I just called TVOne and talked to a salesman (bad idea). He tells me the 1T-TBC is overall better (proformance wise) than the AVT-8710.
It has continuously variable adjustments (eg.: a volumne control) vs 'stepped' adjustments (eg.: bass & treble controls for a car radio) with the 8710. He also says it has better freq. response than the 1T-TBC and can lock to lower quality signals. I asked him about the freq. response and S/N ratio of the 8710 and how many steps and db change each press of a button when using the Proc Amp controls. he had no idea (no surprise). he offered to pass me over to someone in technical.
I repeated the questions, but didn't really get any answers. There are published specs for the 1T-TBC, but none for the AVT-8710 other than size, weight and ins and outs. He then talked to someone else and admitted both have the same circuit board.
My questions are;
1. Can the plastic case of the 8710 be opened (screws), or is it glued?,
2. Has anyone opened it and took pictures?,
3. How many 'steps' plus and minus from center for each proc amp control? (that might need a scope to be sure unless you have a good eye).
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I run into this problem more and more as time goes on. Companies swear their products are "better" than the competition, but the fact is that these these days many items are simply re-branded/re-badged items made by some no-name Asian supplier. And so are the competitor's products -- often from the EXACT SAME suppplier! In some cases, the salesmen aren't even aware of this fact -- it's not on their scripts.
The AVT-8710 is not glued, and it can be unscrewed. I've done this for you, and here are the images:
The last image, the one with the close-up of the board, is available in a higher resolution. Download the RAR file attached to this post, and the high res JPEG is inside. You can clearly read all of the numbers and parts on the board.
As far as the steps go, it's very minimal. I don't have the desire to test it with a scope, nor the available spare time -- it's honestly a really weak proc amp at best.
The adjustments step up, but it's very slight at each press of the button. I would imagine anything that is button-driven would have to step in a preset amount.
After several presses of the button, it stops responding, apparently having hit the maximum range of what it's allowed to adjust. I don't remember how many times it is, or if it's the same on all options (Tint, Sharpness, etc). If I recall correctly, it was about 10-15 button presses before it stopped responding.
A dedicated proc amp, even one of the older and less-expensive ($50-100 range) Vidicraft units, works far better. Processing in software would also yield a higher adjustment level.
I'm unable to view any of the pics. You say it's a "very weak proc amp at best". Are you referring to a small adjustment range as in not much latitude?
Amazing what can be stuffed in a few chips. I bet that board costs $20 or $30 to manufacture in China. It wouldn't be much to get rid of that cheap plastic box,install that board it in a metal project enclosure along with the control board and 'brick' power supply with a power switch.
For $200, one would think that would be the way it we be sold in the first place.
I can see why it gets hot. No heat sinks on the regulator or any of the 'flat packs'.
Hmmm.... I think (if nothing else!) that there is enough room inside this cheap plastic enclosure to add some RAM heatsinks. I did something similar to this on my LiteOn DVD recorder some many years ago, as it had no heatsink on the LSI Logic encoder chipset. I sawed a RMA heatsink in half, and then sanded and polished it smooth and clean. Using some heatsink tape, I affixed the customized/modded heatsink to the LSI, and it lowered the temp significantly. I did it on some other chips, too.
That alone may be helpful.
For an on/off switch, I've long resorted to unplugging the power cord from the unit itself (not the wall). I could use a surge/power strip, or make my own on/off toggle with a few cheap parts from Home Depot or Lowe's home improvement stores. It's never been a big an issue. Yes, for $200, I have to agree, it should have come with one!
I've also re-saved re-attached the last image, as requested. It is saved as a JPEG Medium in Photoshop CS3, it should not be an HTML image. I see those sometimes, too -- not sure what causes it.
Thanks for correcting the larger photo.
Have you or anyone measured the frequency response? How transparent is this?
If you don't have a signal generator, you could use test patterns off of a DVD.
Can somebody confirm that the 12vdc power supply is negative on the ring and positive on the pin? Also, if somebody can show a pic of the power transformer, that would be nice.
I've just blown mine up. Either I plugged the wrong transformer into it or it was just ready to go. There is a chance I can repair if I can get a soldering iron in there. The step-down converter has blown to bits.
Darryl
PS. I considered starting a new thread, but since this thread has pics of the unit, I thought that the pic of the power transformer would be helpful within the same thread.
Can somebody confirm that the 12vdc power supply is negative on the ring and positive on the pin? Also, if somebody can show a pic of the power transformer, that would be nice. I've just blown mine up. Either I plugged the wrong transformer into it or it was just ready to go. There is a chance I can repair if I can get a soldering iron in there. The step-down converter has blown to bits.
Here you go...
This the main TBC on the second rack. It's an AVT-8710. I took a photo of the complete power supply, so you can see the mods. It uses a $4 switch from Walmart, along with a power extension that also comes from Walmart. (I think these are sold in 3-packs for like $6 or something.) Those switches and extensions can also be bought from Amazon.com. This gives the AVT-8710 a power switch, and it also plugs into a strip off the main UPS. Notice that the adapter itself is labeled with a Sharpie (black on black), to avoid adapter mix-ups.
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PS. I considered starting a new thread, but since this thread has pics of the unit, I thought that the pic of the power transformer would be helpful within the same thread.
Good idea.
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These things really do get quite toasty. I'd be quite interested in modifying mine with a heatsink or two to improve it's power-on 'durability'. But I'm not an electronics expert. I'd need to be shown visually what it is in there that gets warm. Would anyone care to provide a pic annotated to indicate the thermally critical components?
It's the five large black chips that generate the heat. In the photos above, you seem all of them on the bottom-right triangular half of the board.
Small chipset heatsink kits are nothing more than a piece of thermal compound tape with a chunk of finned aluminum or copper. If you can operate a roll of tape, you can apply heatsinks. The ones made for computer graphics cards would be about the right size.
Drilling or Dremmeling some larger holes in the plastic (top and sides) may not be a bad idea, either. Those wussy little slits don't help very much for air flow.
It also helps to not overuse the unit (no more than 6 hours at a time), as well as avoid putting it inside of a cabinet or enclosed space where it cannot breathe. That's actually true of any video hardware. A lot of people fail to realize a hot VCR is a VCR that eats your tapes for dinner.
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meson1 (10-10-2012)
Great. Thanks. Yeah, I can do that job no problem. Also, it had already occurred to me that some extra airflow might be required, so some very careful drilling would be needed; in particular around the sides to let in cool air to replace the air convecting out of the top.
All usually come with thermal tape pre-applied. The main thing to be careful of with any such heatsink is to ensure they are not too tall. They mustn't come into contact with the pcb in the top of the case.
Is there a way to make the AVT just a pass-through? Meaning, if all you want it to do is be a TBC and not have it do anything else?
Don't change the proc amp settings. That's it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by meson1
The main thing to be careful of with any such heatsink is to ensure they are not too tall. They mustn't come into contact with the pcb in the top of the case.
Good call.
You may need to Dremel or saw off heatsinks that are too large. I've seen people simply use a chunk of copper from an old pipe, smooth and flatten it, and buy only thermal tape. There's a post on this site, where a forum mod (JMP) baked a laptop board to fix the solder, and then used this copper slab method to add a heatsink to a chip that previously had nothing.
Several ways to solve problems, if you're clever.
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Okay. I've opened up my AVT-8710 and measured the size of the chips and the available headroom.
Referring to the image below:
The two small square chips at the bottom centre-ish are about 10mm x 10mm.
The two oblong chips in the bottom right are about 9mm x 18mm.
The large square chip on the right hand side is about 14mm x 14mm.
The available headroom from the top face of the chips to the secondary pcb in the top of the case I calculate to be 18mm.
To that end I have ordered some Enzotech MOS-C10 heatsinks. These wee babies below.
These measure 10x10x14mm. So they should fit one of each of the two small square chips and two jammed next to each other on each of the oblong chips.
I am also in the process of scrounging a spare one of these 14x14x14mm ones from a friend at work for putting on the large square chappie on the right:
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These are Enzotech BMR-C1's.
When I get 'em, I'll fit 'em and maybe take a couple of pics for you.
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Master Tape (07-28-2016)
>The two oblong chips in the bottom right are about 9mm x 18mm.
18.10 x 7.60 maximum This is a standard SOIC-28 package. It's height is 2.65mm max.
The others are probably exactly what you measured.
Knowing this may help as heatsinks are made to fit the packages; so if you know the name of the package, you might find it in the description of the heatsink, so look for soic-28 heatsink.
If you use two for the soic-28 it should just exactly overhand the pins, and 1mm overhang the chip on the long side.
I was going to use a pair of MOS-C10's for those SOIC-28's. But I had a nosey round for the soic-28 heatsinks you mentioned and found a website selling them for pence with free delivery. So I put in an order for two.
I didn't fancy the idea of the MOS-C10's over hanging the pins by 1.2mm on each side. The SOIC-28's are surface mounted and there's not a lot of clearance, though they probably would have been fine.
Is there a way to make the AVT just a pass-through? Meaning, if all you want it to do is be a TBC and not have it do anything else?
Quote:
Originally Posted by admin
Don't change the proc amp settings. That's it.
Doesn't the AVT make things a tad brighter, and you'd have to adjust the brightness by clicking it down twice on the proc-amp to correct things, or can this just be corrected in Avisynth each time after you capture?
Doesn't the AVT make things a tad brighter, and you'd have to adjust the brightness by clicking it down twice on the proc-amp to correct things, or can this just be corrected in Avisynth each time after you capture?
Some models do, some don't. You have to adjust brightness and contrast to achieve safe yuv levels during capture anyway. Once you have a capture with valid levels, you can tweak further in post processing.
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lordsmurf (08-23-2016)