Is my DataVideo TBC malfunctioning?
 

My TBC 1000 seems to be having an issue. Once in a while it seems to lose sync entirely and will ruin the video signal. Intermittently while playing back tapes, the screen will flicker with some horizontal lines across like a poorly connected cable and sometimes it doesn't recover from this. Instead of a clear picture it will just turn really dark, and the picture will scan across the screen like H-sync knob is off. Not sure if I'm explaining it correctly. I'll try and grab a clip of it happening later.

Turning it off and back on will immediately restore the sync, and it will usually work fine for that tape, even restarted from the beginning. The problem isn't isolated to specific tapes or parts of video. Once it's been reset, I can play that same section, and even if it flickers it will move past it and continue to work.

I bought this equipment some time ago, and it's been sitting on a shelf powered up for a bit every few months. I keep all the equipment on a surge suppressor that I used to switch off power to it when I'm not using it, and that's plugged into a decent UPS. I haven't used it much in the past two years, but I don't remember it having this problem before.

This sound like any type of familiar failure, just bad tape, or something I can correct?

DataVideo TBCs eat PSUs. So try another AC adapter.

The TBC-1000 uses the standard 12V 2A center-positive 2.5 tip, and that exact spec is also used by most external hard drives. Unlike most other TBCs, the TBC-1000 PSU is simple to replace. And the TBC-1000 seems to be less picky about the supply quality, not picking up noise like the others.

I've seen some TBC-1000 that came with under-powered 0.8A, and it will usually cause problems.

What you DO NOT want to do is continue to just use the bad PSU until testing with a new one. Using a bad PSU could like into and damage to TBC long-term. In other words, that turn off / turn on things is not good for it. Don't do that. At least not until you rule out PSU.

The next step requires opening it, inspecting wires, cleaning contacts. Oh, fun. Been there, done that. And given modern TBC prices, scary as hell, so be extra careful!