Lektropacks CTB-520 TBC thoughts?
 

Hi all

Has anyone got any thoughts/info on the Lektropacks CTB-520?

I see on the Wiki that's it's a rebadged Cypress CTB-520.

I've not seen it on the top recommended list but at same time haven't seen that it's not recommended either.

Any info will be handy.

Cheers

You have to be really careful with some of these older 1990s Cypress models.

That unit actually pre-dates most Cypress, and relies on Sima form factor casing. Cypress owns/owned Sima, and Sima was al the low-end AV junk sold at Best Buy and Walmart (pre-Amazon! pre-eBay!) in the 90s.

Lektropacks is/was a UK a rebadger of AV gear (like CYP/Cyress and others). I'm not aware of them ever having more than 1-2 TBC models rebadged decades ago. I think they were one of the only "western" companies that sold to eastern Europe, as I've seen those pop up more in places like Serbia or Poland than I have in UK.

Were you the one who got that UK auction? Good luck to you. It supposedly comes from an offline video editor, but you can tell he'd not used it in ages (not for 20 years!). Some of these units can spew noise, which was hidden by CRTs of that era. Those pre-date our current/modern digital uses. The price was right, but ... well, again, I hope it works out for you, or whoever bought it.

To date, I've only had one that worked decently, and that was in the mid-2010s. I later attempted to buy more when located, and lost money and time on those. I now just avoid the unit model.

So it's not "not recommended", but it's certainly not recommended. This is partially due to the condition you'll find these in now. I may have more comments, but I'll have to look at my photos, notes, and even some past PMs (as I sold my good unit to a PAL user in USA in late 2010s), in order to recall more details.

Yes it was me who got it. I thought it was worth the money for that price. I think it is going to be PAL only - which is fine for my needs.

I guess I can only test it. It is a risky buy, once it comes and my capture card comes, I'll upload some sample AVIs before and after TBC use.

Given the low price you paid, and seeing that you'll only pay in-UK shipping, it's not that risky.

Yes, PAL only.

I don't remember the strength of the unit vs. recommended Cypress/DataVideo type units, where analog>digital conversion was part of the expected use, but it probably is weaker, especially given the chips used. But I really just do not recall off-hand anymore, I've not seen one of these in at least 6-7 years (as it is somewhat rare).