You are correct. A TBC, or otherwise completely stable and synced video feed is mandatory for a consistent capture. We use commercial VTR's (both Betacam and VHS) with built in TBC's to transfer to the Intensity 4K Pcie card via component analog signals, and that BMD card also provides a broadcast level output. We run Media Express for the capture and using BMD Desktop Video we have full control over the audio and video signals for the capture. We also monitor the output capture on a JVC broadcast CRT. I have tried running a consumer deck to it just to test things and in some cases we saw a signal and it did capture, but because of lack of sync, it basically won't work. When the consumer deck was tried with either Canopus ADVC300 or our ADVC500 it worked perfectly. Those devices were set to insert internal sync to the signal rather than use external sync from the tape. The ADVC 110 is a little different. While it doesn't have a TBC, it does have digital-in sync, and even the analog signals fed to it are synced internally before being converted to digital on the output.
