Jon's £10 Video Conversion Service

What Equipment is used?
Last updated 17/07/2008

When I first started converting tapes all I had was an

Aiwa HV-MX1. This machine was a good start but on my machine at least I notice a lot of visual defects on low generation NTSC to PAL conversions. I was never sure if my machine was faulty or that was just how the machine worked. I still have this machine but only use it now to see if a tape that is causing trouble on my current set up is any better on a different brand of machine. I don't think it ever has been!

My next piece of equipment came about because I sometimes discovered that a tape had video encryption on it even when it was someone own personal video. This meant I couldn't copy the tapes. I asked around and discovered a HOLDAN CCR-7 Colour Corrector would do the trick. This worked fine but I didn't like the idea of adjusting colours. I found it hard to get the colour before conversion and the colour after conversion to match. Since I am no expert in colour I wanted to leave the colours well alone.

So eventually I took the plunge and bought a Datavideo TBC-1000 Single Channel TBC + Built in 4 Way Distribution Amplifier

This has been great. The thing I have disliked about it is the fact it comes with a foreign transformer and an adapter socket. The transformer was quite tall and therefore fell out of the plug a lot until I decided it would have to be taped in place.

My current video converts are Samsung SV5000-W's

I have two of these and have been very happy with them. One needed a repair after about 30 months but apart from that I have no complaints about them. Very good machines. The machine is a lot more user friendly than my old Aiwa. It seems to over detect Macrovision signals though so it might be a problem if you tried to use it without a colour corrector or time base corrector.

Having said this I did decide to see if the Video conversion itself could be improved. I guess I was reading the HOLDAN site one day and got curious about the pure signal converter boxes. I decided to take the plunge and see if the picture quality improved. I got a HOLDAN KDV-500 Digital System Converter

This box does give me better results than the Samsung alone. The stuttering of picture, to my eyes at least, is much less noticeable. The only thing I have disliked about it is the fact it comes with a foreign transformer and an adapter socket. The transformer was quite tall and therefore fell out of the plug a lot until I decided it would have to be taped in place.