. You have to take everything with a grain of salt unless it's coming from someone that has seen a bunch of them.

When you say reasonable price what do you mean?

If you buy A TBC 3000 from a trusted reseller it's going to be high. the gen will be known, and it'll go for fair market value depending on factors.

A different approach is to talk to LS about your specific project and what workflow suits you best for your specific tapes rather than getting fixated on one brand of TBC. Condition is a huge factor in 2025 anyways.